Red Oil Pressure Warning message and Master warning

[oldsteel]

Hi,
Newbie to the CX-5 forum but had great help in the past from the Subaru Outback and Mercedes forums so I have great expectations! I have an engineering background and like to understand whats going on with my cars. I bought my CX5 back in December 3yrs old with 30k miles on it. Its an auto AWD with the 2.2 diesel. After 4000 worry-free miles I was an hour into a journey on the A34 and the Oil pressure warning message popped up saying 'possible engine damage ..' so I was naturally concerned.  I called my local Mazda dealer in Oxford as the car was still under warranty. They said 'it probably needs an oil change' I pointed out it had only done 4000 miles since its last service, but they said bring it in anyway. I said ' tomorrow ok?', they said no and gave me a date 3 weeks away. I asked if it was safe to drive in that time and they said it would be fine, as long as the dipstick levels were okay. I checked and it was showing full. The next day the same message appeared after 20 minutes. Not happy to drive it like this - the message is kind of 'in your face' - I called the Mazda garage I bought the car from in Solihull and their service manager said 'stop the car, call Mazda Assist and get it towed to a Mazda dealer'! As it happened it was towed to Oxford Mazda and I got a replacement car. The next day they called to say it was fixed. The problem? The service light had not been reset properly at the last service. I said I don't believe that - surely a service warning is simply a spanner message saying 'service due', not a red 'engine damage possible' message? They said 'that's the way Mazda works'. Anyway, I have done about 500 miles since and the car is fine. They didn't even change the oil! Comments - is this right - is the Oil Pressure warning light a service indicator? or should I be concerned there are deeper problems with the engine - as has been mentioned on this forum in the past? PS. Its not in the range for the hardened camshaft problem. 

[twabrigs]

Welcome - I had that message once, called Mazda Assist and had it towed to the local dealer; it had fallen victim to the excess oil level although not the cam problem, like you mine isn't in the dreaded VIN range.

Service indicator in my car is a written 'maintenance due' or similar. It's booked in this week for a service and the message popped up yesterday triggered I think by date.

[Deeps]

Personally speaking I'd find myself another dealer. Like a lot of modern diesel engines there's a problem of diesel fuel finding it's way into the oil sump thereby diluting the oil although I get the feeling that this problem is far more prevalent with Mazda cars especially the CX5. That said, I don't go searching around other forums so a lot of it is second hand accumulated knowledge so the problem may well be distributed fairly evenly across the board - who knows. That sump oil is being diluted is not in dispute, however, and some time back now Mazda replaced the dipstick for one that now shows the minimum and maximum marks along with a new 'X' mark. The level between what we used to accept as being the maximum oil fill mark and the 'X' mark is an indication of the amount of acceptable oil dilution the level of course rising as a result of diesel fuel being in the sump. At a certain level (supposed to be at the 'X' mark but in reality lower) the oil is so diluted that the warning light that you are seeing is illuminated. The handbook states that you should immediately pull up when it is safe to do so and with an engineering background you don't need me to tell you that only a fool would ignore a red warning light being thrown up indicating diluted engine oil. In fact I'd go further by stating that the person who told you that it was alright to keep on driving for the next 3 weeks is perhaps an even bigger fool.

The long and the short of all this is - pull up, call Mazda assist and get the vehicle transported to a dealer. At that point the oil should be changed as resetting the warning light and leaving the diluted oil in place is by itself a total waste of time and effort. The good book states that engine oil should be renewed every 20,000km or annually although I have yet to read of a case where anywhere near that distance is being achieved in the real world. I can't tell you how often someone I know has had their CX5 transported to the dealer and I've now got to the stage where I book my own vehicle for an oil change at least twice a year which probably amounts to every 6,000km or so.

If you received an extended guarantee upon purchase of the vehicle (I see that it's a 2014 model so the 3 year guarantee will long have expired) then this oil change should be conducted free of charge.

[oldsteel]

I just read this excellent post by Willpower which explains the whole deal with Mazda diesels. http://mazdacx5forums.co.uk/index.php?topic=383.msg2661#msg2661

The main point is to regularly check the oil level is not too high - represented by the 'X' mark on the dipstick. I am not sure in my case whether the oil level reaching this point caused the warning message, as I was only checking for low oil level being ignorant of the issue. I suspect the dealer pumped out some oil rather than just 'resetting' the warning light. They did not indicate they changed the oil. What still puzzles me is that I had done 4000 miles since I bought the car most of which were on the motorway at 70+ mph which should have provided the conditions for a proper DPF regen cycle. The fuel/oil only gets dumped in the sump when the process is incomplete.
Any case, I have done around 500 miles since and all is OK. Oil level is at the 'full' mark well below the 'X' mark. I do know the car was at the dealer for a few months before I bought it (they reduced the price by £1000) and would have just done test drives only, poor conditions for the DPF regeneration which may have increased oil levels. It was supposed to have been 'serviced' just before I drove it away but checking the paperwork this was a 'Service - Pre Sale preparation'. No oil change was mentioned. Methinks I will get the oil changed anyway pretty soon.

[Nickg]

I to have recently had the most unwelcome light come on. Luckily I was almost home so I stopped and checked the oil level which was ok. The car sounded fine to I drove home - carefully. I was only a few hundred yards away. Next day I called the dealer who told me to call Mazda Assist. They were good and said they would recover the car to the dealer and bring a replacement vehicle. However ten minutes later they called to say just drive the car as the oil level is good.
The long and the short of this is that the dealer changed the oil and reset the fault codes in the ECU PLUS did a software update which now means that the oil pressure light really is only an oil pressure light and that any future issues regarding oil quality etc will illuminate the service light.
I have had a car since 1961 and in all that time I have never heard of an oil pressure light being anything but an oil pressure warning light. Still you are never toooo old to learn. However the shock of that light coming on will remain with me for ever.   

[Anchorman]

Because there is a chance that highly diluted oil may not lubricate the engine properly, the CX-5 compares the viscosity of new oil with that of the oil as it dilutes.  What is often overlooked is that these baseline parameters must be reset every time the oil is changed to avoid the warning coming on prematurely- it’s just completely confused about what it’s reading.  Resetting the “oil data” is relatively straight forward and can be done by individuals or third party garages by shorting the test point to earth and then pressing the accelerator 5 times. If I can work out how to attach a file......

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[Deeps]

Where did you obtain this file from Anchorman? I'd be interested in downloading the German language version as my car is going into the workshop on Tuesday for an oil change. As I tow a caravan a considerable distance each summer I always like to start off with fresh oil but if changing the oil without resetting the appropriate data then from the dash warning point of view I'm wasting my time. Armed with a proper printout I'll have something to show the mechanic who might well know anyway but better safe than sorry eh.

[Anchorman]

You have to be registered with Mazda so your repairer in Germany could do it.

Maybe you could copy the text from this one into google translate?  We are language lazy in the U.K. but I bet most of the guys in the German workshop could read it anyway.

[Deeps]

Just out of interest Anchorman, if one looks at the top right hand side of the first page in that link you provided a reference beginning id01...... is given which, when Googled, leads to a very interesting pdf document titled 'Untitled ACC' particularly page 24.

[Anchorman]

Just out of interest Anchorman, if one looks at the top right hand side of the first page in that link you provided a reference beginning id01...... is given which, when Googled, leads to a very interesting pdf document titled 'Untitled ACC' particularly page 24.

Flippin ‘ek!  What made you check that!  Still, it more or less says the same thing. Interesting.