Winter is here and my CX-5 turbo is now a 2.0L!

As a current owner of a Volvo LPT (Low Pressure Turbo) and a previous owner of 3 Saab turbo I can assure you: this is not how any modern turbo should behave. As Chris referenced, Winter is "Boost Season": turbo cars like denser air.

Thanks. I'm familiar with the fact that turbos generally like cooler air, I just thought there might be some threshold where the air is so cold and dense that it stops becoming beneficial. This is my first turbocharged car so I'm still learning as I go.

From my understanding, turbos have a lot of moving parts and they can heat up quickly. With cooler air, the turbo's moving parts spin faster and it heats up quicker. That makes it important to use the right grade of oil for the turbocharged engine - it keeps the moving parts lubricated and it pulls heat away from the turbo. In an interview with SavageGeese, Dave Coleman from Mazda states the following:

"We've dramatically reduced the oil in the intake stream compared to our last DI Turbo through several measures. First, oil blowing past turbo seals directly into the intake stream has been reduced with better turbo oil seals and lower oil pressure in the turbo itself."

I believe Dave also mentioned in a video somewhere that this engine's intake valve temperatures run hotter in order to combat carbon build-up.

Could these points have anything to do with the reduced performance? Maybe this is done to prevent intake valve temps from getting too hot? Or maybe the reduction in oil in the intake stream has some bearing on the turbo when it's working with colder air? I'm just spitballing at this point - again, I'm not that familiar with turbos.

I know you live in Canada but even Canada has plenty of time over winter with clear dry roads.

Oh I know, I was just speaking for myself, not all of Canada lol
 
In my CX-9, I did a 0-60 run in mid-October, when temps were at 1c (34F), and got a time of 7.8. I just did another 0-60 run at -9c (16F) and got a time of 9.0.

It does appear that the engine loses some power at colder temps, based on my own crude testing. Keep in mind that I tried to keep parameters as consistent as I could, but other factors may also contribute to the difference in reported times. For example, tires are the same and testing track is the same. While pavement was dry during both tests, the most recent test had some blowing snow on the road, so there was likely some traction loss or a minimal amount of wheel spin.

EDIT: I did also note that timing in Torque app was being reported at 19-20 degrees. No idea what it was in warmer temps, unfortunately.

I recall Dave Coleman talking about the windshield wipers being set to "on" as one of the indicators the CX-5 uses to determine AWD needs. Just to eliminate the one simple thing we can control as drivers/owners, has anyone done a controlled experiment on the 2.5t with wipers on vs off during acceleration?
 
10F on my drive home tonight. Seems like it still has the initial grunt around 2k then starts to fall flat.

Its also really inconsistent. Sometimes its not so noticeable. Sometimes it feels gutless and I cant believe my foot is as far down as it is.

Not related but Im not so impressed with the awd in the second gen. Multiple times(including tonight) Ive lit up the front tires and nothing from the rear. Tonight I was going up hill on a dirt road with some snow, the traction control off, manual mode in second- punched it and the RPMs jumped as the front wheels just spun.
 
My 2018 gt with the 2.5 non turbo was like that last winter to. Almost got in a accident went to pass and Floored it and it felt like it lost about half it*s power was like wtf and it did that lost in the winter. One reason out of many I got rid of it.

Back in I believe 2012 the Mazda 3*s has a tsb regarding the same thing lack of power in the cold. It was a reprogram We did and it fixed them. Hope for your guys sake they come out with one too
 
My 2018 gt with the 2.5 non turbo was like that last winter to. Almost got in a accident went to pass and Floored it and it felt like it lost about half it*s power was like wtf and it did that lost in the winter. One reason out of many I got rid of it.

Back in I believe 2012 the Mazda 3*s has a tsb regarding the same thing lack of power in the cold. It was a reprogram We did and it fixed them. Hope for your guys sake they come out with one too

Probably got trolled by the TCS. It will dump power at even a slight amount of slip. With my ECU tune (non turbo) I can get it to happen just by doing a 1-2 WOT shift near redline, hence I usually have TCS off
 
My 2018 gt with the 2.5 non turbo was like that last winter to. Almost got in a accident went to pass and Floored it and it felt like it lost about half it*s power was like wtf and it did that lost in the winter. One reason out of many I got rid of it.

Back in I believe 2012 the Mazda 3*s has a tsb regarding the same thing lack of power in the cold. It was a reprogram We did and it fixed them. Hope for your guys sake they come out with one too
Your problem of loosing power when you needed it also possibly was caused by the fallen rocker arm at cylinder #4 due to cylinder deactivation.
 
Last edited:
It was completely dry out it wasn*t slipping at all trust me. And the car had about 1000 miles. Who knows but it turned me off even though I worked for them for 11 years. I would never buy another one unfortunately.
 
