Mazda CX-5 (and other models) Oil Consumption TSB (WTF)

the dipstick markers are MIN/MAX (w/1L between the two) with the operating range in the middle. Your 2.5T takes 5.1qts
Operating range in the middle? Yeah, the spec says 5.1 quarts on oil capacity for the 2.5T which makes to the middle between the Max and Min holes on the dipstick. But the manual also says when the oil level is getting close to the Min mark, add 1L of oil to make the oil level to the Max mark.

Further, based on several 2.5T owners who checked the oil level from factory on their brand new engine, they all say the oil level actually is OVER the Max mark!
 
May be Mazda changed it for 2022. On my 5miles 2022 it was right where it should be above the Mid point but little bit less than the High. My last oil change (I drain for few minutes then close the plug) I dumped 5 quarts and it sits in the middle currently. No oil filter prefil too. Mazda oem thailand filter (smaller than the Tokyo roki).
All that works for me.

I guess to get to the High it would take 5.2-5.3 quarts aprox. but dont see any need to get it to the High. Plus thats 1 more bottle/quart to buy.
 
Last edited:
I'll never understand car manufacturers. This engine has been around for years, with no known valve stem seal issues....so why modify something that isn't broken?
There's that old saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Well, OEM's don't change things without good reason. Maybe the original supplier had trouble making the valve stems due to material or labor shortages and alternate materials or a different supplier had to be used. There may be some change in the variable cylinder management version of the head that changed the dimensions of the valves and seals. Maybe long term testing revealed every increasing oil consumption and an engineer worked with the supplier to improve the seal, but the change increased the likelihood of assembly damage.
 
TSB update from 1/31/2023

Screenshot 2023-03-23 at 12.19.24 PM.png
 

Attachments

  • MC-10230891-0001.pdf
    5.6 MB · Views: 138
WOW! what a tedious and detailed repair using special tools. After seeing all of the steps, why do I envision "ol' Bubba" taking short cuts, popping out the old seals and driving the new seals in with an old socket. LOL
There's no shortcut for getting all of the valvetrain stuff out of the way, which is required to be done before the seals can be accessed. And that's what Mazda wanted to streamline with the special tool set. Also, they certainly wanted to stay away from pulling the head (and all of the extra baggage that goes along with it), on all of the affected vehicles, which they accomplished with their tool set as well.

I believe that Mazda put together a really fine package with that set of SSTs, along with the highly detailed procedure (which includes LOTS of warnings and cautions). Yes, it took them around a year to build the whole thing, which seems like a very long time for something like this. However, I believe that's a reflection of just how queasy Mazda feels about the idea of their dealer service departments doing large scale, significant engine warranty work. And that idea is reinforced by the bit in the TSB which limits the job to Master techs only. They most likely went through lots of testing iterations and revisions, trying to make this as idiot-proof as they possibly could, before releasing it to the dealers.

And, based on the absence of negative reporting from owners who have had this work done, I believe they've successfully accomplished everything they were trying to do with this project. I'm no Mazda fanboy, but I do try to call 'em as I see 'em.
 
There's no shortcut for getting all of the valvetrain stuff out of the way, which is required to be done before the seals can be accessed. And that's what Mazda wanted to streamline with the special tool set. Also, they certainly wanted to stay away from pulling the head (and all of the extra baggage that goes along with it), on all of the affected vehicles, which they accomplished with their tool set as well.

I believe that Mazda put together a really fine package with that set of SSTs, along with the highly detailed procedure (which includes LOTS of warnings and cautions). Yes, it took them around a year to build the whole thing, which seems like a very long time for something like this. However, I believe that's a reflection of just how queasy Mazda feels about the idea of their dealer service departments doing large scale, significant engine warranty work. And that idea is reinforced by the bit in the TSB which limits the job to Master techs only. They most likely went through lots of testing iterations and revisions, trying to make this as idiot-proof as they possibly could, before releasing it to the dealers.

And, based on the absence of negative reporting from owners who have had this work done, I believe they've successfully accomplished everything they were trying to do with this project. I'm no Mazda fanboy, but I do try to call 'em as I see 'em.
Yeh however the throughly thought of the procedures and special service tools in this TSB which is to fix the inferior valve stem seals, you have to wonder why this kind of oversight happened at the first place? Vender change? Revising the seal making to save a penny? Quality control engineers didn’t do a good job to find out the inferior seals? It ended up costing may be millions of dollars to develop this “perfect” procedure to fix a problem which is not supposed to happen. There’s nobody else to blame but the Mazda itself!
 
Yeh however the throughly thought of the procedures and special service tools in this TSB which is to fix the inferior valve stem seals, you have to wonder why this kind of oversight happened at the first place? Vender change? Revising the seal making to save a penny? Quality control engineers didn’t do a good job to find out the inferior seals? It ended up costing may be millions of dollars to develop this “perfect” procedure to fix a problem which is not supposed to happen. There’s nobody else to blame but the Mazda itself!
If Mazda didn't change the seal design/spec but unknowingly received substandard seals from their vendor, it would at least (hopefully) allow them to recoup some of the associated costs from that vendor. But if Mazda did make a change, then it looks like another example where Mazda shoots themselves in the foot again by the inability to adhere to the "if it ain't broke, then don't fix it" maxim.
After the CD/HLA problems and then the cracks/oil leak, this is the third 'assault' on the engine cylinder head. Maybe if Mazda would have left well enough alone and never introduced CD, their bottom line would be a little better and have more happier customers. I still wonder how much their CAFE numbers improved with CD in real world fuel savings versus savings on paper. And I guess we can put some blame on the Federal government dictating harder to attain CAFE requirements on the auto manufacturers who have to come up with designs to eke out tiny improvements in fuel mileage.
 
