Oil change drama

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2019 Mazda CX-5 Signature Machine Grey
First complimentary oil change (4700) miles.I ask no less than three times,full synthetic please,do you have/use FULL synthetic?Yes sir,full syn it is.Pick up car,go home look at invoice,6 qts. PN 0000-77-5w30-QT SAE 5w-30 SUP PR. Do a little digging on these forums and Mazda sites,no where can I find oil is identified as synthetic.Call my dealer,kindly state i Believe this oil is rebranded castrol gtx conventional oil.He says he will check with parts..comes back and tells me I am right it is a semi-syn,which I still doubt...So the non turbo gets full synthetic,turbo gets at best semi syn.Makes no sense...They are draining and refilling with my supplied Castrol full Syn. Comments welcome.
 
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Sorry for your troubles...I'm not surprised though. Competency and customer service are becoming more rare by the day!

This is just one example of why I DIY the regular maintenance on all my vehicles.
 
Almost my same story. Took my GTR in for first change on Tuesday. Asked the service writer if the oil used would be conventional or synthetic. He said conventional. I said I would pay the difference for synthetic. He said Mazda doesn't recommend synthetic. I'm not going to argue with him so I let it go.
When I review the receipt it says "Perform synthetic oil and filter change".
So at this point I'm not sure what kind of oil they used.
 
I used to go to my Mazda dealer and switched from Mazda moly to whatever the dealer had. I am pretty sure it was the cheapest brand available. I recently bought Mobil 1 Full Syn and went to nearby Toyota dealer. MPG back to 29.4 from 26 ish and the car just feels like good old self. All I am hoping is I don't need warranty work - but I am never going back to a Mazda dealer nearby.
 
Yikes. Seems like the effort required to ensure the dealer does his job is the same as doing it yourself. Lol
 
I was under the impression that the original factory fill was synthetic, at least that's what my dealer stated when I asked at time of purchase.
 
First complimentary oil change (4700) miles.I ask no less than three times,full synthetic please,do you have/use FULL synthetic?Yes sir,full syn it is.Pick up car,go home look at invoice,6 qts. PN 0000-77-5w30-QT SAE 5w-30 SUP PR. Do a little digging on these forums and Mazda sites,no where can I find oil is identified as synthetic.Call my dealer,kindly state i Believe this oil is rebranded castrol gtx conventional oil.He says he will check with parts..comes back and tells me I am right it is a semi-syn,which I still doubt...So the non turbo gets full synthetic,turbo gets at best semi syn.Makes no sense...They are draining and refilling with my supplied Castrol full Syn. Comments welcome.
Check your oil level, they might have over filled it.
 
So have CX9 2.5T owners been dealing with these issue for 4 years? Should use the same oil, right? Or are guys that do oil changes still not aware some CX5s use 5w-30. Or worse yet, Mazda likes using dino oil in turbos, so they haven't bothered slapping their label on some overpriced synth oil?
 
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First complimentary oil change (4700) miles.I ask no less than three times,full synthetic please,do you have/use FULL synthetic?Yes sir,full syn it is.Pick up car,go home look at invoice,6 qts. PN 0000-77-5w30-QT SAE 5w-30 SUP PR. Do a little digging on these forums and Mazda sites,no where can I find oil is identified as synthetic.Call my dealer,kindly state i Believe this oil is rebranded castrol gtx conventional oil.He says he will check with parts..comes back and tells me I am right it is a semi-syn,which I still doubt...So the non turbo gets full synthetic,turbo gets at best semi syn.Makes no sense...They are draining and refilling with my supplied Castrol full Syn. Comments welcome.
Yep, this Mazda Genuine SAE 5W-30 Super Premium Motor Oil with part number 0000-77-5W30-QT is indeed a re-branded Castrol GTX conventional oil which has been around for at least 40 years. I’ve been using the GTX since that long for all of my vehicles except my recent vehicles including a 1998 Honda CR-V with 187K miles which is still in service for me.

In fact, some early gen-2 CX-9 owners had found this conventional oil was used in their 2.5T by their Mazda dealer and posted complaint about it in CX-9 forum.

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Yep, this Mazda Genuine SAE 5W-30 Super Premium Motor Oil with part number 0000-77-5W30-QT is indeed a re-branded Castrol GTX conventional oil which has been around for at least 40 years. I’ve been using the GTX since that long for all of my vehicles except my recent vehicles including a 1998 Honda CR-V with 187K miles which is still in service for me.

In fact, some early gen-2 CX-9 owners had found this conventional oil was used in their 2.5T by their Mazda dealer and posted complaint about it in CX-9 forum.

To be fair, the owner's manuals don't specify synthetic oil. They don't even recommend it. All that's necessary for the warranty to be honoured is that the specs of the oil used match with what is specified in the manual. The OCIs identified in the Maintenance Schedule are based on the recommended oil specs, after all.

