Mazda CX-5 (possible) Electrical Issue

While on a normal drive to town after work, I experienced something new on my CX-5 that has me quite concerned and finds the car towed to the dealership...

While driving with cruise control on at about 55-60 mph, all of a sudden, the tire pressure monitoring system light flashed a few times while the traction control light was on. The TPMS light then became solid amber and the car started slowing down on its own by increasing the engine RPM's. It wouldn't respond to the gas pedal, but I still felt like I had full control via power steering and brakes. I turned on the flashers, slowly proceeded to a safe area, walked around the car with it running and observed the tires appeared just fine. So, I cracked out the manual and read the trouble lights section - pretty much telling me that I needed to contact an authorized Mazda dealership for the issue. I decided to shut-down the car for about 30 seconds, then restart it, hoping that a refresh would eliminate the warning lights - it didn't.

I decided to try to get the car into town (~2 miles) as I was sitting in the merge between two highways. Upon taking off from that position, the "AT" light and engine light came on - both amber colored. The car took control of the speed and wouldn't go over about 20 mph. Once I was to another safe spot where I could get the car well off the road (500' or so), I put the car in Park and called my dealership I bought the car from. Needless-to-say, I ended up with a call to Mazda Roadside Assistance where a nice gal gladly served this frustrated driver and dispatched a tow truck to the nearest Mazda dealership - 40 miles away... So the car is on its way there now.

I was able to talk with the dealership the car was headed to (different from the purchasing one) and they said they would look at it tomorrow and wasn't sure based on my description what was going on without looking at it. Hopefully it will still have the issue when it's there and I don't receive the dreaded "we can't replicate what you experienced and it's working fine" call tomorrow! Especially since I'm headed on a road trip of about 2000 miles next week.

I'm a little concerned that there has been an issue this significant on the vehicle while still under warranty (but am thankful it's warrantied and this *should* be a warranty repair...). Anyone else ever have anything like this happen???

Look under engine/transmission, there is one post where they found a small piece of metal shorting out an electrical connector. There may be other post where they turned off the car and the trouble lights went away, other post where transmission was a problem... I think the computer knew something was wrong and limited the power output...

sounds like the typical 'limp mode' when it thinks something serious is wrong. It is the step above the basic check engine light. Lets you keep moving some just in case you have to but tries to minimize any damage or danger to you should a safety system fail completely.

Hopefully it is just a sensor reporting wrong and nothing big is broken.

I once had power output limited as you've described in a Mitsubishi Sigma. It ended up being an alternator problem. So yours basically could be anything. Lets hope it gets properly sorted out, whatever it is.

Be sure to post what the diagnosis/fix is when you get it. That sucks, I sure hope it is something easily fixed (and under warranty) that won't be a recurring problem.

My car is in the shop at the moment with the same issues that you are having. The mechanic told me it was a faulty transmission valve.

This exact thing happened to me a few times. On all of them a simple turning the engine off and turning it back on did the trick and I was driving back to normal.