10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
1 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
48,124 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.

So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.

2013 Mazda CX-5 engine problems

engine problem

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2013 Mazda CX-5 Owner Comments (Page 2 of 3)

« Read the previous 20 complaints

problem #22

Jun 202017

CX-5

  • 46,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

The car randomly accelerates after depressing the brake. It bucks, revs, lurks then stops. It has happened about 4 time to-date. Today, 6/20, I tapped the car in front of me. No damaged but it is the closes to having an accident since I noticed this issue. Took the vehicle to pacifico Ford in pa to have the issue checked out and they found nothing. That was on 5/23. Plan to take it back there again.

- Sicklerville, NJ, USA

problem #21

May 272017

CX-5

  • 45,000 miles
On 2 separate occasions (5/27/2017 and 6/15/2017) while on the freeway while in stop & go traffic, my vehicle suddenly seemed to lose power, and unable to go more than 20 mph. The tire pressure, traction control, emergency light comes on. Both times I have safely been able to make it to the shoulder. The first time, I had my car towed to auto repair shop. Their $300 diagnosis reported nothing wrong with the car. The second time, I turned my car off & on again on the shoulder. The check engine light stayed on and I and was able to drive to my destination. The check engine is now back off, but I have dropped it off at the same auto repair shop, and they are replacing an air flow sensor in hopes that this resolves the problem. This will cost us another $300. Both times I had my 18 month old in my car. I am deeply concerned.

- San Diego, CA, USA

problem #20

Mar 012017

CX-5 4-cyl

  • 48,541 miles
The contact owns a 2013 Mazda Cx-5. the contact stated that the service engine warning indicator illuminated and the vent functions failed for the air conditioning and heating. The vehicle was taken to a dealer for further diagnostic testing. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer had not yet been notified. The approximate failure mileage was 48,541...updated 08/31/17 heater core failure and faulty coolant. Updated 9/27/18

- Ennice, NC, USA

problem #19

Mar 112017

CX-5

  • 72,500 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Check engine, tps, and tcs lights come on and vehicle starts bucking and decelerating. Pulled over, disconnected the battery. Dashboard lights and bucking are gone at restart. Issue occurred two more times in a span of a couple days, so I took it to a shop. P0101 and P061B problems present. Maf sensor seems fine. Continues malfunctioning after oil change and inspection. Taking to the dealership for reflashing.

- Atlantic Beach, NC, USA

problem #18

Mar 212017

CX-5

  • 80,000 miles
3 times since PCM recall was completed- I have been driving on the highway 65mph, suddenly feel reduction in power, check engine light, low tire pressure lights and tractions stabilty warning lights come on. When the car is turned off, and restarted lights go out except check engine and car drives normal. By the time I get to pepboys they are unable to find a cause and the check engine light goes off.

- Spring Hill, FL, USA

problem #17

Nov 122016

CX-5

  • 69,000 miles
Since last recall repair my Cx-5 is experiencing major problems. It will randomly not start. I get in and depress brake pedal, but start button will not light green and car won't start, even after changing battery in key fob. The dashboard lights (all of them) will come on and flash, then go away. The other issue is that the transmission will not engage after car has started. Car is started and in park. I depress the brake and try to put the car into gear (drive) but the shifter refuses to move at all. Pumping the brake does not work, depressing the brake all the way to the floor does not work. There is not a particular sequence of actions that will get the car to go into gear. The only remedy I have found is to turn the car off and let it sit for an extended period of time. When driving the car after this has happened, if I use reverse and then put it into drive, the car jumps forward without my foot being on the gas pedal and then the lights on the dashboard for tire and tcs come on.

- Westminster, MA, USA

problem #16

May 012016

CX-5

  • 75,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

For the past 5 months my car will appear to have shut down while driving. I was driving on city streets going about 15 - 45 mph. I work from home or go to the office twice a week. I drive my kids to school during the week. I don't do much commuting. All electrical components shut down then reboot within seconds, and the car makes beeping sounds like I just started the car. The car will not stop or slow down, but if I come to a complete stop at a light, the car will be very slow to accelerate but I can get it back up to the speed limit after a very slow start. I have called aaa on one occasion and took it to a shop on another occasion. They both say it is battery related due to the wrong batter being installed but it is the battery size in the system of an orielys auto parts store. Every time I replace the battery and the issue appears to go away for a couple weeks to a month. The last battery replacement I purchased a stronger batter than in their system as per the advisement from the auto shop. It seemed to fix it again but after a month the car did the same thing.

