New CX-9, Continuing Mazda

[voldsom]

Hey all!

Figured I would throw up the intro post here! Been a member of Mazda6Club for years, but I just picked up (Tuesday) a 2014 CX-9 GT with Tech in Meteor Gray Mica. Traded in my beloved 2004 Mazda 6 MTX Wagon for it, though Tough decision, but I don't regret it (yet, lol).
Tons of features and settings I still need to get to on the new CX-9. Having some difficulty with the phonebook downloading form my iPhone 5 with iOS 8, but that's it so far.

Mods already:
-I stripped my old wagon of all it's LEDs before I traded it in, so I'm coming into this with some nice VLEDs 194's, 7443's, 5k strip lights, one festoon 3 led 3 chip bulb, and one 921. Unfortunately the CX-9 doesn't use the 194's in the interior very much, but I did swap the "courtesy lights", liscense plate lights, and hatch light to beautiful 5k high output white light. Going to install the 5k strip lights under the door edge for a puddle light (as done on my old 6). Planning on doing all the other interior festoon bulbs when VLEDs has a sale (someone suggested going 28mm to prevent clearance issues?)
-Threw my ScanGuageII in last night as well on the steering column, fits even better than in my old 6.
-Installed the HatchBag from my old 6.... it sorta fits. Well enough, at least to work for while and save the $170 buck on a new one.
-Put in an order for WeatherTech DigiFit front and back floor mats
-Ordered the cross bars for the factory roof rack

Planned:
-All LED interior
-High output LED reverse lights
-High output LED brake lights
-LED side markers
-LED strip mod to lower rear reflectors
-Reciever hitch
-Possible SRI (have the old one from my 6, would need to check plumbing diameters)
-Tint darked/matched front and back

Anyway, I look forward to modding in the future with this one. I never go to far, just enough to enhance the usability and to clean up the look. Can't wait for this weekend when I plan to detail her out!

 

[xxxmonoxidechil]

Welcome. Im an old time 6 owner also. Been around 6club and 6crew since 2005. Still have the 6 though, But purchased a CX9 for the wife.

 

[Rawyzf]

Welcome!

I am also a fairly old MS6 owner (p5 and MSP before that too), which explains my join date here

 

[voldsom]

Welcome.

Welcome!

Thanks for the welcome guys! My digging through the forum here has shown you two are pretty much the most active, which I'm looking for! 6Club was super active and I'll miss those guys (but I still plan to contribute as I learned a lot about the car in 4 years, and I will ALWAYS love my wagon )

I'll be honest though, I have 300 miles on the CX-9 now, but researching this transfer case thing is freaking me out. What are your thoughts on it? I figure changing the fluid every 30k seems pretty reasonable, as every 4WD/AWD system has SOME maintenance... But I'm hearing reports of them going out at 16k?! What have you guys heard? In addition, it's practically impossible to find out if Mazda did anything different to the transfer case for the 2013+ refresh. I would hope so, but haven't found anything...

Another question: This is my first purely NEW car (always had used before) and have never undergone engine break in. I know nothing special is required, other than what the manual says, but most places I've read changing it around 1000 miles to get out any mfg defect shavings in the system... My dealer scheduled my first oil change for March 2014, but I'm not opposed to doing one before that if it seems prudent (i.e. not a waste of money).

Thanks in advance!

 

[Rawyzf]

I did enjoy the Mazda6Club as well. It's nice when you can be more specific to a certain model like that.

Our Cx9 is over 60K now, not 1 issue. I think just regular maintenence is all you really need to keep up on. Don't start worrying about stuff with a brand new car, lol....that's why you bought it new! I would do the Transmission / Transfer Case at 50K. Rear Diff at 25K. Oil every 5K.

First Oil change, I'd do it around 500-1000 miles. I think they come factory with Synth Blend. I'd suggest going full Synthetic, if you plan to keep it for the long term.

 

[voldsom]

I did enjoy the Mazda6Club as well. It's nice when you can be more specific to a certain model like that.

Our Cx9 is over 60K now, not 1 issue. I think just regular maintenence is all you really need to keep up on. Don't start worrying about stuff with a brand new car, lol....that's why you bought it new! I would do the Transmission / Transfer Case at 50K. Rear Diff at 25K. Oil every 5K.

First Oil change, I'd do it around 500-1000 miles. I think they come factory with Synth Blend. I'd suggest going full Synthetic, if you plan to keep it for the long term.

Nice, thanks for the advice! It's always hard to tell sometimes with more of a niche model (as the CX-9 is) if it's a "squeaky wheel" syndrome with people bitching about a problem, but it's a minority. I don't plan on being hard on this one either, which was the reason for going to full CUV from reasonably sporty car. The Kawasaki is where I can beat pretty much any car without much effort, so it made the 6 slooooooow

Good to know about the oil too. It makes total sense, but it's so weird that the dealer wouldn't mention it at all. I historically have low trust of the stealership anyway, and this just re-affirms it some more... They do offer lifetime free oil changes though, which I will take them up on.

