2013 Mazda CX9 needs new engine...WTH... Need advice please.

Sorry to hear, that really sucks, and sounds like an absolutely terrible design for an engine.

I’ve owned 2 Subarus, best friend has had his outback for 6yr, no complaints from either of us. Great vehicles, awesome AWD, you just have to rotate your tires regularly and be more vigilant of uneven tire wear.
 
Sorry to hear, that really sucks, and sounds like an absolutely terrible design for an engine.

I’ve owned 2 Subarus, best friend has had his outback for 6yr, no complaints from either of us. Great vehicles, awesome AWD, you just have to rotate your tires regularly and be more vigilant of uneven tire wear.

This. My wife thinks she is running a road course to work every day, she is tough on tires. And the rubber from the factory suks...
 
This. My wife thinks she is running a road course to work every day, she is tough on tires. And the rubber from the factory suks...
Well I know we’re not married nor am I anyone’s wife, but that sounds a lot like me lol. Both of my Subaru’s were bought new and I went through those tires in under 2yr while beating on them (performance sucked!). Managed to burn through an expensive performance set in 14mo then I decided I didn’t like spending $750 so frequently.

Sorry for the slight hijack OP.
 
Last edited:
Have owned 4 Subaru’s.
2003 Baja had 180,000 miles when it needed a new head gasket.
2001 forester had 190,000 miles when I traded it in.
2016 forester has 65,000 miles on it but had to replace radiator.
2018 Impreza with 4,000 miles on it with no issues.
Overall they are good cars. Weakness seems To be head gasket since had two start leaking oil around 175,000 miles.
one your wife wants is newer model which always makes me wonder if they worked out all the bugs.
I have a 2013 CRV with a 185,000 miles on it. Besides regular maintenance I have had to put $400 dollars into the car. Might want to look at that one too...
Good luck!
 
Well I know we’re not married nor am I anyone’s wife, but that sounds a lot like me lol. Both of my Subaru’s were bought new and I went through those tires in under 2yr while beating on them (performance sucked!). Managed to burn through an expensive performance set in 14mo then I decided I didn’t like spending $750 so frequently.

Sorry for the slight hijack OP.

Yeah, her dealer tires lasted 14 months, lol. New ones were a lot better- better ride, better grip, less noise ...
 
I’ve had a CC9 for a few years, a 2015 model. So I’m watching this thread closely. I’ve driven it hard since I commute 60-80 miles per day. So far it’s been great. Need new tires now, but all else has been dandy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
My neighbors have been driving Subaru's for over 20 years along with their son and daughter.
 
Sorry to hear this about the Mazda. I’m a Subaru and Toyota fan. I’ve personally put hundreds of thousands of miles on Toyota trucks and SUV’s. Wife had a couple Outback wagons before our family outgrew them and they were great. I really like the new Ascent and know several families that have bought them and are happy so far. Thinking hard about trading the Sequoia in on one but not sure I’m ready to loose the room of a full size SUV. It also only has 100k miles on it and is paid for. Just really getting broken in.
 
Dang. Note to self. No mazda. Ever.

Subarus are solid. Wife and I each had 2013 crosstreks. No issues ever. Drove them cross country when we moved here, and they were great.

Toyota household now. Tacoma here, 4 runner wife. Solid af.
 
Last edited:
Up until 2016, the CX-9 was a stretched first-gen Ford Edge with a Ford engine (3.5/3.7 as Mike Overlay has already pointed out). Any hate for engine reliability should probably be directed more at Ford than at Mazda. :)

(Let's ignore the fact that the first-gen Ford Edge was a stretched Mazda 6 platform haha.)

Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_CD3_platform
 
Last edited:
We have a 2013 CX5 Grand Touring with the 2.0 and love it. 100,000 miles and has been as solid as a vehicle could be. Must be the V-6 that's the issue.

Sent from my LM-Q710.FG using Tapatalk
 
We are at a Subaru dealer buying a new 2020 Ascent.

They inspected my Mazda and asked me why the check engine light was on. I said I had no idea.

KBB said my Mazda was worth $5000 in good condition.

Subaru dealer offered me $4000 trade in. I argued and got them up to $5000.

So, I think we did well.
 
We are at a Subaru dealer buying a new 2020 Ascent.

They inspected my Mazda and asked me why the check engine light was on. I said I had no idea.

KBB said my Mazda was worth $5000 in good condition.

Subaru dealer offered me $4000 trade in. I argued and got them up to $5000.

So, I think we did well.

Good for you, man!
 
Thank you all for the advice. I always appreciate it!
 
Honda and Subaru fan here. Although the clutch on my Accord is starting to slip! Damn POS! I bought it new in '99. It only has 251k on it. You would think that a clutch would last longer than that? :D
Brother just put a junk yard engine in his 07 Civic he bought new. Apparently there was an issue with them the dealership where he took it for service never told him about. Book value was around $6000 for it but a bad engine basically made it worthless. Has 110k or so on it. He’s happy to have it back now and spent around $3200 for a relatively low mile newer engine installed.
 
We are at a Subaru dealer buying a new 2020 Ascent.

They inspected my Mazda and asked me why the check engine light was on. I said I had no idea.

KBB said my Mazda was worth $5000 in good condition.

Subaru dealer offered me $4000 trade in. I argued and got them up to $5000.

So, I think we did well.
5000 seems low for a 6 year old vehicle?
 
