Nope, 103 000 km here and no issues

 

I believe this topic has been brought up before. I don't recall if there was anything in the thread that would help. Do a forum search and see if anything pops up.

My year and trim is supposed to utilize CD but I don't recall ever feeling any of the symptoms that have been mentioned and I've never checked my display for activation while driving.

 

The CD problems have been discussed extensively during the years past. I have studied these. Mazda took a bit of a break with CD usage in the recent past. I am hoping to find information about the newest production of CD, especially regarding 2023 when it was "reintroduced".

 

There have been a couple of threads pop up about cylinder-deactivation engage/disengage lurching sensations since Mazda reintroduced it back into the CX-30 with model-year 2023. It seems to be an issue for some & others say it is seamless & they can't physically tell when it engages or disengages. Not sure what to think.

Some of the biggest selling points for me when I purchased my CX-30 CE in early 2022 was that it didn't have cylinder-deactivation, iStop (start/stop), a belt/chain design CVT transmission, or a turbo engine. The 2022 model-year CX-30 non-turbo seemed like the sweet-spot purchase-window for the vehicle IMO.

 

I agree, SDH. We thought that's what we were signing on for, looks like we should have done our homework.

 

It could be worse. My 2020 falls into a group with CD that will likely end up with a cracked cylinder head. Hoping it happens within the next year while I still have a power train warranty.

 

@20CX30JBM How did you find out youre in a group thats likely to end up with a cracked cylinder head ?

 

I came across it on a Mazda 3 site. The Mazda document posted there listed the 2020 CX-30.
From what I have read, the models with CD has a head that in a specific area(s) the casting is thin walled.
My opinion is the CD went away in 2021 (IIRC) while Mazda corrected the head casting, then returned in later model years.
Replacement heads for the 2020 CD model from Mazda are not available on any Mazda part site that I have checked. They are likely being held back for dealer replacement usage.

 

I came across it on a Mazda 3 site. The Mazda document posted there listed the 2020 CX-30.
From what I have read, the models with CD has a head that in a specific area(s) the casting is thin walled.
My opinion is the CD went away in 2021 (IIRC) while Mazda corrected the head casting, then returned in later model years.
Replacement heads for the 2020 CD model from Mazda are not available on any Mazda part site that I have checked. They are likely being held back for dealer replacement usage.

I came across it on a Mazda 3 site. The Mazda document posted there listed the 2020 CX-30.
From what I have read, the models with CD has a head that in a specific area(s) the casting is thin walled.
My opinion is the CD went away in 2021 (IIRC) while Mazda corrected the head casting, then returned in later model years.
Replacement heads for the 2020 CD model from Mazda are not available on any Mazda part site that I have checked. They are likely being held back for dealer replacement usage.

Got it, thank you. I am in the same boat then. Lets hope for the best. Will provide update if it happens while I own it.

 

We had another frustrating visit to the dealer yesterday. Their offer to make us happy is to trade it back towards another CX-30. Problem is, they expect us to eat a very large loss on the deal. So, we contacted Mazda corporate, laid out our concerns, and have asked for dialogue with them.
I am encouraging anyone having these problems to work with their dealer for an answer. If that doesn't work, move up a notch and contact Mazda.
We will inform this group if we learn anything. If anyone else gets info we all hope to find it here.

 

We had another frustrating visit to the dealer yesterday. Their offer to make us happy is to trade it back towards another CX-30. Problem is, they expect us to eat a very large loss on the deal. So, we contacted Mazda corporate, laid out our concerns, and have asked for dialogue with them.
I am encouraging anyone having these problems to work with their dealer for an answer. If that doesn't work, move up a notch and contact Mazda.
We will inform this group if we learn anything. If anyone else gets info we all hope to find it here.

You may also want to consider any lemon law options in your state.

 

Well, that was disappointing. Heard back from Mazda corporate. They will document our complaint. "As of for right now we have not put out an repair for this."

"If you are not happy with the CX-30 you are welcome to take up what the Dealership stated and getting you into another model Mazda." Ya don't say. I'm happy I have their blessing to trade them back their poorly behaving vehicle at a significant loss to us.

Still working on how to handle this.

 

I also found out about the Cylinder Deactivation on the 2.5 L shortly after purchasing a 2023 CX-30 for my wife (and I did a week of internet searches before the purchase!!!!). Yeah, I was pissed. Anyway, right after finding out, I told her to always drive in "sport" mode which keeps the engine in higher RPM's and hopefully prevents the CD from kicking-in. She's had it 1 year now and 9,000 miles on it, so far nothing unusual to report.

 

Thanks for joining the discussion. I am hoping to raise awareness and promote activity regarding this CD fiasco. It's unbelievable how they brought this incompletely developed scheme back, have the same problems as the first go-round had, that are documented for all the world to see. Now they tell us we are imaging things, are too fussy, we shouldn't be bothering them to deal with it. We can't let them off the hook. Anyone with dissatisfaction with this engine management system needs to get after their dealership, and the Mazda organization itself, to fix it.

