2023 Mazda CX-50 2.5S 26.5k mi; Pennzoil Platinum 0W-20 9.8k mi

Nice report! Pennzoil Platinum seems to work well with your engine and driving.

Got to say this MX+ plug in code reader/data collector has me intrigued due to how it possibly could look on my phone. I owned a vehicle years ago where the vehicle itself had a screen where it had icons related to vehicle maintenance (oil, coolant, tranny, filters, etc). Each icon would count down the miles after each service, I loved that. I was able to track everything easily and reset. I don’t think the MX+ is capable of that but I’d love to find something that was. I’m sure they’re out there but I have yet to find anything.
 
Nice report! Pennzoil Platinum seems to work well with your engine and driving.

Got to say this MX+ plug in code reader/data collector has me intrigued due to how it possibly could look on my phone. I owned a vehicle years ago where the vehicle itself had a screen where it had icons related to vehicle maintenance (oil, coolant, tranny, filters, etc). Each icon would count down the miles after each service, I loved that. I was able to track everything easily and reset. I don’t think the MX+ is capable of that but I’d love to find something that was. I’m sure they’re out there but I have yet to find anything.
The OBD MX+ definitely isn't capable of doing what you're looking for. But it can display live data directly to your phone, or in my case, I use it to project data on to my center screen using an App and CarPlay. That way I have a bigger screen to monitor my vehicle while driving.
 
I also find the full 5 qt. jug brings the oil level on the dipstick only halfway to the 'top hole' on our NA 2.5 Skyactiv. I usually add about 6 to 8 additional ounces of oil to get to the 'top hole'....especially if running the over sized (7317) oil filter. I really don't understand why Mazda
doesn't just say the capacity is 5 quarts or even 5.2 quarts.

Having said this....I will say this UOA @ nearly 10K miles makes me even less worried when I go over my desired 6500 mile OCI by a few hundred miles when the vehicle isn't available to me for an OC (7700 miles, with a lot of highway miles, was the longest it's gone and that was on PP 0w20). Mazda makes very good engines.
 
I also find the full 5 qt. jug brings the oil level on the dipstick only halfway to the 'top hole' on our NA 2.5 Skyactiv. I usually add about 6 to 8 additional ounces of oil to get to the 'top hole'....especially if running the over sized (7317) oil filter. I really don't understand why Mazda
doesn't just say the capacity is 5 quarts or even 5.2 quarts.

Having said this....I will say this UOA @ nearly 10K miles makes me even less worried when I go over my desired 6500 mile OCI by a few hundred miles when the vehicle isn't available to me for an OC (7700 miles, with a lot of highway miles, was the longest it's gone and that was on PP 0w20). Mazda makes very good engines.
Mazda does make solid engines, they don't seem to have any problem doing 10k oil changes as long as you use a quality synthetic oil.
 
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Mazda does make solid engines, they don't seem to have any problem doing 10k oil changes as long as you use a quality synthetic oil.
I agree....that's why I was surprised that Admiral Yoda had this oil burning issue on his 2.5 Skyactiv with his conservative OCI regimen.

posted today-- 10/13/24:
"My wife's 2016 Mazda CX-5 with the Skyactive 2.5L has been burning some oil as time has gone on. It has 145k miles on it now and runs pretty good. We've had it since it was 20k old and I've done all the maintenance work.

High quality synthetics at about 5k intervals, maybe sometimes up to 7.5k if time got away from me. Up until about 110k it was 90% highway miles but my wife's job changed and has driven around town alot since. Mostly short trips, stop and go, etc. Basically severe service. I've reduced the OCI to 3k since.

Regardless, it has always gone through a bit of oil and it will now be a quart low after about 2,000 miles. The oil gets dark pretty quick. I started a thread about using HPL's EC30 engine cleaner and it turned me on to doing a B12 piston soak. So here it goes and the comedy of errors that went along with it....."
 
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Here is the latest UOA for my Mazda CX-50 2.5S (N/A 2.5L). Please enjoy the information overload.

The oil was in use from Dec 24th 2023 to July 24th 2024. Over that time I covered 9771 miles, which included approximately 4400 miles in road trips. Otherwise the this is our run around vehicle, so gets a good mix of driving including some short trip along side some longer trips. According to the computer, this run had 255 hours on it with 26 of them being idle hours. 355 gallons of gasoline were consumed with an average MPG of 27.6 with an average speed of 38.3mph. Highest MPG was 32.5 and the lowest was 22.5. The average engine power output per hour of use was 18hp (3438kWh or 4607hp-hr). The OLM was showing 600 miles remaining at the time of the change but was showing that with every restart for about 300 miles, so I would have expected to be going to zero at about 10000 miles.

The oil used was Pennzoil Platinum 0W-20 with a Mazda filter, 1WPE-14-302 and was replaced with the same thing. A little bit of oil was consumed over the OCI, but it was probably in the range of 1/8-1/16 of a qt, so nothing to be concerned with. The max engine oil temperature I saw was in the 215-220 range when driving through the Mountains of West Virginia in 90+ degree heat. In most other driving situations, the 2.5L Skyactiv engine doesn’t appear to get its engine oil all that hot. When the ambient temperature is in the 60s, the engine oil temperature might not even reach 180 degrees with an 1 hour of driving at highway speed.

Now on to my thoughts about the UOA. I think the Pennzoil held up much better than the oil the Mazda dealership used. Wear metals are stabilizing and the final break-in metals, Cooper mostly, appear to be out of the system. The oil appears to have held up well, viscosity is still in the correct range, although down a little bit from PP 0W-20 starting point. TBN appears to have held up at 2.2, when the starting point is 4.8. Oxidation at 11 is only 5 points above Platinum’s starting point of 6. Although I couldn’t find a starting point for the Nitration value of PP 0W-20, I’m assuming it probably similar to the PPHM 5W-30, which had a starting nitration value of 5, so mine would be about 5 points above that. All acceptable in my book. Fuel dilution at 2.5% is acceptable level to me. I do think it’s probably is quite hard to get fuel dilution much lower then that given the N/A Skyactiv engine oil appears to be quite slow to warm up.

I took this oil sample after driving home from work. When I checked my oil temperature, it was 192 degrees after I had been driving for about 1.5hr as traffic was horrific that day. Hope you enjoyed this ramble, let me know your thoughts.

I’m planning on following the OLM for the next change after seeing this. Although, I don’t anticipate this OCI having 4400 miles of road trips. So, the next oil change will probably be Spring 2025.
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Changing the subject here: how do you like the handling of your CX50? My 2013 CX-5 Touring AWD handled like a dream.
 
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