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Yea, that's my assessment now too... no harm in trying some more aggressive cleaners now, and driving it like I stole it. After doing some errands today, it definitely still smells of oil especially when everything's nice and hot like coming off the highway. I'll keep looking for external leaks...

Well, everything's back together now - new PCV, thermostat, coils, intake & cabin air filters, fresh oil and coolant, and things seem about the same. I can't tell about the oil smell yet since I basically fogged the neighborhood out on first start-up with all the oil poured into the cylinders...

I haven't used MMO specifically for cleaning in this way, but there are a bunch of people online that seem to swear by it, and it was less aggressive than pouring acetone, PB blaster etc (a few other of the suggestions I ran across) down there! It does not seem to be fully draining into the pan...

I've seen piston rings get carbon'ed up so that they can't rotate and don't seal well all the way around the bore, or don't wear in an even pattern over a long period of time. This typically happens with a lot of very low-load running, idling, cold-starts etc that don't allow the oil and coolant...

Got the intake manifold off today - lots of fiddly plastic clips for wiring and such that got accidentally broken, but zip ties will hold everything in place on reassembly. However, the PCV looked perfectly fine, and was still functioning as a one-way valve when I sucked and blew into it... so...

Digging into how to remove the intake manifold now - I've got a thermostat on the way, is there anything else that should be replaced while I'm there?

Well, compression when warm is 150-155 psi, so a little bit higher than when cold. There is still a pretty strong oily smell in the van when driving that dissipates when its off with windows & doors open. I think I smell a little bit of oil in the exhaust when idling too, which does not bode well.

Well, all the plugs looked good - no thick deposits or anything and a nice tanish-reddish color on the ceramic. Dry compression readings were 142, 142, 146 and 148 on a cold engine, I'll have to re-test after warming it up but for the moment I'm not too worried there. Phew! Next it's time to...

I was planning on doing a compression test later today and inspecting the plugs, and possibly going digging for the PCV. What compression should I be looking for? My 2012 van has the 2.5L L5-VE, but all the service manuals that I can find are for earlier model years with either the 2.3 L3 or...

I bought a 2012 Mazda5 a couple weeks ago (minimal rust, 108k miles, manual trans), and flew a few states away to buy it (not that many manuals available!). Everything seemed to be fine on the drive back to the dealership in the car, but I also had my face mask on when sharing the car with the...

Just picked up another Mazda5 last weekend and drove her 700 miles home. 2012 Sport, 108k miles, with the manual transmission of course! She is much nicer than Bessie the rust-wagon that I owned a few years back; no appreciable rust, 6-speed, and more sound deadening makes her much nicer on the...

Most of the exhaust hangers broke off the increasingly rusty Mazda5, but somehow the exhaust itself was still intact and not leaking. I didn't want to deal with trying to disassemble the whole thing to get out the section from the header most of the way back, and of course dealing with the...

Have you seen this thread? It's a royal pain to get to... https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123850080-Mazda5-Dead-Blower-Motor&highlight=blower+motor

I noticed the colors too - I'm not sure if they're just a superseded part, or a different rate or anything, but they are the part number that the dealer turned up with my VIN. For what its worth, the ride seems a little bit better, and the rear ride height looks more even with the front now...

Are they showing up now?

Over the weekend I was replacing the rear springs - both had rusted & broke off the bottom coil! http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123854802-Replacing-Rear-Springs-on-Mazda5

Two weekends ago I got to the source of a metallic rattling noise coming from the back of the 5 when going over bumps - a piece of the driver's side rear spring had rusted/sheared off! It was trapped between the rest of the spring and the lower control arm, free to rattle about. To remedy this...

The Mazda5 tends to have too much negative camber which will eat through rear tires. When I got our '06 aligned, the rear was at around -2.5 deg, way too much! I decided to replace the stock upper camber link with an adjustable part to preserve the tires. First step - purchase adjustable rear...

The car's always been in MI - the people we bought it from in Ann Arbor had gotten it from their neighbor, the original owner. Nothing on the carfax or in any of the maintenance records that we got with it about flooding or similar damage, and there hasn't been any serious flooding that I know...

This is in Ann Arbor, MI. The car is a 2006, with 113k miles. It's been in this area since new, and they certainly don't spare the salt over the winter. We bought the car knowing that it had some rust problems and the price reflected it - this is just a little bit more extensive than I...