 

[Rawyzf]

Dealers don't really care about break in periods, or longevity of the car in general. They just want to get you to 3yr/36k or whatever the bumper to bumper is now a days.

If you do plan to use the dealership for the lifetime oil changes, chances are they'll fill you with Blend again. So, if you do that 500-1000 mile change on your own, you'll want to use the Blend as well, so you're not going back and forth.

 

[voldsom]

Dealers don't really care about break in periods, or longevity of the car in general. They just want to get you to 3yr/36k or whatever the bumper to bumper is now a days.

If you do plan to use the dealership for the lifetime oil changes, chances are they'll fill you with Blend again. So, if you do that 500-1000 mile change on your own, you'll want to use the Blend as well, so you're not going back and forth.

Ahh good to note! IIRC when I picked it up on Tuesday and got the tour of their shop, they stated they use full syn... But I'll definitely confirm before I pick up any oil. I'm kicking myself right now because I was planning on being much more of a PITA when I got the tour (like asking to see their bulk oil containers, where they dispose of it, etc.) just to show then that I'm not a soccer mom and give a s***. LOL! Well, I can always be pesky (but polite! ) when i go back in there.

 

[Rawyzf]

LOL, show them who's the boss

If they use Full Synthetic, that'd be amazing and cool. Otherwise, you can just ask what the upcharge is onto of the Free Oil Change and just pay that. I did that with my G8 while it was under warranty, and just paid $25 to upgrade to Synthetic. Of course, the G8 took 8.8qts per change.

 

[xxxmonoxidechil]

Ive already had a new transfer case installed on my 2013 cx9. But it ended up not even being the problem. Which was the bearings in the rear end. Guess im the first failure there according to my dealership. At least i got the updated transfer case for free before my warranty ran out. lol

The good thing for you is your 2014 should already have the updated new transfer case. So hopefully with quality fluid, and routine fluid changes, yours will be trouble free. I know for me the AWD was something that made the CX9 a option in the first place. I deal with snow/winter the better part of half the year.

 

[voldsom]

Ive already had a new transfer case installed on my 2013 cx9. But it ended up not even being the problem. Which was the bearings in the rear end. Guess im the first failure there according to my dealership. At least i got the updated transfer case for free before my warranty ran out. lol

The good thing for you is your 2014 should already have the updated new transfer case. So hopefully with quality fluid, and routine fluid changes, yours will be trouble free. I know for me the AWD was something that made the CX9 a option in the first place. I deal with snow/winter the better part of half the year.

Hey monoxide, any way to know if it has this "updated transfer case"? The date of mfg was 02/2014 (guess it sat in the show room for a while)...

 

[voldsom]

Figured I'd just keep this updated:

~Running up to 500 miles now. Ordered Castrol EDGE 5w-20 full syn (6qts) and a Motorcraft FL400S filter from Amazon. 38 bucks total, prime shipping. Figured I'd keep the oil filter in the ford family, and this thing was cheap with really good reviews (go figure?!). Planning on doing a oil change this coming weekend most likely. I'm hoping they didn't crank the crap out of the stock filter... But they probably over-tightened it.

~Ordered TPMS sensors to go into my Enkei RSF5 17x7.5" ET50 wheels for a possible winter set. Will probably get those mounted with Blizzak DM-V1's to the extra wheels end of this week (to avoid Thanksgiving/Black Friday crap). I doubt the tires will go below the $140/each they are right now for P245/65R17. Probably won't put them on until ~December I should think, as we are in for decent weather the next couple of weeks

~Went through and LED swapped what I could. Did my strip light/puddle light mod for the courtesy lights and I really am happy. Idk why all cars don't come with this. $15 bucks in material and 30 minutes of my time (to do it cleanly) and it looks factory. Waiting on overhead/vanity bulbs until VLEDs does a Black Friday sale. I have some ideas for severely boosting the tailgate output too

~Factory roof rails came in, but waiting for nice (i.e. not brittle plastic breaking) weather to throw them on.

~Thinking about making a build thread, even though my mods aren't very extreme. Maybe will just keep positing here...

Cheers! (drinks)

 

[xxxmonoxidechil]

Hey monoxide, any way to know if it has this "updated transfer case"? The date of mfg was 02/2014 (guess it sat in the show room for a while)...

I can ask my service writer if he knows exactly when they crossed over. Mine has a build date of Sept 2012. So its an older 2013.

 

[voldsom]

I can ask my service writer if he knows exactly when they crossed over. Mine has a build date of Sept 2012. So its an older 2013.

Thanks man! That would be awesome info, just to know more about the vehicle. Do you know if there are any identification numbers on it, like the engine and chassis have?