I have a 6 year old CX-5 which recently decided to do an emergency stop when doing 70mph on a busy main road. Is this a known problem as it scared the life out of me and luckily I avoided all the on-coming lorries as i skidded? Unless I can get an answer I cannot trust the car on a busy road ever again. A warning message flashed up afterwards 'SCBS Forward Malfunction'.

 

Best get it looked at by your Dealer.

 

Hundreds of thousands of CX-5 drivers never experience this type of malfunction, but it is not unheard of, see the links below. What was the weather like - rain, fog? Was there smoke or debris on the roadway? Was the windscreen clean and clear or fogged up? These could lead to a warning light, but it is probably best to visit the dealer ASAP. Or you can always just turn it off.

https://mazda.custhelp.com/app/answe...EyWllRJTIxJTIx

https://cararac.com/blog/smart-city-...solutions.html

 

My Grand Cherokee did this intermittently when I first got it. I thought that it was picking up overpasses and that the unit need recalibration or aiming, but that didn't help. When I removed the OEM mount for the radar unit to install a Chief Lower Front Guard and used Chief's mount, the problem disappeared. This problems can be very difficult to find and the strangest things seem to cause them.

 

Thanks for the reply, it was a rainy day with a lot of surface spray as you would expect on a major road but not too busy. There was no particular debris, the nearest vehicle in front was c. 200 yards ahead. The windscreen was in continuous wiping mode but not obscured or fogged. The speed dropped immediately from 70 to about 30 before a large bang (like a backfire?) from the transmission and then speed picked up again. Warning messages were then displayed "SCBS Forward Malfunction" and "DPF Malfunction". I then continued the drive as I was 2 hours from home on a very wet and windy day but the auto transmission was rough on changing gear. After i got home and switched off then restarted, the messages were gone and the car drove perfectly.
I have taken it to the nearest Mazda dealer, very slowly as I have lost confidence in the car.
Honest John says that the Mazda 3 was recalled in the US for this fault. My car was the 2016 previous model so the current model may be ok. Thank you for the articles.
How do you turn this sensor off, there is no switch?

 

I don’t own a 2016 UK model, but I can turn my SCBS off in the central MazdaConnect display Settings menu. However this has to be performed after every restart.