Anyone Here Get Their 2.5T Tuned Yet?

a little OT: some like this? (to inspire tuners out there) (burnout)


maybe getting this engine on the 6 will open up more possibilities.

I wouldn't hold my breath. The aftermarket on these things will never be as good as Honda's. Mazda doesn't sell the volume required to get much tuner support. CX9 and 6 sales together are like 1/3 the Civic.

Maybe it will get better with a turbo motor but the market is still really small...
 
Point being, just because the maker intends the motor as being one thing, that fact doesn't limit it from being something completely different.

Look at Livernois.. all it takes is for one little guy to figure it out. It doesn't require a huge market.
 
Its been interesting reading all the posts. Mazda has always been conservative with their tunes which gives plenty of opportunities to increase power and fuel mileage safely. My 08 speed 3 is running 400hp with 33mpg on the highway. I'm not interested in getting 400hp out of my 20016 CX-9 but am interested in getting more hp at top end. I am going to have Matt at OVT.do the tune but I wanted to put on an aftermarket air intake before the tune. So does anyone know if anyone makes an intake? I haven't seen any online.
 
Not sure if it is the PCM or a physical limitation of the turbo itself. My impression is that the turbo is pretty small which cuts down on the lag and gives great low end torque. But, past 3 or 4k, it is probably out of its peak efficiency range and blowing lots of hot air. I haven't seen the actual CFM specs of the turbo anywhere, but it wouldn't surprise me if it is tiny.

It's not a tiny turbo. It's not massive but not tiny. It only runs out of torque past 4k to keep the heat down. As the variable input gets bigger to increase the cold air flowing in.
 
Before tuning your vehicle, are you regularly using premium already? It's the most cost effective way to add power and also retaining your warranty.

BTW Mazda's tune might not have the last bit of performance squeezed out but it sure is refined for daily drive, something you will not see on a newer engine with aftermarket tune, so it's likely you will have to work with a tunner for months doing logs and wait for a new tune and repeat. Head over to any Miata, s2k forums to see how long it will take on a much more enthusiast car to sort it out.
 
Before tuning your vehicle, are you regularly using premium already? It's the most cost effective way to add power and also retaining your warranty.

BTW Mazda's tune might not have the last bit of performance squeezed out but it sure is refined for daily drive, something you will not see on a newer engine with aftermarket tune, so it's likely you will have to work with a tunner for months doing logs and wait for a new tune and repeat. Head over to any Miata, s2k forums to see how long it will take on a much more enthusiast car to sort it out.

Tuning isn't some sort of "black magic" or anything very complicated. I have owned more than a dozen cars that have been custom tuned to include my current Supra and GT-R. There is no reason you need to wait for months to do logs or rinse and repeat if you have a piggyback or ECU that works. This isn't rocket science, it's basic A/F and knock numbers.

I'm totally confused when I see posts like yours that are totally misleading. I can do a street tune on anything so long as the ECU can be logged properly, so can any decent tuner. If tuners can figure out a GT-R, a brand new 991 Turbo, F-Cars, or any lambo that is currently sold, trust me- the Mazda cx9 is a walk in the park. The real issue is that there is no one interested enough to take this on- what's the point of tuning a 4 banger on a 4300lb SUV? Until they put this engine/transmission into a lighter or more sporty car- there i no real market or incentive for tuning.
 
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There have also been a lot of Tuners who blew up engines, too. There have been some Tuners that frustrated customers so much, they have a hard time getting people to take them seriously now (Hennessey Performance). There are some aspects to tuning that I've found (at least for me) that require many years of experience to get right. I had my C5 tuned by Lingenfelter Performance Engineering. However, I would not allow anyone to touch my Viper. Why? The difference in Engine and Transmission design. Where the Corvette was a Tuners Delight, the Viper demonstrated itself to be a Royal Pain in the butt for many of its owners looking to get more power. Sure, they tuned it, but such tunes came with some horrible outcomes and when horror was not the outright outcome, it was downright frustrating and annoying to drive on a daily basis for too many Viper owners.

Can you 'tune' a CX-9? Sure, but you're not going to get much of an appreciable increase in overall engine performance given the existing design of the, oh lets call it a "Platform." You can think of this the same way you would a Black Box. Unless you really know something about the underlying engineering that went into designing that Black Box, chances are that once you open it up, you will find yourself having opened Pandora's Box, instead of the Black Box you thought you were going to tune.

