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I have a 2006 Petrol Mazda 3 1.6, with 74k on the clock.

I have a problem where the car is really jumpy with poor acceleration when it is accelerating from 0 up to 3250 revs, it feels like it is misfiring. When it gets to 3250 it's like a turbo kicks in and is fine (it doesn't have a turbo).

I have had an analyser on it and there are no error messages.

What do you think it might be...

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    Possibly an air leak allowing unmetered air into the engine.
    – HandyHowie
    Commented Mar 28, 2019 at 14:37

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My gut says it's likely to related to either a dodgy throttle position sensor or a faulty air mass meter. Whilst it is reporting no errors, it's worth doing diagnosis such as resetting the throttle position (sorry, I'm not sure how this is done on this car) and checking things like coolant temperatures reported by the ECU against guestimated values.

If it were my car, the first thing I'd do would be disconnect the battery overnight in the hope that this would wipe out any ECU learned values and force the car to re-calibrate itself.

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  • How long does the re-calibration take in the morning? Can OP start driving as soon as they re-attach the battery cables and start up their car?
    – MonkeyZeus
    Commented Mar 28, 2019 at 19:17
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    Absolutely, should be able to reconnect battery, start vehicle and drive straight away.
    – Steve Matthews
    Commented Mar 28, 2019 at 19:18
  • Sorry if it seemed like a silly question. I was personally curious about any required wait time. I would hate to hear OP report back that they blew their engine because something wasn't given enough time to re-calibrate.
    – MonkeyZeus
    Commented Mar 28, 2019 at 19:20
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    On startup the car ought to go to perform a throttle calibration and then default to a manufacturer programmed set of parameters.
    – Steve Matthews
    Commented Mar 28, 2019 at 19:26
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Remove the mass air sensor housing -- usually directly downwind from the air cleaner. Look inside and try to find the tiny insect body or other debris that has lodged itself between the two wires of the sensor. Do not use chemical cleaning sprays. You might try canned air or even a vacuum. Replace the air cleaner while you're at it since it likely caused this failure. Put everything back together, and go for a test run. This is a pretty common problem, and I've even experienced it personally.

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