Hello all,

This is my first post. I am from the UK and I live in Germany and in July I bought a 1 owner , full service history 2006,Mazda 5' 2.0L diesel. The car is great apart from what I think sounds like cheap suspension which is a bit clunky compared to my Subaru Forester Turbo. Anyway that isnt my real gripe..
About 2 weeks ago the first icy night I noticed a loudish noise from the engine bay/ bottom of motor when stopped at lights after a few minutes of driving. It sounds like a heater box going full power underneath my car close to front wheel (front right when sitting inside). I got out with my torch and it smelled a bit of diesel and fumes put together.
I drove a bit further until the water temp was at normal and checked again. It had a sound of an electirc fan aswell down there somewhere. I didnt have the heater on to make sure it wasnt that and it comes from down low as if its from a catalysor box or something. I turned the motor off and it gradually subsided like when a turbine is switched off and the sound of an electric fan was still running for about 1 minute afterwards.
i then started the motor again and it wasnt there.
Since then it happens all of the time so I checked by not stopping on the 30 minute drive to work which includes 10 minutes autobahn ( no speed limits) where I normaly drive around 85 mph. When I arrive at work there is no sign of the noises or electric fan anymore. Has anyone experienced this before?? It was just serviced the day before bought it, and runs fine.. all of the services have been done by Mazda by the former owner, but that doesnt mean all that much to me reallY..
Is this some sort of system to get the particle filter or the cat to the right temp???

I thank anyone in advance who can help..

cheers..

Fonz

 

Hey Fonz!! Welcome to MF!!
Were you aware that we used to have a television hero (character) by that name back in the mid-late 70's?
Sorry to say we don't yet have the diesel engines in the USA, but I can/could guess it has to do with either the catalytic converter cycling, or as you suggested, the "blue" fluid to reduce emissions.
Apart from that, it could be the intercooler is mounted low and requires it's own electric fan? As with the radiator cooling fan, it doesn't come on when the car is started, but will stay on for a bit after the ignition is turned off. That's just a guess though....?
If you bought it from a dealer and this continues to be an unanswered question, I'd suggest asking them about it. Or, perhaps someone a little geographically closer to you that has a diesel might just chime in with a perfectly good explanation.

 

As for the suspension its basically the same set-up that Euro Ford and Volvo have been using in a number of models for a number of years now. Just the tuning is a bit different. Same chassis as the Euro spec Focus from my understanding.

 

Thanks for the reply..yeah I used to watch Happy Days when I was young..my dog is called Fonz...I will try and check at a Mazda garage when I can, or maybe some comes up with another idea. I cant see it being the intercooler as that is normally needed when the engine warms up fr the turbo , I think...as it goes off when the motor has been running a while..

cheers all..

 

You are smelling/hearing in the auxill. heater.

As you live in Ger. I assume you can speak lang.

Use google.de for webasto zuheizer Mazda 5. There is info here Mazda5 Forum

You can learn all about the needs for aux engine heating in modern diesels.