Five problems related to car stall have been reported for the 2012 Mazda MAZDA3. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2012 Mazda MAZDA3 based on all problems reported for the 2012 MAZDA3.
Mass airflow sensor failed at 38,000 miles causing the car to stall and wouldn't restart.
In the morning of March 31, 2017 when I've proceeded to va 206 to the naval lab (25-mile speed limit zone), traction control system (tcs/dsc) indicator light suddenly lit up, and car stalled. I attempted to accelerated but received non response from the car. The car stayed around 20- 25 mph. I pulled in the auto shop and turn off the engine. I re-started the car and the tcs/dsc indicator light was off and car behaved normally. However I don't know if the problem will happen again.
About a year ago, I had to replace my tires at just under 30,000 mi because the treads wore improperly. Fast forward a few months, my axle wore out and had to be replaced. However, the real problem comes when about 3 weeks ago, I was driving at about 75 miles an hour on a major highway, four lanes of traffic, and the engine starts jumping. The rpms go up and down, but the car won't accelerate. I get the car to the side of the road on pure momentum. The car then turns completely off with the key in the on position, but not lights come on. I remove the key, wait 5 minutes and the car turns back on. It died again a few min later so I have it towed to a mechanic, who can't find anything wrong. 5 min after leaving the mechanic's shop, my car starts jumping again; I barely made it back. The mechanic is at a loss and recommends the dealership since there are no codes. The dealer gets it and works with it for a few days and says that the mass air flow sensor (mafs) was clogged, which was turning off the car, and the bearings were also causing problems because they were worn out (from the axle being improperly installed). They replaced the bearings, cleaned the mafs, and reset the computer, under the warranty, and told me my car was ok. 2 days later, I'm driving on a major highway again and the car starts jumping again. I was able to barely make it out of traffic before the car died again. The car starts up again 5 min later and I take about 10 min to get to safety as this repeats. The dealer has my car for almost 3 wks, Mazda's field engineers get involved, they-checked the fuel components, the computer, filters etc, and then Mazda recommends checking the wiring harness. A clip had broken above the axle on the engine that allowed the wiring to wear out. They had to redo the wiring in a different way so it wouldn't wear--this seems like it has happen to others w/o resolution.
I have an automatic skyactiv 2012 5dr hatchback. I was pulling out on a back road that was 60mph and as soon as I pressed the gas to speed up with traffic it was as if the car lost all power. The traction control light came on and the car slowly accelerated as I had the gas pressed to the floor. It very slowly sped up to 60mph and would not go any faster. I tried pressing the traction control button to turn it off and nothing happened. My wife and I got lunch and afterwards it worked fine. Last time I was at the dealership they told me there was a recall for the stalling issue and that they had fixed it. This was about a month or so before I experienced the stall. Before then I had not had any issues with stalling, just with pulling out onto roads. That leads me to mention that this car does not do well when pulling out onto roads. The car does not respond well. It lags and then when it realizes you have your foot pressed on the gas it throws you back into your seat. It's as if the car is in 3rd gear when you pull out and then throws itself into 1st gear. The car feels very unsafe. I wish I wouldn't have bought Mazda's 2012 Mazda3 since, afterall, it was their first attempt at their new skyactiv engine.
My 2012 Mazda 3 skyactiv hatchback with the 6 speed manual transmission is exhibiting unintended acceleration. The symptoms exhibited are consistent with multiple other reports in this system. After downshifting into 2nd or 3rd gear, or after coasting in one of those gears with the clutch disengaged, the engine revs and the car "surges" forward upon re-engagement of the clutch. When this occurs, the accelerator pedal is only being slightly pushed, but the car acts as if it has been pushed almost to the floor. Depending on the position of the clutch pedal when this occurs, the engine will either rev to 3000 to 4000 rpm, or the car will accelerate forward until either the brake or clutch pedal is pressed. This issue has been confirmed by Mazda after multiple trips to the dealership for service. Upon the last visit, a data recorder was installed and recorded 7 specific unintended acceleration events between the dates of 11/13/12 and 11/20/12. According to an email I received from the district service & parts manager for district 2 of Mazda north America operations (mnao) on 12/23/12, "the concern found on the data recordings taken from your vehicle were found to be a pcm calibration issue. Mazda corporation is working on a new calibration for the pcm with an unknown time of completion. " when I requested that my vehicle be replaced with another of the same model, this was the response from the same district service & parts manager: "since the calibration of the pcm is the same on a 2013 like model with a manual transmission it would not be advised to trade you into that vehicle as it could potentially exhibit the same concern depending on your driving habits and conditions. " I am currently awaiting a response from mnao's mediation department regarding either replacing my car with another model, or buying back the car from me.