- Poway, CA, USA

problem #15

Dec 232015

CX-5

  • 52,700 miles
During a long holiday trip, while driving down us 19 at 65 mph over the new river gorge bridge the engine started revving / surging, with rpms going up and down, when the car suddenly lost power and decelerated rapidly. The traction control system (tcs) light was on solid and the tire pressure system (tps) light was flashing. We had just left a rest area and were less than a mile down the road from where we pulled onto the highway, just getting up to speed. I may have just turned on the cruise control, but I cannot remember. The weather was warm and dry. The car had about 52,700 miles on it. I put on the flashers and prayed that momentum would carry me over the bridge to where I could pull off, that the semi-tractor-trailer truck barreling down on me would get in the other lane soon, and that no one would rear end me. My mom and my husband were in the car with me. We turned off the car, walked around the outside to look at the tires, looked through the manual, and tried to decide what to do. After about 15 minutes, I started it up again, there were no indicators lit up on the dash, and the car seemed to be back to normal, so we continued our trip. Since then we have driven about 800 miles and it has not happened again. I haven't had a chance to contact the dealer yet.

- Morgantown, WV, USA

problem #14

Nov 242015

CX-5

  • 43,250 miles
Running errands on way home on the highway while on a hill suddenly incurred loss of power, check engine and driving stability warning lights came on. Pressed gas and no change in speed. Speed dropped from 45 to 20 and had to move to shoulder. Other than loss of power everything else functioning normally. Managed to return home via back roads and avoidance of hills. Speed improved somewhat once completed climbing hill but as neared home car's speed topped out at 20 mph, total trip 4 miles or so. Once in driveway turned off car and then started again neither the check engine light nor the driving stability came on again. Car well maintained first time this has happened in 2 years of ownership. Will be taking it in for service and see if problem can be diagnosed.

- Ellicott City, MD, USA

problem #13

Apr 132015

CX-5

  • 1,300 miles
Put my truck in gear D for drive start driving and at 5mph its making a noise like a standard transmission do when you are in the wrong gear such as too low. At first I thought it was my radio because it was sizzling and the read out that the station show was no longer showing the song or artist. So I switch to another station and is still made the sound so I put in a cd and listen to it and I had to turn volume up in order not to hear the sound. The faster I drove the louder it got. I only have 28,000 miles so transmission shouldn't be bad. I had an oil change about 2 weeks ago with tire rotation and fluids checked and all was fine.taking it to shop.

- North Little Rock, AR, USA

problem #12

May 112013

CX-5 4-cyl

  • 15,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

While driving, the engine appears to stall and the car is not drivable. The car feels as though it has shut off, and no acceleration is possible. I am forced to coast to the shoulder, at which point I must turn the car off and restart in order for the car to be drivable. While this is happening, several indicator lights are illuminated, including the tire pressure monitor, check engine, at, and traction control indicators. Upon restart, the check engine remains illuminated. This same incident has recurred 3X since I purchased the car in April 2012, including May 2013, May 2014 and August 2014. Each time it has been serviced by the dealership. I have just filed a complaint with Mazda.

- Kensington, MD, USA

problem #11

May 202014

CX-5

  • 27,800 miles
Was driving normally when all of the sudden engine light came on and other lights in the cluster came on and the vehicle did not shift. Could not pass 20 mph. Had to stop the car and turn it off, later turn it on and just the engine light was lit. After getting home and letting the car cool down the problem went away.

- Cutler Bay, FL, USA

problem #10

Nov 292013

CX-5 4-cyl

  • 10,000 miles
Was passing a semi-truck full throttle on a hilly 2 lane roadway.....engine shut down and multiple dash warning lights came on....was able to coast to a safe stop and turned off ignition and restarted vehicle. Very scary!! took the vehicle to the dealer and they could not find a problem.

- Mesquite , TX, USA

problem #9

Nov 252013

CX-5

  • 20,100 miles
Out of the blue, I started my vehicle to go to work and the check engine light was on. I read in the manual the gas lid could be loose, but I checked it and it was fine. My husband took it to the dealership and they hooked it up to see what the problem was, and they said it was a miss in the engine, and he'd have to leave it with them so their tech team to try and get to the root of the problem. I had felt hesitations before while coming up our driveway, which is pretty steep. It's like it would almost stop then lunge forward pretty quick. It also has felt like it wasn't changing gears at times, like it normally would. This just happened randomly.

