2016 CX-5 Power Loss

S

Srad600

:
2018 CX-9AWD GT
So I did a quick search and haven't come across this particular issue, so I figured I'd ask and see if anyone else has experienced something similar.

Vehicle in Question:
2016 Mazda CX-5, AWD, GT+Tech
Issue:
My wife was driving down the road with our two kids in the back, and a diaper bag on the passenger front seat. She says, she started hearing a "ding ding" as she was driving but did not notice any unusual lights on the dash. Then, apparently, the car just lost power and would no longer accelerate. She had to pull over to the side of the road, at which point she noticed the passenger seatbelt light was on (which was the cause of the ding's). She moved the diaper bag from the seat to the floor and the light went out. Only then would the car accelerate again.
Frequency:
Only happened once to my knowledge, but I asked her to be sure to let me know if it happens again.

My question is, has this happened to anyone else? The car shutting down over a seatbelt light seems really extreme to me. Seems like that's putting lives at risk by forcing the car to lose power, what if that happened while she was on the freeway with no shoulder? What if she'd been rear-ended and my kids were hurt or worse? (nailbyt) Anyway, lots of "what if's" but I'm really just curious if this is intentional or a fault.

Any ideas? (scratch)
 
I AM SPECULATING: Sounds as if the diaper bag was heavy enough to trigger the lower threshold of the AIR BAG seat weight sensor, and since the seat belt was not fastened, the car went into LIMP mode in order to prevent death of passenger due to air bag discharge without seatbelt.

It would be fairly simple to replicate the experiment..(detect)
 
mazdadude said:
I AM SPECULATING: Sounds as if the diaper bag was heavy enough to trigger the lower threshold of the AIR BAG seat weight sensor, and since the seat belt was not fastened, the car went into LIMP mode in order to prevent death of passenger due to air bag discharge without seatbelt.

It would be fairly simple to replicate the experiment..(detect)
Click to expand...

This would happen anytime someone had a parcel or moderately heavy bag in the seat - and no, it doesn't go in limp mode in those cases. I've heard of some ATV's having a seatbelt initiated limp mode, but never a passenger car. This would throw a code too.

Limp mode reset usually requires a total restart of the car. Not to question OP's wife's description but (shrug)
 
Last edited:
craigo said:
This would happen anytime someone had a parcel or moderately heavy bag in the seat - and no, it doesn't go in limp mode in those cases. I've heard of some ATV's having a seatbelt initiated limp mode, but never a passenger car. This would throw a code too.

Limp mode reset usually requires a total restart of the car. Not to question OP's wife's description but (shrug)
Click to expand...
This is exactly why I asked the question, this does not seem like a safe implementation of any sort of seatbelt enforcement. I've never had a car act like that, and have never heard of one acting like that. But I figured i' d put it out there to see if anyone experienced anything similar. Remember, I'm married...gotta take her word at face value unless I can PROVE otherwise. Happy wife...happy life...
 
Srad600 said:
Remember, I'm married...gotta take her word at face value unless I can PROVE otherwise. Happy wife...happy life...
Click to expand...

Just go out there, stick your head under the dash for a bit and fiddle with something. Then come out and say "I researched it, found the problem and made an adjustment. It shouldn't happen again, but keep the diaper bag on the floor just in case." Then pray it doesn't happen again. Win-Win! (nana)
 
I've had the seatbelt warning come on when I placed a watermelon on the passenger seat but no loss of power. Just the incessant ding-dong.
There's something else going on.
 
And when the experiment doesn't result in limp mode, THEN what're you gonna tell her?!
 
shadonoz said:
And when the experiment doesn't result in limp mode, THEN what're you gonna tell her?!
Click to expand...
The truth (like I just did). I put a crate of old video games, a jug of kitty litter and some big old motorcycle books on the seat and could not get the "airbag off" light to go out. So no incessant ding, and no power loss. I can't imagine the diaper bag was heavier than all of that stuff, and considering we almost always put the diaper bag on the front seat (both in the CX-5 & CX-9) I don't think the bag was the issue.

8e2a08f8bfe5383e62635ed95e34c5aa.jpg


I think there was an electrical fault, and I hate electrical faults...so hard to narrow down the cause. Anyway, I told her to hand her phone to my daughter next time and have her film it.



wlong01 said:
I've had the seatbelt warning come on when I placed a watermelon on the passenger seat but no loss of power. Just the incessant ding-dong.
There's something else going on.
Click to expand...
I think you're right.
 
If it really did go into "limp mode", or whatever Mazda's official term for it is, there will be a code stored.
 
Srad600 said:
I think there was an electrical fault, and I hate electrical faults...so hard to narrow down the cause. Anyway, I told her to hand her phone to my daughter next time and have her film it.
Click to expand...
I've been driving without wearing the seat belt several times. The "ding" warning sound would go out in about one minute, only the red seatbelt warning light in instrument cluster is lit steadily. It's never got into the "limp mode".

Passenger seatbelt may be a little different but still even if the diaper triggered the "ding" sound, it should last only a minute then stop. So if your wife drove longer than a few minutes and the incident happened, or your wife heard the "ding" after more than minutes of driving, I believe the "ding" warning sound is caused by something else, not the seatbelt.

Get a code reader or go to AutoZone and see if there's any fault codes stored. IMO something happened which caused the CX-5 fell into the "limp mode". Hopefully it's just a one-time glitch by some electrical fault, and you should only be worried if it happens the second time. Just tell the wife she handled the situation correctly and do the same if it ever happens again.

