Hi

Hope someone can give me some ideas here please.

Bought the Mazda 3 in September. Drove it for about 2 weeks and got great mileage (21-22 city). Then it sat in the garage for about 3 weeks while I recuperated from surgery.My city mileage has since dropped to about 13-14 mpg city. Here are the facts:
1. After it sat in the garage for 3 weeks, my son took it out for a spin (10 miles) and then put the emergency brake on.
2. When I tried to take the brake off the next morning, it was difficult to take off.
3. From that point on, the mileage was bad.

I took it to the dealer - did not know if the brake had anything to do with it. They said no although they did adjust the rear brakes. They said there is nothing wrong with it. They told me to change gas stations (which I did). They also cited the "winter fuel mix" as probably being a problem. They said there is nothing wrong with it.

BTW - most of this started when the weather was still nice (we don't get very cold until December so there was 4 -5 weeks of bad mileage before the temps dropped into the 40s and 30s.

I don't know what else to do. I now drive mostly highway to work (1 light the entire 15 miles each way) and get about 13 city/18highway.

Any suggestions on what to check??

Thanks!

Karen from Pittsburgh

 

are you sure your still driving you car the same way??

and the only factors that i could tihnk about are...
1) the colder weather (i get 500 km/tank in the summer, and about 400 in the winter (city driving))
2) the gas. i get the best gas mileage with Shell gas. usually around an extra ~50-100kms a tank.
3) check the air filter. who knows, maybe a mouse made a home of it (ive seen it happen)
4) check the tire pressures....

 

That mileage definitely sounds bad. Thoughts:

1) If you buy gasoline that has lots of ethanol in it, most find MPG is lower. Do you know if the gasoline you have been buying has lots of ethanol?

2) Check your oil level, and tire pressure, toverify both are good.

3) You could try disconnecting your battery, leave it disconnected for20 minutes, then reconnect it. This will reset your engine ECU. If your ECU somehow has gotten "confused" resetting it could help.

 

+1 on disconnecting the batt.

this is what every says when your doing any mods to your car, ie, catback, intake, etc etc

 

You don't say but I assume from yourcity mileage that you have an auto? You also don't state whether you bought the car new or not?
Something has got to be wrong that your dealer didn't pick up on. Three weeks is not all that long, and even the auto 2.3L would get better mileage than that under the worst circumstances. 19 is the worst I've heard about w/that set up.

Are the rear brakes excessively hot when you park the car? Based on the info you've included, this is where I'd put my money.