- Duffield, VA, USA

problem #8

Nov 122013

CX-5 4-cyl

  • 6,000 miles
While driving on the highway, the vehicle very suddenly decelerated (from about 55 to 40), almost as if it slipped back a couple of gears- it was a jarring and immediate loss of power, and I could hear the engine strain as if it was forced into a lower gear. The traction control system and tire pressure monitoring dashboard lights came on, and the check engine light began flashing. I lost ability to accelerate above maybe 1K or 1.5K rpms. When I slowed the car down and drove to a place I could safely pull over, the car was sputtering and trembling aggressively with each push of the gas pedal. When I finally did stop, I powered off the vehicle and checked the tires - all of which were fine. I turned the car back on and it behaved normally, all the error lights were cleared. I even drove it quite some distance to the dealer for maintenance. The service center said they have never heard of this type of incident. A quick web search, however, indicates that others have experienced this very same issue. This is a new (6 months) 2013 Mazda Cx-5 with around 6000 miles.

- Livingston, NJ, USA

problem #7

Nov 102013

CX-5 4-cyl

  • 17,111 miles
Driving on a side street, I felt a clunk through the gas pedal and the RPM's nosed dived to around 1500. Snailed it over to the shoulder, put in park, stepping on the gas would rev up to 2000 then drop to 1500 on it's own regardless of gas peddle position. In park, shut off, restarted, lots of pretty lights on the dash (at, tire pressure, engine, traction control, plus others), no change, RPM to 2000 then drop to 1500. Still in park, shut down, restarted again, RPM's were normal but no forward gears in auto or auto-manual (could shift to 'd' or +/- but wouldn't engage). While in 'd' was able to rev engine but transmission obviously not engaged at all. Reverse worked fine, shifted back to 'd' but still no response. Check engine light on. Shut down a 3rd time and restarted. Check engine on but RPM and transmission normal. Drove to dealer and dropped it off. Service dept. Called later to say ordering a valve body for transmission.

- Anthem, AZ, USA

problem #6

Oct 202013

CX-5 4-cyl

  • 23,000 miles
I tried to turn on my car but the battery was dead for no reason (did not leave the car or stereo on). After I jumped the battery and got the car running the engine sounded different and the engine would barely move the car. I let the battery charge for a while and tried to drive the car again and it will had no power coming from the engine, it would only go maybe 20 mph. I drove home taking back roads because I could not maintain enough speed to take a main road. I plan on contacting Mazda tomorrow to figure out what to do next to fix this.

- Ogden, UT, USA

problem #5

Aug 052013

CX-5 4-cyl

  • 32,600 miles
While on a very busy road, all of a sudden the accelerator stopped working and my speed began to drop rapidly. At the same time, the traction control warning light and tire pressure warning light came on. It was as if the car had completely lost power. I was able to coast to the side of the road and turn the car completely off. I got out and checked all of the tires and they were fine. When I turned the car back on, the warning lights did not come back on and the car ran normally.

- Palmyra, PA, USA

problem #4

Jun 272013

CX-5 4-cyl

  • 8,500 miles
I had just exited the freeway after driving 25 miles and was stopped at a stop light. When the light turned green and I stepped on the accelerator, the vehicle engine revved high and did not shift gears in the automatic transmission. I could not get the vehicle out of first gear or over 20 mph. I was able to get the vehicle to a safe location and once it had cooled overnight the transmission shifted normally. I did not drive it more than a block for fear it would happen again and the vehicle is currently at the dealership for repair.

- Tacoma, WA, USA

problem #3

Feb 172013

CX-5 4-cyl

  • 7,900 miles
While driving on the left lane of a busy los angeles highway at approximately 55mph, all of a sudden the accelerator stopped responding and my speed dropped rapidly. At the same time, the traction control and tire pressure lights turned on. Immediately, I turned on my hazard lights and pulled into the right lane. Unfortunately, I was in a tunnel with no shoulder. When the vehicle's forward momentum ran out, I came to a complete stop after cruising for approximately 100 feet. After my vehicle stopped, I was able to accelerate again and pulled off the highway. I turned the engine off, checked all tires (all looked normal), and restarted the engine. The warning lights were all off at this point, and the vehicle responded normally. This was a disturbing and dangerous situation. I will describe it at my 10,000-mile service, but it does not seem like others who have had this problem have been able to solicit an adequate response from Mazda.

- Pasadena, CA, USA

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