Poor gas mileage, questionable coil pack, oil on spark plugs...

[ruthrj]

My dad was into sailing. First a 19' Chrysler, then a Cat22 ... a J24. When he turned 80 they sold their lake place and donated the boat. But he couldn't let it go and some guy sold him a Cat 25 and delivered it to a slip he found at a nearby lake. But we found nobody wanted to try and tow it because it had a fixed keel and rode almost 15ft high. He had to get some guy with a bulldozer to take it from the storage place down to the boat ramp every season.

A good thing he enjoyed painting because that's how he spent most of his time with it.

I'm more apt to put a kayak on my roof than tow a trailer but it still adds drag. I know how it is moving stuff. And sometimes you have to. But from now on I'm going go with a U-Box or similar if at all possible.

Moved in Oct with biggest uhaul I could get. I rented their flatbed trailer and put my CX5 on that. 12 hours on the road getting maybe 5 miles to the gallon doing 50-55 mph lmbo. I wanted to do the Uboxes or PODS but with moving expenses, I sucked it up and saved several thousand dollars. Next move? Nope. I’m splurging on movers and a service.

 

[Ceej007]

My car only has 24k miles on it and I am only averaging 22mpg.

 

[CX5Nut]

Did the OP every find out why his CX5's MPG dropped after pulling that boat?

 

[sky201]

Did the OP every find out why his CX5's MPG dropped after pulling that boat?

Nope, dealer took a look at it 2x and basically said it’s running fine that I could get an engine diagnostic for like $800. But that they wouldn’t likely find anything so it wouldn’t be worth it.

I just drove 600 Mike’s round trip this weekend averaging 23mpg... which I guess isn’t terrible but it’s far off from the 30mpg I used to readily obtain.

I’m going to change the trans fluid this spring, and clean the MAF. We’ll have to see what happens but I have a feeling my car just assumes it needs to make more power now and it’s locked into a memory of towing causing poor MPG. It’s fine cause I tow a lot of motorcycles.

Also, the CX-5 did great towing everything for the 700miles. Suspension wasn’t even sagged and the engine buzzed like a little bee the whole time. I didn’t find it was really straining itself. So I have a feeling it’s all electronic.

 

[murky]

Nope, dealer took a look at it 2x and basically said it’s running fine that I could get an engine diagnostic for like $800. But that they wouldn’t likely find anything so it wouldn’t be worth it.

I just drove 600 Mike’s round trip this weekend averaging 23mpg... which I guess isn’t terrible but it’s far off from the 30mpg I used to readily obtain.

I’m going to change the trans fluid this spring, and clean the MAF. We’ll have to see what happens but I have a feeling my car just assumes it needs to make more power now and it’s locked into a memory of towing causing poor MPG. It’s fine cause I tow a lot of motorcycles.

Also, the CX-5 did great towing everything for the 700miles. Suspension wasn’t even sagged and the engine buzzed like a little bee the whole time. I didn’t find it was really straining itself. So I have a feeling it’s all electronic.

I wonder if the computer learned your shift behavior while towing and is now tuned to that, holding higher revs before upshifting, and such.

 

[Ceej007]

I have a feeling my car just assumes it needs to make more power now and it’s locked into a memory of towing causing poor MPG.

So I have a feeling it’s all electronic.

So, if that is the case then reset the ECU.

 

[Jotomanic]

So an Update for everyone. Same OP but different account. Intake valves were filthy, not quite VW bad, but after 60k they had their fair share of build up. That being said, I cleaned them and saw a bit of an uptick in mileage but it soon fell again.

Checked my ATF fluid and it looked rather dark so I changed that, (I had already changed the diff and transfer case fluid) drove the car 100+ miles yesterday and I was able to get 27mpgs not trying which is a 4mpg increase! going to do another change since I want to get all the old fluid out, but the car shifts much better, and rolls more freely at speed.

So in the end I think after 60k miles and alot of towing I scorched the ATF fluid and all that was needed was a quick drain and fill. Go figure. I replaced with FZ fluid from Mazda, but didn't change the strainer since its not recommended from the manufacturer. LMK what you guys think, but I'm happy to be getting an extra 50 miles per tank especially with increased gas prices.

 

[Mazdiod2]

Gas could go up quite a bit this summer.

Are you thinking about cleaning the valves again? What method did you use?

I wonder what good interval is good for cleaning valves, and how can you tell?