I'm hoping the Mazda community can help me here with a couple questions, but first, a little backstory...
This is a 2006 Mazda 5 with the manual transmission, just turned 49,000 miles. I live in Long Beach, CA, and took the family on a driving vacation to Portland, OR. The car was not overloaded (we travel light and the kids are still small... I could still see out the rear window through the mirror) and it performed great on the drive North. Occasional stops, lots of winding roads and zoom-zoom driving, A/C on most of the time. No problems.
Once in Portland we unloaded the car and made occasional excursions. One such trip was up to Mt. St. Helens. Two small girls and two adults, no significant cargo. It was a zoom-zoom drive up the hill with the A/C on. Temp guage never got higher than normal, but by the time we got to the top visitor's center, the engine smelled noticable hot. We were at the center for about 90 minutes, then headed back down the hill. About a third of the way down hill the check engine light comes on. At the time the car had been pretty much coasting in 4th gear with RPM around 3500 for about half an hour, using the engine to keep the car at a good speed with minimal braking. Coolant guage never moved above normal (lower side of the middle). There was no noticable smells or changes in drivability. We continued our journey back to Portland with no problem.
The next morning I checked the fluid levels, both in the radiator and the resevoir. Radiator was full and the resevoir was normal. I took it to a dealer who checked error code and said it was a high temperature warning. He cleared it and all seemed good. Two days later we drove from Portland to the coast... again, some hilly driving, but this time no A/C on. On the way back, again after driving downhill for some time, the check engine light comes on again. Coolant temp guage is normal. I expect it was the same error, but haven't checked it yet (I want to get my own OBDII reader). We drove it all the way back to Long Beach without any incident. Mileage and overall performance was great. We logged a total of 3,214 miles.
With this information comes my two questions:
1. How is it that I can get a high temperature warning but not see the coolant temp guage move a tick from normal?
2. Does Mazda used its own specific OBDII codes or generic codes? In researching OBD code readers I've learned that there are GM and Ford specific codes in addition to generic codes. I was wondering if there were Mazda specific codes, or if perhaps Mazda used Ford's codes. I want to make sure I'm getting the right tool.
Any assistance on diagnosing this problem would be great!
This is a 2006 Mazda 5 with the manual transmission, just turned 49,000 miles. I live in Long Beach, CA, and took the family on a driving vacation to Portland, OR. The car was not overloaded (we travel light and the kids are still small... I could still see out the rear window through the mirror) and it performed great on the drive North. Occasional stops, lots of winding roads and zoom-zoom driving, A/C on most of the time. No problems.
Once in Portland we unloaded the car and made occasional excursions. One such trip was up to Mt. St. Helens. Two small girls and two adults, no significant cargo. It was a zoom-zoom drive up the hill with the A/C on. Temp guage never got higher than normal, but by the time we got to the top visitor's center, the engine smelled noticable hot. We were at the center for about 90 minutes, then headed back down the hill. About a third of the way down hill the check engine light comes on. At the time the car had been pretty much coasting in 4th gear with RPM around 3500 for about half an hour, using the engine to keep the car at a good speed with minimal braking. Coolant guage never moved above normal (lower side of the middle). There was no noticable smells or changes in drivability. We continued our journey back to Portland with no problem.
The next morning I checked the fluid levels, both in the radiator and the resevoir. Radiator was full and the resevoir was normal. I took it to a dealer who checked error code and said it was a high temperature warning. He cleared it and all seemed good. Two days later we drove from Portland to the coast... again, some hilly driving, but this time no A/C on. On the way back, again after driving downhill for some time, the check engine light comes on again. Coolant temp guage is normal. I expect it was the same error, but haven't checked it yet (I want to get my own OBDII reader). We drove it all the way back to Long Beach without any incident. Mileage and overall performance was great. We logged a total of 3,214 miles.
With this information comes my two questions:
1. How is it that I can get a high temperature warning but not see the coolant temp guage move a tick from normal?
2. Does Mazda used its own specific OBDII codes or generic codes? In researching OBD code readers I've learned that there are GM and Ford specific codes in addition to generic codes. I was wondering if there were Mazda specific codes, or if perhaps Mazda used Ford's codes. I want to make sure I'm getting the right tool.
Any assistance on diagnosing this problem would be great!
