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Zoom Zoom y'all!
The Sandman
I put it 5 minutes ahead only to find it about 10 minutes ahead a couple days later. I thought my mistake, so I adjusted it again. Next day, it was about 10 min ahead once again.
I remembered reading something about possessed clocks in Mazda 3. So, the 3rd time around I set the clock to read exact time. Day later, it was 4 minutes ahead. PERFECT! And it has stayed that way since.
Morale of the my experience is: IF U CAN'T BEAT'M, JOIN'M!
If you experiment a bit you will be able to find how to work the accelerator so that it upshifts as much as possible while cruising, to get better fuel economy. I've done that with my automatic sedan and found I can nudge it into 4th driving as slow as 35 mph, and get appreciably better fuel economy.
I drive a few school zones every day - at 20 MPH I am in 3rd gear - anything over 20 it shifts to 4th.
I have a 4 door. The engine is rather quiet..sometimes I forget my car is even on..but the road noise is very obivious..@.@~
I have been turning my music up as well..thats the only thing i can do before anyone tell me some genius solutions.
As I was told I should drive nice during the break in period..so I have been driving...super slow..like 35 local, 65 highway. first tank end with 24.5mpg, I am on my third tank now and so far is about 26mpg. I drive to work everyday and 12 out of the 14 miles driving are freeway. I dont think I can do any better than 26 (maybe couple digit better is possible) even if I drive like Jeremy drive Audi A8 on Top Gear (He was driving with super low RPM, almost no break with speed 60 or so....and manage to drive 800 miles with one file of gas (19.8galon)
Daryl
How come? Other than the OEM tires, what makes the 3 "not a great cold weather car?" I haven't experienced any cold weather-related problems this winter.
In this case can you imagine saying - I told Mazda service 3 times that the gas pedal stuck but they would not fix it!
Oh - so you knew the car was defective but choose to drive it anyway?
Not only still your fault - but now you are GROSSLY negligent too boot!
Mazda may also have some liability - but that does not get the driver off the hook.
On a seperate subject, I take it in tommorow for it's first complaint after 19,000 miles. I feel a pronounced bump coming from the right front. Could be anything from a bearing to an alignment to low air presure but I'm not trying anything until the dealer sees it. Very disturbing. Also dealing with steering while pulling left to the point I'm aware of the effort to keep it straight. Will know more on Tuesay.
Daryl
Thanks
har1
Daryl
If you paid by check or a credit card that would make it easy (for the shop) to track back to the correct time - or even if you have a check (or a line on your credit card bill) to Jiffy Lube (or whoever) that you could show to the Mazda rep it would give them something to go on.
I have a limited amount of sympathy for anyone who drives 21K / 2 years with out getting their oil changed - even less for someone who can't take 60 seconds and open the hood - check the oil - coolant - brake fluid once a month (weekly would be better) If you did these things and did get you oil changed I hope you get Mazda to fix your car - but it is clearly your responsibility to be able to prove you did in fact get the car serviced.
Even though I have had a 23 month battle with Mazda to get my car fixed - and have very limited respect for the way Mazda handles problems with their cars - I think asking a customer to prove that they had the required maintenance completed on the car is normal business practice for every car company.
1. I had to buy new snow tires and rims.
2. The wiper fluid reservoir must only be like a third of a gallon, because I have to fill it daily. I do use a lot of fluid in the road/salt spray.
3. The stock wipers were terrible
4. On cold mornings, when I get to a stop light, and release the brake to take off, I always hear a noisy "clunk"
5. My brakes screech the first two or three stops when cold. the colder the temp, the louder the screech it seems.
6. I am a little disappointed with the winter gas mileage. 25/26 with 70/30 hwy/city (5sp) was lower than I expected, but I did get 28-30 pretty consistently all summer, so it is not that big of a deal.
I am sure I would experience similar things no matter what type of car I drove. I am EXTREMELY happy with how well the car heats. I don't ever really need to take it off defrost/circulate. This is one of the better heating cars I have had. I wish I would've waited for the 2006 for heated seats, but then I wouldn't have got my Lava Orange
The worst combined mileage I’ve had was 26mpg and that was flooring it and 5K+ rpm the entire tank. The best combined I’ve had was 31mpg. Strictly highway I’ve only achieved 31mpg as well, I think because I was going a steady 82mph and it revs really high at that speed.