5000 seems low for a 6 year old vehicle?
It was cheap when we bought it. It was probably only around $25k new in 2013 with leather, sun roof, etc. And I can't imagine Mazdas holding resale value very well. I wish we knew all this 7 years ago when we bought it.

But, honestly, we are happy and feeling blessed today.
 
It was cheap when we bought it. It was probably only around $25k new in 2013 with leather, sun roof, etc. And I can't imagine Mazdas holding resale value very well. I wish we knew all this 7 years ago when we bought it.

But, honestly, we are happy and feeling blessed today.
Well, I’m glad it worked out for you guys. The Subaru’s usually do very well if kept up. They’re super solid nice vehicles. It’ll be good in bad weather as well
 
Well, I’m glad it worked out for you guys. The Subaru’s usually do very well if kept up. They’re super solid nice vehicles. It’ll be good in bad weather as well
My wife has always wanted a Subaru, and this is the nicest car we have ever bought. My wife is so happy and excited, and that makes me happy.

Plus, on the way home, she told me how proud she was that I was able to sneak this past the dealership, argue for more money on the trade, and shut down the upcharges in the finance department. (I sold cars at two dealerships when I was a young dumb kid, so I know some tricks)

Her words made me feel validated and really good...
 
Last edited:
Well...I guess if they lie to us it’s ok to return the favor


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That's exactly the way i feel about it.

Car dealerships are out to get us. Today, I got the dealer. I don't feel bad one bit...
 
Glad it worked out for you guys!


As for only getting $5k on a $25k vehicle... I just saw a TFL video discussing an iSeeCars article that analyzed like 7.7M vehicle transactions and on average a vehicle loses 50% of its value over the course of the first 5yr. To no ones surprise, the worst are luxury sedans at 70% and the best are Wranglers and Tacoma/Tundra/4Runners at 30-36%. The WRX was the 10th best for retained value. Article https://www.iseecars.com/cars-that-hold-their-value-2019-study

Like @Jabroni, I drive a Tacoma and my wife a 4Runner so we’re pretty good on retained value.
 
Last edited:
My wife has always wanted a Subaru, and this is the nicest car we have ever bought. My wife is so happy and excited, and that makes me happy.

Plus, on the way home, she told me how proud she was that I was able to sneak this past the dealership, argue for more money on the trade, and shut down the upcharges in the finance department. (I sold cars at two dealerships when I was a young dumb kid, so I know some tricks)

Her words made me feel validated and really good...
upload_2019-11-2_21-25-45.gif
 
I’ve had a CC9 for a few years, a 2015 model. So I’m watching this thread closely. I’ve driven it hard since I commute 60-80 miles per day. So far it’s been great. Need new tires now, but all else has been dandy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Same boat here. 2015 CX-9. Just put new tires on ours two months ago. My wife drives it about 85 miles every day. This is not a confidence booster.
 
Last edited:
Yep. This is no surprise to me about any newer vehicle. Most of the parts are being made in China. Assembled in US with Chinese parts doesn't mean much other than you paid too much for a Chinese engine.

We're feeling the pain of the thousands of Hyundai owners that just got served notice that their engines (Theta II) are ticking time bombs. My daughter just purchased the first car she ever financed, and guess what? 28K miles and it has recieved a life sentence. I told her to drive it 2 years and trade it in on a nice Camry.

Wife's 2016 VW Passat reached a certain point around 75K miles, and then started consuming about a quart of very expensive synthetic oil every ~1500 miles. Now that's not really out of place for a VW turbo car, but makes me question their factory recommended 10K mile Oil Change Invervals. They were noted to have oil consumption issues on the 'older' generation EA888 but supposedly new ring designed fixed it.

My next vehicle will be a Toyota, period.
 
Last edited:
This particular crappy engine comes in 3.5 and 3.7 configurations from ford. They suck. The water pump is timing chain driven. They have been know to seep/leak internal.

So for those poor, dumb SOBs that are foolish enough to own a Ford Edg...er, I mean, a first-gen Mazda CX-9 (and man it must suck to be one of THOSE guys!), is there any special preventative maintenance you'd recommend to avoid this? Asking for a friend.
 
Last edited:
So for those poor, dumb SOBs that are foolish enough to own a Ford Edg...er, I mean, a first-gen Mazda CX-9 (and man it must suck to be one of THOSE guys!), is there any special preventative maintenance you'd recommend to avoid this? Asking for a friend.
Two different shops (one a Mazda dealer, and the other is managed by a close friend at my church) have tools me that this is common, not preventable, and you can't do anything except put in a new motor.

The water pump is between the engine and transmission. You cannot preemptively replace the water pump without pulling the engine and transmission at a cost of approximately $1300 labor.

I hate the fact that Mazda knows about this and their engines are back ordered by 6 months because of it... But the bastards won't even let customers know that this is going to happen.

We literally never had a single issue with the car. We hadn't even changed the brake pads yet at 89,000 miles. We were very happy with it.

Then the check engine light came on and the next day we're told, "Sorry. There's nothing you can do except drive it until it seizes in 2 weeks, or trade it in today on a new Mazda."

Hell no!
 
@Vyntage. .... Nope. Crap design. No way around it. And whats screwy, not all will fail internal. There is a weep hole that can bleed coolant out and to the side of the engine. Still a costly repair

The water pump is on the front of the engine. There is zero room for the timing chains and water pump between the engine and transmission. The flywheel/flexplate and torque converter is located there.
 
Last edited:
So my Mazda had to have almost a gallon of coolant added to it on the 2.5 hour trip home today. I don't think that bodes well. It only has 70,000 miles on it.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom