Hi Ribbs,

Do you mind letting me know if your second gasket failure was within a warranty period as a result of the previous repair or out of warranty but being honoured in good faith?

I'm curious as we had our engine rebuilt in June of 2021 under warranty due to the engine recall and our motor blowing. Fast forward to now 2 yrs and 5 months later we have had yet another issue with this car and have a suspected cracked head gasket. Mazda won't commit to saying if they will or won't cover this repair as it is now outside of the two year warranty until we sink almost $1000 into pulling it apart and testing. Just trying to weigh up our options and seeing if anyone else has had the engine go yet again after being fixed due to the recall.

Any help you can offer would be appreciated.

 

​​​​​​There was an "SH Engine" recall on my Mazda CX-5 in 2021, this is on the Mazda NZ recall website. What that means is I do not know, but it was recalled.

 

Recall was inspections and replacing a few small parts.

 

This is my personal opinion of the Skyactive 2.2 Diesel engine. My experiance is Auto Machinist, Diesel Mechanic qualified. Worked on heavy and lighter diesel engines all my life. Overhauling variety of engines in business for myself. Was owner of 2016 CX5 Diesel 2.2 engine. Under warranty had recall for dipstick replacement. When picked up asked what was the issue, was not convinced when told dipstick was marked with an X above the full mark. This meant as soon as the oil level reached the X mark to have oil changed as soon as. Told the person are you saying this must be diesel fuel thats going into the oil ( approx just over a litre to reach that mark) Mazda would be THE ONLY ENGINE MANUFACTURE IN THE WORLD that says its ok to run diesel in the engine oil. By thinning that oil supply you will have problems with components that require a good supply of engine oil. That being Turbo, Crankshaft Big-end Bearings, Camshaft bearing problems. This engine is a Lemon, briefly diesel engines require a Compression Ratio mainly above 16:1 to ignite the fuel squitered in by injectors. Anything less and you will not efficiently ignite that fuel. Mazda runs 14:1 so they now have to come up with ways to ignite that fuel. They have introduced the heat of exhaust gases which have ignited in cylinder by closing off the exhaust valve sooner. This carbons up the intake manifold which contributes to engine failures. I have explained this to Mazda who cannot with what to do about these issues, except to say avoid aroun town running. I have traded it this CX5 for the petrol version.

ONGOING Repair service history

1. February 2018 – 52333kms, “strong smell of fuel
2. September 2018 - 62081kms, “FUEL SMELL abnormal fume smell. please check Carried out inspection, Carried out fuel injector value reset as required.”
3. January 2020 –81461kms, “ENGINE RUNNING ROUGH. Customer advised vehicle had loss of power twiceand has overheated, found no coolant in reservoir.. Carried out head gasket test; all okay. Found coolant leak from the coolant junction box below the intake manifold. Removed and replaced the coolant bypass due to leak. Re-tested coolant system”’.
4. March 2020 – 84202kms, “Was recently in to complete the engine recalls and now Master warning light has come on -Vacuum pump replacement -
5. May 2020 –85455kms, “ONGOING ISSUE WITH ENGINE: losing powervehicle losing power parts have been ordered Checked and found turbo charger assembly to have premature internal failure causing the vehicle to loose power. Removed engine, replaced turbocharger assembly and all relevant gaskets and seals. Re fitted engine,
6. February 2021 – 97376kms, “ONGOING ISSUE WITH ENGINE: losing power inspected and found failure of exhaust pressure sensor.

10. January 2022 - 114,829kms the vehicle COMPLETELY SHUT DOWN with absolutely NO warning, NO LIMP MODE . Vehicle presented with the MIL and Master Warning Light illuminated. Carried out oil pressure test and found a low oil pressure condition. Found a combustion leak from number one injector.

Current

1. 15 June 2023 (16 months later) 145622kms, the vehicle is EXPERIENCING THE SAME power loss issue AGAIN. The vehicle was towed to Mazda Newcastle, they have had the vehicle since this date.

“ENGINE FAULT. INSPECT POSSIBLE COOLING SYSTEM OVER PRESSURISIBNG - HAS HAD COMBUSTION LEAK REPAIR CARRIED OUT PREV AT COFFS MAZDA 2022 - QUOTED $350.00 DAG DEPENDANT ON FISDINGS,
Carried out general inspection and found coolant stains around engine bay.. Completed test for engine combustion gas present in cooling system (TeeKay test) and confirmed.Reported results through to Mazda Au technical assistance. Carried out the removal of engine accessories as required to carry out engine compression test and engine cylinder leakage test. Compression test: 1) 217psi, 2) 290psi, 3)159 psi, 4)203psi.

Mazda will NOT agree to pay for the further investigations.

Please help![/QUOTE]

 

Hi my daughters car has blown the head gasket on the 2.2 motor (CX5) 2016. They are strapped financially. Would it be possible to contact you as they have been quoted 8k by Mazda in Chch

 

Sorry to hear your daughter is having trouble with her 2.2 diesel. With your quote sounds like they must be doing more than the remove cylinder head, surface grind head etc and refit. As i have stated this engine with 14 to 1 comp. ratio means as stated by Mazda they could build the engine light. Aluminium Block and Head like a petrol. (Note; Diesel optimal Comp. ratio 18 to 1. Petrol optimal Comp. ratio 8to1 to 12to 1.) The use of Aluminium in diesel engines that operate under severe stress and temperature conditions is limited. Also note Compression reading for Petrol engine is 125 to 175 psi. 8 to 10 comp. ratio a Diesel is 275 to 400 psi with 15 to 20 comp. ratio. Twice as much as a petrol. That is the reason most Diesels have a cast iron cyl. block and head. In the specs on the 2.2 Skyactive diesel they say because of the 14 to 1 Comp. ratio they are able to save so much weight on the engine. The construction of the cyl. block is all Aluminium with free standing cylinder bores. A normal cylinder block petrol or Diesel lets say is a block of Cast Aluminium or Cast iron. A normal would have the cylinder bores at the block face connected to the outside edge of block. the only interuption being casting holes to allow coolant to suround cylinder bores flow up through these holes matchinh holes in the cylinder head. You have that full support from cylinder bore to outside etge. In the Mazda Diesel they do not have that upper support. In fact there is no connection to outside of block. What you lose there is the suppot/strength of bore and block which takes all the load when the fuel ignites at TDC (Top dead centre) The cylinder bore is cast in with the lower half of the bore in the block. But where the explosion occurs at TDC you do not have that support/strength. In my life time i have seen other engines manufactured this way and generally they have head gasket problems. Take a look on line at Mazda 2.2 cyl. block and the picture willshow what i'm trying to explain. Mazda have stopped the avaliability of this engine. Unfortunately owners suffer and Mazda is walking away with no liability. My CX5 Diesel had only 21000 klm. on it was brought new from local dealer, so they were obliged to take it as a trade on a new vehicle. I tried Turners but it is there policy do not trade Mazda Diesels. On my CX5 they said if forced i would be lucky to get $1000 they may get $3000 for it. Sorry for the drawn out reply but difficult to explain in layman terms. It may be worth a visit to your local engine reconditioners who may suggest a head surface grind then sell the car. They would have experianced this issue i'm sure.

 

I’ve had my CX5 now since January 18, I’ve generally had the car serviced by a Mazda dealer throughout those years.

End of 22, I started to have a few issues, the “Check Engine light” started to flicker on & off, would come on for one or two days then disappear for two/three weeks. Then a couple of times over Xmas 22/NY 23, the Master Warning light would flicker on as well, again, would stay on for a day or two then disappear.

January 23 I booked into a Service @ Mazda discussed the issue, they believed that the Vacuum pump may need to be replaced (Master Warning Light was not lit at that time) but did not know why the Check engine Light was flickering on.

January - July 23 - “Check Engine light” started to flicker on & off, would come on for one or two days then disappear for two/three/four weeks.

July 23 “Check Engine light” came on along with the Oil Warning Light, Oil Warning light disappeared again but Master Warning Light came on and stayed on, along with the Check Engine Light - Booked it in to Mazda for a Service & to investigate.

August 23 - Mazda, investigated and they advised that “Check Engine light” was likely down to whoever completed the Service before, over filled the oil and that was getting into the Diesel. They also confirmed that the Master Warning light diagnostics required the Vacuum pump to be replaced (which was replaced once the part had been ordered & in stock).

October 23 “Check Engine light” came on for 1 day then disappeared again.

December 23 “Check Engine light” came on for 1 day then disappeared again.

December 23 “Check Engine light” came on, then within approximately 30 seconds the Oil light came on, after another 30-45 seconds the car lost all power. As this was over the Xmas period so I got it towed to a local Mechanic who advised that it was likely a Head Gasket and that it may be not worth fixing. After Xmas/NY I booked the car into Mazda, they ran diagnostics and confirmed that it was a Head Gaskett but needed to complete a further investigation costing $1,095 + parts in accordance with Manual IF Po55F to confirm whether it did require a partial engine replacement (head gasket). The team then advised that I was looking at a possible $5-6,000 cost to repair.

Reading through some of the comments in the Forum, it seems this is a common problem and that the initial problem with the oil leaking/seals which the leads to issues with the Vacuum Pump and Head Gasket is well known to Mazda.

This has now left me pretty frustrated with Mazda NZ, my Mazda is well out of Warranty (2014) however we obviously pay a premium to go to Mazda and would expect them to pick up these issues and notify me & resolve them. At the Service back in January 23, when they thought that the Vacuum Pump may need to be replaced, is it being unreasonable for me to think that they should have picked up on this and let me know that there is a general issue with these Engines, which I could have possibly resolved then. Instead of waiting for the Dashboard to light up then blaming the previous Mazda Service Engineer and the engine to blow.

I doubt if I can get any recourse from Mazda but it's left me very frustrated. Repair costs aren't worth it so I can only get scrap money now, after paying out $3,000 this year on servicing, diagnostics and vacuum pump replacement then to have it blow up on me, with Mazda seemingly hiding the issue and leaving me angry and well out of Pocket.

If anyone has got any similar experiences with Mazda please let me know.

Thanks