Helpful tips for CX5 Owners

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2018 Mazda CX5 Machine Gray
This forum has been a really great help to me in answering questions and using threads as a sounding board for thoughts and issues I've encountered with my CX5. In return here are few things I've learned that may come in handy for someone who owns a 18' or 19' CX5. Most of these can probably be found somewhere on the forum but hopefully we can compile all the tips in one place.

1. Liftgate: The power lift gate can be operated while the car is running but the car needs to be in park, the unlock button needs to be pressed next and finally pressing the power lift gate button will open the trunk.

2. Power Window: If your power window auto up/down stops working simply use the window switch on the affected door, roll the window all the up and hold for 2 seconds. The switch will re calibrate itself and you should have functionality back to the auto up/down feature. This is true for most Mazda vehicles I've been around.

3. Auto Hold: Auto hold works on flat ground as well as inclines. You'll need to engage the auto hold button and fully depress the brake pedal when at a stop to activate. Most people assume it doesn't work on flat ground because the brake pedal hasn't been fully depressed.

4. Seat belt: Not having your seatbelt on disables features on the CX5. Cruise Control, Auto Hold, probably a few others I'm missing.

5. Transmission: Not really a tip, more an FYI. If you move from Drive to Reverse while moving nothing will happen. If you move from Drive to Park the car will make weird noises and forces you to stop. You cannot re-engage from Park to Drive while moving.

6. Reboot your Mazda Connect. Press MUTE + NAVI for 10 secs. Anything strange happens to your system, just reboot it while on the go to correct it. Also, someone claims that it takes three button pressed down. Not true. TWO is enough. - Ceric

7. On an Automatic car, hold the shift lever lock release button when turning off the car and it will go into accessory mode (instead of turning everything off). This lets you turn off the engine & continue to listen to the radio without interruption. - Skrambler

8. Put the car in reverse. You'll see a gear in the upper left corner. You can adjust color / contrast settings here. - 7eregrine

9. If you use Mazda's GPS, I recommend setting the "Highway Exits" setting to "only when menu is displayed". This gives you a full screen view while driving and if you want exit info you just click the knob to pull the menu up. Default setting is always show. Lots of settings in there. Recommend going over it closely. - 7eregrine
 
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excellent tips, thanks jjm86m!
I didn't know that trick with the window switches. very cool
 
Reboot your Mazda Connect. Press MUTE + NAVI for 10 secs.
Anything strange happens to your system, just reboot it while on the go to correct it.
Also, someone claims that it takes three button pressed down. Not true. TWO is enough.
 
Reboot your Mazda Connect. Press MUTE + NAVI for 10 secs.
Anything strange happens to your system, just reboot it while on the go to correct it.
Also, someone claims that it takes three button pressed down. Not true. TWO is enough.
These tips are awesome. Does the reset work for Bluetooth connectivity as well? Sometimes my Mazda connect gets stuck repairing the Bluetooth connection to my phone (like when I leave my car running and come back). I'll start driving and then pull over, stop the car, open the door, wait a minute, and it still has issues. This results in no Bluetooth audio and I listen to the radio on my way to work instead of music/podcasts.
 
2. Power Window: If your power window auto up/down stops working simply use the window switch on the affected door, roll the window all the up and hold for 2 seconds. The switch will re calibrate itself and you should have functionality back to the auto up/down feature.

Will have to try that next time I kill my battery, jump start, and have to wait forever for hat feature to work again.
 
These tips are awesome. Does the reset work for Bluetooth connectivity as well? Sometimes my Mazda connect gets stuck repairing the Bluetooth connection to my phone (like when I leave my car running and come back). I'll start driving and then pull over, stop the car, open the door, wait a minute, and it still has issues. This results in no Bluetooth audio and I listen to the radio on my way to work instead of music/podcasts.

I'm interested in this too.. our 2016 GT CX5 and 2015 3hb Touring have these issues as well.
 
I would recommend the original poster add new tips to the first post as they are suggested.

On an Automatic car, hold the shift lever lock release button when turning off the car and it will go into accessory mode (instead of turning everything off). This lets you turn off the engine & continue to listen to the radio without interruption.
 
* Put the car in reverse. You'll see a gear in the upper left corner. You can adjust color / contrast settings here.
* If you use Mazda's GPS, I recommend setting the "Highway Exits" setting to "only when menu is displayed". This gives you a full screen view while driving and if you want exit info you just click the knob to pull the menu up. Default setting is always show. Lots of settings in there. Recommend going over it closely.
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I would recommend the original poster add new tips to the first post as they are suggested.

On an Automatic car, hold the shift lever lock release button when turning off the car and it will go into accessory mode (instead of turning everything off). This lets you turn off the engine & continue to listen to the radio without interruption.

For real ? Did not know this.
 
6. Reboot your Mazda Connect.

This has never remedied my issues, and I'd like to throw it out here to see exactly what this DOES reboot.

(1) XM did not load. I played an FM station and rebooted the system. I never lost the FM audio (meaning the reboot did not interrupt the radio during Unload/Reload) and XM did not load on the reboot.

(2) I had a NAV issue where it showed I had the route started, but the system never gave directions (not on the HUD, and no voice commands). I rebooted the system and it did not fix this issue. I then turned away from my destination intending to pull into a gas station to turn the car off/on and the NAV directions came to life when it "recalculated the route." But the reboot did not reload the NAV.

I don't think the reboot restarts everything.
 
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Avoidin,
Well, it did fix some issues I ran into such as frozen screen, no audio, etc. when I had very old versions of Mazda Connect with our '14 Mazda3. Ours started with v20 or so.

For (1), the XM and FM are sub modules of the system. This 10-sec reboot might not reboot submodules (i.e. hardware). It might just reboot the software itself. That would be my guess.
For (2), maybe the NAV has a bug in that area of the map. Rebooting just got into the same bug again. Again, just a guess.
 
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