Is the CX-5 Dip Stick Calibrated for Hot Oil temp? It would explain a lot

I'm surprised people who DIY are filling to the max level on the dipstick.
I have NEVER filled to the max level. I see no need. Why would you do this?

I figure out how much oil is needed to get the oil level to the midpoint of the dipstick (or just above), and use that amount every time.

I've never had a problem doing this with multiple vehicles, each driven between 150K-190K miles.
Nothing wrong to have your oil level at the mid-point between ADD and FULL marks. For me it’s an added safety margin if the engine ever is losing oil like I just experienced not long ago. And historically the oil change capacity provided by the manufacture is always to the FULL mark of the dipstick.
 
I think in the previous incarnation of this thread someone pointed out the fill might be liters, not quarts. Liters are slightly bigger than quarts.
It’s been always US quart discussed. 4.8 quarts, 5.1 quarts, etc.
 
I had a similar experience with my CX-9 following an oil change at the dealer. Oil was overfilled, brought it back and they corrected the situation, the service note said I had 600ml too much.
 
You got me out of bed for this. I gave the dealer 5 quart jug of m1, and they put on a new filter. Got home a couple hours ago, here's this, and it's always like this, as I double check it every time.:
15966438416443503126779906360373.jpg
 
What a bunch of worrywarts. No reason to overthink this. Many 4 cyl engines for years only took 4 qts and lived a long life. Mazda to their credit made this one (skyactiv) 5 qts. A 5 qt jug is just fine. The oil level will read lower if read right after shutoff because of oil still trapped in the engine and haven't drained to the crankcase yet. Oil, like most substances, expands when hot and will read higher on the dipstick than when cold.

I check my oil after sitting all night. If it shows even 2/3 qt low I just drive it. It will expand from heat and raise the level. The oil level is more important when operating ,right? If It's getting to a quart low, it gets a qt BUT it's never got that low between changes.
 
You got me out of bed for this. I gave the dealer 5 quart jug of m1, and they put on a new filter. Got home a couple hours ago, here's this, and it's always like this, as I double check it every time.:View attachment 226139
Thanks for taking a picture!

Something just doesn’t add up here in your case. Did you ever get empty 5-quart Mobil 1 container back? May be next time you can DIY an oil change and we should know why? :p
 
4.8 L = 5 qts

I wonder if someone putting the manual together used the wrong units?
 
This is getting crazy lol. The amount of oil it takes to get the oil level to the MAX mark after the engine has been warmed up is going to vary. This is because of a variation in oil drain time, i.e. one person waits until the oil being drained slows to a fast drip (maybe 5 minutes after removing the drain plug) and those who wait an hour for oil to drain. Then you have people who prefill the oil filter and those who don't.

I simply drain the oil, fill with the approximate amount I drained out, start the engine and let it run for a few minutes, then shut it off and wait 5 minutes before taking a reading from the dipstick. If I need to add oil to get halfway between MIN and MAX or higher, I will at that point. No reason to concern myself with .3-.5 quarts of variation between what a few other owners reported when performing their own oil changes using their own processes that may be different from mine, or different from what the manual specifies (like taking an oil reading when the car has been sitting overnight).
 
Thanks for taking a picture!

Something just doesn’t add up here in your case. Did you ever get empty 5-quart Mobil 1 container back? May be next time you can DIY an oil change and we should know why? :p
Not in the last 5 years/150K miles, and my 2015 was this exact same way. My dealer is impeccable, and I know they aren't adding random additional oil, and I've SEEN them use my M1 jug before.

To explain to you how accountable my dealership is, one time they were switching inventory systems, and didn't have an oil filter for my CX5 GTR. They had already drained the oil. instead of lying and running my old filter for 10K miles, as I do 5K intervals, they came to me, told me, asked what I would like for them to buy, and sent a mechanic to buy the WIX filter I specified, and gave me the box. My dealer is not pocketing my oil or some other BS and using theirs, or mixing, or whatever. If 5qt were not doing it, they would ask me to buy 6 next time.
 
