05 2.3 Auto

I'm at 55,000. Changed oil every 5,000 with Mobil full syn 5-20. Unhappy that I'm starting to burn oil, and my mileage has fallen off about 10% since new. Much too soon for any of this to happen. I've always been a little concerned because I bought new in Jan06 with 100 or so miles. Manufacture date is Mar 05. Could this car have been abused on the dealer's lot fr 9 months?
At 48,000+, I had a warranty repair on the tranny.
I did front and rear breaks at 50,000. Car came with 06 style rear pads.
Also - When I removed the wheels for this job, I noticed the lug nuts ( last tightened by the dealer) were a little snug. I decided to check them. Dealer had tightened them to over 130 ft lbs. Why does the factory publish specs if dealer installs with a jackhammer???

The car handles fine. My only issue with the ride is the high level of road noise.

This used to be my wife's daily driver until I traded my Forester (also noisy) for a Jetta
Wagon TDI. SWMBO grabbed that, and now I use the Mazda3. TDI is slow off the line, but cruises MUCH smoother than the Mazda at open highway speed.

Anyone else have oil consumption problems?? Don't know how serious this. Didn't pay much attention when it was HER car. I added twice between the last 5000 change, but didn't record how much I used. Just changed again today using Penzoil syn. I will track. Maybe I'll try conventional oil.

Would going to a 5-30 have any effect?

 

Seems to be quite a few posts about the 2.3L burning oil... just a quick Google...

http://www.google.com/search?q=mazda...ient=firefox-a


That sucks cause I could deal with just about all the other complaints, but the burning oil is a no go. I think I'll keep looking or just keep my car a while longer. Burning oil on my 2000 Prelude (150K) is the ONLY reason I wanted to replace my car. No sense in having a car payment AND burning oil.

 

As far as the noise goes, had cooper tires on my 07, and they were
dreadful. Now running Dunlop singature sport. Lot less noise. I guess
you can damage a car in a few miles, if mistreated. 5W-30 is a little
thicker oil and as a matter of fact they have oil designed for high mileage
cars. I know yours is not, but it might help. I like to stay away from
non OEM filters. Try this link, cheaper than dealer prices.
http://www.mazdastuff.com/

 

Me again. How much did you have to add between changes. I don't
believe a half quart is a problem. Heard some late 08 and beyond accords
are having high oil consumption issues. Can you believe the Honda dealers
say a quart every 1000 miles is acceptable? 5w-20 is a thinner oil and I
believe mfgs. tell you it's required because it increases their CAFE which
is Corporate Average Fuel Economy. They get a star on their desk, from
the Feds, if they can increase their mpg. That's why Toyota loves the
Prius, they can still make less fuel efficient vehicles and keep their average
mpg respectable. So, if necessary, 5w-30 should be fine, might even be
better. Also had a dealer torque down my drain plug like it was holding
the car together.

 

Well, just checked with a Mazda dealer's svc. dept. and the bottom line,
Mazda standard, is anything above a quart every 800 miles is acceptable.
Of course, that's ridiculous, so approx how much is everyone adding
between the 5000 mile change. I will ck. my 07 and report back, but I don't
recall anything drastic.

 

2004 Mazda3 HB, 5-sp, 60,000 (just passed,) driven hard and driven mild. Oil change every 10,000 miles (5w-20 full synthetic,) filter change every 5,000 miles. No adding of engine oil in between. No burning of oil, just a slight rich condition which has been normal since the car was new.

 

No oil burning issues here. I have had ONE instance when I was visiting my brother in Houston where I started the car and a slight bit of black smoke came out. Other than that, never. It was a long time ago too. 85k on the odometer so far, Mobil 1 5w20 and Mobil 1 filter.

 

I'm curious as to how many of you Speed 3 owners have been dealing with this issue? I received my notice a month or so ago alerting me to the 70,000 mile/7 year warranty time frame. I've had the local dealer examine and drive the car and report that everything is operating as it should. I've open a case file with Mazda North America to report two incidents of exhaust smoking last summer in rather hot weather, (low 90's), sitting in traffic. The local dealer tells me that they have to witness this for themselves before the warranty can be put into play. I love how a company realizes that they speced a sub par outsource but puts the onus on the customer for proof.

Anyway, as with many of you, I'm hoping before I run out of mileage...just turned 60K...that this summer it'll smoke on a hot day in the dealers lot. I mentioned to the dealer that over the past 4 or 5 oil changes that I'm almost a quart low prior to the 3,000 to 5,000 mile change cycle and that where I park the car, just under the exhaust tip a gradually growing oil patch is forming. Clearly the turbo seals are leaking. I'm debating about purchasing a rebuild unit due to what I read about the K04 units being so poorly engineered but am not relishing the thought of spending north of $1,000.00 to do this.

Thoughts?

 

Turbo gasket. The '07's had a lot of problems with this in the early days.
Supposedly, Mazda issued a new gasket that is stronger.

As for what your dealer said, they only know what is and usually don't usually look for trouble coming up. As a rule, dealership mechanics are trained to go blind and not to look forward, only present and back.
If I wuz U, I'd take the car to a trusted shop and have them examine it. It will probably take a few hours and cost +/- $100-$150, but it could save you hundreds/thousands $$ in the long run.

 

Thanks for your insights. I've been to the local Mazda dealer and have already spent $95.00 on an evaluation. My problem is that there are not many Mazda dealers around the Pittsburgh area that are convenient to get to. I've read many blogs regarding this poor performing turbo issue and some seem to say that the oil burning issue has to do with the poor design of the KO4 unit...impeller shaft is too long and narrow in diameter thus creating wider bearing clearances which allow oil to push past the seals into the exhaust channel...and will only get worse as the shaft and bearing clearances increase with wear.

I've looked into several aftermarket replacement units with the most reasonable being from Bryan Nickels at BNR with his base unit costing about $1,000. He uses stock Mazda cores and replaces them with Garrett Research units which he claims are much stouter and better built than the K04 which he refers to as a "throw away" unit. So when I take this route into account, Mazda says that there are about $150 in additional parts and about $650.00 in labor to do the swap...just under $2,000.00 which sounds like a lot to me to repair a factory acknowledged problem. This is of course assuming that my car will smoke for on queue for the mechanics this summer and I can qualify for a new unit on their dime.