[Geezer]

OK, I am probably going to be labeled as a complainer but here goes.

The last couple of mornings the mercury has dipped well below zero°C. For the first time, yesterday, the engine started up sounding like a bunch of ball bearings in a blender! It was missing and shaking something terrible. After a few minutes it started behaving itself and ran like a smooth Skyactive Mazda again. It did it again today so I am wondering if this is chronic thing that I will just have to live with being in the Great White North (Canada).

BTW, I remember that when I got my first Subaru Forester in 2000, it too had this problem and it was shared by most Forester owners.

 

[Dean]

I parked mine for two days, temperature never went above -13C
The third morning it started without notice of any issue.
warmed up running steady at about 1500 RPM again no notice of any issues

 

[SlyCoopers]

Only had this happen twice so far in the short time that I have owned the car as it is just starting to hit freezing temperatures here. I called the dealer since it really freaked me out and he "assured" me that it will happen a few times as the car and battery get used to colder weather cranking. I dont know how much of it I believed but it hasn't happened again just yet. I do however occasionally get a faint smell of fuel when cold starting the car in the morning. Has anything like that happened also?

 

[Trixstar]

Mine did it once so far. The car started up but the rpm kept jumping from 700 to 1500 back and forth a few times. It felt like a lawn mower running out of fuel.

 

[DJ9999]

I've been told its a symptom of Direct Injection engines with a little valve chatter at startup being normal in colder conditions. I always park in a warm garage, never outside, so I've not experienced it personally but my last two cars were DI and these threads were somewhat common on those forums too.

 

[JPA]

My car does it on every cold start. I think it has something to do with getting the catalytic converter fast to the operating temperature.

 

[anchorman]

I wouldn't say missing and shaking but I've heard Skyactive G engines make a harsh note from the exhaust for a few seconds after start up and then continue normally.

 

[VANDAL]

+1 also happened 2 days ago. Car was parked outdoors in -8 celcius for about 9 hours. on start up it was rough, fluttering idle (jumping between 1000rpm - 1700rom) shook a little bit but quickly resumed to normal after a few seconds.

 

[CXIII]

That being the case from a cold start is (what i think) to be expected. Cars act weird when cold. Once up to running temperature, and once things have had time to move, letting fluids flow and parts move, if you notice anything off... then you might have a real problem.

 

[plepak]

Just to add another account, I experienced the same thing today at about 35 degrees F. Car had been sitting since yesterday evening, maybe 18 hours. Sluggish crank, then considerable shaking for a few seconds. Subsequent starts normal.

 

[Dean]

Strange , I recorded mine starting this morning and again everything was fine - I wonder if this is something that passes - I use remote start but after reading this thread , out into a frozen CX-3 and still haven't noticed any problem.

Is this every time for you guys or only occasionally ?

 

[AdamK]

Ours makes a noise at startup which I attributed to the radiator fan running at startup, then shutting off after a few seconds. Our Nissan Maxima does the same thing.

 

[Ovaku]

Its been colder than -15 degrees here all week, and I havent experienced any problems/noises during cold startup.

 

[Snoogie]

from what i understand from my training courses in the skyactiv engines is that during cold weather start up the engine is trying very hard to warm up as quickly as possible to get the catalytic converter up to temps. the engine tunes itself to run just a little bit rich for a moment to help warm up the cat to help with emissions. this recent generation of skyactiv engines all do this weird rough start up during cold weather as compared to the previous models first introduced in the smiley face mazda 3 generation. so by this it is normal operation to hear and feel the engine behave the way it does just as a means to quickly warm up the engine. also our cx3 have a slightly different sound which may contribute to the harsher sound of the engine due to the weird new exhaust shape. hope this helps.

 

[anchorman]

There's enough information here to suggest it's nothing to worry about whether or not your car does it. I rented a 2014 CX-5 last time I was in Florida and it ran like a bag of pots for the first 30 seconds or so (ambient 90F or so). It then smoothed out and never seemed to suffer for it. I attributed it to the emission system making adjustments- usually the fuel tank being vented through the charcoal canister.

If you think that's bad, you should here my diesel when it's cold. It redirects the exhaust all over the place when cold and can even close it right off when needed. I can't complain, it meets Euro 6 and breaths nearly clean air.

 

[Vipre77]

This CX-3 is the fourth Mazda I've owned and every one of them has had a tendency to run rich when first started, no matter what time of year here in Wisconsin. Every one of my Mazdas turned the tail pipes black faster than other cars I've owned. In the winter on cold starts, it's common for engines to run in open loop mode, which means it's dumping fuel in and not trying for a perfect stoichiometric combustion with a perfect air/fuel mix. Doing this causes the engine to run roughly, as posters observed here, and it heats up more quickly which is what you want in the winter. If you have the defroster running at this time, it'll cause the RPMs to surge noticeably as the A/C compressor cycles on and off. My '04 Mazda 6 with the old Ford Duratec 3.0L-derived engine would ping and misfire like crazy in winter startups. Enough so that it would throw cylinder misfire codes if I tried to drive the car at all before it was fully warmed up. My '05 Mazda 6 with a largely identical engine ran much better in the cold, only giving me the misfire code one time in the years I owned it.

 

[Levi3xt]

Been busy reading about the noises/rough running during the startup of CX-3's (or any other cars). So, thought I'd search around to see what the problem (or problems) was/were.