So, how smoothly does your CX-30 transition in and out of CD, and how frequently? If you are driving not-in-sport mode, especially in the common 45 to 55 MPH, easy driving, level land condition, is it switching nicely or harshly? Ours is so harsh that even in sport mode it switches roughly and often. In normal mode, easy driving, it operates so much we can't possibly ignore it.

 

Let me begin by saying that I am a "car-guy" meaning I wrench on our family's 3 cars. I perform all of the maintenance and still replace brakes, belts, filters, oil changes, transmission drain & fill, etc. in our home garage so I completely understand modern computer-controlled engines/cars. Had I known about the CD on this engine, we would not have bought it. On "how smoothly does your CX-30 transition in and out of CD?" neither of us have ever noticed any difference on how the engine transitions/performs. Keep in mind, our car is ALWAYS driven in Sport mode. Yes, we have to place it in Sport mode every time we start the engine (some may find that annoying). My wife mainly drives it for work, about a 20-mile round trip with speeds averaging 40 mph. Even while taking the car on weekend road trips (mostly freeway driving), this is when I drive it, I will NOT use the cruise control as it then takes the car out of Sport mode. Also, on the weekends, when I drive it in the city (stop & go traffic), most of the time I take the car out of "D" (drive) and shift the transmission myself and I wind-those-gears-out (nothing to crazy) and down-shift while coming to a stop. I keep it in Sport mode and shift the transmission myself because I truly believe that the engine only engages the CD while cruising on a flat road, at or near highway speed, in 6th gear - but I am aware that this is only my opinion!! I truly am sorry to hear about the issues you are experiencing. My only suggestions are, if you can drive her car for part of a day, keep it out of "D" (drive) and see if shifting the transmission yourself eliminates the issue. If not, I would disconnect the battery (if you are comfortable doing this) let the car sit for an hour, hook the battery back up and then drive it for part of the day keeping it out of drive and shift the transmission yourself. Finally, I hope you are being strict with the maintenance (oil changes) and keeping good records of work performed just in case there is an engine issue, the dealer will want to see the maintenance records. Wishing you and your daughter the best with this, hope that you can get it resolved.

 

From what we can tell discussing CD roughness, there is unit to unit variation and pile on top of that user to user variability and sensitivity....and a bit of randomness and break in.
When I first took delivery of my CX30 the CD activations were bad enough that I thought the dealership got gas with water in it.

Fast forward to 2700 miles and 6 months to today at lunch where I pointed it out to a coworker and he thought we had hit a bump. CD goes in out a few times more and it feels like the AC clutch sometimes....and sometime it give it a good old deceleration jerk....."did we hit a bump?"

To me it seems like the HLA (hydraulic lash adjusters) aren't collapsing fast enough so you end up getting engine braking on more than one revolution.
I do register misfires but I don't know how this compares someone's CX30 that is running "smoothly" during CD. See primarily cylinder 1 and 2 about 11 misfires over like 20 minutes.
This is based on crankshaft deceleration and not sure if it is smart enough not to count cyl 1 misfires when CD active.
Taken on its own you could say, a certain number of misfires is "normal" unless enough to flip on the check engine light but it would be good to have a comparison.
Oh and when I took the car in the service manager told me they saw "no" misfires. I believe them as the average registers did drop. But that just means they aren't driving the car the same way that I do.

I think a nice road trip on some 75mph roads sort of helped it mine break it in a little.

The main issue I am having with mine is that holding about 30.2% on the accelerator pedal for about a minute I had about 20+ pulses a couple seconds apart that felt like drops in power. I lump this in with CD discussion because when it was new it felt like someone was tapping the brakes every 3-5 seconds back when the CD was a lot rougher. Thus wondering water in gas or somehow ACC or some avoidance system was flaking.
Throw your foot into it and it stops pulsing.
Best I can figure is that I somehow get into the perfect storm of engine load so that CD is sort of oscillating between on and off.
Unfortunately it is really hard to get the car to do that to show the dealer what is doing and the recorded live data I have from it is every 3 seconds on an every 1.5-2 second pulse.
Plus my dealer hasn't called me asking for the CSV data file so he can help me finally figure this out. I think this is outside the normal decision tree and follow the procedures for the shop.

Sport changes the shift points but the CD algorithm is still alive and doing its thing just reduces the frequency.

 

I have done the battery disconnect to clear the memory process twice. Let it sit disconnected two hours, still tests measurable voltage, so connect the cables together to drain it. No change at all. Have done the transmission reset procedure twice. As described and shown online. The car definitely responds as we are doing the various things required. But zero change to shifting behavior , CD roughness, or anything else.

I have my daughter drive it normally while I ride with an Autel scanner watching real time numbers. So far have seen nothing that is a flag to watch.

Have tried running regular 87 octane 10 percent ethanol gas, E88 88 octane 15 percent ethanol gas, and 91 octane NO ethanol gas. See no difference in driveability or rough CD function.

Our CD functions in sport mode, just as roughly as regular mode.

It would be interesting to see how you feel the CD functioning in yours if you were to drive it easily in regular mode, under the conditions where a lot of us are seeing it.

Another idea, we should start compiling a list of the build dates of those vehicles causing this complaint, in case there is any commonality there. I will ask my daughter what it is and post when I get it.

