Crappy gas mileage

[adragonfly]

Don't be too down on your automatic. I wanted a stick myself, but I commute in really heavy traffic to work. I thank God every day that I went automatic because I don't envy all the people on the freeway beside me. They have to work really hard while driving before they even get to the real job!

 

[kingd0g]

Chuck
Your table looks almost the same as my records. It goes between high 18's to the highest of mid 24's. When I first purchased the P5 I drove down south through Virginia.{2,000 miles on the car}with My rocket box on the roof and a full load of baby stuff and Got between 30-32mpg. IS there something wrong with our cars or do we all drive with a heavy FOOT?

 

[LambOfSilence]

i guess one conclusion i can come up with is that p5's gearing was tweaked so that it picks up fast (relatively speaking), and thus burn more gas. But look at the bright side with compression ratio below 10 (9.1?), no need for expensive gas like 92 or 89, just plain old 87 will do just fine. (not like those matrix with 10, very expensive fuel )

 

[ISELLMAZDA]

Hi Gene,
Your situation is not uncommon. All Mazda cars have a 5,000 mile break in period. After about 3-4000 miles performance as well as gas milage should increase.
If you think there is a serious problem i would be more than happy to halp you make an appointment with our service department

 

[badboyeee]

Do most of you find what ISELLMAZDAS is saying true?? (after 3k-4k miles, mpg should get better?)

i started off getting about 29mpg when i first got my car.
Now im at 1780miles and got 24mpg the past 3 tanks even though i drive normal with at least 70% of my miles coming from the freeway.

 

[chuck]

GAS MILEAGE QUESTIONS

If you notice when I bought it, I have drove through all weather conditions and now have 19000 Km (11000 miles approx) which is well over the 5000 miles mark and NO NO NO did my gas mileage ever increase!

WHAT LINE OF SH** IS THE DEALER TRYING TO FEED YOU.

I agree that it has to do with our gearing.

Also the gas used has an effect because in winter I got worse gas mileage because the gas stations here put something in the gas.

But I also think it has to do with the emiissions where it dumps all that extra fuel to keep the converters cool!!! I say this because I tried many different spark plugs and got a decrease in gas mileage.

 

[OurP5]

To Grim013

I see your post said Stop and Go traffic in Orlando. Where in Orlando? I am East Orange County near Waterford Lakes and Alafaya.

 

[Sir Nuke]

Hi Gene,
Your situation is not uncommon. All Mazda cars have a 5,000 mile break in period

NOT TRUE....look in your manual....the break in period is NOT 5000 miles.

will an engine beging to lossen up with time? sure....will you notice a increase in milage at some magic number of miles? maybe...maybe not....it has more to do with the gas you are putting in your car and your driving habits than anything else.

IF you have noticed some dramatic drop OR increase in your mileage....think about when it happened...and what you are doing DIFFRENT.....for the reason your milage changed is NOT because you crossed some MAGIC milage marker.

 

[Baltopro5]

I too have auto trans. I wanted a stick but My left ankle was previously broke and can no longer handel the clutch.
I was getting 26-27 mpg. now after about 5800 miles I am getting 27-28 mpg.
Also I had an issue with a mazda oil filter. At my first oil change the new filter had a pinhole in it. I am grateful my dealer service dept. noticed it right away and replaced it.

 

[TexP5]

level of tank??

OK, here's a stupid sort of idea to toss into this dicsussion.

One of the first things I noticed about my P5 is that my engine seems to work a lot harder as the fuel tank level drops. When I have a full tank, it is noticeably smoother and more responsive. This is always true of any car I have ever driven, but in the case of my P5 it seems especially noticeable. I have also noticed that when I check my mileage at the point when the gas gauge is half full, it appears I'm getting good mileage. 28-29. But by the time the tank is empty and I refuel the total mileage is much less 23-25.

For those of you who have been getting better and/or worse mileage than expected do you normally keep your tank more than half full or less than half full? In theory, this shouldn't make a difference, but in reality we may have some sort of fuel pump situation going on in which the fuel system operates more efficiently at higher tank levels. Am I nuts??

 

[TexP5]

P.S. on that last one...I drive the same route every day and I am a pretty heavy footed driver. I don't think the differences are due to changing conditions or driving styles

 

[Sir Nuke]

Re: level of tank??

