NA CX-5 with Cylinder Deactivation Engine Repairs - Report In

[Sig cx-5]

Yep, it appears that these engines are garbage.

Mazda CX-5 Reliability - 2024 Ratings | RepairPal

How reliable is your Mazda CX-5? The 2024 Reliability Rating by RepairPal tells you how often major repairs are required and ownership costs.

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Mazda Named Most Reliable Brand For 2022 By Consumer Reports

In its newest rankings, Consumer Reports Mazda scores highest overall in the auto industry in reliability.

www.torquenews.com

 

[JRMMTB]

Noticed a pool of oil under my 2019 CX-5 With 26,000 miles.
Dealer inspected and reported a cylinder head leak.
Will replace the head under warranty.
No car for a week or so.

 

[Oleman]

Here is another recent example of hydraulic lift adjuster problem on a 2.5L NA with CD just happens to be mentioned:

Curious minds would like to know did they do this for you under warranty?

 

[yrwei52]

Yep, it appears that these engines are garbage.

View attachment 314825

Mazda CX-5 Reliability - 2024 Ratings | RepairPal

How reliable is your Mazda CX-5? The 2024 Reliability Rating by RepairPal tells you how often major repairs are required and ownership costs.

repairpal.com

View attachment 314826

Mazda Named Most Reliable Brand For 2022 By Consumer Reports

In its newest rankings, Consumer Reports Mazda scores highest overall in the auto industry in reliability.

www.torquenews.com

I said it before, reliability ratings sometimes are misleading. The failure rate may be low right now where they’re reflecting good ratings, but once it happens without warranty, it’ll be expensive to fix. You can’t deny these 2 major issues are happening to the 2.5L NA with CD, otherwise the engine reliability rating would be a perfect 5.

The failure on cracked cylinder head is not only based on plenty of reports, but also discussed why it would crack in the YT video from Ruassia. The failure of hydraulic lift adjusters may be even less right now but we started to see more reports when people are getting more miles.

 

[yrwei52]

2018 mazda cx5. 112000 miles
⋯
last month I had the adjustable Hydraulic lifters replaced due to lifter ticking noise. This was related to mazda's TSB regarding issues with their cylinder deactivation tech. That issue waa resolved.

I'm not sure if the valve lifters had anything to do with what I'm experiencing now. Thoughts?

Curious minds would like to know did they do this for you under warranty?

Although it’s a 2018 CX-5, but it has 112K miles which is way out of the powertrain warranty. Hope Trzebs did get free repair somehow by the Mazda North American Operations.

 

[yrwei52]

Noticed a pool of oil under my 2019 CX-5 With 26,000 miles.
Dealer inspected and reported a cylinder head leak.
Will replace the head under warranty.
No car for a week or so.

Thanks for the report. Please specify which trim level of your 2019 CX-5, or the engine type, turbo or non-turbo? Keep us posted.

 

[edmaz]

Although it’s a 2018 CX-5, but it has 112K miles which is way out of the powertrain warranty. Hope Trzebs did get free repair somehow by the Mazda North American Operations.

Based on what he wrote in his first thread, it sounded like he never approached Mazda for any out-of-warranty assistance (at least he didn't mention it anyway). He did say he planned on having an indy mechanic replace the switchable HLAs, and then posed a second thread, where he mentioned that work had been done.

And it unfortunately sounds like (to me anyway) that something may have gone wrong with that HLA replacement work. In any case, there's almost certainly no longer any possibility of him getting any $$ help from Mazda at this point.

I've been watching this one closely, and am hoping it's not the tip of a very ugly iceberg for the rest of us having the initial version of the switchable HLAs.

 

[yrwei52]

Based on what he wrote in his first thread, it sounded like he never approached Mazda for any out-of-warranty assistance (at least he didn't mention it anyway). He did say he planned on having an indy mechanic replace the switchable HLAs, and then posed a second thread, where he mentioned that work had been done.

And it unfortunately sounds like (to me anyway) that something may have gone wrong with that HLA replacement work. In any case, there's almost certainly no longer any possibility of him getting any $$ help from Mazda at this point.

I've been watching this one closely, and am hoping it's not the tip of a very ugly iceberg for the rest of us having the initial version of the switchable HLAs.

Oh, this’s the same guy who was relocating and had the higher compression on cylinder #4 with valve lifter ticking noise and camshaft damage? And now he has misfires in cylinder #2? I remember he replaced only the switchable HLAs on cylinder #4, and his current problem could not be related to the switchable HLAs he just replaced?

