Hello all, thank you for you wisdom and expertise on this matter. I've just had my 1999 mazda b3000 4x4 transmission rebuilt. She has 195k miles on her and I want to keep her forever. The reason I took her in for a rebuild is there was hard shifting when slowing from 3rd to 2nd. For about 5 years. This was after a rebuild in the mid 2000' when reverse and first went out. It's an automatic transmission. I recently realized earlier this year that there was transmission fluid in the radiator coolant. I knew from the knowledge in this forum that I was on borrowed time and needed a rebuild. I decided to drive it at speed 65mph for about 30 minutes to test it out and get a quote from a highly recommended tyranny shop. While doing so the o/d light started flashing and hard shifting and downshifting worsned. The shop 30 minutes away recommended a tyranny rebuild. I began doing some research for local shops to lakeland fl, and settled on a shop with mixed reviews 7 minutes from home. Needless to say this shop rebuilt my transmission, and corrected the hard shifting... however the o/d light and safe mode issue remains. I kept taking it back to the shop and after 3 months of diagnosing they gave up and wouldn't refund my rebuild. The 4x4 still works. Prrior to the tyranny rebuild iv had to have the ignition key replaced as it sheared off and just spun when trying to start. I also had the shop install a transmission cooler to bypass the radiator cooler to avoid ever risking the rupture of the factor tyranny cooler and engine cooler in the radiator set up. Do you think that a short in the shifter where the od light is ,caused from the tearing into the steering column to replace the ignition switch/ key would cause the o/d light to flash and initiate safe mode/ limp home mode shifting when it shorts and only at 55-65 mph for 3-5 minutes? When this happens the light and safe mode/ hard down and up shifting stay on only until until turn it off . Upon restart its fine until I hit 55-65 for 5 minutes or so.. This seems far fetched to me and was mentioned when I've spoken to a mechanic about the issue recently. I also had the recent Trany rebuild shop charge the cpu vss, abs sensors and the o/d light issue persisted. Also is it possible that the new tyranny cooler installed in front of the rad is causing it to over heat and cause the safe mode? I feel that I've exhausted my resources her m hear and already spent 2k on a tyranny rebuild 8/2020..

 

No, it isn't possible that a shorted wire to the shifter is causing these problems.

Something is wrong. That is as detailed as I can get without knowing what codes have been stored. When the OD OFF light flashes codes are stored to lead to the problem. You must have these codes to fix this. Without the codes, all you can do is buy parts and install them hoping to get lucky. Sometimes people do get lucky in the first $5k worth of parts.

The best way to get the codes is to get Forscan. It is available free at www.forscan.org. You'll also need an ELM327 adapter to plug into the OBDII port on the truck. I bought mine on Amazon for less than $30.

Post the codes and we will help diagnose what's really wrong.