Yes, you can move the HP/TRQ lines around a bit. You can get HP/TRQ intersections to move forward in time or backward in time. You can actually do a number of things with the engine with the right equipment and access to the computer the governs engine response. However, unless you fully understand the internal engine geometry that yields the current baselines that you are tweaking, you could do more damage than good. [as just a couple examples of many] Not every lifter in every engine known to mankind has the same degree of travel. Not every cam shaft has the same geometry. In fact, not every engine produces the same geometry for all four strokes.

This becomes a conversation of Cause Leading To Net Effect. By tuning, will I interrupt Cause to produce an optimal Net Effect, or will I truncate Cause and produce an ill Net Effect. You can do that one of two ways:

A) You can guess your way to Tuning Nirvana
B) You can Engineer your way to Tuning Nirvana

A lot of 'tuners' have relied on "A" because they don't know enough to really understand what they are doing in the realm of Cause & Effect from an engineering standpoint. Other Tuners (spelled with a Capital "T" for a reason) are Professional Tuners and they either have an Automotive Engineering Background or they are Highly Intuitive to Automotive Engineering (some people are gifted and talented like that) and have spent sufficient time around someone else who had the real credentials until they learned the Art, Science and Craft of Tuning.

I'd also put Callaway up there on the list of Professional Tuners with Automotive Engineering background.

Have fun with the CX-9 and let us know how it comes out!
 
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I agree with everything you said there, Cessna. I have no intention of tuning my cx9- it's a 4300lb SUV w/a 4 banger. Even I made 50+ tq/hp, the difference would be minuscule and wouldn't make sense from a risk/reward perspective.
 
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I agree with everything you said there, Cessna. I have no intention of tuning my cx9- it's a 4300lb SUV w/a 4 banger. Even I made 50+ tq/hp, the difference would be minuscule and wouldn't make sense from a risk/reward perspective.

Hey there. The kind of "tuning" (in quotes for a reason) I'm interested in are things that might improve handling performance such as sway bars, strut bars (if that'll help at all), adjustable coil-over shocks and trying to dial-in a better wheel/tire package. I think that begins to approach the upper limit of appreciable "tuning" on a CX-9 where you can do the least amount of harm, improve performance some and not destroy what is an already outstanding "platform." Now, if one is so inclined to dig really deep and has the engineering background or sufficient shop know-how to get the job done - I'm sure there might be some engine work that could yield some safe HP/TRQ gains that are actually appreciable. Emphasis on the word "safe." One can tune nearly anything, but that won't necessarily make it safe.

I'd like to see what this can do with less body roll, less body flex (though it does not have much right now), a lower CG through adjustable shocks and a wheel/tire pack offering more lateral stability. That's going to be my focus going forward with this particular vehicle - but I'm going to study it before doing anything. I don't want to get it wrong and I want to be able to revert back to a softer ride when longer drives are necessary (adjustable coil-overs).

Its not a track ready Sports SUV. Its not a Polestar XC-90, X5 M or Grand Cherokee SRT. It is certainly not a Cayenne Turbo-S (King of The Hill). Its not even an F-Pace Port or Macan Turbo. Its just not in that league of High Performance. However, for what it is - it has no Performance and Handling competition in the same price range and I believe that if you can "tune-up" the suspension a bit - it will provide a pretty fun e-Ticket ride for the money spent. I think that if you want more "Sport" out of your SUV, then you will have to enter through the gate of the Macan Turbo, F-Pace Port or a Cherokee SRT at the baseline. From there, you head up to Polestar, X5 M (maybe an SQ5 with additional tuning) until you reach final Nirvana state at the Cayenne Turbo-S.

Once you get to the Cayenne Turbo-S, you have pretty much maxed out "Performance" in a stock (OEM fitment) Sports SUV, IMO. You can drive it every single day and then take it straight to the track on the weekends with precious little by way of track prep necessary (I'd carry my own track tires in the back and change them out once I got there). The Cayenne Turbo-S is ready for anything. You can leave the track, change clothes and go straight to a Black/White Tie event later that evening. It is a complete vehicle. You can't even do that in a Bentayga!

What! No Range Rover Sport on the list? Nope. No Range Rover Sport on the list.
 
Tuning isn't some sort of "black magic" or anything very complicated. I have owned more than a dozen cars that have been custom tuned to include my current Supra and GT-R. There is no reason you need to wait for months to do logs or rinse and repeat if you have a piggyback or ECU that works. This isn't rocket science, it's basic A/F and knock numbers.

