2017 CX-5 "Flexible" Oil Change Setting

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PVQ

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2017 CX-5 GT AWD w Premium, Soul Red Crystal
Forgive me for "reposting" this question, but I thought it appropriate since the first time I raised it there didn't seem to be many 2017's out there. Since a number of others have taken delivery I thought it might be time to ask again:

My CX-5 is set to "flexible" oil change interval, yet the display is still showing oil change due in 7500 miles. I would have expected that in the "flexible" mode oil life would be displayed as a percentage of oil life remaining. Moreover, the counter has not gone down from 7500 miles. Currently I only have 200 miles on the car, and the countdown is working perfectly for the tire rotation monitor. I tried resetting the Vehicle Maintenance at 50 miles when I first noticed that the "flexible" setting didn't appear to be displaying information correctly, and for the last 150 miles it continues to show 7500 miles until the next oil change.

Is there anyone with a 2017 CX-5 that is displaying oil life in the "flexible" setting as a percentage of life remaining, or that is in the "flexible" setting and whose mileage to the next change is moving downward?

I'm wondering is perhaps you need to drive a minimum number of miles before the engine can calibrate or something like that before it converts over to a percentage of oil life remaining reading or something like that?

Thanks in advance for your answers.
 
For my 2016 CX-5 the flexible maintenance interval on oil change does show "%" of oil life left. But for new 2nd-gen CX-9 and CX-5 the Owner's Manual indicates flexible OCI would show km or mile instead. Since for 2017 CX-5 the maximum flexible OCI is now up to 7,500 miles or 12 months instead of up to 10,000 miles or 12 months for 2016, the Maintenance Monitor is showing 7,500 miles after you did the reset is correct. 150 ~ 200 miles after the reset, your Maintenance Monitor is still displaying 7,500 mikes on oil life without decreasing like tire rotation monitor which suggests the programming logic in PCU is still base on percentage, hence 100% converting to miles would still display 7,500 miles as for 150 miles of driving the oil life still have 100% of oil life left! I believe you'll see chunks of miles dropping after more miles driven. Yeah, I definitely prefer old way displaying percentage of oil life left than confusing miles!

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Thank you for your thoughts "yrwel52". Respectfully Ive read and re-read the manual and its not clear to me that its actually SUPPOSED to express the oil life in flexible setting in mileage as opposed to a percentage, but its comforting to know that others in 2nd Gen cars are behaving similarly. I'm primarily trying to ascertain whether or not something is wrong with MY vehicle. If they are all doing it, I'm sure eventually Mazda will sort it out and correct it with an update because expressing the flexible setting in mileage is ridiculous IMHO....hopefully at the same time they finally install Apple CarPlay!
 
PVQ said:
Thank you for your thoughts "yrwel52". Respectfully Ive read and re-read the manual and its not clear to me that its actually SUPPOSED to express the oil life in flexible setting in mileage as opposed to a percentage, but its comforting to know that others in 2nd Gen cars are behaving similarly. I'm primarily trying to ascertain whether or not something is wrong with MY vehicle. If they are all doing it, I'm sure eventually Mazda will sort it out and correct it with an update because expressing the flexible setting in mileage is ridiculous IMHO....hopefully at the same time they finally install Apple CarPlay!
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Compare to the wordings between 2016 and 2017 Owner's Manuals, you'll see Mazda does mean displaying km/mile instead of percentage on oil life left under Flexible OCI for 2017 MY. Yeah I also hope Mazda will feature Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as promised in the near feature for US customers!

2016:
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2017:
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2016 Mazda CX-5 Owner's Manual Flexible OCI.jpg 2017 Mazda CX-5 Owner's Manual Flexible OCI.jpg
 
Thank you SOOOOOO MUCH....for clearing that up!!!! NOW I get it!!! I still thinks its ridiculous....but now I understand. I had no context without going back to the older manual.
 
I also believe Mazda should use previous percentage instead mile for oil life left. The new way is very confusing for the customers! Sometimes the updates don't mean they're better! :) Please report back your Flexible OCI display is losing chucks of miles after you're driving more miles like I predicted earlier.
 
yrwei52 said:
Please report back your Flexible OCI display is losing chucks of miles after you're driving more miles like I predicted earlier.
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I will....but be advised in general I drive my personal vehicle less than 100 miles a week since I have a car for work....so it may be a while
 
People are annoyed by the silliest things. Why is a mileage setting "ridiculous"? I don't get it.

