Today I had to take a 7 mile trip to the hardware store.
My miles to empty readout said I had 61 miles left to travel on the gas I had onboard.
Two miles into the trip, the gauge said 47 miles left, and kept going down lower and lower.
When I reached the store it read 41 miles, and I had only traveled just under 7 miles.
The gas gauge needle also seemed a bit off, in the fact it was moving lower more quickly than I had ever seen it move since I have owned the car.
This is the first time this has happened, and I am at a loss as to why.
Tomorrow I will fill it up and see if the problem is resolved but still I wonder why this is happening.
Any thoughts?
Bob.

 

Very odd. Do you usually run the gas down that low or has it been a while?? My only thought is that perhaps the gauge float in the tank is sticky, perhaps it was stuck a bit higher than whatever was left in the tank and let go all of a sudden resulting in the MTE reading dropping down. If you don't let the tank get near empty often, maybe that section of the gauge/float is gummy. I'm not sure exactly how it's made but that could be the reason. Maybe after your next fillup, let it get low again and see if you can duplicate the behavior.

 

Were you parked level or off a little, also driving down the road the crown can change what you have also.

 

I filed it yesterday, and drove 23 miles, and used over a quarter of a tank.
I checked for leaks, and there are none.
How big a difference does it make if the air filter isn't changed.
The car has 32, 600 miles on it, and I never changed it since I bought ithe car last year.
Could that be causing this rapid change in gas mileage?
The car is running perfectly.
There is no loss of power, and it has always been very smooth at idle.
This really has me at a loss as to what is causing this.
Bob.

 

Your air filter has some to do with gas mileage, but not like that. I've not changed my either, with 32k on the clock.

You should not use a quarter of a tank on 23 mi. Not just for an air filter. I'd take it to Mazda.

 

Almost sounds like a bad fuel gauge.

 

I thought that could be a possibility but then there is the mte readout.
Is that tied directly to the gauge?
Bob.

 

Well check and see how bad the air filter is but take it into mazda so that they know whats going on

 

I do believe that the MTE works in conjunction with the Fuel gauge.

 

I checked the air filter and it is clean.
Looks like it was replaced when I bought the car last year.
Cource, I havan't put many miles on it in that year, less than 3000 miles
I will be taking it to the dealer in the morning.
I will post the results.
Bob.