Mazda CX-5, a nightmare!

[madar]

I'd put more money on the dealer screwing stuff up when they pulled the engine, hard to believe all that stuff went bad on its own within only a few years. You have to have a really conscientious tech to get all that stuff correct, something you don't see a lot of these days. .

 

[yrwei52]

Curious...what percentage of engines did this really effect? All of the NA engines from the last 6 or so years had cylinder deactivation so it's kind of unreasonable to just blanket avoid them.

I’d agree that the percentage of cracked cylinder head on 2.5L NA with CD should be low. OTOH Mazda has issued a TSB to create a new part number for a “fully-loaded” cylinder head to save the labor time only for the cracked cylinder head job. This means the percentage can’t be negligible. You can’t deny that the potential is always there due to the thin 2 mm wall (others have 7 mm at the similar area) at the cracked area. Once it happens without warranty, you’re SOL.

In addition to dislike the principle on cylinder deactivation, I personally wouldn’t want to take such risk for this engine as I usually keep my car for as long as I can.

 

[N7turbo]

Problem is that between the 2.5 NA and 2.5 T that's nearly every car they have sold in the recent past. You'd end up on a Mazda enthusiast from saying don't buy most used Mazdas. That's awkward.

 

[hoopics]

Problem is that between the 2.5 NA and 2.5 T that's nearly every car they have sold in the recent past. You'd end up on a Mazda enthusiast from saying don't buy most used Mazdas. That's awkward.

As someone actively looking to buy a used non-Turbo CX-5 from 2021 or 2022, the cylinder head issue isn't scaring me away from the car. But it does have me 1) budgeting for a 10 year / 100k mile OEM extended warranty (about $2k), and 2) planning to sell the car when that warranty expires.

For comparison, we bought a 2018 Ford Escape for my Dad, and extended his warranty out to 100k miles. At 103k miles the engine failed, because of a known design defect with the cylinder head that allowed coolant to intrude into a cylinder. I was able to beat Ford into covering 50% of the cost of a rebuild engine (they paid $5k, I paid $5k), based on how close to the warranty period it failed. I immediately sold the car after the repair. I'm now waiting for a class action lawsuit to resolve the other half.

I don't want to relive that out of warranty experience with another car that has a known design flaw, but the mere potential of an engine change that the manufacturer pays for doesn't scare me. If the car grenades, I'll replace it after the new engine gets put in. It's just a car after all.

 

[yrwei52]

As someone actively looking to buy a used non-Turbo CX-5 from 2021 or 2022, the cylinder head issue isn't scaring me away from the car.

Not just the modified cylinder head for cylinder deactivation which could crack, but the modified automatic transmission only for cylinder deactivation could wear out the lock-up clutch and contaminates the ATF with iron power. Once it happens, it requires at least the torque converter replacement.

2017~2024 CX-5 Chirp Noise from Automatic Transaxle on 3-4 upshift - Bulletin 05-005/23

This has been an issue for a little bit. The CD cars do not have the same lockup wet clutch set as the regular skyactivs do. They use a more traditional single clutch with a more aggressive material to survive early lockup. Many oems that have tried early lockup with this style of clutch experience significant issues and early wear. GM with the 6L80/90 family are the most notorious for this. The clutch set that turns on going into 4th is a more aggressive friction material that is already high metal content. The iron contaminates that set and is similar to what happens with a brake pad that becomes contaminated and makes a squealing sound.