Cx5 NA head cracks…ever figure out which ones affected?

[Stickygreen]

Back after about 4 years. Previously had a ‘19 cx5 touring that we loved, but sold it for a larger vehicle for the family. Fast forward a few years and need to find first car for my daughter. Am contemplating buying back our well maintained 2019 (current owners have had zero troubles from 45k when we sold to current 108k miles), but not knowing if this car is gonna suffer cylinder head cracking later is giving me a bit of pause. Have generally been looking for a 2017 grand touring, but the idea of getting back our original Mazda is kinda neat, especially knowing its history.

Has anyone been able to figure out over the years if there were certain build dates or VIN ranges that are prone to poorly-casted cylinder heads? Is there any data on failure percentages by model year? Trying to figure out if this a gamble worth making.

 

[walt]

I have a 2020 at 62k miles and worry about the same thing. From what I've seen it's usually well before your 108k miles. It appears there will never be any recall or compensation from Mazda and thats what keeps me from buying a current model.
Not knowing any rhyme or reason as to if it's gonna happen is what's troubling. I have not found anything but 'maybe' and 'YMMV'.

 

[N7turbo]

All 2018+ with cylinder deactivation, unfortunately. As far as I've seen on the forums, there haven't been any design changes. If there have been, it would be nice for Mazda to acknowledge them.

 

[Mulligan]

Earlier this year, when I was mulling over whether to sell my 2018 CX-5, I went through the NHTSA complaints for each model year and counted up the number of complaints related to engine problems. Then I adjusted the raw number of complaints to take into account how many cars were sold in a given year and how many years had elapsed between the model year and the present. This gave me a basis to make an apples-to-apples comparison of the relative probability that that an engine problem will occur in a CX-5 of a given model year.

Here are the results.
Year Problems
2018 11.1
2019 7.5
2020 1.4
2021 9.9
2022 2.0
2023 1.6
2024 0.0

The numbers in the "Problems" column don't have absolute meaning; they're useful only as comparisons between model years. Clearly, the 2018 models have a much higher problem rate than models from the most recent few years. However, the 2019 models are also markedly more problem-prone than the recent models. The high number for 2021 is because of the valve stem seal defect that affected turbos that model year.

This analysis is pretty crude, but it helped convince me that I would greatly decrease the chances of serious engine problems if I got rid of my 2018 and bought a new CX-5, even though my 2018 was still low-mileage. If my car had been a 2019, I think I would have also been concerned, but of course people have different levels of risk tolerance.

 

[Stickygreen]

Appreciate the input. Called the service manager at local Mazda dealer (good guy that used to be my SA at Cadillac, then at Mazda with our previous cx5 4+ years ago) and he stated that cx5 cylinder head issues were quite rare, and he could probably count on both hands the number they’ve done over the last 5+ years. He did also mention that they seem to do a lot more cx-9 cylinder heads…about 2 per month sometimes more. This makes me wonder if the 2.5NA cylinder head issues are exaggerated. Still torn, but going to go look at our old cx5 this weekend. It even still has the black rx8 wheels I put on years ago.