2018 CX-9 problems - towed twice to the dealer.

LemonCX9

Member
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2018 CX-9 GT
Where to begin. 2 month ago, we decided to pull a trigger on a 2018 CX-9. Brand spaking new, with 90 miles on it. Everything was fine, until one day, my wife calls me and frantically says that her car just shut off on the freeway and big message appeared on HUD to pull over immediately. She pulled over to the side of busy freeway in the middle of rush hour. She said every single light was on the dashboard...there were multiple messages on the screen regarding malfunctions for every imaginable item. My first thought was that maybe car overheated, so I told her to turn it off, but the car was already shut off. She couldn't turn her hazards on, couldn't turn the car off, nothing. So, as I drove there to pick her up and get a tow truck, this thing just started to "boot" itself up. Finally after about 20 minutes, the car could be started again, but there was a "SES" light on. We had the car towed to the dealership where we bought it.

They had a car for little over 2 weeks. At first, they were not able to duplicate the problem. There were about 60 codes stored. The car drove fine. They updated the PDU. Finally, after about 2 weeks, we got a call and were told that Mazda rep was there and they knew what it was. Apparently, some connectors under the dashboard behind the glove box needed to be eliminated and the wires had to be soldered together. Conveniently, the dealer was able to have the problem happen when they pulled the car in the shop. Great! I thought. They noted that it happened on their paperwork and started the process of fixing the wires. We got the car back.

Week and a half later. Same s***. Luckily, this time my wife was close to home so she was able to limp it back home. car is currently at home and I will have it towed to the dealer.

What now? Quite frankly, we don't want the car. This is insane. We bought a new car to avoid issues like that. My wife is freaked out and she doesn't want to drive this thing. What if this happens 1 year from now again?

I haven't been in Mazda forums, because this is our first Mazda. I drive BMW and I am active on those forums, so I know what's going on with different models. You guys know your model. Does anyone ever heard of this problem before?

I don't know what the outcome will be. I guess they need to have the car there to do diagnostics and find out. I am really frustrated right now.
 
Take it back to them and let them know that it MUST be fixed. If you take the car back and it does it again, you will be bringing a lawyer. And honestly, make a scene.
 
Uh oh. Between this post and the other recent post having similar issues and trying to solder some wires together, it looks like there could possibly be an assembly issue with 2018s.
 
That sounds exactly like what happened to me! Same thing... they didn't know what it was at first but then found some connectors that needed to be "soldered" together.
 
Yeah I read through this. The thing is, I do not have to have it fail for my wife for a third time. That's crazy. It's a new car with 1900 miles on it.

So what the hell do I do? I want to give the car back!

Has one unsuccessful attempt been made to fix a problem that could cause death or serious injury?

I'd start there - car shutting off on the freeway, combined with it happening again.

They've already had the car for 15 days or so the first time, if it takes them the same to address it this time you trigger the 30 day threshold.

I hate to say this, but if my wife were driving an unsafe car my morals would be MIA, so I'd tell them to take their time on the second repair and as soon as they hit 30 days serve them with notice.

Might be worth a call to the Ohio AG's office to determine whether it is calendar or business days....

For questions of family safety, it's no holds barred.
 
In lieu of having the vehicle fail the same way for a third time, you can argue that there has been one unsuccessful attempt made to fix a problem that could cause death or serious injury. This, alone, could give you refuge under Ohio's lemon law. But be prepared for a fight. And I would certainly recommend contacting an attorney to help you if Mazda doesn't do right by you.
 
I totally agree with all your points guys.

I am going to tow the thing over there today and go from there.
 
I would say “we want a different one”. I would imagine they might bite on that, so they don’t have to go through the trouble.
 
I would say we want a different one. I would imagine they might bite on that, so they dont have to go through the trouble.

We towed the car to the dealer. I also called Mazda and opened a case with them. Quite frankly, we do not want another one. My wife does not want to drive this car again or a new one. I don't blame her. I told the Mazda rep who will be working with us that we want to start the process of full refund. Obviously, they have to follow the process on their end and communicate with the dealer.

We will see where this ends up. I suspect that these issues will pop up on other CX-9s
 
We towed the car to the dealer. I also called Mazda and opened a case with them. Quite frankly, we do not want another one. My wife does not want to drive this car again or a new one. I don't blame her. I told the Mazda rep who will be working with us that we want to start the process of full refund. Obviously, they have to follow the process on their end and communicate with the dealer.

We will see where this ends up. I suspect that these issues will pop up on other CX-9s

Honestly, I don't blame you and we were in the same situation with our Odyssey. It would just shut down while driving. Once, my wife was going around a traffic circle and the car froze with all the lights and warning signs on and she went into the middle section. This was less than a month into owning the car. Turned out to be something simple with the battery connection and has never done that again. These type of things are hard to deal with but are sometimes easy fixes.
 
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Honestly, I don't blame you and we were in the same situation with our Odyssey. It would just shut down while driving. Once, my wife was going around a traffic circle and the car froze with all the lights and warning signs on and she went into the middle section. This was less than a month into owning the car. Turned out to be something simple with the battery connection and has never done that again. These type of things are hard to deal with but are sometimes easy fixes.

Totally agree with the above. This is an extremely frustrating experience and i would be furious if it happened to me, with a new or almost new car. The fix could be something very simple or not if it's software bug or design flow issue.
And yes, i would demand a refund or a new replacement as well. Will i get it is a different question.

