Thursday, February 13, 2014

More on the 2014 Mazda CX-5

Shortly after filling up on the last tank of fuel, I was pulling out of my garage and the low oil pressure warning light came on.  First time that I had seen that.  Once I was out of the garage, I put the car in neutral and revved the motor a bit and the light went off.  I drove to my destination, about a 60 mile drive, without the light coming back on.

After taking care of my business, I came back to the CX-5 about six hours later.  Started it up and it did the same thing.

Over the next few days, it was hit or miss if the light came on.  About the fifth day, my wife and I had taken a trip and were returning home.  The light came on after starting the CX-5 and stayed on much longer.  While parked, I played with the throttle to see when it would come on and go off.  It seemed to come on under 1500 RPM and go off above 2000 RPM.  It did this for several minutes until the motor got up to normal operating temperature (when the blue thermometer light on the dash goes off).  We drove home.  I had not seen the low oil pressure light come on while driving at freeway speeds at all, until this time.  We were driving at 75 MPH at about 3000 RPM when the light came on and stayed on for about 3 to 5 seconds.  It then went off and stayed off until we got off the freeway.  When we came to the first traffic light after getting off the freeway, I put the CX-5 in neutral.  The idle then started hunting up and down between about 500 RPM and 1000 RPM.  It did this until I put the CX-5 back into gear.

So, when we got home I called the dealership where I bought the CX-5 and made an appointment to have it looked at.  I couldn't get in for two days.

The next morning I went out and started the CX-5.  It did what it had done the previous day, light on under 1500 RPM light off above 2000 RPM.  When it got to normal operating temperature the light did not come back on.  A few hours later, I went out and started it again.  This time no low oil pressure light whatsoever.  I did it again about six hours later, no light.  Again the next morning, no light.  It has not come on again over the past week.

Since I couldn't get the light to come on at all, I knew it would be pointless to bring it in to the shop to have it looked at.  I cancelled my appointment.

I'm sure there are a few possibilities on what happened.  My thinking now is that it either has a sensor that is only working intermittently, or that there was a small piece of debris or dirt in an oil line causing the low pressure light to come on.  The piece of crud may have been flushed out and is no longer blocking the line.  But those are just guesses on my part.  I will continue to monitor the warning lights to see if anything else happens.

Still haven't dealt with the other stuff I wrote about in my first post about the CX-5.  They are not critical issues (yet), and I would prefer not to go to the dealer until the CX-5 needs it's first oil change.  That should not be for a couple of more months at the earliest.