It still boggles my mind how anal people here get over 0.2 qts of oil. The normal operating range, from the MIN line to the MAX line, is 1 qt (32oz). Just pour in a 5 qt jug and be done with it.
Exactly what I have done, and look at the raw jealousy it has led to about how my vehicle is perfectly maintained, rofl!
 
I have a new GTR and brand new to this forum. After putting a couple hundred miles on my new CX5 I decided to go over some of the fluid levels in the car- even though I have paperwork showing everything has been gone over at prep by dealer and looks good. When I wake up I check the oil using the dipstick. It read exactly on MAX line. I’m happy but then I read the manual section about checking your oil stating turn on the car and run it until normal operating temperature is reached, turn it off, wait 5 minutes or more and take reading on dipstick. I drive the car for 20 minutes and turn it off. Waited 15 minutes and my dipstick it is now showing level above MAX line.

I saw a few post here that state that their initial oil fill on new CX-5 had dipstick reading sometimes as low as midway between Min and Max. Some state that when changing oil that they need to add more oil than what the owner’s manual specifies in order to bring oil up to the MAX line.

I'm new here and new to CX5 but I might suggest that those CX5 delivered with less than full oil readings from factory may have possibly been filled below max and done so purposefully.

It would make sense that the CX5 dipsticks was calibrated to be accurate when oil levels were taken when hot. Manufacturers more and more are recommending hot readings with calibrated dipsticks because they know that oil expands or volume increases when oil is hot and presume most people don't want to wait around if on the road until car cools completely down to check their oil.

I believe this is the case with our CX5's. Otherwise the manual would not describe the process of checking the cars oil like it does. A few Google searches using phrases like 'are oil dipsticks calibrated for cold or hot oil" led me to many credible posts saying that yes - some manufacturers calibrate dipsticks to read accurately when engine oil is hot. Also saying that measurements taken when not hot will not be accurate on a dipstick calibrated for hot readings,

Getting back to what I personally observed I can concur completely with this. MAX line on cold morning reading and noticeable above MAX line when using the recommended oil check procedure in CX5 owner’s manual.

I called the dealer and asked if mine had been raised to max from the initial level delivered by Mazda Japan. The service writers emphatically said ‘no- he has been there 8 years and never seen anyone modify oil levels when checking in a new vehicle. So I said, to be sure you’re telling me that what is in my car was done at factory and no one messed with it. He said yes. That still doesn’t make me feel comfortable on any level –maybe because it is coming from a service writer at a dealership.

FWIW, if my thinking is correct, a lot of the DIY oil change posts here are getting things wrong. They may acctually be overfilling. Max on a cold fill should be lower than MAX. Maybe just putting in what MAZDA says is the right capacity for your engine is where you should be filling your oil regardless of whether it hits MAX on the dipstick or not. Maybe one of you could kindly verify this if after you fill your sump to what is seemingly low level. I'd appreciate it if you would then check it following guidlines in the owner's manual. I would like to know what you find - specifcally if you get a hot reading at the MAX line . I will not happy knowing I have been breaking in my new car with an oil overfill.

So I will call Mazda corporate tomorrow to get a straight answer for ‘Is the CX-5 calibrated for hot oil or cold oil temperature.” I’d also like to make sure the GTR has a different dipstick than the non-turbo since it states it has a slightly larger capacity. If any of you have a good contact number let me know.

You're making some incorrect assumptions here. The biggest and most glaring is that everything that the dealer tells you is correct and the truth. Some dealers, and their employees, know what they're doing, know what their talking about, and always tell you the truth. Others? Not so much (just like politicians).

If you have paperwork that tells you that everything has been checked out and is right as rain, verify this for yourself. Maybe it's right, maybe it's not. You need to ALWAYS verify what the dealer tells you and what they say that they've done.

Don't assume, ever.
 
You're making some incorrect assumptions here. The biggest and most glaring is that everything that the dealer tells you is correct and the truth. Some dealers, and their employees, know what they're doing, know what their talking about, and always tell you the truth. Others? Not so much (just like politicians).

If you have paperwork that tells you that everything has been checked out and is right as rain, verify this for yourself. Maybe it's right, maybe it's not. You need to ALWAYS verify what the dealer tells you and what they say that they've done.

