[gandrigo]

Anyone else experiencing hesitation during hard acceleration. it is faint, not like a misfire. i have had it over several tanks of gas, so i doubt that was the issue. Maybe the fuel pump?

 

[Brockett or bust]

engine hesitation

I have about 3600 km on my car.. bought in Canada... I noticed for the first tank or two the power on the car was great.. but now, i am noticing slight sluggish performance.. i really notice it in first gear.. sometimes i experience a 'faint' flat spot at 3000 rpm under hard acceleration. Usually in the first gear the tires are slipping a bit and really grabbing for traction.. now i notice i can pin it in first gear and it just goes 'averagely' up in rpm's.. nothing to write home about and different from when i first got it. my cel was on anyway (dealer found the thermostat broken), so i attributed it to that. since it was replaced yesterday, the sluggish performance and a little 'soft spot' was still at 3000 rpm, Although the cel was now off.. anyway, took it back to the dealer and told him the head mechanic.. we decided to test a new car and my car.. we drove both cars to feel if there was a difference.. the mechanic agreed with me that the car felt sluggish, but just barely noticable yet definetely not normal.. He said he hasn't heard anything like that before with this car and they were still learning through consumers about problems.. He asked me what kind of gas i put in i.e. brand, not octane and I put in discout carrier fuel.. i.e. centex here in calgary.. he was convinced this was the problem, as discount carriers recieve the bad batches of fuel from major carriers like petro canada (good), esso (best), shell (good but high sulpher).. as long as the 20% of the batch meets the standards, they can sell the batch to discount carriers.. this gas can be sitting for months, but as long as it meets the 20% standard, it's good to go.. but the major companies won't sell that fuel to their customers.. anyway, point is fuel apparently makes big difference.. and i plan on going through this bad tank and switching to major supplier.. probably esso.. we'll see..
as for the minor flat spot in the 3000 rpm stage in first gear acceleration, its noted on my file and they will continually look for flash updates for the ecu/pcm/ or whatever the related computer is called in my car.. could just be gas or something..

 

[NASTY]

Re: engine hesitation

...petro canada (good), esso (best), shell (good but high sulpher)

shell has one of the lowest sulphur contents, they upgraded their refineries a few months back to deal with upcoming regulations

 

[MovieGuyMike]

Car and Driver mag had an article reviewing the 3. They said that it seemed to them that it wasn't moving as fast as it should but realized that it was because the engine is so quiet (electronically controlled) and there is very little sound to make you think the engine is working hard.

 

[gandrigo]

Actually its not so much that the car feels low on power (at least in my case), but more uneven power delivery. It seems to shudder, just enough so that it can be noticed, but not really enough to cause it to jerk around. I assumed gas at first, but this is my third tank (all Esso/Shell), and it still does it occasionally. Anyway, the thing has to go in cuz now the airbag light is on, maybe they can find something.
Still love the car

 

[NASTY]

Actually its not so much that the car feels low on power (at least in my case), but more uneven power delivery. It seems to shudder, just enough so that it can be noticed, but not really enough to cause it to jerk around. I assumed gas at first, but this is my third tank (all Esso/Shell), and it still does it occasionally. Anyway, the thing has to go in cuz now the airbag light is on, maybe they can find something.
Still love the car

i know exactly what ure talkin bout, especailly at lower rpm's right?
its never really bothered me, but if your dealer does find something keep us posted

 

[Sean]

It really bothers me, it just does not seem natural. I'm surprised there haven't been more topics on this. This is the first car I have had where this occurs.

 

[n1smo]

Actually its not so much that the car feels low on power (at least in my case), but more uneven power delivery. It seems to shudder, just enough so that it can be noticed, but not really enough to cause it to jerk around. I assumed gas at first, but this is my third tank (all Esso/Shell), and it still does it occasionally. Anyway, the thing has to go in cuz now the airbag light is on, maybe they can find something.
Still love the car

I noticed this when I was driving the loaner 3s (I had it for 3 days and abused it). There were definitely some lag in parts of the powerband, very lumpy acceleration. I'm glad that mine didn't have this problem. I don't think it was the gas because the dealer gave me a free tank of gas at the same place where they fill the loaner up. So, I think it comes down to the fact that not all Mazda3s are created equal.

 

[fire76]

I've noticed that when the engine is cold I get a big surge of power at 3,000rpm. It almost reminds me of a big 2 stroke dirt bike's power band. But once it warms up the power seems pretty seamless through the entire rpm range

 

[Kirk]

Where does the variable valve timing kick in? I've always noticed that power seems to "hit" at around 3200rpm.

