More info for everybody. We just got back from a pretty fast trip in the NC mountains. About 500 miles and averaged 23 MPGs. Almost 6500 miles on the odometer, we have a FWD, and we were heavily loaded. I was happy with the MPGs.
Here's a good story and it is absolutely true. My wife(I love her dearly btw) sometimes does not pay attention to the fuel gauge. As twice before we were married she ran out of gas on the highway. On the first leg of our trip she did not pay attention to the gauge and told me about a light that was on and the needle was BELOW the E! Now she has had to do most of the driving lately because of a knee problem I have. So we quickly, but slowly got to a gas station. I filled 'er up and guess what? The tank took a little more than 17.6 gallons of gas! I kid you not and I have the receipt to prove it! We were extremely lucky, as you all know the tank is rated at 18.2 gallons.
Now on to the dip stick observation. In my Ford and GM years I would check the dip stick in the morning when the vehicle sat overnight. I would just pull it out and it would give me an accurate reading, no wiping required. Every time. I can't do this with my CX-7. When I pull out the dip stick in the morning, the oil level is just above the first hole just on the cross hatch pattern. Then about a 1/2" up there is a little oil by that funny squiggly bend and that is it, dry everywhere else. I then wipe the dipstick re-insert it and it then gives me an accurate reading, which is just above the full mark. Quite peculiar. And it smelled of fuel.
Was at my Mazda dealer and tried to find out about that filter adapter for the 3 to see if it would fit on the CX-7. The standard adapter would not fit because it has no provisions for the oil cooler adapter which attaches to the top of the filter adapter. But the parts guy said that they did make some of the 3s with the turbo and it had an adapter with a spin-on filter and the fittings for the oil cooler. So I guess we need a good Mazda parts/part number guy to do the research on this.
That's all for now, just trying to add to the tech database with my observations.
Here's a good story and it is absolutely true. My wife(I love her dearly btw) sometimes does not pay attention to the fuel gauge. As twice before we were married she ran out of gas on the highway. On the first leg of our trip she did not pay attention to the gauge and told me about a light that was on and the needle was BELOW the E! Now she has had to do most of the driving lately because of a knee problem I have. So we quickly, but slowly got to a gas station. I filled 'er up and guess what? The tank took a little more than 17.6 gallons of gas! I kid you not and I have the receipt to prove it! We were extremely lucky, as you all know the tank is rated at 18.2 gallons.
Now on to the dip stick observation. In my Ford and GM years I would check the dip stick in the morning when the vehicle sat overnight. I would just pull it out and it would give me an accurate reading, no wiping required. Every time. I can't do this with my CX-7. When I pull out the dip stick in the morning, the oil level is just above the first hole just on the cross hatch pattern. Then about a 1/2" up there is a little oil by that funny squiggly bend and that is it, dry everywhere else. I then wipe the dipstick re-insert it and it then gives me an accurate reading, which is just above the full mark. Quite peculiar. And it smelled of fuel.
Was at my Mazda dealer and tried to find out about that filter adapter for the 3 to see if it would fit on the CX-7. The standard adapter would not fit because it has no provisions for the oil cooler adapter which attaches to the top of the filter adapter. But the parts guy said that they did make some of the 3s with the turbo and it had an adapter with a spin-on filter and the fittings for the oil cooler. So I guess we need a good Mazda parts/part number guy to do the research on this.
That's all for now, just trying to add to the tech database with my observations.
