Engine coolant leak 2016-2020 CX-9 Signature

I wanted to write this thread to give a full report of what I just had to go threw and what it cost me. I previously posted on another thread here on sep 20th but I will start over so this will be everything. About a month and a half ago I had a hot engine light come on while I was waiting in a parking lot with the A/C on. Once I started moving the light went out. after getting home and letting the engine cool down I noticed the reservoir low so I added about a gallon. Over the next week I did not see any hot light but noticed there were small drops of fluid on the floor and a strong smell of coolant around the engine. I called Mazda and made an appointment for the next weekend and talked to someone about my issues. They told me as long as I did not drive with a constant hot light I should be ok. I read several issues with water pumps failing and thought this was what I was dealing with. expecting about $400 + for the repair I went to the dealer to get it fixed. After about an hour I am being told my engine has a crack and will need to be replaced. I also just went over my 60,000 miles by about 370, Yes only 370. I was assured that it shouldn't be a problem being so close and that I made the appointment last week. well the warranty company suggested I payed $1,500.00 for the repair which I argued that it should be covered. This went on for several days with many calls to customer service complaining about this. Finally I was told my Mazda that they narrowed down the issue to just the cylinder head being cracked and there was no cross contamination into my oil. This brought the price down to only paying $500.00. Since I had already expected about $400.00, this was not a bad deal. Full cost would have ben over $2,000.00. I will post the pictures of the cracked cylinder head. I just got my car back on Thursday. This whole operation took almost a month, however I was given a CX-30 to drive around in while I was inconvenienced. Over all I am happy to get my CX-9 back, however this has tainted my Mazda experience, and I am not sure I will continue with them on my next purchase.. I have 2 Mazda's at the moment, the other is a 2017 Mazda 3 hatchback.
 
Here are some pictures of the cracked cylinder head.
 

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The explanations for these coolant leaks aren't making a lot of sense...

Why replace the entire long block if the damage is limited to the head? This is turning a $2000 job into a $5000 job.
 
I wanted to write this thread to give a full report of what I just had to go threw and what it cost me. I previously posted on another thread here on sep 20th but I will start over so this will be everything. About a month and a half ago I had a hot engine light come on while I was waiting in a parking lot with the A/C on. Once I started moving the light went out. after getting home and letting the engine cool down I noticed the reservoir low so I added about a gallon. Over the next week I did not see any hot light but noticed there were small drops of fluid on the floor and a strong smell of coolant around the engine. I called Mazda and made an appointment for the next weekend and talked to someone about my issues. They told me as long as I did not drive with a constant hot light I should be ok. I read several issues with water pumps failing and thought this was what I was dealing with. expecting about $400 + for the repair I went to the dealer to get it fixed. After about an hour I am being told my engine has a crack and will need to be replaced. I also just went over my 60,000 miles by about 370, Yes only 370. I was assured that it shouldn't be a problem being so close and that I made the appointment last week. well the warranty company suggested I payed $1,500.00 for the repair which I argued that it should be covered. This went on for several days with many calls to customer service complaining about this. Finally I was told my Mazda that they narrowed down the issue to just the cylinder head being cracked and there was no cross contamination into my oil. This brought the price down to only paying $500.00. Since I had already expected about $400.00, this was not a bad deal. Full cost would have ben over $2,000.00. I will post the pictures of the cracked cylinder head. I just got my car back on Thursday. This whole operation took almost a month, however I was given a CX-30 to drive around in while I was inconvenienced. Over all I am happy to get my CX-9 back, however this has tainted my Mazda experience, and I am not sure I will continue with them on my next purchase.. I have 2 Mazda's at the moment, the other is a 2017 Mazda 3 hatchback.

I’m so sorry to hear about your CX-9 engine. The title on your post says 2016 - 2020. Which model year do you have specifically?

thanks in advance
 
I’m so sorry to hear about your CX-9 engine. The title on your post says 2016 - 2020. Which model year do you have specifically?

thanks in advance
It is a 2016, one of the first of the new line that has been out. It was the only one on the lot when I bought it.
 
According to mazda it has to be removed, not much room when working on timing chain I guess.

I guess Ford was not the only source of bad ideas in the Ford/Mazda partnership. It kind of blows my mind that you have to pull the engine to change the head... Especially with how large the hood/front end is on these cars.
 
I guess Ford was not the only source of bad ideas in the Ford/Mazda partnership. It kind of blows my mind that you have to pull the engine to change the head... Especially with how large the hood/front end is on these cars.
I believe Mazda has bought back from Ford a while ago, however what was a bit odd was when they put the engine back in, there was a problem with the timing and compression and they had to pull the engine a second time to fix that. Ofcourse they did not charge me for that.
 
I’m not exactly sure of the upgrade cost. Based upon some research it supposedly should be around $200.

Thanks for the info, I wi look into it, .aybe get a 2 for one deal for both cars, prob not though. I feel during this COVID time, Mazda sales are way down, so they will probably charge double.
 
I guess Ford was not the only source of bad ideas in the Ford/Mazda partnership. It kind of blows my mind that you have to pull the engine to change the head... Especially with how large the hood/front end is on these cars.
The Ford/Mazda partnership ended 12 years ago. There is zero Ford influence with the 2016+ CX-9.

From the OP’s posts, the original thought was it needed an engine....then discovered it was the head. Perhaps they found the problem with the head after the motor was pulled?
 
The Ford/Mazda partnership ended 12 years ago. There is zero Ford influence with the 2016+ CX-9.

Precisely. Mazda managed to jam the engine in so tight that you need to pull it to replace the head all by themselves, without Ford's help. Keep that in mind the next time everyone blames Ford for all the problems on the previous generation
 
The Ford/Mazda partnership ended 12 years ago. There is zero Ford influence with the 2016+ CX-9.

From the OP’s posts, the original thought was it needed an engine....then discovered it was the head. Perhaps they found the problem with the head after the motor was pulled?
From what they told me they scoped the engine and found the crack before they removed it. However they would not know the extent of damage to the block until the head was removed. Lucky it was just the head.
 
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