The Repair/Shop Manual for the 21 CX-5 refers to an Oil Cooler attached to the Oil Filter Body (see attached Word File). First of all, can I
assume this is std. on the 2.5L Engine whether naturally aspirate or turbo?

Secondly, the language in the manual goes on to describe the Oil Cooler reducing the AT Fluid Temperature. I don't get that unless they are talking about a separate AT Cooler that comes with the 2.5 Liter Engine/Transmission.

Can someone help me on these two points? Thank you, Reuben Vabner

 

I don't know about the oil cooler but the autotrans gets cooled via plumbing from the radiator. Coolant from the rad is piped into the trans for the purpose of cooling. This is why an ATF cooler is problematic. The ATF isn't piped out from the trans, but coolant is piped in from the radiator.

 

IRRC the oil cooler is part of the turbo package. The turbo gets pretty hot and that puts extra
stress on the oil.
The radiator has the transmission cooler in the 'cold' side. T fluid is pumped through that to keep
transmission fluid at a reasonable temp.

My 2¢

 

The Turbocharger does generate higher OIL temperature's during boost level ( (about 7+psi boost and greater) generally produced during hard acceleration or a long hard pull with a load or up a hill. Not really during normal driving. The engine oil will not exceed the normal and designed operating temperature because the ECU will control aspects of the engine operation including the boost of the Turbocharger. The coolers are generally from the engine and not directly from the radiator, so they are the same temperature as the water coolant temperature reading on the gauge or monitors. Couple things to note.... the location of the sensor for the transmission temperature does not give the pan fluid temperature. When comparing the transmission temperature to the engine oil temperature they are rarely different. I have a sensor in the transmission pan and have seen spike and long raises in the transmission temperature, while still withing what would be considered ok and safe operating temperatures of the transmission I never like running so close to HOT. So, I have an aftermarket fluid cooler which keeps my transmission temperature well with a GREEN safe zone of operation. No matter what the inductive system during any engine uses other than normal daily driving a installation of an aftermarket transmission and even a engine oil cooler is a good idea.
One other thing installing a separate transmission coolant temperature gauge is far better than using the OEM for monitoring the fluid temperatures.

Engine full synthetic oil used in most every production engine can protect a Supercharged or Turbocharged engine much better then Non synthetic oil of the past. The ECU programming also protects the engine form extreme operating condition that would normally destroy Turbochargers and engine. Data logging several ECU operations during normal and performance driving including operating at higher boost levels can easily verify the information I posted.

 

Thank you. That is unusual in my limited past experience. I am used to the trans fluid being pumped out to a section of the radiator, being cooled there, and then returning to the transmission after cooling. The method you describe is "bringing the Mountain to Mohammed", whatever that expression actually meant. I will have to look that one up.

Interested if anyone knows if the oil cooler bit is std. on all new CX-5s or just Turbos. Further, I will look in the Service Manual and see if I can find where they describe the ATF cooling process that you describe. I thank you, Sir.

 

Thank you Dennis. I was hoping I had the oil cooler on the 2.5L NA, but I guess I was asking for too much.

Also, the previous reply from '16.5' describes a different ATF cooling flow. Not looking to start a ruckus but wondering which is correct. Thanks to both of you for responding. Reuben

 

Thank you Callisto!! You are the best!! Question on after-market ATF coolers (and you may be saying the same thing), I am of the belief that you can get an ATF cooler with a thermostat on the incoming hose/pipe that only lets the ATF fluid through the Cooler when temps exceed a certain level. So, you don't interfere with warm-up, and, in the Winter, you are not cooling your ATF fluid. Is that accurate? Thank you. Reuben

P.S. By the way, isn't ATF the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms? An agency not beloved by some of our Citizens? I wonder if they manufacture ATF fluid?

 

Also if authorized by MAZDA the ECU PIDs effected by the operating temperature's.

The inherent problem is that the built-in transmission cooler in the radiator where not as efficient as separate from the engine coolant because the radiated heat from the coolant had a strong effect on the efficiency of those type of transmission coolers. This is why for best cooling when using an addition cooler was to by-pass the factory radiator transmission cooler.
You will find it is routed through the engine not the radiator. If you locate your cooler, you can easily see the inlet and outlet hose routing going back away from the radiator. Thos hoses can be used to install a aftermarket cooler or bypasses the OEM completely and using a better and more efficient aftermarket transmission cooler. It not normally possible to run to cool a transmission fluid because of the how a automatic transmission operates which is nothing like the engine when producing heat.

Ultimately what is your goal or what do you want to upgrade be having to do with engine and transmission operating temperature's? While I would always suggest a larger or improved transmission cooler for performance and heavy towing, I have not read anywhere the newer Skyactiv 2.5 engines CX5 model even used in towing having issues with completely stock systems?

 

ATF= Automatic Transmission Fluid.
Sorry I have been using a new grammar program because of so many complaints and remarks about my spelling sentence structure and so on. On forums if I make a valid point and debate with another member often times, they resort to insulting me on my writing skills or lack off, which generally means I am hitting a nerve and making valid points unarguable with empirical data or information.
FYI I am still not the best at authoring responses. lol

The transmission IMHO based on years of experience and also testing my own MAZDA 2.5 Skyactiv engine and also reading ECU data log, the transmission does IMHO run hotter than I personally would like. The use of a temperature control fluid thermostat is not going to affect the warmup cycle of the engine and may only challenge the use and effectiveness of an aftermarket transmission cooler? It is after all still getting radiated heat from the engine and it is the engine that goes through the warmup cycle which for the ECU is about 3-5 minutes btw. By then you are off the open loop ECU starting warm up cycle.


Below is a single gauge but I run 3 sensors to monitor the engine temperatures and transmission temperatures. I can switch between the sensors to see their value and I also run a on the dash ECU monitor plugged into the OBDII and set viewing pages to monitor and compare things like ECU temperatures vs aftermarket sensors and reported temperatures.

 

The above bolded section is incorrect. Transmission fluid is NOT pumped through this system, it's coolant from the radiator that gets pumped through. If it was trans fluid adding a trans cooler would be MUCH easier.