2019 Mazda CX-5

Car was purchased in June 2019. Car started smelling like burning oil and started finding oil pooling under the car around November 2024. At time the incident was discovered, car only had 38k miles. There was no warning lights or indication there was an issue other than the smell and small pool of oil under car. The Mazda service manager immediately knew what the issue was and told me they were going to confirm with a full inspection and diagnosis. I was told that I have a cracked cylinder head and I will need to have it replaced. Warranty ended few months prior so they will not cover. I was told it would cost $4589.76. The Mazda service department told me that this is a common issue and to hold off on repair and contact Mazda corporate since warranty just ended. They topped off my oil and told me to keep an eye on the oil level and to wait to hear back from Mazda corporate.I submitted a case with Mazda and the customer care specialist told me that they cannot guarantee they will cover this. Within a week, the temperatures got colder and issue got worse. Low oil light came on, topped off with oil. Lost 4 quarts in one day. Called Mazda service and they told me to top off oil and come drop car off immediately. Upon researching this issue, the cracking of cylinder heads in Mazda CX-5 vehicles, particularly those with the 2.5-liter (NA) engine were widespread and discussed in online forum. The contributing factors of the issue point to a design flaw of the cylinder head due to the cylinder deactivation technology and a manufacturing defect due to the cylinder head casting process based on reports and discussions within the automotive community. A TSB (SA-013/22) has been released for the affected cylinder head with a modified replacement. This seems to be a significant and widespread issue that can cause entire engine to fail and require full replacement. Oil leaking on to the hot exhaust near other engine parts could ignite and put myself or others at risk.

My 2019 Mazda CX-5 suddenly developed a major oil leak within the last 7 days. My car has only 44,350 miles and I have had all scheduled and required maintenance completed timely, including oil/filter changes, coolant level checking and maintenance, etc. I took the car to an independent mechanic who diagnosed the problem as a cracked cylinder head. I then took the car to a local Mazda dealer who confirmed the diagnosis and informed me that there would be no warranty coverage as my 60,000 mile/60 month powertrain warranty had expired 60 days earlier. Some two years earlier my car's check engine light came on and overheated. I took it to the same local dealer, who replaced the coolant control valve & related components. In November 2024 I received a "Warranty Extension Program" letter from Mazda about the same fail-safe thermostat problem. I believe this is relevant and related to the cracked cylinder head since almost all instances of a cracked cylinder head are due to engine overheating. This issue put me at risk as I was close to driving the car with no oil and oil leaking heavily onto very hot engine components that could have resulted in a fire. I am now facing repairs to this car between $4,800 and $6,000 and given the faulty/defective cylinder head from Mazda, I could face this safety issue again, as it will be replaced with a similar cylinder head from Mazda!

I started to smell a burning smell while I was driving and noticed smoke coming from under the hood along with the burning smell. When I parked the car I noticed a bunch of oil leaking from under the car. I took the car to get checked out and there was oil all under the bottom of the car and it was confirmed that there was a very bad oil leak which occurred due to a crack in the cylinder head. No check engine lights or any indication of this issue aside from discovering the burning smell, smoke from under the hood, and a significant amount of oil underneath the car. The car hasn’t been driven in a month because of this issue. When you turn the car on you can hear a ticking sound coming from under the hood. The bad part is there was no indication. A 2019 with 50,000 ish miles shouldn’t have this problem and I confirmed that with mechanics and Mazda. This is a safety risk as you can’t safely drive the car without being concerned about the lack of oil in the car due to the leak as well as the smoke coming from under the hood, not being able to drive the car thus resulting in needing the car towed in order for the car to be serviced for this problem. I was told that if the oil continues to leak and if I was to drive it the engine could start to have issues and possibly turn off due to the leakage. This leak had oil all over the exhaust system as well.

This car has less than 37,000 miles on it it has significant oil leaks from the valve cover gasket, it’s timing cover gasket and now it had been determined it has a cracked cylinder head. This was covered by 3 Service alerts with the cracked cylinder head being SA-031/21. None of the dealers notified us of the issue when serviced Galpin Mazda and New Century Mazda. But Big O Tires did. The two oil leak gasket repairs cost over $1600. The car is 8 months past warranty. The car is burning oil when driven. Due to the leak and the smoke particles and smell enter the cabin. The engine smokes when shut down instill it cold down. The smoke particles in the cabin are dangerous. The engine oil light appeared in late November (my daughter’s car, she is away at college). We found out the depth of the oil leak issues the second and fourth week of December. The fact that the dealers did not notice us or do preemptive repairs is a major failure by the Mazda organization.

We were locked out of the car on a road trip due to a dead battery. We needed to open the car door to pop the hood in this emergency situation. With the Battery down, we had to use the physical keys provided by Mazda to unlock the door. Both Mazda's original keys did not open the driver-side door. We were stranded and had to call emergency key services to open the door. The purpose of physical keys is to open the car in case of emergency but in Mazda CX5 case they were useless. We have also reported the issue to Mazda and are awaiting a response.

I have a 2019 Mazda cx 5 with only 67,000 miles on it and the cylinder head is cracked and leaking oil everywhere. I have noticed TSBs released for this issue, but it seems to be a very common issue with most people not being covered for a very major repair. Mazda refuses to fix the issue created by the improper build of this component and may lock people's engines if not caught soon enough

Brought 2019 Cx-5 to local dealer with complaint of strong smell and smoke coming from hood. Cracked cylinder head at only 21k miles. Known flaw for this particular make and model. Only 6 months out of warranty. Mazda refuses to make it right and only extended warranty for turbo engines. Mazda needs to make this right for ALL engines with this issue.

My Mazda CX-5 was found to have a cracked cylinder in the engine and was profusely leaking oil. When I spoke to the dealership they denied seeing this regularly, however, upon doing research on reddit, it is found to be more pronounced than indicated. There was no known cause indicated, however, on reddit it appears that the original casting done in Mexico maybe the culprit because it is so thin and causes it to crack between 40-50k miles. There is no other sign or warnings, besides an obscene amount of oil leaking. The failure of this could cause the engine to fail while driving. This is a significant risk.