I suspect if you take it in they will just brush you off it’s a new car, it needs to be broken in. If everything is running fine, not shaking or anything, and there is no computer error codes then I don’t think they’ll do much.
16mpg is worse than I’ve had in my 3.5L, 4200lb minivan for city driving (even when new), and not always light on the gas either, AC running all the time, very short trips, etc.
So you’ve just past 1100mi or so? Maybe it does need more time to break-in mine was “good out of the box”
If I'm not mistaken, the oil "dummy" light will only come on when there is a pressure drop in the oil sending unit. So it should pick up a loss of oil, but I think they usually don't turn on until there's under a quart of oil. And lengthy driving under this condition will toast what little oil you have into molasses. It's not an oil quality sensor. Also, the engine light will not sense anything related to oil. So I'm afraid given the evidence in your post, I'd have to side with the dealer.
It's the tires.
After a bad experience driving with the OEM tires through snow/sleet/freezing rain, I bought winter tires. Over three weeks later, and I haven't seen another snowflake. We're having a (relative) heatwave this week - can't wait for a good storm to try them out!
I own a 2004 5 Dr, hatchback 5-speed.
My wife and I recently made a trip from Texas to northeast Pennsylvania and got an average of 32.5 MPG, and that was loaded.
On the way back, we were dragging a 5'X 8' U-Haul trailer full of stuff, and not very aerodynamic I might add, and got 15.5 MPG overall.
On the average week I drive 33 miles a day to and from work, in Austin city traffic, and depending on whether or not the A/C is running I can easily get between (and no less than) 25-30 MPG.
What are you doing to this poor car????
:confuse:
Daryl
I didn't buy 16" with another set of rims, the store will do free changeovers for the life of the tires.
I feel like a skier with a new set of skis and no snow.
My feeling is that there is something wrong, be it mechanical or electronic/computer, with a Mazda3 if it is getting 16mpg.
Just for comparison, the 2007 Chevy Tahoe city mpg is rated at 15mpg – 5600lbs, 320hp V8.
Not sure what the solution would be other than going to the dealer.
also the sluggish first-gear problems w/ cold engine (auto trans)?
thanks in advance for any/all insight....
... But I thought carbon build-up was something that happened after thousands and thousands of miles, using poor gasoline? Surely carbon can't build up in a throttle body enough to cause problems on a car's first tank of gas?
Meade
But Mazda will not even admit that there is a defect in SOME of the 2004 & 2005 models - I do not see them making some kind of anouncement - LOOK WE FIXED THE AC SO NOW IT COOLS THE CAR!!
There is no way to know until we get a large number of 2006 Mazda3's on the road AND we also have some nice hot 90+ degree days. That is when the complaints will show up - if the problem has not been fixed.
Just be aware - since Mazda has decided to not fix any vehicles with the weak - defective AC systems if you do get a bad one then you are stuck. If a good AC is important I sure would not buy one until I could let it sit in the sun for an hour or so on a nice hot humid 90 degree day and test it out for myself.
Or I guess you could ask a sales person - I bet they will be happy to tell you something like - never heard of that problem - I am sure IF there was an issue it has been fixed - and if a problem ever does come up you have a 4 year 50K mile warranty.
I hope you smacked him in the face...
I welcome any thoughts on another issue with a 2004 Mazda 3s sedan I talked my mother into buying and am now on the hot seat over. We put 17" Bridgestone Potenza RE 750's on the car right after purchase and sold the OE Goodyears on eBay. The car vibrated at 55mph from the get go. The Mazda dealer has balanced the tires 4 times free of charge and rotated them once over the last year - she has only 6100 miles on the tires. 8/32 tread depth left. Still the vibration persists. Service manager says the wheels are fine - nothing bent. Finally, we put new tires on the car and had them Hunter road force mounted/balanced to ensure no tires were out of round as we suspected might be the case on the Bridgestones. None were. We went from an ultra high performance summer tire to a Grand touring All Season tire, the Continental ProContact purchased from the Tirerack. Can only conclude problem is with the car. Suspecting the brake rotors as Mazda 3s have had issues with them. Beyond that possibly suspension tightness, wheels bearings ? Any ideas out there ? Mother is about ready to buy a Jetta or Civic as her frustration mounts. Going to call Mazda Customer Assistance and open a case file on the car and see if that lights any fires. Maybe arbitration as dealer has had many opportunities to fix the problem and cannot correct the vibration.