Yeh however the throughly thought of the procedures and special service tools in this TSB which is to fix the inferior valve stem seals, you have to wonder why this kind of oversight happened at the first place? Vender change? Revising the seal making to save a penny? Quality control engineers didn’t do a good job to find out the inferior seals? It ended up costing may be millions of dollars to develop this “perfect” procedure to fix a problem which is not supposed to happen. There’s nobody else to blame but the Mazda itself!
No disagreement from me that Mazda was ultimately responsible for the stem seal issue, and also that it should never have happened in the first place. And my comments about the procedure were merely expressing appreciation of what they did to resolve the problem, from a technical perspective.
 
Looks like I just started having this issue on my 21 CE AWD Turbo as soon as I hit 5k miles. The low oil light came on.

More alarming is that I did my first oil change at 3,500 miles myself and put in 5.0 quarts so within 1,500 miles it consumed enough to trigger the light and when I checked the dipstick, oil is below the 2 dots about halfway. Added 3/4 quart 5w-30 full syn...will need to watch but this is concerning.
My 2021 cx-5 ( 2.5 L, not a turbo) burns at least a QT of oil every 3000 and maxda is telling me that that is normal. What a dishonest company that will not back it's faulty product. Mine not a turbo, but I must be unlucky .
 
My 2021 cx-5 ( 2.5 L, not a turbo) burns at least a QT of oil every 3000 and maxda is telling me that that is normal. What a dishonest company that will not back it's faulty product. Mine not a turbo, but I must be unlucky .

You might have a good case now.
Last year you were at 1/2 qt every 7k miles, now you're at 1+qt every 3k miles.
That's a 4x increase in less than a year.
 
My 2021 cx-5 ( 2.5 L, not a turbo) burns at least a QT of oil every 3000 and maxda is telling me that that is normal. What a dishonest company that will not back it's faulty product. Mine not a turbo, but I must be unlucky .
Like I said in the reply of your another post, my 2016 CX-5 burns about a half quart of oil every 5,000 miles. As long as I don’t need to top off the oil between oil changes, that’d be fine with me.

If Mazda North American Operations refuses to do anything for your oil consumption issue, you can try to use thicker 5W-30 oil (also Mazda recommend oil viscosity worldwide) which should be able to reduce the oil consumption for your 2.5L NA with CD.
 
You might have a good case now.
Last year you were at 1/2 qt every 7k miles, now you're at 1+qt every 3k miles.
That's a 4x increase in less than a year.
Unless there’s a specific problem and issued a TSB, the industry standard of oil consumption “problem” is the engine is burning more than 1 quart of oil for every 1,000 miles. Yard Ape doesn’t have a case here on his 2.5L NA with CD.
 
If I am consuming anything within 5K mile changes it is just a couple ounces and isn’t noticeable on the dipstick. I’ve stuck with a solid diet of Mazda moly since new.

I’m currently around 78k miles. My VQ35HR @ 120k miles and my 1UR-FE @ 80k miles are the same way.
 
Like I said in the reply of your another post, my 2016 CX-5 burns about a half quart of oil every 5,000 miles. As long as I don’t need to top off the oil between oil changes, that’d be fine with me.

If Mazda North American Operations refuses to do anything for your oil consumption issue, you can try to use thicker 5W-30 oil (also Mazda recommend oil viscosity worldwide) which should be able to reduce the oil consumption for your 2.5L NA with CD.
This individual periodically comes back here to rant about oil consumption, but couldn't even be bothered to answer <this> key question I asked last year. There's so much of this stuff floating around, of people saying their vehicle is consuming oil, but cannot or will not provide the level at oil change refill time. Without knowing what the initial level was, 'oil consumption' has no credibility IMO, and goes right into the waste basket.
 
I have a '21 GTR with a VIN in scope of TSB
Currently at 12K mi, serviced twice at the dealer, I see no oil issues so far
Question: is valve seal failure just a matter of time, or some are better than the others?
 
I have a '21 GTR with a VIN in scope of TSB
Currently at 12K mi, serviced twice at the dealer, I see no oil issues so far
Question: is valve seal failure just a matter of time, or some are better than the others?
The TSB says the oil consumption are caused by a batch of inferior valve stem seals. Mazda had revised the seals which to me means that batch of seals eventually will fail.
 
"oil consumption issue is back SMH"
I have the TSB done around 41k miles till now 60k miles oil consumption issue is back! it comes on just after 3000 miles. when back to the dealership they said TSB is done noting that they can do it!

The issue is exactly the same as before I fill the oil all the way to the full dot then the oil light comes on just under the middle mark between the low and the max dot.
 
"oil consumption issue is back SMH"
I have the TSB done around 41k miles till now 60k miles oil consumption issue is back! it comes on just after 3000 miles. when back to the dealership they said TSB is done noting that they can do it!

The issue is exactly the same as before I fill the oil all the way to the full dot then the oil light comes on just under the middle mark between the low and the max dot.
Open a case with Mazda Corporate. Describe what's happening and request an oil consumption test.
 
"oil consumption issue is back SMH"
I have the TSB done around 41k miles till now 60k miles oil consumption issue is back! it comes on just after 3000 miles. when back to the dealership they said TSB is done noting that they can do it!

The issue is exactly the same as before I fill the oil all the way to the full dot then the oil light comes on just under the middle mark between the low and the max dot.
😲
 

Latest posts

Back