I was a service technician for a while at Mazda and the reason why this has been happening is because there are two factories where the cars are made (Japan and Mexico) and there was a bad batch of aluminum heads and now its causing every engine with the bad head to crack by the last head stud next to cylinder 4. If you're engine isnt hurt we just put a new aluminum cylinder head on the engine and swap over cams and rockers

 

So where do the bad heads originate from, Mexico or Japan factory. I might be buying a 2018 CX5 soon for parents. I will be getting a Mazda CPO, with 100k miles powertrain warranty. I would think that should cover this issue if it creeps up?

 

they come from the Mexico factory and the 100k will definitely cover it. It usually occurs within the 40k-50k

 

Thanks for the reply. I will look to see where the cars I'm interested in are built. Very few Japanese cars are still built in Japan. Mazda is the only one that I know of that still manufactures the bulk of their cars in Japan.

 

Those that have had this issue, can you please confirm the origin of you car...was it made in Japan or Mexico?

thanks

 

Update on my CX5

So i dropped it off May 28th. It's still in the shop. I called yesterday and the dude told me they are going to have to now order a new camshaft (why didn't they know this in the first place) so i'll probably have to wait another month for that to come in. Once it's fixed and i finally get it back i'm going to be selling it and getting the new 2022 Lexus NX because there's no way the engine will be normal after all of this.

 

When ready to sell, check out carvana and carmax. Seems like they are paying top dollar for newer cars.

Can't go wrong with a Lexus. If you can afford it, they are great cars. Its a stretch for most people though.

 

Can't blame you. Over 4 years now with my CX-5 (2017 GT AWD) and I've been impressed. It's not perfect but if Mazda has a decent electric vehicle in 3-4 years, I might be interested.
I considered a Lexus NX but back in '17 the NX was easily 10k more and still missing features I enjoy in my CX-5.

 

Was on my way to Disneyland with the family on our day off and noticed white smoke billowing over my windshield. At first I thought it was from the car in front of me, but no, it was my car burning oil from under the hood. Soon the cabin filled with smoke at the stop light just 1 mile away from the DIsney parking structure. Naturally the kids ignored the smoke and pretended like nothing was wrong but I knew this was going to bad. Anytime you smell/see that much burning oil you can't ignore it and so I pulled over and popped the hood. I looked inside and saw splashed oil on the back side of the engine (everything was wet from oil) but it was difficult to see where it originated from. From there we cancelled our day at the park and headed straight for the Mazda dealer. Dropped the car off and two hours later I got the video recording from the service tech capturing the cylinder head leak. Now they need to contact the Mazda "hotline" to walk them through a detailed inspection. They may decide to replace just the head or completely swap the engine...TBD. What a crappy day. Only 16.4k miles on the CX5 and not even 2 years of ownership. I don't want this vehicle anymore and don't want anything to do with Mazda going forward. Trust has been broken due to a defective product despite the fact that its still under warranty. The service people knew damn well this was something not out of the ordinary.

 

First I have heard of it on a '19. Sorry to hear it.