Automatic Transmission problems of the 2001 Mazda Tribute

2001 Mazda Tribute ES-4wd. At 39k miles the cd4e transmission had catastrophic failure while driving in town. The cost is expected to be around $3. 5k to replace with a rebuilt unit. When we did our research no mention of this problem was raised by consumer reports etc. . . Yet after the failure I conduced research and found this failure is not only common it has been occuring post warrantee at low miles for years and Mazda and Ford have done nothing to effectively remidy or compensate their customers. Their only consequence is they are at the bottom of the auto industry and appear to have earned it. Don't get ripped of like we did buy buying a Ford or Mazda that will fail. Buy a better car product with better warrantee and reliability.

I have a 2001 Mazda Tribute. Had been faithful in doing regular maintenance of the vehicle. The car had 84,000 currently and had the transmission fluid flushed at 60,000 miles. The transmission fluid was filled every 5,000 miles whenever I had a oil change. All of a sudden on April 30, 2007, the car could not be shifted into rear gear and the dealer indicated I need to replace the transmission.

I drive a 2001 Mazda Tribute that has about 75,000 miles on it. The transmission fluid has always been a rust-colored and we thought it might just have to do with the dealerships work. I was driving it one day and noticed that while I was driving at 30 mph, the rpms were in the "red zone" so I brought it in for repairs to learn that the entire transmission had to be replaced.

Mazda Tribute 2001. While stopped in drive (automatic transmission; cruise control off) with foot on brake, engine suddenly revved to 4000 rpm. Had to use hard, full braking plus emergency brake to keep SUV from moving forward and hitting car in front of me. In neutral, engine revved at 4000 rpm. Turned engine off and restated -- situation has not repeated yet.

I drive a 2001 Mazda Tribute 4x4 with 67,000 miles on it, and a few weeks ago, during takeoff the vehicle seemed to hesitate. Over the course of about a week, it got worse. We took the vehicle to jim ellis Mazda of marietta and they informed us that the transmission was going on the vehicle, and that Mazda would possibly pay for half. They contacted Mazda, but Mazda would only pay 1/3 because they said there were no maintenance records on my transmission. There aren't any records because the vehicle hasn't needed any. After keeping my car for over a week, they phoned me to inform us that the transmission Mazda corporation sent them was bad as well. Considering the low mileage and the second transmission had defects, I'm now concerned that there is a defect in all the 2001 transmission, and makes me wonder how many other 2001 Mazda Tributes have had to be repaired.

Mazda Tribute left my family sitting in traffic. Complete and total failure of transmission with no warning. Vehicle has less than 20k miles. Clearly a factory defect. Mazda only gave $1000 off repair.

Transmission stopped working in reverse gear.

Dealership replaced the automatic transmission on October 14, 2003. An independent shop on March 2004 replaced the engine. Currently, consumer indicated that vehicle was at an independent shop to replace the catalytic converter for a third time . July 2005 the vehicle was taken back to the dealer because the check engine light illuminated.

There is something very wrong here with this vehicle, I have had 2 transmissions counting the first one installed by Mazda. I found this site today and read what I have been looking for. Consumers who are at high risk driving an unsafe vehicle. The fact that it completely stalls while driving is unacceptable. This is a harmful and expensive vehicle to operate. I also found that Mazda and or any dealership involved with this vehicle is not going to support the consumer at all. I had to pay for 2 transmissions of 9500 total. No help at all from Mazda, or Ford for the bad transmission I got on the 2nd time it failed. It is now dead again in the driveway, less than a year after the 3rd transmission was installed. I hope someone gets madza or our government to step in and take care of this matter as it is huge safety problem. If it was a toy for a child it would of been recalled, if it was a building product it would be recalled. What is wrong here Mazda-Ford. Why don't you take care of this?.

Complete failure of transmission. No warning symptoms of any problem. Mileage at failure was 71,000. Mileage at last transmission flush was 48,000. After failure was inspected by service techs at the dealership, they noted that the transmission fluid was very clean, which was described as non-typical of such a failure. Further investigation is pending to determine whether Mazda will participate or contribute to a remedy.