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I don't even have a oil change monitor. The monitoring is what my mileage says in relation to the sticker in the windshield (lol)
 
CX-5um said:
I save all my maintenance/repairs data unto an Excel Sheet.
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I should put mine in excel...

I sort of just have my folder with all my receipts/paperwork for oil changes/tire rotations/repairs etc.
 
At the same time I posted on this board, I submitted my question to Mazda Customer Care. Here is the response I received:
Dear Peter,

Thank you for contacting Mazda's Customer Experience Center.

Yes, you are correct: after an oil change is performed, the remaining oil life should be displayed with a percentage. The vehicle should then let you know when an oil change is due by illuminating the wrench indicator light in the instrument cluster. I recommend visiting your local authorized Mazda dealership to ensure your vehicle is currently in the Flexible setting, not fixed.

I tend to think that “yrwei52” is correct based on the updated manuals and that Customer Care (with all due respect) may have been working from an old manual. In any event, I’m going to wait and see if the mileage goes down as “yrwei52” suspects.

As to “7eregrine” ’s question about why (IMHO) representing the amount of time left on the flexible setting as mileage and not a percentage is ridiculous...it seems counterintuitive....didn’t mean to offend.
 
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Not offended. Personally I never trusted those "oil quality meter" things on any car. I prefer mileage instead of some weird algorithm going on in the background. Lol

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If you go by flexi option - it will ask you to change oil after 10-12K miles. Too optimistic - I would not wait beyond 8k Miles.
 
7eregrine said:
Personally I never trusted those "oil quality meter" things on any car. I prefer mileage instead of some wierd algorithm going in in the background. Lol

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Honestly I sort of agree with you. My general practice is to try and go six months/7500 miles on synthetic oil, but I almost never have 7500 miles in six months and I change it regardless. I am interested in seeing what the “car” thinks. I do more short trips than I would like....maybe it will tell me to change in 2500 miles....who knows.
 
Aha. Doing it for testing purposes. My inner nerd approves. HAHA
 
Kaps said:
If you go by flexi option - it will ask you to change oil after 10-12K miles. Too optimistic - I would not wait beyond 8k Miles.
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When the first time I started using Flexible OCI on my 2000 BMW 528i, it does have the maximum upper limit set to 18,000 miles! Of course it won't be that long the count-down 5-bar system will tell you changing the oil, at about 10,000 ~ 12,000 miles like you said. But I never waited that long to change oil, usually at 5,000 ~ 7,000 miles or 1 year with full synthetic oil and reset the Flexible counter.

For 2016 Mazda CX-5, the Flexible OCI has the maximum upper limits set at 10,000 miles or 12 months. It won't pass that before the oil change wrench indicator shows up. For 2017 CX-5 the upper limits on Flexible OCI is 7,500 miles or 12 months. From my experience on CX-5's Flexible system for 19K miles and 2+ years, I usually get 30% oil life left at about 5K ~ 6K miles with all city driving, and that's the time for me to change oil with Mazda moly.
 
PVQ said:
Honestly I sort of agree with you. My general practice is to try and go six months/7500 miles on synthetic oil, but I almost never have 7500 miles in six months and I change it regardless. I am interested in seeing what the “car” thinks. I do more short trips than I would like....maybe it will tell me to change in 2500 miles....who knows.
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Actually I believe Mazda's oil life monitor is pretty accurate from my experience as mentioned in my previous post if you use recommended oil such as Mazda moly. The best thing of using Flexible Maintenance Schedule on oil change is not only Mazda recommends it, but also you can keep warranty intact even if you change oil once for 12 months instead of 6 months in Fixed OCI if you drive minimum miles. Besides, you don't have to wait for the wrench indicator and you can always change the oil earlier than indicated. Just reset the oil life monitor and restart the counter! Yeah this Flexible OCI monitor basically serves me as a reference information and warranty protection, I don't have to absolutely follow it. :)
 
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yrwei52 said:
if you use recommended oil such as Mazda moly
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This begets a whole other discussion. I've done an exhaustive amount of research on oil (In case you can't tell I have a touch of OCD) and I've decided to use Mobil 1 AFE 0W-20 with the factory filter. I've always done my own oil changes (on cars that I've owned as opposed to leased) and always used Mobil 1 with the factory filter. I was a bit torn with this vehicle because of the whole "moly" thing, but based on my research I don't think I'll be hurt with Mobil 1 AFE. Your thoughts are welcome if you care to opine further.
 
Anybody think of using the amsoil 0w-20? Just curious on what thoughts are out there. I use their 5w-50 in another vehicle I own.


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