I have two Mazdas with cylinder deactivation. About 18K on one and 13 K on the other. Cars are still fairly new, but haven’t had any issues at all. Tons of these on the road with well over 100K. No recalls that I’m aware of.
Has Mazda become a no go due to cylinder deactivation?
- Thread starter draculr
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Disabling the lifters seems easy enough but preventing the ECU from turning off the injectors is another matter entirely.
If I buy a CX-5 it will probably be a 2017 or earlier. CD didn’t start until 2018. I’ve read that there are some being sold without CD and that you can tell by the VIN but I don’t know if that is true.
Bying a new car ($$$$) because of something that is not a problem boggles my mind.
New cars are full of unnecessary complexity that buyers don't want and didn't ask for. It's common now in new car reviews for the tester to comment on the ease of disabling things like stop/start and automatic lane centering assist etc and point out that this is is a positive for that particular car. If you have to go into the touch screen to disable stuff then that's a demerit. After 2 months of ownership I'm still figuring out how to disable features I don't want.
My 2022 CX5 has CDA and it works just fine.
VIN numbers that have cylinder deactivation have code ‘M’. The ones that don’t have an ‘I’.
That is probably the least intrusive cylinder de-activation I've ever seen. It is controlled very much like the VVT system in most modern engines and, at first glance, seems much better than moving cam lobes and other methods of turning off cylinders. VVT systems have been around a long time, of course some better than others, but this seems relatively robust.
In what position, and Is that a I or a L? Does that mean the M in JM3KFBAL9S0623901 indicates deactivation?
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The other thread in that other forum was hinting at some mechanism being needed in the transmission to deal with the vibrations induced, which on the flip side causes it to not have some other gizmo that the non-cylinder deactivation versions' transmissions have, for available space reasons (apparently it's one or the other) - making the CDA-specific transmissions prone to break said gizmo. Not the transmission itself, but was it the torque converter or something.
The literature said they added a "fulcrum" to the transmission to deal with it. I know what a fulcrum is in a lever but have no idea what it means in an automatic transmission.
To determine if a Mazda vehicle has cylinder deactivation, check the 8th digit of the VIN: an "L" indicates the vehicle does not have cylinder deactivation, while an "M" indicates it does.
In the VIN you posted, it does NOT have cylinder deactivation.
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I think the transmission worries me more than the engine. There's a TSB about it: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2023/MC-10244672-0001.pdf
The TSB is dated October 2023 and covers all models with CD up until the 2024 model year. So who is to say it's even been fixed for 2025MY cars? From what I gather, because they added the "fulcrum" to help dampen the vibrations of the 2cylinder mode, there was no room left for the multi-plate clutch used for the torque converter lock up. So they had to use a single plate clutch instead. That is then shedding iron particles and requires a torque converter replacement. It doesn't help that Mazda suggests that it's transmission fluid is lifetime but it's happening to people with pretty low miles anyway. It's a big shame as I was so close to buying a Mazda 3 but I dont know if I could live with it knowing the TC might develop issues at any moment!
Does the 3 have deactivation? EDIT: Nevermind, the TSB says it does.
Maybe find one without? Apparently they exist.
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In Australia all our 2.5l models have it and the 2.0l had it since 2023. I was set on buying a new 3 with the 2.0l as it just hits the perfect price point for me and used ones don’t go that much cheaper.
My guess is that "fulcrum" is a translation thing. Finding info on their Japanese site and using chatgpt to translate might yield something