Longtime lurker/studier of BITOG and as a result, started doing UOAs on our family’s vehicles about a year or so ago. Reason I’m reaching out is for some guidance/info on the recent UOA on our 2016 Mazda CX-5 with the 2.5L NA Skyactiv motor that we’ve owned since new and that has roughly 77,000 miles on it. I’ll try to provide any info that might be helpful, but please let me know if you need additional info.
Maintenance, Care and & Typical Driving Conditions: We live about 30 miles outside San Francisco. I’m beyond picky with the car, religiously running OEM filters and the 0W-20 Mazda Moly oil with OCIs of 5000 miles or once-a-year. It’s my wife’s vehicle and she drives about 8 miles back and forth to work, 80% highway on her commute. Typical Commute Conditions: She goes about 2 miles down a country road before climbing up a steep on-ramp onto the freeway, at which point it’s pretty much down-hill-to-mostly flat all the way to work. On the way home, city streets for roughly 4 miles, then climbing up a ramp to the freeway and mostly flat all the way home.
Outside of her commute, it sees at least as much city and in town driving as her short highway commute and once a week it gets a 60-70 mile round trip mostly on the freeway.
I’ve asked my wife to drive it easy while it’s cold, unless she needs to accelerate to stay safe, otherwise she’s a brisk driver but not one to hammer the gas all the time. I drive it even slower than her, but at least once a month, after our long highway stint I will roll into it some or to the floor, mostly just for fun.
Observations Before this recent UOA: In addition to being beyond picky, I have a nose and ears for cars and any little thing that sounds (sometimes smells) different tingles my Spidey-Senses. That said, a few times just after start up over the past 3-4 months, if I’m standing behind the Mazda when it fires-up, I swear I get a slight smell of burnt oil before the expected rich cold-start smell. I don’t see any blue smoke, it doesn’t seem to be using any oil (but I’ve started keeping an even closer eye on the oil level now).
Additionally, and again, with super sensitive hearing I just could be making a mountain out of a mole hill, when the engine is cold, just after start up it sounds like either that faint hollow sound whir of piston slap (noticed it about a year ago) or what could be just the start of a bearing in something going, like the faint whir of the AC compressor pulley aging, power steering, alternator etc.
Oil Filter Caveat: There are three UOAs from Black Stone on the car. All are using the Mazda 0w-20 Moly Oil but the first two changes are with the Mazda value line OEM filter made in Mexico, the latest is with the OEM Mazda oil filter made in Thailand. *For reference, the current fill (about 2000 miles into this OCI) I’m using the same oil, but switched to the OEM Mazda Tokyo filter from Japan that I’m told is what they use from the factory.
UOA Concerns (higher aluminum and iron): UOAs have been pretty consistent up until now. Now aluminum and iron are elevated. Piston wear? Is the car being driven too hard while it’s cold (accelerating up the ramp, etc.), at 77,000 miles should I switch to a different oil? The hints of oil on cold start that I swear I’m sometimes smelling, is that connected or could that be the beginnings of a faulty PCV valve? Any insight would be helpful. And if I'm jumping the gun and being too paranoid, happy to hear that too. I've just done a lot of reading on how these 2.5L NA Skyactiv motors don't typically show high wear at this mileage and that they seem to be long-lived, especially the earlier ones in the Gen 1 CX-5s (not the updated ones in the 2017 and newer that sometimes seem to have lifter issues and other things).
For now going to stay the course, but maybe I should drop the oil at 3000 just to be safe or should I continue to 5000 so I have more of an apples-to-apples to the other OCIs?
Thanks!
Maintenance, Care and & Typical Driving Conditions: We live about 30 miles outside San Francisco. I’m beyond picky with the car, religiously running OEM filters and the 0W-20 Mazda Moly oil with OCIs of 5000 miles or once-a-year. It’s my wife’s vehicle and she drives about 8 miles back and forth to work, 80% highway on her commute. Typical Commute Conditions: She goes about 2 miles down a country road before climbing up a steep on-ramp onto the freeway, at which point it’s pretty much down-hill-to-mostly flat all the way to work. On the way home, city streets for roughly 4 miles, then climbing up a ramp to the freeway and mostly flat all the way home.
Outside of her commute, it sees at least as much city and in town driving as her short highway commute and once a week it gets a 60-70 mile round trip mostly on the freeway.
I’ve asked my wife to drive it easy while it’s cold, unless she needs to accelerate to stay safe, otherwise she’s a brisk driver but not one to hammer the gas all the time. I drive it even slower than her, but at least once a month, after our long highway stint I will roll into it some or to the floor, mostly just for fun.
Observations Before this recent UOA: In addition to being beyond picky, I have a nose and ears for cars and any little thing that sounds (sometimes smells) different tingles my Spidey-Senses. That said, a few times just after start up over the past 3-4 months, if I’m standing behind the Mazda when it fires-up, I swear I get a slight smell of burnt oil before the expected rich cold-start smell. I don’t see any blue smoke, it doesn’t seem to be using any oil (but I’ve started keeping an even closer eye on the oil level now).
Additionally, and again, with super sensitive hearing I just could be making a mountain out of a mole hill, when the engine is cold, just after start up it sounds like either that faint hollow sound whir of piston slap (noticed it about a year ago) or what could be just the start of a bearing in something going, like the faint whir of the AC compressor pulley aging, power steering, alternator etc.
Oil Filter Caveat: There are three UOAs from Black Stone on the car. All are using the Mazda 0w-20 Moly Oil but the first two changes are with the Mazda value line OEM filter made in Mexico, the latest is with the OEM Mazda oil filter made in Thailand. *For reference, the current fill (about 2000 miles into this OCI) I’m using the same oil, but switched to the OEM Mazda Tokyo filter from Japan that I’m told is what they use from the factory.
UOA Concerns (higher aluminum and iron): UOAs have been pretty consistent up until now. Now aluminum and iron are elevated. Piston wear? Is the car being driven too hard while it’s cold (accelerating up the ramp, etc.), at 77,000 miles should I switch to a different oil? The hints of oil on cold start that I swear I’m sometimes smelling, is that connected or could that be the beginnings of a faulty PCV valve? Any insight would be helpful. And if I'm jumping the gun and being too paranoid, happy to hear that too. I've just done a lot of reading on how these 2.5L NA Skyactiv motors don't typically show high wear at this mileage and that they seem to be long-lived, especially the earlier ones in the Gen 1 CX-5s (not the updated ones in the 2017 and newer that sometimes seem to have lifter issues and other things).
For now going to stay the course, but maybe I should drop the oil at 3000 just to be safe or should I continue to 5000 so I have more of an apples-to-apples to the other OCIs?
Thanks!
Last edited:
, forgot to include the UOI! Doh! Post edited!
