If you do some research this problem was common enough for Mazda to create a service bulletin (though I learned this after). I had problems getting locked out of 3rd as well as a couple of other gears when I first bought the car. If you really needed the gear you had to re-clutch and ram the shifter repeatedly. After the dealership ignored me and said it was normal and break in (contrary to the TSB haha) I started being overly forceful with the shifter. I don't know if it helped or not but it seemed to get locked out less frequently over time.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
shifter will not go into gear (mt)
If you do some research this problem was common enough for Mazda to create a service bulletin (though I learned this after). I had problems getting locked out of 3rd as well as a couple of other gears when I first bought the car. If you really needed the gear you had to re-clutch and ram the shifter repeatedly. After the dealership ignored me and said it was normal and break in (contrary to the TSB haha) I started being overly forceful with the shifter. I don't know if it helped or not but it seemed to get locked out less frequently over time.
- vins, Calgary, Canada