1. Verify that the joint shaft is not twisted or cracked.
2. Turn the joint shaft by hand and verify that the bearing rotates smoothly and freely.

Drive shaft
Joint shaft removal/installationMazda 6 Service Manual: Manually Shifting Up
You can shift gears up by operating the selector lever or the steering shift
switches (some models).
M1 → M2 → M3 → M4 → M5 → M6
Using selector lever
To shift up to a higher gear, tap the selector lever back (+) once.
Using steering shift switch (some models)
To ...
Mazda 6 Service Manual: Electric Parking Brake
The electric parking brake equipment applies the parking brake using an electric
motor. When the electric parking brake is applied, the electric parking brake switch
indicator light turns on.
WARNING
Do not drive the vehicle with the electric parking brake applied:
If the vehicle is driven ...