Recent content by Mike_R

According to Edmunds, your car has 19" wheels while your mother in law has 17" wheels. But the outside diameter of the tire is kept the same, so your mother in law has an extra inch of tire sidewalk to cushion the ride. You can buy 17" wheels to put on your car but you'll also have to buy new...

With a closer inspection after I had cleaned the underside of the car (which removed most of the oil), I determined it was leaking from where the axle enters the transfer case (on both sides). The leak has been incredibly slow as the the transfer case fluid is still full after 30,000 miles...

I wasn't aware of that TSB. Glad I was already planning on changing it now at 5 years and 90,000 miles. I knew Mazda changed the coolant ratio to 55/45 but I didn't know, until reading the TSB, that they also increased the anti-corrosion additive in addition to increasing the coolant ratio to...

The owners manual says to replace the coolant at 120,000 miles/10 years and the service manual says that replacing the coolant involves flushing the cooling system with water until it runs clear, and to only use FL22 coolant but Mazda doesn't sell FL22 concentrate. How can you then replace the...

Yeah, Subarus seem so old inside compared to Mazdas. They also seem to have a lot of models/years that are not reliable. I drove an old Subaru outback and it definitely had a smoother/softer ride on a dirt road compared to my 2019 cx-5 on the same road. I noticed pretty quickly because it was...

I find that my 2019 CX-5 Touring has a much less smooth ride than Honda and Toyota CUVs - but I kinda prefer it because Honda and Toyotas feel mushy and disconnected from the road to me. I believe Mazda intentionally makes you feel a little more connected to the road/driving which is why the...

No, the mud made its way past the undershield (and the oil filter/pan access hatch was lost) while driving on muddy, unmaintained roads.

My 2019 2.5L is much colder (like under 100) when they cold temp indicator turns off. I've only checked in ambient temps of about 60°F or colder so maybe hot ambient temp would get the ATF closer to 122°F

Oh, yeah my wording was misleading. I checked the temp so that the dipstick was accurate. I wish it the car had a a ATF and engine oil level sensors.

Yeah, the reviews on ELM327 style devices indicate Forscan works with some but not others which is why I decided to order the Vgate vLinker they have listed on their website as it wasn't to expensive and I just wanted it to work.

Forscan is still called Forscan (lite for the phone version) but I don't think it's available on the Google app store. You can download it on their website though, at least on androids. I installed it a couple weeks ago and it works with Vgate vLinker device. Transmission fluid temp is...

I drove through a fair amount of mud over the past month, some of it required speed to make it through, and the hatch in the shielding for the oil pan/filter came off. But yet, I'm not exactly sure how it made it past the shield unless it was all through the missing hatch. I was surprised at...