On the flip side, with modern cars and all the technology packed in them, these things can happen with ANY car and any brand, period! I personally know people who had brand new BMWs, Audis, Hondas, and $100k+ Tesla's who have been stranded on the side of the road 2-3 times in their first 2 years of ownership. One of my good friends had his 9 month old BMW 335i suddenly die on him in the middle of a mountain highway - TWICE. One time it happened when his two kids were in the car and the weather was freezing cold. High pressure fuel pump decided to die on him...just because. Second time it was a "software glitch" related to fuel delivery. ;) He is on his 3rd HPFP now. I admire his patience and loyalty.
The Tesla stories are equally scary and common, yet these are cars that cost 3x more than our CX-9.

None of this is an excuse for Mazda, but i am also trying to put things into perspective and have realistic expectations when it comes to today's 'modern' cars.
Our safety and the reliability of our cars is largely in the hands(chips) of a bunch of computers and sensors and the software behind it. It's pretty scary if you think about it. ;)
 
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Totally agree with the above. This is an extremely frustrating experience and i would be furious if it happened to me, with a new or almost new car. The fix could be something very simple or not if it's software bug or design flow issue.
And yes, i would demand a refund or a new replacement as well. Will i get it is a different question.

On the flip side, with modern cars and all the technology packed in them, these things can happen with ANY car and any brand, period! I personally know people who had brand new BMWs, Audis, Hondas, and $100k+ Tesla's who have been stranded on the side of the road 2-3 times in their first 2 years of ownership. One of my good friends had his 9 month old BMW 335i suddenly die on him in the middle of a mountain highway - TWICE. One time it happened when his two kids were in the car and the weather was freezing cold. High pressure fuel pump decided to die on him...just because. Second time it was a "software glitch" related to fuel delivery. ;) He is on his 3rd HPFP now. I admire his patience and loyalty.
The Tesla stories are equally scary and common, yet these are cars that cost 3x more than our CX-9.

None of this is an excuse for Mazda, but i am also trying to put things into perspective and have realistic expectations when it comes to today's 'modern' cars.
Our safety and the reliability of our cars is largely in the hands(chips) of a bunch of computers and sensors and the software behind it. It's pretty scary if you think about it. ;)

Our neighbor had a leased Mercedes-Benz GL 450 that would do this as well. Just shut off by itself. Luckily it happened in our cul de sac but I think they had 4-5 instances where it would do it right after starting. Even when the shutting thing got fixed, they still had random electronic issues.

These issues are more common but again, can get fixed.
 
OP, sorry to hear about the issues you're having.

I've been lurking around these forums for a bit because I am looking at leasing a CX-9 to replace my current car in the next 3-4 months, but this thread and the other one discussing electronics issues have me concerned. That said, I know internet forums will tend to skew things and make these vehicles seem less reliable and more problem-ridden than they really are because people are more likely to go through the effort to post about issues than they would be to simply proclaim how well everything is going. That's what I've observed in my past experiences in VW forums and currently with another BMW forum, anyway.

That said, I don't mean to diminish the severity of the issue that the OP is running in to either though, as it's a very concerning problem any time a vehicle can stop running on its own with little or no warning.

OP, I hope that this is something that can be addressed to your satisfaction and that whatever the true root cause and fix is, I hope it's something that isn't too complex and ultimately only needs to be fixed once. I'm also hopeful that the couple incidents that have been reported in these forums are isolated, because it's not like we'd want others to have to worry about this!

To danmm7's point too, these types of issues can happen with any car brand. Cars are simply becoming more and more complex and the electronics in particular are a major contributing factor to their complexity. I recently replaced the AC blower motor in my car and I saw a part of a wiring harness where I was doing the work and I was amazed at how much wiring was bundled up and run through that part of the car. There were just so many wires! I'll add that my 335i had its HPFP replaced as well, but the only symptoms of it going bad were long cranks/starts after the car had been sitting overnight. It was replaced with a revised part and hasn't been an issue since nor do I anticipate it causing any in the future either.

Anyway, please keep us posted on your situation! Good luck!
 
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Totally agree with the above. This is an extremely frustrating experience and i would be furious if it happened to me, with a new or almost new car. The fix could be something very simple or not if it's software bug or design flow issue.
And yes, i would demand a refund or a new replacement as well. Will i get it is a different question.

On the flip side, with modern cars and all the technology packed in them, these things can happen with ANY car and any brand, period! I personally know people who had brand new BMWs, Audis, Hondas, and $100k+ Tesla's who have been stranded on the side of the road 2-3 times in their first 2 years of ownership. One of my good friends had his 9 month old BMW 335i suddenly die on him in the middle of a mountain highway - TWICE. One time it happened when his two kids were in the car and the weather was freezing cold. High pressure fuel pump decided to die on him...just because. Second time it was a "software glitch" related to fuel delivery. ;) He is on his 3rd HPFP now. I admire his patience and loyalty.
The Tesla stories are equally scary and common, yet these are cars that cost 3x more than our CX-9.

None of this is an excuse for Mazda, but i am also trying to put things into perspective and have realistic expectations when it comes to today's 'modern' cars.
Our safety and the reliability of our cars is largely in the hands(chips) of a bunch of computers and sensors and the software behind it. It's pretty scary if you think about it. ;)

well said bro...well said! I guess I have been lucky so far as my 2017 Signature hasn't broken down on me yet (knock on wood) and has been reliable for the past 16mos of ownership. Time will tell but seems these electronic issues could be happening in the 2018 MYs...
 
For perspective, 50,000 2nd gen CX-9's have been sold in the US alone. TWO people have reported this problem, not just here but anywhere on the internet that I can find. And when something likes this happens, almost everyone turns to the internet.

What we have is a .00004% occurance in the US. Keep in mind no one from Canada and Australia or elsewhere have reported the issue, which are many thousands more units.
 
2/50000=0.00004=0.004%


But still a small number!

On a side note, I was just talking with the wife and she mentioned one thing they did was to give us new key fobs. She thinks that is what fixed our (similar) issue. Honestly, not sure why that would have helped.
 
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