How many miles does the 2016 CX-5 have?
 
yrwei52 said:
I've been driving without wearing the seat belt several times. The "ding" warning sound would go out in about one minute, only the red seatbelt warning light in instrument cluster is lit steadily. It's never got into the "limp mode".

Passenger seatbelt may be a little different but still even if the diaper triggered the "ding" sound, it should last only a minute then stop. So if your wife drove longer than a few minutes and the incident happened, or your wife heard the "ding" after more than minutes of driving, I believe the "ding" warning sound is caused by something else, not the seatbelt.

Get a code reader or go to AutoZone and see if there's any fault codes stored. IMO something happened which caused the CX-5 fell into the "limp mode". Hopefully it's just a one-time glitch by some electrical fault, and you should only be worried if it happens the second time. Just tell the wife she handled the situation correctly and do the same if it ever happens again.

How many miles does the 2016 CX-5 have?
Click to expand...
She's just crossing 40,000 miles now. Yes, I asked her about how long she was driving with the chime, and she told me she stopped at a road about 2 miles away, so a good ways. But I think you're right, there's something else going on.

Oddly enough, the car was just serviced by our dealer...(peep)

craigo said:
If it really did go into "limp mode", or whatever Mazda's official term for it is, there will be a code stored.
Click to expand...
Agreed.

I do have an app "Engine Link" and have it synced to an ODBII reader, but the reader does not seem to register any number of simple things like fuel level (the app was saying empty, but the tank is full) and coolant temp (which was reading 32 degrees, but considering it was 104 today I find it hard to believe that the coolant was near freezing). Given that, I don't trust it to actually find any trouble codes...and it didn't find any. I might take Yrwei52's advice and go by an Autozone to borrow their DTC reader.
 
Last edited:
I was still thinking about this.... (detect)

Instead of LIMP MODE, is it possible that the shifter lever might have got bumped into MANUAL MODE, leaving the car stuck in that gear and making it impossible to accelerate past a certain speed because transmission manual mode staying in that gear>?
 
mazdadude said:
I was still thinking about this.... (detect)

Instead of LIMP MODE, is it possible that the shifter lever might have got bumped into MANUAL MODE, leaving the car stuck in that gear and making it impossible to accelerate past a certain speed because transmission manual mode staying in that gear>?
Click to expand...

Since a real limp mode usually requires a vehicle restart to get out of, this is possible.
 
mazdadude said:
I was still thinking about this.... (detect)

Instead of LIMP MODE, is it possible that the shifter lever might have got bumped into MANUAL MODE, leaving the car stuck in that gear and making it impossible to accelerate past a certain speed because transmission manual mode staying in that gear>?
Click to expand...
Completely possible. My wife can get overwhelmed easily, especially when the girls are acting up/crying. I think I'm just going to make a note of this and not sweat it unless it happens again. If it does, i'll switch cars with her until I can recreate the problem and go from there.
 
mazdadude said:
I AM SPECULATING: Sounds as if the diaper bag was heavy enough to trigger the lower threshold of the AIR BAG seat weight sensor, and since the seat belt was not fastened, the car went into LIMP mode in order to prevent death of passenger due to air bag discharge without seatbelt.

It would be fairly simple to replicate the experiment..(detect)
Click to expand...

That would be equally dangerous and waay to damned nannyish.
 
I was able to get the seat belt reminder to start ringing yesterday. I had a metal folder on the seat (which weighs nothing) and my finger resting on the folder. DING DING DING... I took my finger off as I was looking around the cabin for the cause of the alert and it stopped. I was able to replicate this several times. I think theres a glitch somewhere in that system. There was nowhere near enough weight on the seat to activate that reminder...yet there it was. No power loss though.
 
Srad600 said:
I was able to get the seat belt reminder to start ringing yesterday. I had a metal folder on the seat (which weighs nothing) and my finger resting on the folder. DING DING DING... I took my finger off as I was looking around the cabin for the cause of the alert and it stopped. I was able to replicate this several times. I think theres a glitch somewhere in that system. There was nowhere near enough weight on the seat to activate that reminder...yet there it was. No power loss though.
Click to expand...

Any update on this? I had a similar experience with loss of power, but nothing to do with seatbelts or dings.
 
yrwei52 said:
I've been driving without wearing the seat belt several times. The "ding" warning sound would go out in about one minute, only the red seatbelt warning light in instrument cluster is lit steadily. It's never got into the "limp mode".

Passenger seatbelt may be a little different but still even if the diaper triggered the "ding" sound, it should last only a minute then stop. So if your wife drove longer than a few minutes and the incident happened, or your wife heard the "ding" after more than minutes of driving, I believe the "ding" warning sound is caused by something else, not the seatbelt.

Get a code reader or go to AutoZone and see if there's any fault codes stored. IMO something happened which caused the CX-5 fell into the "limp mode". Hopefully it's just a one-time glitch by some electrical fault, and you should only be worried if it happens the second time. Just tell the wife she handled the situation correctly and do the same if it ever happens again.

How many miles does the 2016 CX-5 have?
Click to expand...

I have had many many seatbelt warnings. sometimes its food containers, sometimes its a usb charging cable. Its not consistent or it is consistent with something that I have not been able to figure out. At times i have a lot of stuff and it never bothers, then with a small weight it does.
Never have I lost power. and mostly this warning is around parking lot as it is during start up. Now there is a possibility she was distracted and did not press the acc. down hard enough. As the noise is annoying and hard to locate.
 
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