I have a 2014.5 CX-5 Touring and the a/c is acting up. When it was about 12 months old the a/c kept freezing up. The dealership siad it was freezing up do to being low on refrigerant. The dealership filled it back up and put dye in it to find if it had a leak. When I got home I looked under the hood with a UV light and saw the dye everywhere. I took it back to the next day and they determined it was leaking from the fill port (I believe they messed the fill port up when filling it with the dye/ extra refrigerant). They filled it back up after tightening the fill port and it worked like normal for about another 12 months. It froze up several times last summer before my warranty ran out so I took it back in to the dealership and was told it is fine. That the refrigerant was at 40 degrees Fahrenheit and the pressure was in the normal range. That didn't answer my question of if it was low on refrigerant or not. It seemed to work ok the rest of last summer with the occasional freeze up. Fast forward to this summer and it has frozen up several times already this summer. I took it back in to the dealership last week (I am out of warranty now) and was told the same thing as last summer that the temp and pressure were correct with no explanation of why the unit keeps freezing up. I brought up the TSB 07/002-15 about a slow leak in the evaporator and they didn't even look at it. They told me it seemed fine to them. I have a 45 minute drive home from work everyday and it has been 90+ with high humidity and it is still warm in the car by the time I arrive home. Is there any way to test if it is low on refrigerant at home or should I take it back to the dealership next time it freezes up or is this normal? Has anyone else had this issue or had the TSB done on their CX-5? Thanks for any info!
2014 CX-5 A/C Problems
- Thread starter duke594
- Start date
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- Plano, Texas, USA
When you say your AC "freezes up" what do you mean by that? Is the AC blowing warm air or the AC blowing no air at all? And when your AC "freezes up", does it become normal blowing cold air by itself after a while? CX-5's AC should be blowing cold air pretty quickly. If it's blowing not so cold air after 45 minutes of dirving your AC definitely has problem and you don't need to check refrigerant pressure by yourself.
Although your 2014 CX-5 Touring with manual AC is out of warranty now on AC but based on the TSB it could be an expensive fix by replacing "deformed" evaporator tubes. I suggest you should call Customer Experience Center at Mazda North American Operations and just describe the situation about Mazda dealer couldn't fix your AC problem under warranty and refused to perform the TSB although there's evidence of refrigerant leak even at your first visit! You should ask MNAO authorizing another Mazda dealer to fix your AC problem with TSB performed if necessary free of charge. Since your original Mazda dealer has all of your AC service record, you have full right to demand Mazda to fix your AC problem even right now. Good lock!
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- Denver, CO
My A/C still works, but noticed this weekend that it wasn't cold enough (still cool), and was making a funny/labored sound. Need to get it checked out.
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- Plano, Texas, USA
Be aware if you have a slow leak on refrigerant, it could take more than one summer to show the symptom. You should tell MNAO that although your Mazda dealer simply re-filled refrigerant so that the AC was cold at the time, but they never attempted to find the source of the slow leak. No parts got replaced and the TSB never got performed. In other words, your Mazda dealer had never actually fixed your AC problem at the first place when your CX-5 was under warranty.
if your AC system has no leak at the first place, you won't have any "freezes up" issue at beginning.
if your AC system has no leak at the first place, you won't have any "freezes up" issue at beginning.
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- Plano, Texas, USA
And hope you still have warranty ⋯ Slow leak takes time to show the symptom.
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- Denver, CO
Nope, that warranty was up a couple years back. Hit 30k before I hit 3 years.
Last summer A/C worked great. This year its making funny sounds, and over the weekend blasting it at max was just not cooling the car down.
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- Plano, Texas, USA
Your CX-5 obviously has expansion valve problem before the evaporator. Insist your Mazda dealer never had fixed your AC freezing up problem at the first place and ask MNAO authorizing another Mazda dealer to fix your problem free of charge.
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- Plano, Texas, USA
Sounded like you do have slow leak on refrigerant and your case seems to meet that TSB but too late to show up the symptom. I'd still try to contact MNAO and mentioned the TSB and slow leak on refrigerant. Hopefully MNAO can at least help you part of repair cost as it's possible you have "deformed" evaporator tubes slipped through quality control. And those can be expensive to fix.
So my issue doesn't sound like a leak in the evaporator core? Also, both dealerships within an hour of my house are owned by the same person. (gah)
I took my CX-5 to another dealership and they were able to find a leak in the main High side line from the compressor. They replaced the line and refilled the system. They also performed the TSB for the selector knob not staying in the defrost mode. They covered it under warranty since it has been an on going problem.