Onwards!

 

Let me kick it in the tail. We have a build date of 7-23.

 

I was able to drive our CX-30 today (05/22/24) in both stop & go city traffic and freeway speeds (about 45 minutes total combined). From the time I started the engine, I kept it out of Sport mode, in "D", and didn't notice anything unusual. The entire time I drove everything was smooth. Trust me I would notice if we experienced some of what you guys have described. We have a build date of 04/2023.

 

A different build date than ours, and yours operates smoothly. Hmmmm....
Let's have more folks report their build date and operation condition and see if their is any tendency to note.

 

Hi! I have a 2023 US Preferred trim model, as to the build date I'm not sure, I need to check, but when I first got the car I could feel some small tugs, or phantom braking which I thought was the automatic emergency braking function acting up or the brake system doing an airgap learn (I'm a chassis controls engineer), then, I installed a corksport axle-back exhaust (sounds great btw), and I could definitely feel the vibrations and more importantly, hear the exhaust tone change on when CD came on, I live in SE Michigan so with the very flat roads, it comes on all the time, I haven't tried resetting the transmission learns I might need to do that next.

 

Welcome to the forum.It looks like you might be observing and feeling the activation of the CD. If you have been reading on this and other forums you know that the complaint symptoms about CD action are fairly predictable. Now as to the exhaust sound change, I'm glad you reported that. Your modded exhaust must make that possible.

Remember that you should be able to select on your display screen a function that shows what cylinders are in operation in real time. You can use this to see if it matches with things you are observing, such as roughness, hesitation, lurch, hiccup, I like your description phantom braking, change in exhaust sound, etc.

Let us know what your build date is, use your engineering mind to keep researching, and we can keep sharing info. These cars are too nice to tolerate rough running. This is not a 1970's Chrysler, driveability problems are not acceptable.

 

Welcome.
Mine feels like you get a smidge of engine braking sometimes more than others like the lifters/HLAs aren't collapsing and the valves are still active a revolution or 2 too long.
After a long trip at 75mph ish with the CD going on and off, it has gotten more like the feel of an AC clutch than tapping the brakes but the sensitivity that the initial performance gives you makes it noticeable even when minor.
Maybe keeping the oil pressure up and cycling the solenoid multiple times cleared out something gummed up in the HLAs?
If you keep the energy display up and it will have you guessing how many smooth CD vs rough CD activations you are getting or your frustration level will continue to rise.

I get about 11 misfires every 20 minutes on the Mode6 report mostly cylinder 1 and 2.
I was hoping someone without the issue could give me if that number is par or high. By definition, misfires are detected by the crankshaft decelerating so you think it might be a good metric for late valve deactivation.

I have not gotten a dealer to say they will change the HLAs for the fun of it though.
Keep us posted. At least 2 of us following up with Mazda directly.

 

I have a 2023 GT non-turbo here in Canada. I drive in normal mode and have had no problems with the
CD. I do notice a very slight vibration when it engages or disconnects but only if I am looking for it. My build date is 03/2024 and built in Mexico. This is really a non-issue for me in any way.

 

Thanks for checking in, that is now in our database.

 

Just a follow up. We hadn't noticed at the time but @MadDad and mine are a few build numbers different. Both are July 2023. Both acting like the HLA valve disengagement is laggy/sticky. Both have had loaners that ran a lot smoother than our vehicles.

 

My wife wanted a CX-30. I do all the maintenance on three vehicles. For the same reasons SDH explains above, I chose a 2022 CX30 preferred without turbo. Auto start/stop, cylinder deactivation, and CV or DC transmissions were deal breakers for me. Don't care for direct injection either but it's the way she goes on most engines now. I asked the sales guy to triple check and I also confirmed with forums and Mazda USA before signing. I discovered the 2023's added cylinder deactivation, which limited our options. Hope you get the issue sorted.

Still not happy the NA models are made in Mexico. The CX30 seems like a stretched 3 to fill a gap in the CUV market. It shows with flimsy oversized door skins, tiny windows, smaller fuel tank, undersized brakes, and comically small rear differential. If Mazda had shaped the 3 more like the Mk7 Golf or Elantra hatch, there would be little need for the CX30. I'm hoping affordable wagons return to favor before I'm dead. I try to only buy vehicles that were designed from the ground up and assembled in the same country they were designed. The CX30 OEM tires were loud and dangerous in the snow. I replaced them after 1 year with Michelin CC2's, which are much quieter and smoother but still need to test in snow. So far, we've had the temperature control valve replaced under warranty and I had to update the firmware with help from this forum to clear some persistent network communication warnings. Lot of wind noise from the closed driver side window. The front passenger door sticks during the hottest summer months. Still need to find a mechanic that is willing and able to remove the telematics snitch box in software so I can disconnect it for good. Otherwise, I think it's a solid car.

I Do Cars - Dead At 30K Miles!? Mazda Skyactiv-G 2.5 CX30 Core / Blown Engine Teardown

Skyactiv engines appear to be a good design. No issues in 3 years after beating on my ND2 MX5.