Don't assume, ever.

A great quote I heard from another user here (PTguy): You get what you inspect, not what you expect.
 
For those who think it is good practice to only fill your engine with enough oil to be about halfway between the high and low marks, if you went on a hike would you only fill your canteen halfway with water ?
If your engine is filled to the top mark, you always have a margin of error in case you start burning oil. If you start a half quart low, you are making that margin of error much smaller.
While your engine won't grenade if you drive it for a thousand miles at the low level mark, it's not something I would do.
In 50 years of driving and car ownership, I have always kept my cars filled to the top mark and that is regardless of whether they burned a quart every 500 miiles or a half quart every 5000 miles.
For $5 worth of oil, why not keep your car topped off ?
 
I don't even want to get involved with this thread because I'm in the camp of this is silly how people are so polarized over 6 ounces of oil. Put what YOU think is best in it and be happy :) . I still love you either way lol. As I once saw somewhere ... "This ain't the space shuttle".

However, this analogy doesn't make sense to me ....

.....if you went on a hike would you only fill your canteen halfway with water ? .....

Apple's and oranges. Water in the canteen is a consumable and yes, I may indeed hike with a canteen half full of water if the canteen held 2 gallons and I figured I'd only need 2 quarts for my trip. I wouldn't want to haul around an extra 12 lbs of water unnecessarily. Applied to car, why don't we have a 5 gallon sump, for you know, just in case ;-) The engine oil, coolant, trans fluid, diff oil, etc aren't really consumables (per se). Sure, they can be depleted but not in the sense of your gas tank.

Like I said, I'm not knocking you wanting to keep your oil to the full mark, if that's what blows your skirt up. Or sharing your opinion. I like to see other people's viewpoints.
 
If your engine is filled to the top mark, you always have a margin of error in case you start burning oil. If you start a half quart low, you are making that margin of error much smaller.

Definitely, but most people's cars don't burn/consume enough oil between maintenance intervals for that margin of error to matter. It could possibly make a difference in situations like yrwei52's, and for that reason I like to keep my oil level as close to the MAX mark as I can, but I'm not going to fuss over .2 or .3 quarts. It's like filling your canteen before a hike. I would fill mine until it's "full", but I wouldn't waste time and effort topping it up right to the brim to ensure I have an extra half gulp of water.

As mentioned countless times before, keeping your oil level at the full mark is personal preference. Do it if you want to. As long as you take your oil readings correctly and perform maintenance/inspections within the recommended intervals, you'll be fine.

And for those truly worried about falling oil levels and just-in-case scenarios, keep a quart of oil in the trunk.


Anyway, back to the topic at hand:

Max on a cold fill should be lower than MAX. Maybe just putting in what MAZDA says is the right capacity for your engine is where you should be filling your oil regardless of whether it hits MAX on the dipstick or not. Maybe one of you could kindly verify this if after you fill your sump to what is seemingly low level. I'd appreciate it if you would then check it following guidelines in the owner's manual. I would like to know what you find - specifically if you get a hot reading at the MAX line.

I may have missed it, but can any 2.5T CX-5 owners confirm this for Steve88?
 
We need to find a more productive use of our time. Thread starter should take this on as his project, write a test protocol, run some tests with his vehicle and issue a report so we can all benefit from his effort. Ed:ROFLMAO:
 
I may have missed it, but can any 2.5T CX-5 owners confirm this for Steve88?
Yes you have missed it. DwightFrye who has a 2.5T had given the answer earlier in detail to the OP:
I have done 2 oil changes on my 2019 GT-R. Both times with new filters and letting the hot oil drain for at least an hour.

In both cases it took 5.5 quarts to reach the max line on the dipstick and that included pre-filling the filter with several ounces of the 5.5 quart total.

If I check my oil level within a half hour of driving or check it in the morning cold, on a flat level garage floor, the difference in the level on the dipstick iis maybe 1/16". Not enough to even be slightly concerned about.

My car only has about 8000 miles on it and I have not noticed any consumption so far. If it ever does start using oil I will add oil until it hits that top mark again and sleep easily.
 

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