OK, here's a stupid sort of idea to toss into this dicsussion.

One of the first things I noticed about my P5 is that my engine seems to work a lot harder as the fuel tank level drops. When I have a full tank, it is noticeably smoother and more responsive. This is always true of any car I have ever driven, but in the case of my P5 it seems especially noticeable. I have also noticed that when I check my mileage at the point when the gas gauge is half full, it appears I'm getting good mileage. 28-29. But by the time the tank is empty and I refuel the total mileage is much less 23-25.

For those of you who have been getting better and/or worse mileage than expected do you normally keep your tank more than half full or less than half full? In theory, this shouldn't make a difference, but in reality we may have some sort of fuel pump situation going on in which the fuel system operates more efficiently at higher tank levels. Am I nuts??

maybe? maybe not.....we do have electric fuel pumps...so by all rights it shouldn't make a difference....

as long as the pump is getting gas, the presure in the fuel system should be the same.....hmmmmm unless its NOT getting gas....

electric fuel pumps don't need NPSH to speak of to move fuel...I have never seen a pump that wouldn't run a tank dry and never hesitate to move the fuel AT PRESURE till it was empty....

maybe Tex is onto something...maybe there IS an issue with the fuel pump we have...or at least with its operating characteristics.

 

[OurP5]

In theory, this shouldn't make a difference, but in reality we may have some sort of fuel pump situation going on in which the fuel system operates more efficiently at higher tank levels.

Great. I had noticed my P5 wasn't getting that great of gas mileage bt I was just chalking itup to 90'F plus temperatures here in FL.

Now I guess it is going to be a trip to the dealership, have them check it and tell me it's fine.

Has anyone maybe changed there fuel pump to an aftermarket one for a higher flow volume? Anyone notice a difference?

I really don't want to have to live with crappy gas mileage. The price of gas seems to go up every day.

 

[HurricaneP5]

I average 27-28mpg per tank....and that's non-highway....wish I could get about 35!

 

[badboyeee]

ive noticed everytime i do a cold start, the tank guage significanlty goes down from where i remember it was the day before. after starting the engine idles pretty high at first like 2100rpm then it would go down to 1500 then jump back up to 2100 then slowly go down.
it seems like this is using up a bit of gas

 

[TexP5]

Mine does the same thing with jumping to 2100 on starts...Anyone know the probleem with that? I don't know, or really care, how much fuel it's eating, but it's somehwat annoying and certainly doesn't seem like it should be a normal operational event. Any techies know why this happens??

Maybe we should post this as a separate question unrelated to "crappy gas mileage"

 

[noodles]

Wouldn't MPG also depend on how many litres/gallons of gas you take? The most i've filled up is 45Litres, and gone 510 Km, that's on Highway/Rushhour traffic, not sure how many MPG that is tho, i suck when it comes to conversion.

 

[hihoslva]

As far as the first half tank getting better mileage - I think it's just due to the gauge.

The gauge will read "F", even when the tank is not topped off. I have filled up, and gotten up to 75 miles before the needle starts to move from full.

I get approximately 25-27 MPG, mixed driving. Automatic tranny, and I carry tools, supplies, sub, and amps (about 150-175 lbs - estimate) in the hatch everyday.

When I empty out the hatch, my mileage goes up a bit - but the fun factor really goes up, because the car is noticeably peppier, and I can toss it into turns without worrying about the stuff in the back. Damn, I love long weekends (like this Memorial Day weekend)!

 

[MikeyP]

Rev at Start

I THINK that the revving at the start is emissions related. I think it quickens heating up the cat or something....

On a related topic, anyone in Canada notice the articles in the paper about Shell gas (some additive) clogging up people's fuel guage senders, making a "black goo" in the tanks? They've been secretly settling with people because of repairs. Apparently it's particularly bad in Chrysler products.

 

[Red Baron]

I drive the same route and at the same speed everyday to work, and this for the past 7 years. My old '90 Civic Si fuel consumption was 40m/ imp. gallon, my 2000 Civic EX was 43 m/g, but the best I've done with my P5 is 33.3m/g??? I think it's a bit high for a car in this class. I do not use Premium gasoline because of cost (very high at the end of the year if you start adding). Just to see if it will make a difference, I've installed a K&N drop-in air filter (it did make one in both my previous cars). Has anyone seen a difference using this air filter?