2nd Gen CX-9 High mileage club, how's it holding up?

I don't think NGK distributes their DILKAR7M8 plugs in North America. I got mine from a dealer and put them in at 40k. Improved pep. Do it. It takes an assortment of 8mm & 10 mm sockets & end wrenches to loosen the plate that holds several relays and other gizmos that sits above the plugs. The spark plug socket is a 14mm...one more new tool added to my box.

JEGS will have them in stock, ETA July 21.
 
Cosmetically, I have noted that the paint gets blemishes quickly. Even on it's first detailing when I applied the protective paint coating, I noted tons of orange peeling, rock chips, and dings in the paint. This is consistent with various internet reports on the 46V Soul Crystal Red being applied very thin and prone to damage.

You are correct....I thought it was a conjecture, but the paint on the car is hot garbage. Mine's the standard Mica and I had to redo a few panels due to some deep scratches, decided to repainting half the car and noticed that the thickness they put down is considerably less than a standard 3-coat base/ clear application. I have no idea why Mazda thought this was OK considering their history of rusty 3s.
 
You are correct....I thought it was a conjecture, but the paint on the car is hot garbage. Mine's the standard Mica and I had to redo a few panels due to some deep scratches, decided to repainting half the car and noticed that the thickness they put down is considerably less than a standard 3-coat base/ clear application. I have no idea why Mazda thought this was OK considering their history of rusty 3s.

Very true, Mazda paint is very thin and rather brittle/hard. I gotta see if I can dig up some articles on it but I recall how they used to brag about their proprietary process for coating cars and how it was "eco friendly" paint and advanced, painted in the Hofu Japan factory. "Eco" in the sense that there is less pollution in the process, a thinner yet more "stiffer" paint with less coats, touting it as durable/effective as other painting processes from other manufacturers but with less coats/material(though this part is of course debateable, haha, ;) ).

On my 15+ year old Mazda that I had regularly waxed in it's early days, I too have a ton of rock chips and orange peel.

Next time I get a new Mazda(especially if it's a CX9, as the 2nd Gen's have aluminum hoods if I recall correctly... which is even harder to repaint/touch up) I will probably consider doing a clear vinyl wrap on the hood and front bumper... probably headlights too. I'd say it's probably not too late in most cases for current owners either as the oldest CX9's are only some 4 years old.
 
Very true, Mazda paint is very thin and rather brittle/hard. I gotta see if I can dig up some articles on it but I recall how they used to brag about their proprietary process for coating cars and how it was "eco friendly" paint and advanced, painted in the Hofu Japan factory. "Eco" in the sense that there is less pollution in the process, a thinner yet more "stiffer" paint with less coats, touting it as durable/effective as other painting processes from other manufacturers but with less coats/material(though this part is of course debateable, haha, ;) ).

On my 15+ year old Mazda that I had regularly waxed in it's early days, I too have a ton of rock chips and orange peel.

Next time I get a new Mazda(especially if it's a CX9, as the 2nd Gen's have aluminum hoods if I recall correctly... which is even harder to repaint/touch up) I will probably consider doing a clear vinyl wrap on the hood and front bumper... probably headlights too. I'd say it's probably not too late in most cases for current owners either as the oldest CX9's are only some 4 years old.


Interesting. I imagine they use a finer atomization/ pre-charge the panels to make the paint stick better and achieve more even coverage with less. Either way, it was ridiculous how easy to scratch it is. I have some orange peeling on my stock paint as well. Vinyl is a good idea for the hood especially for high mileage accumulators like me ....I may have to look into that sometime.
 
^^^ If you guys bought your cars (not leased) and plan to keep your car a while, PPF is a great investment if you care about the paint on your front end! I'm a little OCD about paint imperfections so it's been a no brainer for me on the last 5 cars we purchased brand new. I've usually got bumper, full hood, fenders, lights, mirrors, pillars, and roof (from the windshield to sunroof) covered.
 
Compared to my 2013 Toyota Venza Ltd the 2019 CX-9 GT with the pearl white paint I have now is holding up far better than the Venza. The front of my silver Toyota was all dinged up almost immediately and I went through a couple of touch up paint pens during the 6 years I had it. So far the CX-9 has only about 3 very tiny chips on the front bumper and that's it. Unfortunately the Mazda touch up paint for the pearl white doesn't match well at all which is disappointing. To be fair to Toyota I've retired since buying the CX-9 and drive a lot less so there's less exposure to road hazards.
 
Found the old article, also recall seeing a video of it and watching the factories paint the Mazda's while explaining their "eco paint":


Practice vs Theory though... news press back then is bragging how Mazda's will have better rust resistance(article is from 2005), and we all know how that played out once the cars were out on the field.

I'm hoping Mazda really figured out the rusting issues... I treated my car quite well and started to get a bit of rusting on the rear well from what appears to be a rock chip, it didn't happen until about 10 years in... granted I used to wash my car nearly every month..... put on wax 4 times a year(each season)... as time went on I went easy on the detailing.. maybe washing it 4-6 times a year, and waxing it once a year... now I hardly drive(literally like less than 1k miles a year), so I've kind of eased up on it altogether... mainly just spray wax once and a while and buffing out the headlights. I mention all this because, my 15 year old mazda 3 seems to be in better shape than others out there that I see on the road, also.... if rusting does show up, it might take close to 10 years to "really" show up. I think cladding really helps, simple yet effective for the wheel wells and wheel base.... still, having experience with this Mazda, on my presumable next Mazda, I'll probably take some extra precautions like spraying rust inhibitor underneath the car, or find a place that does decent "rust prevention" work.
 
I’ve got an 18 sig with 45k miles on her. Routine maintenance done at dealer. No problems so far!
 
