This is a good write-up, I totally agree with you that computer on 3 programms itself from time to time, but if you have done intake and exhaust modification and your mileage is back to normal, than to me it sounds like what-ever you modify on Mazda3 it will go back to normal, except that if you have turbo will it go back to normal mileage? j/k, if it would do that with turbo than i would gladlly do so, get Avg. 25mpg on M3 with turbo would be nice.

 

One thing I read recently in one of the car mags was myths about getting good mileage. After they did lots of testing they found out that you get the best mileage by using WOT to your cruise speed. You would think dumping all that fuel through the system would hurt mileage but that is not the case. It was best to get up to cruise speed as fast as possible where it was practical then hold that speed. This might explain how I got 32 MPG on my first tank with all that WOT and hard driving.

 

Can someone explain to me why exactly this drop in air filter would produce a 4.5mpg increase? What is the difference between air filters?

 

I now have 250 miles on a new 2006 2S 5 door with manual trans. The car is rated at 26/32 fuel economy.

For the first 75 miles I drove to work and back and around town. When I wasn't having fun accelerating, I was trying to minimize fuel consumption. I got 28.5 mpg on a new engine. I was very impressed - and relieved.

I just did a 140 mile road trip where I ran 50 minutes at 60 and 1 hr at 70, with another 15 minutes of town driving thrown in. I got 36 mpg!! I made sure I had filled the tank all the way and double checked the trip odometer. How good will it be when it is broken in??

My approach to low fuel consumption is to minimize rpm always and rely on the torque of the 2.3 L engiine. I am pretty impressed with how well this engine will pull a big gear at low rpms. I start out in first until 2500-3000 rpm, then shift to 3rd to 2500, then go to 5th. It's not exciting acceleration, but it pulls the gears even on mild grades. I turn corners in my neighborhood in third gear at 1000 rpm and it has no problem. I drive at 30 mph in 5th gear and almost never have to drop down a gear.

My approach is based on the knowledge that the throttled air intake system is inefficient, and anything you can do to minimize the restriction will increase efficiency of the engine. Also, bearing and friction drag in the engine is proportional to speed. That is part of the reason diesels are so much more efficient than gasoline engines - no intake restriction and lower operating speed. So accelerating at low engine speeds in a big gear means you can run the throttle open quite a bit wider than usual without the engine speed running up fast - a double efficiency benefit.

If I could get my hands on a bsfc (brake specific fuel consumption) map for this engine, I might be able to optimize efficiency more. Anyone seen anything like this before?

Chuck

 

i put my cold air intake and im getting around 30 in city and almost 38 on the high way.. that is if i dont drive it hard...