Also, I noticed a hesitation of sorts today when I'd romp on the gas in 1st gear. It was almost like the car would cut power, then launch. Very odd behavior, but repeatable. It happened only in 1st gear, and only at low RPMs. I'll have to play with it in a non-traffic area sometime.

As I didn't buy this one to be my sports/sporty car, I don't really mind, but it's still odd behavior. A dyno would be great to look into this with.

 

[n1smo]

Where does the variable valve timing kick in? I've always noticed that power seems to "hit" at around 3200rpm.

Also, I noticed a hesitation of sorts today when I'd romp on the gas in 1st gear. It was almost like the car would cut power, then launch. Very odd behavior, but repeatable. It happened only in 1st gear, and only at low RPMs. I'll have to play with it in a non-traffic area sometime.

As I didn't buy this one to be my sports/sporty car, I don't really mind, but it's still odd behavior. A dyno would be great to look into this with.

Here's the one that Injen did at R&D Dyno with the 6i. The torque peaks at 3500rpm then starts fading. It looks like the intake does restrict the high end a little as the run with the Injen intake shows.

For reference, here's the one of my 2000 Maxima at R&D Dyno when it was stock. Much nicer torque curve.

 

[Erv187]

I feel the same thing when i run it a lil hard. i feel a very brief delay like the vvt is kicking in or something. My car has been feeling very sluggish recently also. I have 3800 miles on it and a few days ago I put in 89 octane in gas from shell. I'm thinking that might be the problem, because I normally put in 87.

 

[gib]

Mine is manual. And what I get to about 3500rpm there is a very sudden torque and it really gets you movin. 8)
Below 3200rpm its does not have mutch torque.

 

[zimmerDN]

all this talk is making me worry that this is another one of those first year glitches or worse, a design flaw that has no remedy. :roll: We must know more about this so anyone who's experiencing this please post.

 

[Kirk]

all this talk is making me worry that this is another one of those first year glitches or worse, a design flaw that has no remedy. :roll: We must know more about this so anyone who's experiencing this please post.

The engine isn't a first year engine; it's been in the 6 for the past couple years.

 

[factrzero]

Torque curve

Same thing happening. I've got 3000kms. It's not always the case. Sometimes it flies along, sometimes it feels like there's a pause in there somewhere. I use Shell gas.

I'm getting a narsty gurgling from the exhaust now too when accelerating hard. Who knows, not a big deal.

Just yesterday a 1996 automatic Corolla beside me floored it and kept up just fine. That shouldn't be happening with an auto 106 HP engine with no variable valve timing going against my 5 speed GT.

Whatever. It's really a high-end econo car anyway. I'll treat her well until I get my Volvo S40 turbo AWD in a few years, then it's go-time.

 

[4U2NV BlUe M3]

well ive been studying this site closely and well i finally decide to sign up this is my first post . ive had my m3 for over a week now she has 650 miles on it and i have notice somethings that are kind of bothering me for example the accelration problem ive noticed on first gear at low rpm. i cruise to about 3000 rpm then get tempted to hit the throttle its roars till about 4000 then pause... then scream through power band at first i thought ok...the vvt but now that ive read the other post doesnt seem like thats the problem so im not sure ive also notice that alot of the people that have posted in this topic use shell gasoline.. well so do i maybe thats the problem but i doubt it yet u never know. Also i dont know if this has happened to anyone yet a couple days ago i had the car towed to my dealer because the shifter cable poped out and i could not put the car into gear, they supposebly changed the brushing but it was weird cuz this car so damn brand new and all i was doing was shifting into 3rd and im a GREAT shifter so im not at fault here so i think. Also it might be throttle lag you see i use to drive a 95 eclipse nonturbo and well the throttle body was activated by wire the ones on the mazda 3 are electrical so maybe its a bad signal but then again im not sure.well i would like to find out more about the accelration problem, hopefully in the end it wont be a bad thing

 

[zimmerDN]

So I take it that all these problems are people with manual shifter.

 

[mdurg]

I have the same thing going on here. In first gear there is a definate lag. It almost seems that I am either on the verge of stalling the car or burning the rubber off the tires. I have a hard time getting nice smooth even acceleration from a stop to 20mph or so. But I'll tell you once it gets to around 3000 rpm, it's like a kick in the pants - it really takes off. 2nd 3rd and 4th I don't notice it so much, probably because the car is in motion. Accelerating from 30 to 70 mph is so delightful, compared to the piece of junk 626 I got rid of. And it's nice to once again be able to accelerate going up a hill.

So what do you guys think the lag is?

Silver Mazda3
2.3 5 Speed Sedan
CD Changer & Moonroof

 

[DJ Spencer]

I just pretent it's a turbo, and unlike the RX7, with waits until 3000 RPMs to kick in.