I'm totally confused when I see posts like yours that are totally misleading. I can do a street tune on anything so long as the ECU can be logged properly, so can any decent tuner. If tuners can figure out a GT-R, a brand new 991 Turbo, F-Cars, or any lambo that is currently sold, trust me- the Mazda cx9 is a walk in the park. The real issue is that there is no one interested enough to take this on- what's the point of tuning a 4 banger on a 4300lb SUV? Until they put this engine/transmission into a lighter or more sporty car- there i no real market or incentive for tuning.
Sure it's just some tables, my point is tuners often publish their product right after they got full throttle numbers out without fine tuning other areas, resulted in weird behaviors when you not hard on gas and that will kill the joy, it will take months from start to finish on a new platform, the ND Miata has been out for almost 3years yet people are still switching different tunes and trying different solutions because of drivability issues. On an non performance oriented SUV like this, it will not get a tunner full attention unless you pay for a dyno tune, but then again if you can afford a tunner and a dyno for a day, you probably bought the wrong car.
 
Hey there. The kind of "tuning" (in quotes for a reason) I'm interested in are things that might improve handling performance such as sway bars, strut bars (if that'll help at all), adjustable coil-over shocks and trying to dial-in a better wheel/tire package. I think that begins to approach the upper limit of appreciable "tuning" on a CX-9 where you can do the least amount of harm, improve performance some and not destroy what is an already outstanding "platform." Now, if one is so inclined to dig really deep and has the engineering background or sufficient shop know-how to get the job done - I'm sure there might be some engine work that could yield some safe HP/TRQ gains that are actually appreciable. Emphasis on the word "safe." One can tune nearly anything, but that won't necessarily make it safe.

I'd like to see what this can do with less body roll, less body flex (though it does not have much right now), a lower CG through adjustable shocks and a wheel/tire pack offering more lateral stability. That's going to be my focus going forward with this particular vehicle - but I'm going to study it before doing anything. I don't want to get it wrong and I want to be able to revert back to a softer ride when longer drives are necessary (adjustable coil-overs).
I would start with stronger springs/shocks and stiffer rear sways to give a bit less body roll and push, and then upgrade the tires. A more aggressive alignment also would help a lot although I haven't check what's adjustable at the moment.

I would probably avoid high performance coilovers simply because of maintenance required often associated with those.

Has any reputable company developed any suspension upgrades for this car yet?
 
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I would start with stronger springs/shocks and stiffer rear sways to give a bit less body roll and push, and then upgrade the tires. A more aggressive alignment also would help a lot although I haven't check what's adjustable at the moment.

I would probably avoid high performance coilovers simply because of maintenance required often associated with those.

Has any reputable company developed any suspension upgrades for this car yet?

I wanted something adjustable to preserve long ride comfort. I thought a well designed/built adjustable coilover system would help in that regard. Someone on this forum already posted a link to this company's retail website (https://www.facebook.com/autoexemazda/). Former MazdaSpeed people, apparently. I see no Rear bar for the CX-9, however. They do have both a Front bar and Strut Tower bar. Not a whole lot for the new CX-9 at this time in its short history.

I think a very minor negative camber on the rear wheels with an equally minor toe-out on the front wheels might be appropriate - not going overboard on anything that would cause significant wear problems. Any increases in Handling Performance I need will have to be incremental and throughout a number of different areas so as to reduce an ill effects from any one specific mod.
 
I would start with stronger springs/shocks and stiffer rear sways to give a bit less body roll and push, and then upgrade the tires. A more aggressive alignment also would help a lot although I haven't check what's adjustable at the moment.

I would probably avoid high performance coilovers simply because of maintenance required often associated with those.

Has any reputable company developed any suspension upgrades for this car yet?

Something to consider regarding springs is how they would behave with the OEM dampers. With a good set of adjustable coilovers, the damper is valved with the spring rates of the spring in mind. Coilovers with adjustable dampers allow you to lower the vehicle and still maintain a relatively close level of ride quality to OEM (in some cases).

I had a 99 Honda Accord with AMR Engineering coilovers. I paired them with a Whiteline rear sway bar from a TL, and added an Ingalls front and rear camber kit to bring everything to spec. I loved the way the car felt with that suspension.
 
I’m disappointed in the lack of tuning options for Mazda. Having tuned Audis and VWs for years, it’s really surprising.

I kind of feel the same. I just sold my Stage 2 Audi S4 B8 and got the '17 CX-9 Signature.
Love the Mazda, don't get me wrong, and i chose it after i test drove many SUVs, including Q7, Cayenne, MDX, RX350, QX70, ML350, etc ... but i am already 'bored' by the lack of tuning options for this car. I can't even find a front strut tower bar....or BBK options ...or even basic steel brake lines.
 
