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Hatchbacks Mazda3 Mazda3 Maintenance & Repair
4533 messages, Last post on Dec 05, 2009 at 6:27 PM
You are in the Mazda3 Forum. Your Host is pf_flyer
I participate in the "other Mazda3 forum", and have read his thoughts about the A/C problem, and it seems to make sense. Not sure if he minds or if this is a violation of any Town Hall rules but I have copied the text of abarlow's thoughts below ( it is a bit long  ): "Firstly I do not have my Mazda 3 yet (picking it up next week) and I hope I am one of the lucky ones but we shall see. Anyway as I have posted on another forum I have been working for 15 years in the motor trade (started as technician and worked up to service advisor) so I feel I have some experience that may help. Heres what I am wondering. I see reading all the posts (which I have done) that one person posted after they covered the dashboard the A/C seemed to cool fine. I wonder if its not related to the vents heating up in the sun (as some people have hinted) however it could be related to the dashboard getting very hot (especially in the sun). My theory (and I have no way to test this at this time) is that maybe the A/C Amplifier is getting too hot (in the sun, heat off the heater core etc..) and is not functioning correctly. Just to clarify for people who do not know what a A/C's amplifier is for I will give you a quick description (I did not know myself until I researched it). The purpose of the Amplifier is to control the compressor function. Now think about it for a moment. Several people both here and the other forum have been talking about the compressors cyling on and off very quickly along with cases where the compressor can cut off whilst cruising. Just to me it sounds like the A/C Amplifier may be the culprit. It would be interesting to find someone with the shop manuals to find this Amplifier behind their dashboard and try insulating it against heat (I suspect something like the insulation on the A/C hoses that was talked about only you would need a bigger piece). I cannot see it doing any harm to the Amplifier (although I cannot be certain - do this at your own risk).I hope this make sense to most of you and if anyone can try this and let us know the results it would be very interesting to know. As I said just my theory (and this may be the same reason the RX-8 Amplifiers had to be replaced ??) I have just been doing some research on the Amplifier position in related to the RX-8 (I know its not the 3 but it may help give us an insight). The exact working in the bulletin says ' remove 3 screws attatching A/C Amplifier to Blower case'. So it sounds like the amplifier is attatched to the blower case so you can imagine how hot this will get especially on a particularly hot day (plus we dont know how close to the heater core it is either - thats in the heater box too and remember the hotter the car gets the hotter the coolant gets the hotter the inside will get without some kind of valve to shut off coolant getting into the core !!). It really sounds like this amplifier needs to be moved away from the heater box (and the greatest source of heat you could possibly imagine). Again just my observations. Let me know what you think of this." |
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A while back someone posted the AC performance standard from Protege service manual - Air temp was 36.5-39 degrees. Now we have a post that shows the same information on the Mazda3: Ambient temp 68 vent temp range 40-52 ambient temp 77 vent temp range 41-52 ambient temp 86 vent temp range 41-53 ambient temp 95 vent temp range 42-54 ambient temp 104 vent temp range 43-54 If this information is true - then the problem is obvious - I wonder how much money Mazda saved by lowering the AC temperature standard by 15 degrees? I did the test - at 1500 RPM my AC puts out air that is 52 - 57 degrees (outside temp was 95) so not sure if this falls inside the Mazda standard (it does on the low end) At Idle I was 58 - 66 degrees. Maybe some will disagree with me on this - but I really don't care what Mazda says their standard is - even if they do meet it - my car is to hot. Look at it this way - if the Mazda standard was air that was only 20 degrees (sounds real cold) but if the inside of the car was still sweaty hot what does that do for me. The standard should be it cools the car off. Mine does not. |
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Thanks for posting that Imp180psu. Does anyone else have any comments on what I posted. abarlow |
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Replying to: birdman579 (Aug 05, 2004 6:09 pm) My "theory" is that airflow to the rear brakes is different than the front and somehow is blowing more brake dust out onto the wheels. The front wheels are probably creating as much or more dust, but the airflow there is blowing the dust towards a different location. I changed to a different style wheel on my wife's BMW, and the new style gets more brake dust than the old one, just because of the openings in the wheel. The brake dust problem will probably go away, the first time you replace your brake pads with aftermarket pads. Many BMW owners have found this to be a good solution. Also, if you have a brake dust problem, you should clean your wheels at least weekly.. That dust will eat through the finish eventually. regards, kyfdx |
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Actually it's more likely that the rear pads are made from a different material to the front pads, and this material is more prone to giving off sticky dust.
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Replying to: halocline (Aug 06, 2004 6:32 am) regards, kyfdx |
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Mazda service claims the front and rear brake pads are the same material. I was at a friends house last week - he had a new toy. It was a laser light (infrared ?)thermometer. It was about the size of a fountain pen. You just aim the light beam at whatever and it tells you the temperature. I had him take the temp of my front and rear brake disks - the car had only been sitting about 15 minutes - Front was 215 degrees - rear was 155. The front are vented - so they should cool faster than the rear - I would guess that since the front disk was hotter that it must be doing more of the work. It is hard to complain about the stopping power of the Mazda3 brakes - |
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I am now in my 3rd month. In general, I like this car.. but I am starting to have doubts about its longterm quality. First, my seat squeaks all the time.. really annoying squeak.. nails on the chalkboard squeak... Second, my city driving mileage is at, on a good day, 15 MPG. I got rid of my V8 Explorer to get better gas mileage. My Explorer got 12 MPG. I know the EPA estimates are not real, but this is way off. Third, going over some city driving bumps, I get loud cracking and thudding noises coming from right front of car... Anyone else had problems such as these? It goes to the dealer next week. PS: My A/C seems to be working fine... we'll see how it goes when I move to South Florida next month.
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I already posted in the "other" forum, but anyway, the build date of the rental I had with AC problems is 3/04. As I was driving on a hot day several days ago, I was wondering if the problem was related to heat from the engine bay entering the cabin or somehow negating the AC. |
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| Wow, something is seriously wrong. With the 2.0 engine I am getting 33MPG, 80% highway, 20% city. | |
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