I have quite a bit done to my car and it doesn't burn/lose a drop between oil changes.

 

Thanks a lot for the reply... car has now started smoking noticeably after ~3 minutes of idle so I suspect it has been doing this for a while and is the cause of the loss of oil.

 

I have an 09 with just under 34k miles on it and have also noticed oil consumption. When I brought it to the dealership for it's normal scheduled maintenance I brought it up and the mechanic told me that one quart of oil burn off within 5k miles is normal for the mazdaspeed3. Anymore then that may be a number of things from bad seals or the beginnings of engine failure. I said thanks and left.
My previous car was a 2004 Taurus, and when I sold it, it had 61k miles on it, and never burnt/leaked a single drop that I could tell, so I don't know. Having spent a lot of time reading forums and doing research on mazdaspeeds, there are a lot of people that have had engine problems and what have you, and I got really nervous and almost traded in my car. But, I've settled on the fact that I'm going to drive the car how I want to drive it, and enjoy every second of it, and if I have some sort of engine failure down the road, then I'll deal with that if it happens. It's not worth stressing out for me because I simply love driving my speed and I hope that it stays in the family until the wheels fall off. Just my 2 cents =p

 

Appreciate the heads up glad to hear that a little oil burn off is nothing to worry about out. I agree the car is incredible and considering the initial price to performance/awesomeness ratio, a few (even espensive) fixes down the road still keep it in the too good to be true price category. I just wanted to make sure that she is as healthy as any other speed on the road. I plan to also keep the car until it is truly run to the ground!

 

I have 2 mazda 3's one is a speed. On both of them when checking the oil on the first pull of the dipstick for whatever reason it show a qt or more low. I pull it out wipe it off and re-insert. Full mark every time on the second pull. Idk why. I have had 4 mazda 3's over the last 5 years and they have all done this. Must pull some kind of vacuum on the oil in the dipstick tube as it cools and it just stays there. I guess its enough to pull it down half to 3/4 of and inch and make it look low. If its using oil it should be pretty constant i would think. Not a qt on some oil changes and nothing on the others but I guess hard driving or city miles would probably burn more oil.

 

I think, regardless of the car, you are supposed to wipe the dipstick anyways before you dip it back in (TWSS).

OP: If you are seeing smoke after about 5-10 minutes of idling, then the turbo seals may have blown. This is a common problem with the DISI engine. Giving the engine a minute to warm up and flow oil through the turbo and giving it 1-2 minutes to cool down and let the oil drain (depending on how hard you drove it) will help reduce the likelihood of this. Adding an oil catch can will help keep gunk from getting into the intake, which aggravates this issue.

Mazda did issue a TSB to fix this. However, it's only covered under warranty for 07-08 MS3s. Last I checked, 08.5-09 MS3s are NOT covered. They'll first have you move to a 40-weight oil (Shell's Rotella oil is pretty good and comes in 5W40 and 10W40). If the car still smokes after moving to new oil, then they will carry out the TSB. It involves replacing the valve cover and repositioning the PCV to the turbo inlet pipe (which will make any aftermarket TIP useless).

 

Thanks everyone for the replies. The car was smoking pretty bad lately at idle, which I assume is the reason for the original oil consumption, so I took it into the dealer and came away with a replacement turbo. I asked about the TSB mentioned by RexSeven and they said that it only applies to 07-08 models and will not fit the 09. I am pretty nervous about this turbo going bad as well so I have an oil restrictor banjo bolt on the way and the ptp pill. Until they arrive I am using some heel-toe skills to keep the idle at about ~900rpm. One last questions however, does anyone if the TSB parts will in fact fit the 09? Looking at the diagram the car definitely has the "old" parts. TSB is here: http://www.mazda3forums.com/index.php?topic=186994.0. I would be more than happy to shell out the money for the parts to save the much more expensive and time consuming to install turbo. Thanks!

 

[quote author=MazdaspeedZ link=topic=188284.msg4219765#msg4219765 date=1334837196]
Thanks everyone for the replies. The car was smoking pretty bad lately at idle, which I assume is the reason for the original oil consumption, so I took it into the dealer and came away with a replacement turbo. I asked about the TSB mentioned by RexSeven and they said that it only applies to 07-08 models and will not fit the 09. I am pretty nervous about this turbo going bad as well so I have an oil restrictor banjo bolt on the way and the ptp pill. Until they arrive I am using some heel-toe skills to keep the idle at about ~900rpm. One last questions however, does anyone if the TSB parts will in fact fit the 09? Looking at the diagram the car definitely has the "old" parts. TSB is here: http://www.mazda3forums.com/index.php?topic=186994.0. I would be more than happy to shell out the money for the parts to save the much more expensive and time consuming to install turbo. Thanks!
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I would go with the banjo bolt and an OCC. With those two you should not need the ptp pill. From reading in was not very effective. But banjo, OCC, and idle help a lot.

I wonder what they did from 09 up?

I just had the vent kit put on my 8.5.

What did they do to 09 that this upgrade is not needed?

An what about 2010+ models? They basically have the same engine as well?

 

Certainly seems like something is wrong, OP.
My 2011 MS3 barely uses any oil between changes.