In older cars that used carburetors, in really cold weather it did effect engine performance. As petrol (gasoline) is less likely to evaporate in colder temperatures, it would lead to carburetors failing to get the correct mixture of air and fuel into the engine. This, at times caused cars to stall, this probably led to the practice of heating up cars by leaving them to idle for some time in the winter. However, cars made in the last few decades don't suffer from this problem. From the 1980s, carburettors were replaced with electronic fuel injection (efi) which uses sensors to calculate the correct mixture of air and fuel to supply your engine.

When temperatures fall below freezing, your engine is already aware of this and adjusts by introducing more gasoline (petrol) to the fuel mix. By letting your car idle, you’re subjecting your engine to more gasoline-rich fuel than necessary, and this ends up stripping oil from your engine’s vital components. "Gasoline is an outstanding solvent and it can actually wash oil off the cylinder walls if you run it in those cold idle conditions for an extended period of time.

With efi, when the engine reaches the desired temperature it switches back to its regular fuel mixture, however, idling doesn’t get it there any faster. The best way way to heat up an engine is to actually drive. Engines will normally take 5-15 minutes to reach a normal operating temperature. Up to this point, take it easy on the accelerator.

 

[Sarah]

Hi Folks,

Car sat for three or four days, then wouldn't start for a few minutes. It would start to catch then just stall, over and over. I let it rest for a few minutes, then just nailed that start button and kept it pressed while the car coughed and stalled and tried again. I think I willed it to turn over... so that plus holding the start button seemed to do it (felt like I was riding a line there - could have flooded it?). I also had to rev it a few times to keep it from stalling out again when it finally caught and started.

So... is this normal? I've driven this car in the cold here in Pennsylvania over the last few months without incident, so it's strange that a few days of rest in warm weather (it's been in the 40s F) would result in this behavior on an afternoon when it's 35 F.

Any ideas?

Bonus: I'm going to start a thread later that's sure to incite violence. I love Manuel (my CX-3) soooo much, but the seat is KILLING me. I've tried all things that anyone smarter than a bag of rocks would try, and will keep trying, but stay tuned for my carefully worded lament about how I am the exact wrong human for the CX-3 seat. See what I did there? Don't blame the car... blame the human. Don't roast me here. Wait for the thread!

 

[mainemanx]

Eight-cycling cold start, your experience sounds worse than others and unacceptable. I'd recommend taking it back to dealer ... at worst, leave it overnight, pry their service manager off his/her throne, and give him/her a real-time, hands-on demo. I'd give you a ride, but I'm a bit too far.

---------

As for the driver's "seat", I too attribute some of its discomfort to its occupant.

For me it's just too _____ low! Mine currently, temporarily rides on four, 3/4" thick maple blocks (with apppropriately longer bolts to secure it to the floor).

Soon it will be riding on 1" X 3" X 22" rectangular aluminum tubing, 1/8" thick ... with the seat 3" farther to the rear ... still more backseat legroom than my '56 356!

'Looking forward to your seat thread

 

[anchorman]

Hi Folks,

Car sat for three or four days, then wouldn't start for a few minutes. It would start to catch then just stall, over and over. I let it rest for a few minutes, then just nailed that start button and kept it pressed while the car coughed and stalled and tried again. I think I willed it to turn over... so that plus holding the start button seemed to do it (felt like I was riding a line there - could have flooded it?). I also had to rev it a few times to keep it from stalling out again when it finally caught and started.

So... is this normal? I've driven this car in the cold here in Pennsylvania over the last few months without incident, so it's strange that a few days of rest in warm weather (it's been in the 40s F) would result in this behavior on an afternoon when it's 35 F.

Any ideas?

Bonus: I'm going to start a thread later that's sure to incite violence. I love Manuel (my CX-3) soooo much, but the seat is KILLING me. I've tried all things that anyone smarter than a bag of rocks would try, and will keep trying, but stay tuned for my carefully worded lament about how I am the exact wrong human for the CX-3 seat. See what I did there? Don't blame the car... blame the human. Don't roast me here. Wait for the thread!

It should have started yes and it does sound that the way it was spluttering that it may have flooded. Maybe a little more gas would have kept it going rather than stall but that shouldn’t have been necessary. The problem you will have is getting the dealer to replicate it unless it does it on a regular basis.

The seat was just about the major factor in me changing to a CX-5. For me, bolstered seats are just not comfortable but none of the entire range offered a non bolstered “comfort” seat - they were all similar in shape. After a while it felt like I had sat on a seat that had something left on it so I found myself shuffling from one side to the other and of course the seat back is also the same. Its a shame because I loved the car and and such a lot about it but when I started to ponder a change and went to a showroom, sitting in the seat of the CX5 was a priority and within seconds of doing so the decision was made if I’m honest with myself. I had some issues with interior space too and that was because we found ourselves (me and wife) using it more with 2 rear seat passengers than we envisaged we would and then things took on another dimension because I normally sat with the drivers seat as far back as it would go and I was having to sit with my knees out sideways and my legs straddled over those bolsters. I couldn’t wait to get out of it. It also accentuated issue three for me and that was the suspension being too soft. Driving 4 up exposed the car to be very much based on the Mazda 2 and not the Mazda 3. The car became very wallowy and unstable.

I have been a RAV4 man for 10 years and coming to Mazda was the result of them rationalising the 4X4 range to the Hybrid which was simply unobtainable for months here in the UK. How I ended up in the CX-5 is outlined here but I can honestly say that I enjoy driving this car more than any other I have ever driven. There are one or two things I would alter but I am very taken with it and will consider the new model when I’ve done with this one.