Recent content by mazdman

Exactly...... Differences in tire circumference and therefore tire speed will destroy the center and rear diffs in short order. Subaru's are the most sensitive with just a 2/32" difference being enough to cause mechanical failures but that is a true symmetrical AWD system. Also, it's bad enough...

Continental True Contacts are my favorites. Continental True Contacts are the best IMO for our CX5. Great wet/dry performance, very even wearing, long life and very quiet. P225/55R19. Just bought 4 new ones yesterday, but no fault of the tires. Got a puncture right on the edge and was not...

Invoice is not what a dealer pays for a car. Ignoring hold back, etc, manufacturer's have been pushing more of the vehicle cost into the MSRP since the late 90s and the ability of people to find invoice prices over the internet. Practically all vehicles have a current invoice that's about 3-5%...

Gas will make any weight oil go into solution. It's the old like dissolves like from chemistry. Polar likes polar and hydrocarbons, like gas and oil are non-polar, so they dissolve well into each other. I've had and built many high hp, high boost, petrol DI engines, and while they had some fuel...

The OCV is part # PE0114420A and I believe dealer cost for just the valve is $280 or so. Add the other parts and labor and I'd guesstimate around $600-$700, plus probably a bunch of scraped off silicone in your engine, broken clips, etc.

They make a tool for it, but I just cut a piece of polyethylene out of an old windshield washer bottle about 2" X 3" long, start the belt on the crank pulley and then place the plastic between the belt and pulley on the tension side of the water pump and rotate the crank CW with a long ratchet...

I cleaned the top of the valve at the connector interface with brake clean and then put a healthy bead of permatex grey silicone around it. It worked well for about 10k, then started leaking through, so I did the repair. All in I paid about $250 or so for parts. Other than my first car, a new 80...

That leak is caused by the pos early model of the OCV for the VVT. This is specifically addressed in a TSB. It is caused by a poorly engineered plastic to metal seal at the top where the electrical connector is. I just replaced my wife's with a new OCV, valve cover gasket and OCV to valve cover...

Yeah, I guess me seeing it in person and talking directly with my parts and service guy isn't as credible as you finding it on the Internet. Go figure!?

Just an FYI. I was at my local Mazda dealer, bs'ing with my parts guy after picking up a few things and he pointed to 3 2017 xfer cases on the shelf he was replacing and already had done 6 or 7 already. They overheated, puked all the oil out the breather and fried. The CX-5 xfer case is fine for...

My wife's 2015 GT AWD just turned over 66,000 miles. I did new f&r pads at about 50k, rear diff and xfer at about 30k w/ Redline full synthetics, OE cabin filters at least every 6 months, 6 sets of front and rear Mazda value line wiper blades, OE engine air filters 3 times (just did a A/T...

It's based on stochastic analyses Since it's based on stochastic analyses, which is the prediction of a completely random event, which having done many of these is not a trivial task given the large number of variables, HIL (Human In the Loop), etc, we have no way of knowing what parameters...

That's good reading. Thanks for the info. However, it appears that the LSPI, GF-6 oils, papers, etc are geared more toward forced induction applications, where I'd expect and not NA applications like non-diesel CX-5's. Not saying it doesn't apply, just geared more toward higher combustion...