Cold Air Intake on Mazda 3 Hatchback

[GCAdidas13 10+ year member]

2006 Mazda 3 hatchback with 85k miles, automatic.

My MPG on a tank of gas that did 65% city/35% hwy was 23.67 mpg

I'll have another MPG for a tank of gas that is doing 80% hwy and 20% city tonight, will be about 3 mpg better.

Should I put a cold air intake on my car?

If so, why, and how much should I spend on one?

If not, why not?

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[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

This is a car audio form brah, I'm not sure why this section even exists, it gets little to no use at all. You'd have better luck with a Mazda forum or something similar.

That being said, a cold air intake can make the engine combustion process more efficient thus increase gas mileage, not sure if it's enough to be noticeable though. Generally car audio guys add hundreds of pounds of weight to their car (speakers, enclosures, etc) so gas mileage is not a top priority.

 

[GCAdidas13 10+ year member]

This is a car audio form brah, I'm not sure why this section even exists, it gets little to no use at all. You'd have better luck with a Mazda forum or something similar.
That being said, a cold air intake can make the engine combustion process more efficient thus increase gas mileage, not sure if it's enough to be noticeable though. Generally car audio guys add hundreds of pounds of weight to their car (speakers, enclosures, etc) so gas mileage is not a top priority.

Heh, I know, bored at work posting for the sake of posting. I'm trying to find info on said mazda forums still...

 

[fasfocus00 5,000+ posts]

if you are gonna do anything do an nice straight through exhaust system, you more likely to yield an increase in your MPG, don't get no cheap chop shop muffler job. get a nice bolt on system and even look into a better flowing header as well. cold air intake isn't worth it.

 

[audioatg 10+ year member]

if you are gonna do anything do an nice straight through exhaust system, you more likely to yield an increase in your MPG, don't get no cheap chop shop muffler job. get a nice bolt on system and even look into a better flowing header as well. cold air intake isn't worth it.

Breath and Exhaust. You got one part right. The other part wrong. Over spending on an exhaust system is not going to yield any better results then putting a cold air intake on.

Do some thing better. Make sure your vehicle is kept up.

 

[thevic24 5,000+ posts]

CAK's are very vehicle dependent for gains that will be seen.

Had a 97 4cyl s10 with a 5 speed and I may have gained 1.5 mpg average with the K&N kit.

Now I have a 01 s10 4cyl with automatic and installed the K&N kit and have gotten about 2.3 mpg average.

 

[GCAdidas13 10+ year member]

On one hand, it doesn't seem worth it - the gains are unknown and the intake is kind of costly I guess...

On the other hand, doing some calculations... at $3.30 per gallon and let's say the intake takes my fuel efficiency from 23.5 to 25 mpg...

Every 1,000 miles -> Save $8

Every 10,000 miles: -> Save $80

Basically if I drop $250 on a CAI, it'd take around 30,000 miles to pay it off. Might be worth it if I'm looking at it that way.

What brand(s) should I be looking into?

 

[scrappy 10+ year member]

aem or k&n for brands. I would redo the exhaust also