Yes some still believe this isn’t a big deal but you and I know this potentially can be. I’ve been trying to give head-up warnings, just be watchful on potential cracked cylinder head and HLA failure to this 2.5L NA with CD.

IMO the switchable HLAs used on cylinder #1 and #4 are designed to be activated and deactivated at certain oil pressures. Mazda then had to modified the oil pressures via the software to avoid the rocker arm falling issue during the recall. Having some problems on these switchable HLAs in the long run isn’t surprised me as these HLAs are operating in the oil pressure range which isn’t designed for originally.

 

[madar]

Oh, this’s the same guy who was relocating and had the higher compression on cylinder #4 with valve lifter ticking noise and camshaft damage? And now he has misfires in cylinder #2? I remember he replaced only the switchable HLAs on cylinder #4, and his current problem could not be related to the switchable HLAs he just replaced?

Yes some still believe this isn’t a big deal but you and I know this potentially can be. I’ve been trying to give head-up warnings, just be watchful on potential cracked cylinder head and HLA failure to this 2.5L NA with CD.

IMO the switchable HLAs used on cylinder #1 and #4 are designed to be activated and deactivated at certain oil pressures. Mazda then had to modified the oil pressures via the software to avoid the rocker arm falling issue during the recall. Having some problems on these switchable HLAs in the long run isn’t surprised me as these HLAs are operating in the oil pressure range which isn’t designed for originally.

Good point! They raised oil pressure to solve the rocker arms falling off but created more stress on the already thin casting so in the long run they basically shot themselves in the foot. Geez, this is turning into a game of dominoes.

 

[edmaz]

Oh, this’s the same guy who was relocating and had the higher compression on cylinder #4 with valve lifter ticking noise and camshaft damage? And now he has misfires in cylinder #2? I remember he replaced only the switchable HLAs on cylinder #4, and his current problem could not be related to the switchable HLAs he just replaced? ....

In the interest of fair and honest reporting, he never did follow up in that first thread to tell us how many HLAs were replaced, or even that the work was done at all. He did however mention in his second thread that HLAs were replaced, but not how many of them.

IMO the switchable HLAs used on cylinder #1 and #4 are designed to be activated and deactivated at certain oil pressures. Mazda then had to modified the oil pressures via the software to avoid the rocker arm falling issue during the recall. Having some problems on these switchable HLAs in the long run isn’t surprised me as these HLAs are operating in the oil pressure range which isn’t designed for originally.

Mazda didn't say anything in their TSB about the relationship of oil pressure to the switchable HLAs, and I'm not going to speculate about it either, because that particular factor is not important to me. What Mazda did say, and what is VERY important to me, is this:

Some vehicle may exhibit a tapping noise from the engine during idling; etc., and synchronized to the engine rpm. The tapping noise may be caused by the switchable hydraulic lash adjuster (HLA), which may not work properly due to air bubbles accumulated in the oil passage in it. To eliminate this concern, the switchable HLA has been modified for increased oil supply to reduce air bubbles in the oil passage.

So in publishing the above statement, Mazda admitted that the original switchable HLAs were not allowing enough oil flow. And that's what's really concerning to me - the fact that all of our older CD vehicles have HLAs identified by the automaker to have an oil flow issue, and which have been replaced in the newer engines with HLAs that (presumably) allow proper oil flow.

When I initially read about this, I figured let's wait to see what the future developments on this will be. I was hoping that perhaps the air bubble ticking noise is benign, and perhaps it might be possible to just live with it - that is up until Trzebs' thread showed up.

His experience indicates that there are likely to be significant physical side effects taking place beyond just the noise, and that these air bubble issues will almost certainly need to be addressed by replacing the HLAs. The jury is still out on this, and more data needs to arrive before a definitive conclusion can be reached. But this is going to be an uncomfortable period of wait and see - for me anyway.

 

[yrwei52]

In the interest of fair and honest reporting, he never did follow up in that first thread to tell us how many HLAs were replaced, or even that the work was done at all. He did however mention in his second thread that HLAs were replaced, but not how many of them.

I had suggested him replacing all HLAs like the TSB described. But he said the standard HLAs he ordered all got cancelled as the item currently wasn’t available, and he could only get switchable ones. This seemed to me he got all 8 switchable HLAs. Since he keep mentioning cylinder #4 was having issues, he may just have his mechanic replacing 4 on cylinder #4?

