IM HAVING A VERY SIMILAR ISSUE! I just bought an 06 tribute manual 2.3l. Runs amazing 100k miles. I drove it up to Minnesota from Tennessee. Checked the oil halfway and had nothing on the dipstick. I put 2 qts in and it was full. A week later I checked the oil and and it barely shows on the dipstick. Btw the oil is pitch black so it needs to be changed bad. I got under the car and see no sign of leakage the bottom of the engine and engine as a whole seems dry as a bone on the outside except on top of the valve cover. The engine bay is shiny with misted oil. I investigated a little more today and noticed my hood sound dampener was soaked with oil. It has to be somehow leaking out the top... the car doesnt smoke either and exhaust smells normal.

From what I’m reading it’s common for your Mazda to swallow 1-2 qts of oil per 1-2k miles if your pcv hose is collapsed or your pcv valve is stuck open which happens all the time (often these issues go hand in hand).Pretty annoying. The more annoying part is it’s a pain in the *** to replace bc it’s under the intake manifold and there’s no way to get to it without removing the manifold. On top of this that means every 70-100k miles you need to replace both the hose and valve to prevent this. This issue is common with any 2.3l Mazda engine including the Ford Fusion, focus, Mazda 3,5,6. I will try to link another thread where a guy with a Mazda 3 was having this oil leak issue(basically your car is eating oil with no leaks or symptoms or engine light and it can cause oil mist in your engine bay) and said after doing the work he was no longer having oil consumption issues.

This being said, I am looking at some solutions to prevent the new hose from collapsing. I’m hoping this will help the hose last much longer. Also, i’m not sure the recommendation for oil type, but i’m Going to run full synth. This should prevent sludge buildup within the pcv allowing these components to last much longer.

I’m thinking a spring just the right size would be flixible enough to contour the molded hose and provide more structure. I’m going to check a few places and see what I can find. If anyone has any other suggestions or advice feel free to post.

Also, I replaced the valve cover gaskets the other day(which were almost as hard as abs plastic). There was no blockage in the valve cover ventilation to the intake. I was hoping that’s where the pcv was like it is on most Toyota’s, but instead I was kicked in the ***** after finding out the actual location.

Keep in mind this vehicle only has 100k miles. However I suspect it sat for a long time. it was a tow behind vehicle for an rv.