You can do it for free yourself rather easily, if you don't have a standard compression checker ($10 or less) or a spark plug socket wrench (1$ for socket) just bring your car to a friend that does, and borrow his... in fact, just do that, you'll need a friend to crank the car while you watch the guage.

 

Bighead: Yes mine has a rough idle about 30 seconds after a hard start, but at that point the car is skipping the regular 15 seconds at 3500 rpm and then down a bit. Instead, I need to give it a little gas after started to keep it alive. Nothing but perfect starts in the last week, so I don't know whether I'm going to investigate mine futher. The hard starts are just soooo hard it just feels like a nice car should never start like that for any reason.

I was wrong on my compression, as it's 9.0+ on each rotor, which is over 120psi each. Near new condition, so I may just live with it.

At least I'm not as worried about anything major now that I see it happens to others with this type of car. I never give it gas before starting, so I know it's not flooding. However, after turning it over a few times on a hard start,. it needs a little gas to get going.

Maybe I'll ask my Mazda dealer if they hear that alot, and if they know the most common problem. They've done all my service, so they'll know it's definitely not for lack of maintenance.

 

I still have some hard start issues, but no problems once it is started. I give up, so I've give the car to Mazda to figure out. Right now the master mechanic at my Mazda dealership is going to drive my car for the week and figure it out since they can't find anything wrong. Once he gets a hard start, he'll know what I'm describing, but it's random, so you never know when it will happen.

I'll post here again once they figure it out, because a hard start with no other issues seems to be a gremlin for a few people.

 

I have the same problem as you. It's got down between 30-40 degrees overnight here I think. It's not so bad this week. Anyway I've had to crank the car a few times before it'll fire up. My idle has not been right though, and I adjusted the fast idle screw esentially to just make my car idle at 750rpm, until I can get the warmup idle sorted. It was idling at 1500rpm almost all the time before. Anyway, I just figured that these cars were hard to start in the cold, as some cars are harder than others. I've been driving a Jeep Cherokee for the past few years, and that thing always fires up no matter how cold it is, so it was something to get used to. heh.

 

That would be great, I love to see actual mechanic solutions to these problems (not saying that anyone here is not a mechanic). let us know what happens!!