All that said, synthetic oil is a much better option for a turbocharged engine, and the added cost of synthetic is well worth the long term benefits the engine gets from it. If you have access to and can afford synthetic, you should use it.
 
To be fair, the owner's manuals don't specify synthetic oil. They don't even recommend it. All that's necessary for the warranty to be honoured is that the specs of the oil used match with what is specified in the manual. The OCIs identified in the Maintenance Schedule are based on the recommended oil specs, after all.

All that said, synthetic oil is a much better option for a turbocharged engine, and the added cost of synthetic is well worth the long term benefits the engine gets from it. If you have access to and can afford synthetic, you should use it.

Do you have any hard evidence to back up that synthetic is much better......?
I'd like to have some ammo next time I go to the dealer to get an oil change.
 
Do you have any hard evidence to back up that synthetic is much better......?
I'd like to have some ammo next time I go to the dealer to get an oil change.

I'd start here.

You shouldn't need "ammo" to get the dealer to follow a simple request that you're willing to pay for. If they really want to fight you this hard on using synthetic vs. conventional, you might be better off DIY or taking it to an indy shop for oil changes.
 
It’s absolutely bizarre that they won’t just give you synthetic on request. It’s a turbocharged engine. It’s not like you’re requesting they use synthetic in a rotary motor.
 
In all fairness to the dealer, I beleve MAZDA only specifies a viscosity for the NA and T engines. I also believe that the service recommendations are set up for any oil that meets Viscosity regardless if conventional or Syn blend or Synthetic. Sometimes we overthink the simple but, if the owner specifies a synthetic, then he should get it. JMO. Ed
 
Years ago VW and Audi came out the new 1.8T on Passat and A4. VWoA and Audi USA specified 5W-30 oil without saying synthetic to the 1.8T with 7,500-mile OCI which is common at the time for most vehicles. Most VW and Audi dealers were using 5W-30 conventional oil for oil change as it was a lot cheaper than synthetic oil at the time. Years later people started having sludge issue on their turbo engine. VWoA and Audi USA issued service advisory urged their dealers to use full synthetic 5W-30 oil only for the 1.8T. But the damage had done and a class action lawsuit was filed. VWoA and Audi USA settled the lawsuit and agreed to fix or replace the engine with sludge issue for free even without warranty. Ask me how I know? I had a 2001.5 VW Passat although it has a 2.8L V6 which has not suffered sludge issue.

Lesson learned. Use only full synthetic oil on turbo engines due to their extremely high heat.
 
Years ago VW and Audi came out the new 1.8T on Passat and A4. VWoA and Audi USA specified 5W-30 oil without saying synthetic to the 1.8T with 7,500-mile OCI which is common at the time for most vehicles. Most VW and Audi dealers were using 5W-30 conventional oil for oil change as it was a lot cheaper than synthetic oil at the time. Years later people started having sludge issue on their turbo engine. VWoA and Audi USA issued service advisory urged their dealers to use full synthetic 5W-30 oil only for the 1.8T. But the damage had done and a class action lawsuit was filed. VWoA and Audi USA settled the lawsuit and agreed to fix or replace the engine with sludge issue for free even without warranty. Ask me how I know? I had a 2001.5 VW Passat although it has a 2.8L V6 which has not suffered sludge issue.

Lesson learned. Use only full synthetic oil on turbo engines due to their extremely high heat.

I will only use synthetic, it will flow much better in the cold and on a cold start-up.

Cold weather oil test:

 
Synthetic additives are used to fortify mineral oil. There is no fixed level of additives that determine what is fully and what is semi and for each manufacturer it is different. I’m not sure how you distinguish what is best other than choose a good brand and the right viscosity. How can we be sure the stuff they used wasn’t sufficient?
 
When I started this thread my intent was to #1Vent #2 Let us reserve and signature owners know the recommended oil,Mazda PN#0000-77 5W30 is not synthetic or semi syn.In fact it is most likely rebranded Castrol GTX conventional.I have never seen a semi or full syn.not labeled as such.#3 Our dealers are fed corporate bulls*** to keep us happy....To those that may ask why use synthetic oil,the only question should be why not.I may add in both my 168k 30 year old BMW and 194k 14 year old Saab turbo,Mobil one 15w50 and 10w40 has kept them burn and leak free running like new. Great forum we have here,respectful and knowledgeable enthusiasts!
 
I must be missing something here but our 2018 CX5's recommend oil is 0W-20; it even states it on the oil cap. And all 0w-20 oil is synthetic. So synthetic is the recommended oil. For those not getting synthetic when they take it to the dealer, what's printed on your oil cap?
 
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