Hey everyone,

Let me start off by saying I get that this is a Dad car essentially and I’ve seen some cosmetic mods I can do to my CX-5 but I was wondering if there’s any type of performance mods you can do to the CX-5. Primarily was looking at some smaller stuff like cold air intake and potentially a nice sounding exhaust or anything else y’all know of being able to do to this vehicle. Through my searching I haven’t been able to find a whole lot of stuff to do to it.

2019 Mazda Touring CX-5 2.5L

 

There are no true cold air intakes for the 2.5 N/A. But CAI offered all sound great.
Realistically speaking there is very little a DIY or most don't want to budget for.
The exhaust system offered as far as I have seen are like the CAI they all sound great but you would be hard pressed to get the needle to show an improvement on a properly set up Dyno test. Unfortunately no one really did their home work to find out what may actually work and IMHO assembled available exhaust component's and called it their Performance systems.

Things that may improve your performance output slightly better are running a .042 gap on your spark plugs. Running only 91+ octane fuel. Heat cover/Lining you factory air box to keep the IAT as cool as possible. The best is no more then +10f-15F above the ambient.
All that may get you what the factory claims the power rating is.

Now if you want to spend some money and go higher then the factory power there are a few things you can consider?

 

Okay thank you for the detailed response. I was looking at something simple as far as modding the vehicle goes, I think the only major things I was looking at doing is the CAI and possibly the exhaust depending on how it sounds after the CAI. I found the ones listed on corksport and wanted thoughts on this or if I should even add a CAI to this specific vehicle.

other things I wanted to do would include a interior lighting kit and window tinting.

any other recommendations or thoughts or additions cosmetic or otherwise are welcome!

 

The CorkSport CAI is very nice and the customer service is second to none. But their CAI will increase your IATs and ultimately for normal driving lower your power. The problem is once you build under hood temperatures it heats up all the air under the hood. That air is what your are pulling into the engine,. When that happens the ECU will adjust operating perimeters to compensate, this will decrease the torque and horsepower.

All the exhaust systems offered sound slightly different. Remember to find out what the muffler is when comparing video representations of sound. A muffler that has fiber components will effectively become louder over a few thousand miles. Once they break in that is generally the sound level they should have for the next few years. Ads are new muffler that are not yet broke in. Ads that sell on larger diameter are forgetting to mention that when you increase the ID of an exhaust at lower engine speeds the exhaust will cool to fast and you lose some low end power. The slight gains in power increase are generally at the upper limits of the RPM range. Also a larger ID exhaust you may also lose a little MPG.
Cosmetic is a personal preference. Here is my link to my 2018 Mazda 3 there are many things you can likely do similar to your CX5?
https://www.mazdaforum.com/forum/maz...like-do-44018/

 

CAI and exhaust add minimal power, just sound; that’s important to some owners. The turbo models do have tuners which add noticeable power but there is nothing credible for the NA engine. As for cosmetic mods, depending on the body color darker window tint is popular. Flashier wheels and wider tyres will add a lot of curb appeal, but of course not cheap. Painting the factory wheels is cheap but can be striking.

An old thread but still good. https://www.mazdaforum.com/forum/maz...d-cx-5s-29517/

 

[QUOTE=Callisto;197121]T
Things that may improve your performance output slightly better are running a .042 gap on your spark plugs. /QUOTE]

Could you please elaborate? Im using a smooth bore intake hose and drop in dry filter so far. What if any improvement could be had by improving the flow of air thru the air box by reducing the space inside?

 

[QUOTE=BA CX5;197415]Not sure where any member said to REDUCE your "AIR-BOX" inside space (volume)??
I gave suggested a spark plug gap as you can see in the quote you captured?

But your "smooth bore intake hose" really does nothing to improve anything...... once the intake charge goes into the intake manifold the turbulence of air pretty much remains all the way to the intake port on the head. And a dry filter not sure what your are suggesting ? Air filter material and how they perform vary and mostly how ell they perform is based somewhat on what they intended to be used for. My personal preference has always been K&N first whenever possible. I actually have both a dry and a wet (oiled) air filter on my MAZDA 3 intake system.

Oh and the MYTH about K&N filter not as good as some other brands air filters, well K&N still has an open invitation for any air filter company to challenge their air filter with K&N. Most decline to the open and public challenge and remain in the closet with claiming their air filters are better performing then K&N. Check out K&N Historical and ongoing Filter challenge

 

I was asking about the gaping of the sparkplugs...

 

Oh ok I only read what you said and responded from that.

The coil only has a finite output in which most of that energy is used up between 2200- 2400 RPM's. The efficiently of the piston and head design in a Skyactiv engine utilizes the best fuel air intake and the gearing of the transmission at 65 MPH keeps the RPM under 3000 RPM. The coils output and duration are maxed out suppling spark plug energy release by the coil. This is the down side of stock coils they just do not have a good spark duration so around town, city or stop and go you often will use the full output of the coil and so with a short spark duration reducing the spark plug gap allows less coil energy to produce a better spark plug kernal to ignite the air fuel mixture.

What I have found through testing various spark plug gaps and watching the diagnostic performance which is called a WAVE PATTERN on an ossicscope is the best gap for a skyactiv engine is .041-.043. So I generally just say .042.

 

Unfortunately, there aren't a whole lot of performance mods that you can do to the CX-5. A cold air intake and a nice sounding exhaust are about all you can really do. There may be some other small modifications that you can do, but nothing that will really improve performance significantly.