Owners of manual Mazda3s are seeing their shifter cables fray—and the automaker stopped making new ones in 2019
- Owners of 2012 and 2013 Mazda3s with six-speed manual are finding it hard to replace a unique part
- Mazda stopped making spare shifter cables for these cars in 2019, and a DIY-fix, while possible, ain’t easy
- Reports suggest the issue is effectively making some older Mazda3s essentially undrivable
This is troublesome, since the failure of this cable means you won’t be able to shift gears, a key component in, y’know, making the car a useful device and not a lawn ornament. Even worse, effecting a DIY repair on the part is apparently proving exceedingly challenging for most, as it’s composed of various metal, plastic, and rubber pieces.
Still, it surely is not beyond the wit of man for someone with a skiff of engineering know-how to create one (or several) of these cables and linkages. Diagrams exist, professional mechanics have worked on these cars for years, and presumably there are still a few examples driving around with the cable still intact, which means they can be used as reference. We suspect an enterprising parts outfit somewhere will, now the problem has been picked up by automobile outlets, grab the baton and make a replacement — whilst also making bank.
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