CX-5 oil problem advice urgently needed
 

Hello forum,

I own a 2012 CX-5, 2.2. diesel with about 116Kms on clock. I am on holiday in New Zealand's South Island (some mountainous roads) with my family towing a 1.5 ton caravan (Bailey Senator caravan. CX-5 diesel tow max is 1.8 ton). I have owned the car for about a year & towed this caravan without issue a number of times.

About a month ago our CX-5 broke down on the motorway when the red oil & yellow engine lights came on & it suddenly lost all power. It was towed to dealer who said it was 5 months over service & the oil had gone putrid. They removed base of engine, cleaned it all out & replaced the oil- 8.5 hours labour. To safeguard, I got 3 years mechanical warranty insurance. No issues since.

I left for our holiday towing the caravan on Boxing Day & drove 940kms to South Island over a few days. No issues. Then the yellow engine light came on when i wasn't towing. I pulled over, turned off the engine, restarted & it went away so i guessed it was a glitch.
The next day I was towing when the engine light came on again. With no loss of power, no red oil light & being in the middle of nowhere I pressed on & drove another 180kms to the closest city. I took it to a garage & the mechanic accidentally wiped the diagnostic error codes instead of reading them! With no data he guessed it might be overheating so suggested I used manual gears not auto when on hills.
I drove again, and the yellow engine & red oil lights returned when going manual up hills during the next 230kms journey. It limited power & I lost turbo acceleration but it chugged on ok. I went to another garage & diagnostic codes were:
P06DE (engine oil pressure control circuit stuck on)
P055F (engine oil pressure out of range) x2
P117A (engine oil over temperature- forced limited power)
They said the oil level was over the X mark, so they drained it to the max level & reset codes. Oil was still good from service. On test drive high revs on inclines (not towing) engine light come on & I lost power again. P055F registered again. Garage advised probably a faulty pressure sensor & would need several days to get part & replace. They believed now oil level correct should be fine to drive so I pressed on.
The next 57kms (towing) were stressful- yellow & red lights came on soon into drive & I got very low speeds on slight inclines. Visited a third garage & they agreed probably faulty sensor but I was advised not to go further as mountains ahead. I left the car with them.

The garage have run tests & found the oil pressure sensor to be damaged. Replaced it with Mazda part.
However, the big problem is this: the oil pump is stuck (closed?) meaning the oil pressure is more than double what it should be, even when idle (3.4 bars?). They cannot fix the pump & recommend getting it to a Mazda dealer, 318kms away.

What I need advise on is this: Can I drive it to the Mazda dealer? Towing it & the caravan that far will cost me a fortune (not covered by warranty). It's made it this far with a faulty sensor, now that that's fixed, will it make the journey to the dealer ok (towing)?
Also reading the above, can anyone spot any common problems or easy fixes or offer anything else that might be helpful? It's been such a stress & ongoing bugbear on our holiday. We've had to abandon the caravan & hire a car; now I'm going to have to leave it in south island, book a flight home & fly back & collect another time :(

The 2.2 SH diesel engine is known for poor reliability. Unfortunately, regarding the fault codes you have, in my experience working for a Mazda dealer in Queensland, the engine is toast. I would suggest getting it towed to a Mazda Dealer ASAP.

I'm based in OZ so I'm not sure on Mazda NZs policy on these dodgy engines.( I did work for Mazda in south Auckland, but moved to OZ in 2013)
( we replace 1 every 2 or 3 weeks ) ( Mazda OZ knows they are bad & will usually cover them, even outside of the 3 yr warranty)

I wouldn't mention towing the caravan to Mazda, not that's an issue, but its something for them to potentially blame. How good & regular is its service history? Do you get it serviced by Mazda?

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Good luck to you.

P.S I grew up on the North Shore, Forrest Hill to be exact.

Update
 

Thanks Grim_Reaper.
Your name does you justice in this instance.

To update you, I did not drive the car any further. It was towed to a Mazda dealer in Oamaru & I flew home instead, needing to fly back in a week or two when the work is complete. I am yet to hear Mazda's diagnosis. It is expected they will replace the pump & tell me all is well.
Good (sort of) to hear from a Mazda expert that these cars are notoriously dodgy- I may decide to sell once all resolved.

As for service history, i mentioned at the start of the thread that it went about 5 months over service & broke down due to oil. We bought it Dec 2017 having just been serviced, never serviced it ourselves & it broke down Nov 2018. It was towed to the dealership (not Mazda) who said the oil had gone putrid. They took the base out of engine, cleaned it all out & replaced oil. Took 8.5 hours. My guess is they damaged the sensor in the process (it was bent) & didn't spot the pump was jammed or at least clogging up. I can't see the current oil problems being totally new if everything was sorted properly a month before.

Do you have an update on this issue you had mate? I am currently experiencing similar with my 6 2015 2.2 diesel, although not as bad (yet). Hoping to get on top of it before it gets any worse.

Cheers

There should be a recall being launched in the UK & Europe right about now on these engines. Have you spoken to Mazda UK?

I hate to break it to you Andrew, but it was a complete mess. As a non-mechanic & it being many months ago now, what I remember went something like this... the oil gets diluted by diesel when there's a problem with it. 1 of the 4 (fuel injectors...? something costing $600 each) was broken, which somehow prevented oil from circulating properly & caused too much diesel to dilute the oil... which made the oil too thin & the level too high & before you know it everything is buggered. The real kicker after replacing basically everything oil related was the turbo was found to be shot as well- the bearings had worn out due to lack of oil & had to be completely replaced. All told it cost me $12,000 NZD plus extra accommodation, flights & so on while out of action.
As a second hand vehicle from 2015 there was no warranty but fortunately I had mechanical insurance... but that only covered the first $5,000. After that it was on me.

My advice if you keep it, would be to get the oil changed every 6 months. That's what my mechanic advised- he said the oil system is way too fickle (something about Mazda trying to make the diesel engine behave like a petrol engine) to leave it unchecked regularly. I found the oil light came on again after 5 months!

Hi grim reaper, Wondering if you still work around Mazdas? We have a SH30275428 in our 2013 Mazda 6 and it is doing similar to this post. Have you heard if Mazda covers these motors and how hard it is to get them to replace the motor? It is being towed to a mazda dealer.
Any information will be greatly appreciated

Replied via PM.

Hi All

I have similar issue, (not at the moment ), i have used engine shampoo recently after couple hundred km later i went to Geelong and on the way back on the red lights, oil light came up. i have pulled over and stopped engine. then started again after 5 mins later. no light came up. i drove the car back to home. this time Master light came up.

i have scanned the codes, the codes was

P06DE, P055F, P117A, accidentally i have clean the codes. since then i have no issues, i am checking oil pressure is okay but i decide to booked my car for inspection to Mazda Dealer. i have been told as they have no error codes that they cannot do anything :). i can see carbon deposits from the oil tap on rocker cover. Do you guys know if Mazda covering engine and changing?

Thanks

By you deleting the codes, they have nothing to report to head office.

You will need to wait for the codes to return. Until then, you won't get any assistance.