CarComplaints.com Notes: The only area of real concern for 2012 Mazda CX-9 owners is the brake booster.
In 2014, Mazda extended the warranty on the 2007-2013 CX-9 brake booster to 7 years / 90,000 miles. However this extended warranty has expired for most CX-9 owners, so buyer beware.
This Mazda CX-9 brake booster failure isn't terrible in terms of repair cost — it "only" costs $550 average to fix. However it is a safety issue when the brake booster fails as it increases stopping distance. Owners have reported having to stomp on the brake pedal, & crashes/injuries have been reported due to this CX-9 brake booster defect.
This issue is related to my 2012 CX9 GT AWD 3.7L V6. I have never had any problem with any Mazda cars I owned before until now. All the repairs (or, I should say - maintenance work) so far have been ordinary wear & tear, low cost (brakes every 3.5 years, tires, fluids, recently tie rods at 140000km). My average annual mileage on this car is 20k km (12k miles).
My extended warranty ended in September 2018 and a bit more than a year from then and surprisingly after another regular maintenance 2 weeks ago in December 2019, I noticed some unusual noise coming from the underneath of the vehicle. Firstly, I thought it could be the winter tires - I live in Canada, Ontario and it's typical (at least for me) to put on the right tires for the season. The noise was similar to as if I was riding on some thick-tread off-road tires.
After a few days, maybe a week or so, I noticed another kind of noise that joined the squeaky noise when accelerating but it would stop when going into maybe 4th gear or when I took my foot off the gas pedal (but in this case it would still last for about 2-3 sec and went silent). Now, after two weeks the squeaky noise is present most of the time.
I took it to the Mazda service for inspection and they told me it's MOST LIKELY the transfer case. They quoted the repair at 2700 USD (3600 CAD) - parts + 6.5 hours of labor. I did not take it, as "most likely" did not sound very assuring. I also noticed when driving a few minutes from the cold stop, some odor like propane fumes in the cabin.
My vehicle is now 7 years old and out of warranty so I took to another and non-affiliated mechanic for a second opinion. They did their assessment and told me that the transfer case had a leak and the cause of the noise was the fluid that baked over time caused the seal to eventually break over time and now is probably irreparable (at Mazda service, they never mentioned any fluid leak from the transfer case and I did regular maintenance with them). The non-affiliated shop asked me if the fluid had ever been replaced... I said honestly I had no idea. They said, normally these parts require fluid change every 50k km so the part can last longer than the whole vehicle.
I did some additional research and found that Mazda considered this part as life-time and did not recommend any maintenance on it until it dies. I don't know what to say at this point.
The non-affiliated mechanic quoted the replacement with labor on a refurbished transfer case at 1200 USD (1600 CAD) and he made a point - you will have to change the fluid after another 30k to be on the safe side (which translates to once a year and which makes sense as most of this type of work is done at regular annual intervals). I am scheduled to do this repair with non-Mazda service now.
What I want to say, I am very disappointed that this problem, although it's quite common for CX9 at some mileage that has never been addressed properly by Mazda to adjust service routines and service recommendations. It looks like it's not new as I see people have reported the same issue impacting CX9 since 2010 or so.
By the way, one of my friends had a 2010 CX9 a few years back and it caught fire from the same part, but at that time I thought it was just a bad luck. And now the fumes I noticed in my car and that friend's incident connect well.
Conclusion - Mazda 2012 CX9 AWD is not a safe car or at least is not a car that would last long as they advertised. I have no idea if the issue have been addressed in the newer models and at this point I would be very suspicious buying another Mazda - any Mazda from now on.
Bought this vehicle and with barely a year it a brake booster problem and stayed in the garage for over a month battling to get it serviced under warranty which eventually worked.
Now below 80000 km it has packed up again now we can't get the transfer case from any reliable Mazda dealers and has been parked over a month.
I need this car for my business errands and am annoyed by these problems. Problem I am well known in my circles and word is spreading that this is no touch brand of vehicles and I have no defense for MAZDA.
Can someone help?
- murambadoro,
Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
This issue is related to my 2012 CX9 GT AWD 3.7L V6. I have never had any problem with any Mazda cars I owned before until now. All the repairs (or, I should say - maintenance work) so far have been ordinary wear & tear, low cost (brakes every 3.5 years, tires, fluids, recently tie rods at 140000km). My average annual mileage on this car is 20k km (12k miles).
My extended warranty ended in September 2018 and a bit more than a year from then and surprisingly after another regular maintenance 2 weeks ago in December 2019, I noticed some unusual noise coming from the underneath of the vehicle. Firstly, I thought it could be the winter tires - I live in Canada, Ontario and it's typical (at least for me) to put on the right tires for the season. The noise was similar to as if I was riding on some thick-tread off-road tires.
After a few days, maybe a week or so, I noticed another kind of noise that joined the squeaky noise when accelerating but it would stop when going into maybe 4th gear or when I took my foot off the gas pedal (but in this case it would still last for about 2-3 sec and went silent). Now, after two weeks the squeaky noise is present most of the time.
I took it to the Mazda service for inspection and they told me it's MOST LIKELY the transfer case. They quoted the repair at 2700 USD (3600 CAD) - parts + 6.5 hours of labor. I did not take it, as "most likely" did not sound very assuring. I also noticed when driving a few minutes from the cold stop, some odor like propane fumes in the cabin.
My vehicle is now 7 years old and out of warranty so I took to another and non-affiliated mechanic for a second opinion. They did their assessment and told me that the transfer case had a leak and the cause of the noise was the fluid that baked over time caused the seal to eventually break over time and now is probably irreparable (at Mazda service, they never mentioned any fluid leak from the transfer case and I did regular maintenance with them). The non-affiliated shop asked me if the fluid had ever been replaced... I said honestly I had no idea. They said, normally these parts require fluid change every 50k km so the part can last longer than the whole vehicle.
I did some additional research and found that Mazda considered this part as life-time and did not recommend any maintenance on it until it dies. I don't know what to say at this point.
The non-affiliated mechanic quoted the replacement with labor on a refurbished transfer case at 1200 USD (1600 CAD) and he made a point - you will have to change the fluid after another 30k to be on the safe side (which translates to once a year and which makes sense as most of this type of work is done at regular annual intervals). I am scheduled to do this repair with non-Mazda service now.
What I want to say, I am very disappointed that this problem, although it's quite common for CX9 at some mileage that has never been addressed properly by Mazda to adjust service routines and service recommendations. It looks like it's not new as I see people have reported the same issue impacting CX9 since 2010 or so.
By the way, one of my friends had a 2010 CX9 a few years back and it caught fire from the same part, but at that time I thought it was just a bad luck. And now the fumes I noticed in my car and that friend's incident connect well.
Conclusion - Mazda 2012 CX9 AWD is not a safe car or at least is not a car that would last long as they advertised. I have no idea if the issue have been addressed in the newer models and at this point I would be very suspicious buying another Mazda - any Mazda from now on.
- Rob K., Oakville, ON, Canada