Brand new CX-5 oil leak

[MJLyco]

Hey everyone! First post and its a doozy..
At the end of March (30th?) I bought a brand new 2016 CX-5 AWD GT with i-Activesense. Fully loaded.
This Sunday (5/15/16) I notice there's a puddle of oil in my garage... my brand new CX-5 (3,200 miles and ~1.5 month old) is leaking oil.
I made a service appt. Tuesday, hoping it was just a drain plug that wasn't torqued correctly. No such luck.
The service manager tells me Wednesday that the leak is coming from somewhere in the lower block and I may be in the loaner (2016 CX-5 touring base that smells bad) for a while. (headshake
Apparently they are in contact with Mazda about how to proceed. I haven't heard back from the dealer since then but I guess I should just let them take their time in case I need to lemon law it.

Has anyone had this happen to them? How good is Mazda with this sort of thing? If I push for a replacement car, how likely am I to get one? How would you proceed? Let them take their time or call for updates?
Also, the exhaust always smelled... off. Perhaps it was burning oil too? Does your CX-5 exhaust smell weird?

Thanks everyone. I'm sad this is my first post. I loved the car until I realized it was a lemon. (sad2)

To make matters worse, I seem to have no luck with cars.. I previously drove a 2010 Golf TDI 2-door that was part of the diesel emission scandal and my 2016 Golf 4-door that was on order had to be canceled because of the scandal. The 2-door was getting replaced with a 4-door because my first child was on her way. I was going to deal with the 2-door annoyance until the scandal settled but then it was added to the Takata airbag recall as well. I went to get a 2016 civic but it had a catastrophic engine failure recall and ongoing entertainment system recalls. I also looked at the 2016 Legacy and it just had a catastrophic steering column failure recall. I reluctantly went SUV with the CX-5 because it was supposed to be rock solid reliable according to consumer reports... now this.
(gah)

 

[GerryB]

Let the dealer fix it. If it becomes persistent, then you can venture into Lemon Law, but you have to give them a chance to make it right. Chances are if they took an active interest in it right away, your problem just might get solved.

Good luck!

Sent from the wrong side of the tracks.

 

[caverunner17]

You do realize that almost every car is going to have a recall at some point? They fix those issues for free. It's no real big deal.

 

[mpkav]

They seem to be making the effort to get things sorted, which is a good sign. Also, doesn't the Lemon Law require the same issue to come up two (or was it three) times?

My track record with factory-fresh Mazdas isn't the greatest either, my 2012 Mazda 3 transmission failed after 5 days (replaced under warranty) and my 2015 CX-5 had the SRS system replaced after one month and wheel bearings within the first year (both warranty).

I consider it debugging.

 

[MJLyco]

NJ lemon law is 20 days or 2 attempts+letter+final attempt. I just don't want them rebuilding or replacing the engine in a brand new car (before it's first oil change) and killing the resale value of it. I'm just waiting at this point.

 

[erhayes]

No need to over-react here. Trust that the dealer will fix this minor issue and you will have your car returned in perfect condition. Ed

 

[addabox]

16,000 miles here. At my last oil change the shop (not a dealership, local trusted mechanics) noticed that my timing chain cover was "weeping" oil-- not a full on drip but noticable accumulation on the lower block. Next time I checked it there was more oil than I was comfortable with (not that I would tolerate much at all on a relatively new car, but it was getting into "take care of this right now" territory).

Had to do the fuel filler pipe recall anyway, so I made an appointment with the closest dealership that wasn't being actively hated on Yelp (the dealership where I bought the car went out of business two week after the purchase!). While I was at it I had them address a buzz in the upper driver's door (opposite the mirror) that I heard when playing music with any bass.

They looked it over, opined that the work on the timing chain cover would take more than one day and put me in a new 3 for a loaner (which made me long for a Mazda wagon, as nice as the CX-5 is it doesn't actually drive "just like a sedan"-- if I could get the cargo space in a 6 wagon I'd trade it in in a heartbeat).

Two days later, everything buttoned up, no hassels, under warrenty and they practically detailed it before sending me on my way. They told me the timing chain cover gets a machine applied silicon seal and something as slight as a little air bubble can interupt the continuous bead and lead to a leak. They also discovered that the crank seal was a little out of true (which of course could have contributed to a leak) and fixed that.

The only other thing on this car I've had addressed is a slight play in the driver's seat; they replaced the entire seat rails and adjuster mechanism and that fixed it.

I guess it depends on the dealership, but I'm completely satisfied. Little stuff sometimes goes wrong, as long as it gets fixed under warrenty I'm good, and I'm not really concerned that any of this suggests that the car is poorly assembled or engineered.

