Q: Car surges forward when I go down a gear
Never had this problem before in a manual transmission vehicle, but my 2012 Mazda3 surges with power when I downshift. Not the normal revs lowering when going down in the gear, it actually revs up for a moment. This could make the car lose control and I don’t understand how it is even happening. What can I do about this? Car is basically new with 12,000 miles on it.
Hello, from what you describe it sounds like the engine control unit has some form of faulty programming. Mazda has released Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) 01-020/13 for updated engine control unit software to resolve RPM flair on downshifts. If your Mazda 3 is equipped with the 2.0l then this applies to your vehicle. If you have one of the other engines you are probably going to have to demonstrate it to a technician so they can see with a scanner what is happening. Based on the scanner codes/results, a technician can make a repair recommendation. An intermittent drivability issue can be difficult to diagnose and may take some time to repair.
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