By who? Mazda corporate acknolwedges it but refuses explanation. Multiple YT reviewers note it. My dealership notes it on a personally tech-owned CX9. Who's going to "look at it"?

Im kinda surprised you havent raised a bigger stink - I sure would. Heres what Id do:

1. Take car in again and get the corporate and dealer acknowledgements in writing. Spoken words mean nothing.
2. Post a good quality comparison video on YouTube
3. Post on Mazdas social media platforms
4. Reach out to corporate independent of dealer with history of your problem and the video evidence.
5. Reach out to as many auto reviewing people as possible to spread the story.
6. If that doesn't get traction, then dig up your states lemon law and see what qualifies.
 
Thing with Mazda is they take along time to acknowledge some of this stuff. They are a bit ignorant in that aspect. Warranty was easy for the most part to get authorizations etc as a dealer you can pretty much do any warranty you want for a customer I Never said no. It*s still money in our pocket. But for instance when a head rep for our area came we all asked why don*t we offer a remote start integrated into the key fob etc like everyone else. Guy responds back well that*s not what people want. We all laughed ��*** Anyway I hope they get it figured out. Or maybe they are to concentrated on how much soft touch material they can jam into the car incase you have to sleep on the dash so it*s soft enough lol.
 
In cold weather my car takes a long time to reach normal operating temperature, about 5 or 6 miles, but once it does it has good power. I drive sort of like a grandma until it reaches normal operating temperature, I will drive the speed limit but I don't give it the beans to reach the speed limit.
 
I'm shocked that the owner's of the turbo are so nonchalant about this issue and have more or less accepted it as normal. The CX-5 turbo is at the top of my list for my next car but this potential issue is causing me to have some serious reservations.
 
I'm shocked that the owner's of the turbo are so nonchalant about this issue and have more or less accepted it as normal. The CX-5 turbo is at the top of my list for my next car but this potential issue is causing me to have some serious reservations.

There isnt a whole lot we can do. The car is sometimes underpowered when its below 20F. Its inconsistent and isnt so extreme that its a safety issue.

As Uno mentioned, Mazda has acknowledged its expected for the performance to change with temperature.

Im certainly annoyed, but cant do much. My local dealer lies to me about checking the transmissions fluid.... I dont have the time to deal with the games.

I do hope someone can somehow get traction on this issue, but Im not hopeful.

The quirks in this vehicle and lack of a solid local dealer have me thinking I might need to go to another brand the next time around.
 
Last edited:
I'm shocked that the owner's of the turbo are so nonchalant about this issue and have more or less accepted it as normal. The CX-5 turbo is at the top of my list for my next car but this potential issue is causing me to have some serious reservations.

I would be upset if ours did this, too. I don't have the time, or really desire, to post videos of me doing 0-60 runs in my neighborhood. All I can say is it "feels" very normal when the weather is below 10 degrees F. Some are claiming that the turbo is nonexistent at that temp and runs like the regular 2.5l engine. That would be very noticable. They are the ones that should be going to their dealer and have it addressed, because something IS wrong with that.
 
They should give you a discount credit on your car payments during the "downgraded" months...
 
I commute 40 miles to work every morning at 5:30am. I'm a mile from the highway, so when I jump on, my GTR is still not nearly warmed up fully. I have no issues whatsoever merging into highway traffic quickly and easily. If there is a performance degradation, either I'm not feeling it or its a very minor change.

If it takes a stopwatch to prove there's an issue, I'm much less concerned than I would be if it were struggling to get up to speed.

I'm shocked that the owner's of the turbo are so nonchalant about this issue and have more or less accepted it as normal. The CX-5 turbo is at the top of my list for my next car but this potential issue is causing me to have some serious reservations.
 
It was completely dry out it wasn*t slipping at all trust me. And the car had about 1000 miles. Who knows but it turned me off even though I worked for them for 11 years. I would never buy another one unfortunately.

Doesn't matter if it's wet; I get mine in dry heat. With front wheel bias a small amount of front wheel slip with high throttle is enough to get a power cut.
 
I would be upset if ours did this, too. I don't have the time, or really desire, to post videos of me doing 0-60 runs in my neighborhood. All I can say is it "feels" very normal when the weather is below 10 degrees F. Some are claiming that the turbo is nonexistent at that temp and runs like the regular 2.5l engine. That would be very noticable. They are the ones that should be going to their dealer and have it addressed, because something IS wrong with that.

Yours does do it, you just can't tell. I couldn't tell, myself, until I put it on a clock, because of the manner in which the power is normally delivered vs. , how it's tuned for performance under 20*F.
 
Back