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Mazda's got a much smaller piece of the pie, so performance upgrades are not as likely to surface as other manufacturers. From a numbers perspective, it doesn't make that much sense for a company to spend hours of R&D on a vehicle that's sold 2500 units across North America, vs spending the same number of hours on a vehicle that's sold 10000. If they were to do it, it would be low priority.

That said, some users here have stated that one of the 2nd gen CX-9's weak points is the brake performance (when pushing the CX-9 around canyons/mountains). PBbrakes.com is one option.

Front BBK: http://pbbrakes.com/brake-kits/mazda/cx-9/mazda-cx-9-16-up-front-big-brake-kit.html
This kit comes in different configurations from 6-pot to 8-pot calipers and 345x32mm to 430x36mm rotors.

Rear BBK: http://pbbrakes.com/brake-kits/mazda/cx-9/mazda-cx-9-16-up-rear-big-brake-kit.html
This kit comes in different configurations from 4-pot to 6-pot calipers and 330x28mm to 405x34mm rotors.

Each kit comes with SS lines, and you have a lot of customization options like brake pad type, paint colour and finish, and different rotor options like drilled, slotted, drilled and slotted, as well as fixed and floating rotor options. The front and rear kit is not cheap at $3578.58 + shipping to start, but it seems to be the only option at the moment.
 
Mazda's got a much smaller piece of the pie, so performance upgrades are not as likely to surface as other manufacturers. From a numbers perspective, it doesn't make that much sense for a company to spend hours of R&D on a vehicle that's sold 2500 units across North America, vs spending the same number of hours on a vehicle that's sold 10000. If they were to do it, it would be low priority.

That said, some users here have stated that one of the 2nd gen CX-9's weak points is the brake performance (when pushing the CX-9 around canyons/mountains). PBbrakes.com is one option.

Front BBK: http://pbbrakes.com/brake-kits/mazda/cx-9/mazda-cx-9-16-up-front-big-brake-kit.html
This kit comes in different configurations from 6-pot to 8-pot calipers and 345x32mm to 430x36mm rotors.

Rear BBK: http://pbbrakes.com/brake-kits/mazda/cx-9/mazda-cx-9-16-up-rear-big-brake-kit.html
This kit comes in different configurations from 4-pot to 6-pot calipers and 330x28mm to 405x34mm rotors.

Each kit comes with SS lines, and you have a lot of customization options like brake pad type, paint colour and finish, and different rotor options like drilled, slotted, drilled and slotted, as well as fixed and floating rotor options. The front and rear kit is not cheap at $3578.58 + shipping to start, but it seems to be the only option at the moment.

Hey guys,
I am ordering the front kit , 380mm slotted floating , with street pads. I have been recommended to use sport pads to be on the safe side on not getting any fade. seems the customer service is great, I have sent several questions and they were answered precisely and fast . itll be a few weeks for them to arrive to peru and have them installed, any body knows if changing the front brakes will void the warranty of the car? or just the brakes?
 
Mazda's got a much smaller piece of the pie, so performance upgrades are not as likely to surface as other manufacturers. From a numbers perspective, it doesn't make that much sense for a company to spend hours of R&D on a vehicle that's sold 2500 units across North America, vs spending the same number of hours on a vehicle that's sold 10000. If they were to do it, it would be low priority.

That said, some users here have stated that one of the 2nd gen CX-9's weak points is the brake performance (when pushing the CX-9 around canyons/mountains). PBbrakes.com is one option.

Front BBK: http://pbbrakes.com/brake-kits/mazda/cx-9/mazda-cx-9-16-up-front-big-brake-kit.html
This kit comes in different configurations from 6-pot to 8-pot calipers and 345x32mm to 430x36mm rotors.

Rear BBK: http://pbbrakes.com/brake-kits/mazda/cx-9/mazda-cx-9-16-up-rear-big-brake-kit.html
This kit comes in different configurations from 4-pot to 6-pot calipers and 330x28mm to 405x34mm rotors.

Each kit comes with SS lines, and you have a lot of customization options like brake pad type, paint colour and finish, and different rotor options like drilled, slotted, drilled and slotted, as well as fixed and floating rotor options. The front and rear kit is not cheap at $3578.58 + shipping to start, but it seems to be the only option at the moment.

Agree on improving stopping power, it has to catch up with concurrently increasing horsepower...

Even on the 1st Gen Kodo, I feel the brakes would benefit on an upgrade or at least a beefier front set. Stopping a 4500 lbs monster is no easy task.
 
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