maintenance schedule question

[lastsaga]

hey guys, first of all i want to say that this board rocks. i've never come across a board where the mods do such a good job in organizing threads and keeping things in their respective places. thanks a lot it makes things a lot easier to find.

alright, my main question here: besides oil changes, what other maintenance should i do, and at what intervals?

my car is currently just under 8k miles, and i've been changing the oil regularly at about 2800-3000 miles. my last oil change was the first switch over to mobil 1 synthetic, and starting next oil change i'm planning on moving to amsoil 10w30 synthetic. i've always used the OEM mazda oil filter, and always put in chevron 91 octane gas (except once i had to do with 76 cuz i couldnt find a chevron haha).

i've been reading threads on stuff like transmission fluid changes, etc., and i wanted to know when i should be doing that..

my shifter's been really troublesome ever since the beginning.. it's hard to get it into second gear and sometimes difficult to pull it out of reverse, but then again on some days it's as smooth as my old honda. :T

so i guess my question is what other things should i be aware of?

thanks

 

[lastsaga]

oh and btw, my gas mileage sucks. i get about 160 at the 1/2 tank then at around 240-260 the gas light comes on. any idea of what i could check? thanks

 

[GotBoost]

oh and btw, my gas mileage sucks. i get about 160 at the 1/2 tank then at around 240-260 the gas light comes on. any idea of what i could check? thanks

welcome to the wonderful world of turbo. stay out of boost and the mpg will stay up. boost suck gas man, but damn if it's not fun(hah)

 

[FSDET]

Umm i think thers nothing major till u hit 30k then u have to change the spark plugs
at 15k have to change ur air filter but im sure u got an Intake so just clean the cone..
as for the tranny i think i have one the wors ones but with kartboy bushings and shortshifter + redline mt-90(synthetic tranny oil) its 10x better. if u dont wanna spend much just get the bushings for $25 and the oil for about $30+service..

 

[Kain]

Dude, if you're getting 260 miles when the light comes on, you're actually doing pretty well. Mazda, for some reason, has the Protege's low gas light come on ridiculously early. You still have another 40 to 50 miles left on that tank, which would put you in the low 20s in MPG.

 

[DSM2MSP]

Speaking of oil changes, I looked at my odometer: 4500 miles....ooops, time for an oil change.

 

[FSDET]

Dude, if you're getting 260 miles when the light comes on, you're actually doing pretty well. Mazda, for some reason, has the Protege's low gas light come on ridiculously early. You still have another 40 to 50 miles left on that tank, which would put you in the low 20s in MPG.

Yeah y does the light come on so early ...im getting about 23mpg and 80% of it is freeway.. but then again i dont dirve like a grandma (silly)

 

[cvp0917]

Thats because there are stupid people out there who dont check their gas level till the light comes on. most all car companies make it come on at about 50 miles, usually 2- 2.5 gallons left in the tank. my previous 3 cars were like that. i had a 97 malibu that had a 12.5 gallon tank in it and i think the most i ever put in it was 11.2 gallons or something and that was after i drove around with the light on delivering pizzas for over a hour before i got gas. its normal so dont worry about it.