 

[edmaz]

I had suggested him replacing all HLAs like the TSB described. But he said the standard HLAs he ordered all got cancelled as the item currently wasn’t available, and he could only get switchable ones. This seemed to me he got all 8 switchable HLAs. Since he keep mentioning cylinder #4 was having issues, he may just have his mechanic replacing 4 on cylinder #4?

Yes, we just don't know what he actually ended up doing. Hopefully he will return to provide an update sometime in the future, but it's easy to imagine just how pi$$ed off he must be right now.

 

[sm1ke]

In order to reduce the clutter in this thread, please keep discussions, debates, theories, and other issues out of this thread. This thread is specifically for reporting actual instances of engine repairs on 2018+ NA CX-5s with CD. Referring back to the original post..

We don't need to rehash other gripes with CD or turbo issues or pre-CD normally aspirated engines here. Just the problems and solutions, please.

 

[sm1ke]

If you are reporting an issue on behalf of another poster, please link to the original post.

If you want to discuss theories or other related engine issues in greater detail, please continue the discussion in the many other threads that are likely already discussing it. This thread is specifically for collecting data on actual reported repairs, not theory-crafting or discussing CD as a whole across different brands.

Off-topic posts may sometimes be moved to the appropriate threads, but they may also be flat out deleted. If you don't want your posts deleted, please stay on topic.

Thank you.

 

[edmaz]

If you are reporting an issue on behalf of another poster, please link to the original post. .....

Here's the second thread started by @Trzebs (the first one is linked in post #13), both of which are the topic being discussed in the most recent posts above.
trzebs thread 2

And your comment about the clutter is noted as well. Most of what I wrote is a direct result of @Trzebs omitting a large amount of detail related to his vehicle's issues. And when a half-baked story like this shows up, I tend to want to find the missing pieces. In the future I'll try to keep it to "just the facts ma'am".

 

[Jack Rabbit]

While I agree that going completely off topic , for instance discussing windshield wipers in an engine thread, should be stopped.

I appreciate the knowledge that is shared when discussions go slightly off thread but are still related to the thread in some manner such as the above previous posts.

Posts that provide more info that we may not have been aware and which opens up interest and doors to other threads/posts which may not have been read.

 

[sm1ke]

I appreciate the knowledge that is shared when discussions go slightly off thread but are still related to the thread in some manner such as the above previous posts.

Posts that provide more info that we may not have been aware and which opens up interest and doors to other threads/posts which may not have been read.

Talking about Honda and GM CD tech and bringing up reliability reports is not "slightly off-topic". Especially in a thread that was created to ask for very specific information. Knowledge shared is always useful, but posting that information in the right place ensures that other users are more likely to see it in relevant threads when they do a search. Posting extraneous information in a thread like this one only serves to clutter up the thread, making the originally requested information harder to find.

Again..

If you want to discuss theories or other related engine issues in greater detail, please continue the discussion in the many other threads that are likely already discussing it. This thread is specifically for collecting data on actual reported repairs, not theory-crafting or discussing CD as a whole across different brands.

 

[JRMMTB]

Following up on my 12-29 post.
2019 CX-5TRXA with 22,000 miles. Non-Turbo
Per Mazda dealer service report
”Oil leaking from the back of the cylinder head case between cylinders 2 & 3.
Ordered a new cylinder head and all parts per SA-013/22”

Picked the CX5 yesterday. Covered under warranty.
Asked if the replacement head was improved to prevent future issues.
The answer was vague and not very reassuring.

 

[yrwei52]

Following up on my 12-29 post.
2019 CX-5TRXA with 22,000 miles. Non-Turbo
Per Mazda dealer service report
”Oil leaking from the back of the cylinder head case between cylinders 2 & 3.
Ordered a new cylinder head and all parts per SA-013/22”

Picked the CX5 yesterday. Covered under warranty.
Asked if the replacement head was improved to prevent future issues.
The answer was vague and not very reassuring.

Thanks for the update. If you can review the invoice and find the part number of the replacement cylinder head, someone here might be able to verify if the head is the revised one.

 

[JRMMTB]

Qty 1, PYY4-10-SJ0
Head Set, Cylinder

Qty 10 ZZC0-10-135
Bolt, Cyl. Head