Ok, the 2010 Mazda3 is ugly, but the drive-by-wire system in any Mazda3 is THE WORST FREAKING IDEA EVER.
The car is simply incapable of accepting a throttle input without changing it. Trying to get moving from a stop? Deaden the throttle so you lug the engine endlessly. Trying to match revs going around a turn? Forget it, it's less responsive than a passed out drunk college student.
If this is the future of cars, I'm never buying a new one.
Thank you, the rant is over.
I remain inherently suspicious of electronic gizmos, and this one sounded bad from the git-go. Never should have made it past the drawing board.
I heard they are also playing around with steer-by-wire.
That's REALLY scary.
its the heavy flywheel, not the dbw.
people all bitched about it on the ms3, but if you put a boost gauge on it, and watch the response while in vacuum, you'll see that it just isn't a quick revving motor. also the dbw will adapt to your driving after a few cycles as well. i drove two mazda6's that were totally different when trying to drive normal. one just did not want to hold on to revs between shifts, so they all ened up jerky, and the other was completely transparent, almost couldn't tell it was dbw.
Twin-Cam, I share your frustrations,my MINI does the same crap. Pull away from a light and it bogs. It pisses me off when I have to dip the clutch , rev it and let it out a second time to get moving. Maybe there's an aftermarket possibility by building a conversion kit with a throttle cable from a 1972 Torino or anything else that had a faster thottle response than dbw equipped cars !!!
Actually the Mazda system is one of the BETTER ones. +1 about letting it adapt to your driving. If the car has no miles on it then its only learned to idle on and off the ship and around the lot. If the car has miles on it have the dealer clear the adaptations and then drive the E36 M3 out of it! My 06 Miata is fine but I've heard that adding a ground wire directly from the T/B to the negative terminal on the battery will speed up response a bit too.
Oh and this IS the future of cars, so get used to it or get walking 
John's GTO has one of the better DBW's. It's pretty darn responsive.
Steering by wire is WAY to freaking creepy for me though. Dead battery while driving = INSTADEATH!!!! 
Just wait until there is gov't mandated 'green control' of your driving to reduce fuel consumption and improve the air quality by preventing you from really laying on the gas. At that point, HP/TRQ numbers really won't mean anything 
Raze wrote: Just wait until there is gov't mandated 'green control' of your driving to reduce fuel consumption and improve the air quality by preventing you from really laying on the gas. At that point, HP/TRQ numbers really won't mean anything
They'll have to pry my oil-burning, flame-belching, rotary-powered, carburetored RX-7 from my cold, dead fingers. You can't outlaw old cars and you can't force me to drive a new one.
There's nothing wrong with DBW. It's all about the implementation.
One of the cool things about it is that with DBW, the ECU knows the engine is going to need more fuel before the throttle even moves. On a normal throttle, the ECU has to measure the throttle position and react to that. On off-road vehicles, you can also adjust the DBW response to make it easier to drive smoothly in low range. It's got lots of potential and people rarely complain about the DBW throttle response of the Corvette and other LS-powered cars.
There's also nothing inherent in DBW that prevents you from laying on the gas. It's not hard to do the same thing mechanically with a cable-based system, so no need to add an extra layer of tinfoil to the hat.
Interesting note, though. In the UK, the original new MINI came as a non-Cooper called the MINI One. It has less horsepower than a Cooper. But the chip tuners found it responded really well to reprogramming. Why? Turns out the only difference between the two cars mechanically was in the DBW system. On the One, the throttle simply didn't open all the way. Voila, lower-powered car that's cheaper to run and insure without any extra investment on MINI's part - and one that can be turned into a budget Cooper 
RX8's has it too. The only issue I have heard of or seen is if the battery starts to go dead then you lose the DBW. My daughters RX8 did that. Wouldn't accelerate off of idle. Checked battery output and that was bad, a couple dead cells. Replaced the battery and it worked.
P71 wrote:Raze wrote: Just wait until there is gov't mandated 'green control' of your driving to reduce fuel consumption and improve the air quality by preventing you from really laying on the gas. At that point, HP/TRQ numbers really won't mean anythingThey'll have to pry my oil-burning, flame-belching, rotary-powered, carburetored RX-7 from my cold, dead fingers. You can't outlaw old cars and you can't force me to drive a new one.
Amen brother, except in my case replace carburetored RX-7 with MegaSquirted XR4...
My MS3 drives fine with DBW. I've been in for 32k miles.
Xceler8x wrote: My MS3 drives fine with DBW. I've been in for 32k miles.
yes, but if you reflash then take some runs down the strip, it'll think you're always going to WOT right after you get the clutch out. makes for some frustrating daily driving the next week.
Strizzo wrote:Xceler8x wrote: My MS3 drives fine with DBW. I've been in for 32k miles.yes, but if you reflash then take some runs down the strip, it'll think you're always going to WOT right after you get the clutch out. makes for some frustrating daily driving the next week.
So let me get this right- you complain about the Mazda system AFTER you personally re-flash it, have it learn a driving pattern that reflects nothing of what you really drive, and then drive it normally the next day?
Can I call USER ERROR on this ? Strizzo- you are the cause of your problems.
Eric
wlkelley3 wrote: RX8's has it too. The only issue I have heard of or seen is if the battery starts to go dead then you lose the DBW. My daughters RX8 did that. Wouldn't accelerate off of idle. Checked battery output and that was bad, a couple dead cells. Replaced the battery and it worked.
That's a really weird failure mode. Wouldn't the alternator provide enough juice to run the car's electronics? Big boomin' bass?
At the first Open Track Challenge, one of the Corvettes pulled over to the side of the track and crawled its way back to the pits. It was the weirdest thing, no visible problem, just the car moving reeeeally slowly. Turns out he'd blown his DBW fuse, and the car would only idle Definitely NOT a stock vehicle.
Strizzo wrote:Xceler8x wrote: My MS3 drives fine with DBW. I've been in for 32k miles.yes, but if you reflash then take some runs down the strip, it'll think you're always going to WOT right after you get the clutch out. makes for some frustrating daily driving the next week.
Well...yeah. If I reflashed the cpu it's going to take some time to relearn my driving style.
Patient - "Doctor! It hurts when I do this!" Doctor - "Don't do that!"
This rant was actually after driving my mom's '08 3, with 11K miles on it. She bought it used, and she says she's had problems starting from a stop, too. It really bothers her as well. Does one of those fancy chips GRM installed in their MS3 help this, and is it available for the regular 2.3 model?
And come to think of it, I've driven many a Saab 9-3 in my days at the dealer that had DBW, but I could get them to move without making the engine bottom out at 300 rpm...
Keith wrote:wlkelley3 wrote: RX8's has it too. The only issue I have heard of or seen is if the battery starts to go dead then you lose the DBW. My daughters RX8 did that. Wouldn't accelerate off of idle. Checked battery output and that was bad, a couple dead cells. Replaced the battery and it worked.That's a really weird failure mode. Wouldn't the alternator provide enough juice to run the car's electronics? Big boomin' bass? At the first Open Track Challenge, one of the Corvettes pulled over to the side of the track and crawled its way back to the pits. It was the weirdest thing, no visible problem, just the car moving reeeeally slowly. Turns out he'd blown his DBW fuse, and the car would only idle
Didn't make sense to me either. Car would start and run at an idle, step on the gas and nothing would happen, replaced battery and everything back to normal again. The only thing I could think of was somehow the alt sent more juice to the batt than the other systems causing a degraded electrical system. And no booming bass, she's an autocrosser. And the car was completly stock at the time, now having mazdaspeed springs and hawk hp+ pads installed.
You'll need to log in to post.