 

[Dr. Awkward]

Pretty problem free vehicle according to Consumer Reports:
"Percentage of owners who would definitely purchase that same vehicle again. Owner-satisfaction Ratings are determined by the percentage of those who answered "definitely yes" to the question asked by the Consumer Reports Annual Auto Survey, Considering all factors (price, performance, reliability, comfort, enjoyment, etc.), would you get this car if you had to do it all over again?"

74% of CX5 owners would buy it again, second place behind the Subaru Forester.

 

[Lbear]

You do realize that almost every car is going to have a recall at some point? They fix those issues for free. It's no real big deal.

Exactly. There are thousands of components in a car assembly and it doesn't take much to have an issue come up.

 

[MJLyco]

Day 10 in the shop update: The leak is in the lower block. Apparently the tech doesn't see any "gasket paste" where the leak is. Perhaps the robot missed a spot or something? Still waiting on Mazda to tell the tech how to proceed.

 

[MJLyco]

Update on my situation but not my car. The front right speaker for the loaner (2016 CX-5 touring) doesn't work. I hit a bump and it started working again, then hit another bump and it's off again. Great. Am I cursed or something? I thought these were supposed to be reliable?

 

[ALafya]

Don't worry about the loaner's speaker.
Try to drive on even number of bumps ;-)

 

[CX-5um]

Technically shouldn't dealers "make money" off of warranty work? The dealer gets paid by the manufacturer and makes a customer happy (hopefully).

 

[MJLyco]

Don't worry about the loaner's speaker.
Try to drive on even number of bumps ;-)

LOL I actually tried hitting bumps to get it to turn back on with no luck. They swapped loaners. At least this new CX-5 doesn't smell.

Technically shouldn't dealers "make money" off of warranty work? The dealer gets paid by the manufacturer and makes a customer happy (hopefully).

I don't care if the dealer makes money. I want a car free of manufacturing defects.

 

[limleong]

LOL I actually tried hitting bumps to get it to turn back on with no luck. They swapped loaners. At least this new CX-5 doesn't smell.



I don't care if the dealer makes money. I want a car free of manufacturing defects.

I feel for you. It is like fate is having a go at you .... :-(

We are all buying a known brand hoping to get trouble free motoring. I always look at reliability report before buying. From the research that I have done, CX5 appears to be have good reliability record other than the early Diesel problems with oil rising. One year into the ownership of a Diesel CX5, the only problem I had was a conflict between the SCBS Reverse System and the Mazda certified Towbar which causes the SCBS Reverse system to malfunction every time the reverse gear is engaged. The face-lift model introduced SCBS Reverse functionality but the tow bar wiring and software did not get updated to work with SCBS Reverse. Someone in Mazda is not doing testing properly before releasing a new product. The car was with the dealer for nearly a week. Problem went all the way to Mazda Japan for resolution as it is both a software and HW issue.

My problem is minor compared to a engine leak like yours. Hope your problem can be sorted quickly otherwise it is time to insist on a full replacement.

 

[yrwei52]

The face-lift model introduced SCBS Reverse functionality but the tow bar wiring and software did not get updated to work with SCBS Reverse. Someone in Mazda is not doing testing properly before releasing a new product.

"SCBS Reverse System"? Another feature we don't get for the US market!

Yeah dealers are supposed to make money for any warranty work. But sometimes the car manufactures are giving the hard time paying to dealers to the things are supposed to be covered, especially on problems on gray area such as oil consumption issue. But for OP, it may be a good thing if his dealer and Mazda engineers can't figure out the problem, which is highly unlikely though. The longer the repair, the more chances to get another new CX-5!

 

[MJLyco]

Update.
Mazda wants to replace my engine and inspect the old one to find out what went wrong... awesome.
Obviously, I'm not ok with that. The car has less than 3,000 miles.
Now begins my journey with customer care.
::sigh::

 

[CX-5um]

Update.
Mazda wants to replace my engine and inspect the old one to find out what went wrong... awesome.
Obviously, I'm not ok with that. The car has less than 3,000 miles.
Now begins my journey with customer care.
::sigh::

Mazda seems to be a company on top of its Engine/Tranny warranty follow through. No issues there as per this forum. Now windshields on the other hand....

 

[limleong]

Update.
Mazda wants to replace my engine and inspect the old one to find out what went wrong... awesome.
Obviously, I'm not ok with that. The car has less than 3,000 miles.
Now begins my journey with customer care.
::sigh::

My view is that having an engine replacement at 3000 miles, the product is clearly not fit for purpose. Time to ask for a replacement car ...

 

[Mr.Gadget]

Update.
Mazda wants to replace my engine and inspect the old one to find out what went wrong... awesome.
Obviously, I'm not ok with that. The car has less than 3,000 miles.
Now begins my journey with customer care.
::sigh::

Get an extended warranty for the engine thrown in! That is the least they can do...