Update for reference.

I see on this thread, started by Aviboy97:


User adroitboy bought a used 2016 at 107,000 miles, with paper work showing that it had the engine replaced at 101k miles.

That's the first and only 2nd Gen cx-9 I've seen with over 100,000 miles on it.
 
Update for reference.

I see on this thread, started by Aviboy97:


User adroitboy bought a used 2016 at 107,000 miles, with paper work showing that it had the engine replaced at 101k miles.

That's the first and only 2nd Gen cx-9 I've seen with over 100,000 miles on it.
This one's got me a bit concerned long term...
 
Edit: 2016 Mazda CX-9 Grand Touring with 69,500 miles

My wife’s 2016 CX-9 just had its first major repair. It threw a P0962 (I think?) code, basically a catalytic converter code. Mazda initially updated the programming to the ECM but the light came back in a week later. Dealer ordered the cat, and started the job. Evidently the turbo has to come off when doing this job. When the turbo came off they noticed a crack in it. I’m guessing they had a difficult time getting it off and accidentally cracked it. Anyways , thank God we bought an extended warranty and that paid the $3500+ for the new turbo.

On an unrelated note, Mazda no longer supports their 3G remote start system. There’s a TSB out where Mazda will either instal a new, legacy style remote start, give Apple CarPlay, or give a $1000 off a new Mazda. As we already had CarPlay installed last year, we went with the remote start.
 
It's not unheard of for turbo housings to crack. Was it the exhaust housing by chance?
 
It's not unheard of for turbo housings to crack. Was it the exhaust housing by chance?
Not sure. I do know that the technician had a difficult time removing the exhaust bolts up by/at the turbo. But the car is running great (always has) and the CEL is no longer lit.
 
Not sure. I do know that the technician had a difficult time removing the exhaust bolts up by/at the turbo. But the car is running great (always has) and the CEL is no longer lit.

There's also this post:


If you scroll to the bottom and see the post by AdzamOZ , he has pictures of cracks on the exhaust gate of the turbo, as well as some cracks for the dynamic pressure manifold. I wonder if that's what happened to yours? Who knows.

Seems as some of these earlier 2nd Gen's age, we see some of these common problems reoccurring, though seeing those cracks seems like they might've had a bad metal cast for certain batches(defect in metallurgy) on certain years... we shall see, hopefully it's somewhat isolated and not completely wide spread, I don't have a 2nd gen CX9 myself but I've been keeping a close eye on them ever since they were released since I was interested. If I did have one, I'd probably get the extended warranty just in case.
 
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I bought a used 2018 CX-9 GT AWD with ~60,000 miles on it. It drives great for now. Coming from a family who had interesting experiences with Fords and switched everything to Toyotas because of it, I'm hoping this Mazda will be a reasonably reliable driver. Maybe I'll be kicking myself in a few years - who knows 😂

Still contemplating keeping the vehicle service contract/extended warranty to 108,000 miles the dealer sold me after reading some of these things about the cracks...
 
Edit: 2016 Mazda CX-9 Grand Touring with 69,500 miles

My wife’s 2016 CX-9 just had its first major repair. It threw a P0962 (I think?) code, basically a catalytic converter code. Mazda initially updated the programming to the ECM but the light came back in a week later. Dealer ordered the cat, and started the job. Evidently the turbo has to come off when doing this job. When the turbo came off they noticed a crack in it. I’m guessing they had a difficult time getting it off and accidentally cracked it. Anyways , thank God we bought an extended warranty and that paid the $3500+ for the new turbo.

Either the dealer went above and beyond, or they may not have been aware of this TSB. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that the cracks in the exhaust housing shown in the TSB are the cracks they saw. Either way, you got a brand new turbo for free :)


There's also this post:


If you scroll to the bottom and see the post by AdzamOZ , he has pictures of cracks on the exhaust gate of the turbo, as well as some cracks for the dynamic pressure manifold. I wonder if that's what happened to yours? Who knows.

Seems as some of these earlier 2nd Gen's age, we see some of these common problems reoccurring, though seeing those cracks seems like they might've had a bad metal cast for certain batches(defect in metallurgy) on certain years... we shall see, hopefully it's somewhat isolated and not completely wide spread, I don't have a 2nd gen CX9 myself but I've been keeping a close eye on them ever since they were released since I was interested. If I did have one, I'd probably get the extended warranty just in case.

There was a TSB released for this. Basically those cracks are just cosmetic.

 
As long as it doesn't cause an exhaust leak, those cracks won't do anything. It's not really surprising to see and this happens pretty frequently in turbo housings (I am familiar with Subaru OEM IHI turbos which develop cracks near the waste gate). Cast iron is not the most ductile material and the exhaust sees big swings in temperature - the cycling of load and temperature causes fatigue cracks to form over time.
 
90,000 miles on my 2016 Sport. No issues so far. Perform oil and filter changes every 5,000 miles. Recently drained and filled transmission fluid and plan to do again shortly. Also changed out the rear differential fluid. No problems with carbon build up on valves (as far as I know). Gets a steady 25 mpg.
 
90,000 miles on my 2016 Sport. No issues so far. Perform oil and filter changes every 5,000 miles. Recently drained and filled transmission fluid and plan to do again shortly. Also changed out the rear differential fluid. No problems with carbon build up on valves (as far as I know). Gets a steady 25 mpg.

Hi @Sluggo0018, thanks for the feedback. Great to hear that your 16 is running strong. A few questions:

What oil are you currently using?

Did you notice whether the factory fill of the transmission fluid and/or rear diff fluid was underfilled?

Did you notice any changes/improvements in performance after changing the transmission fluid and rear diff fluid?
 
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