I can't agree more. Reading the long response and towards the end the letter with no real testing, evidence or experience to call it a defect yet writing a letter to an auto manufacture suggesting it to be a defect... wow! lol

I feel sorry for the Toyota or Lexus forums.....

BTW did you notice the response dates?
What kind of person goes out of their way to join a forum and their first response is to jump on a thread(hijack) and write a complaint story???

 

I assume your question is rhetorical.
But if not, Ed92626.........

 

At times I dont quote the exact member but will use as in your case your response and quoted it knowing that my point and its intended direction or to which member would be obvious without a direct quote. That way if someone gets butt hurt by my response, I can simply say... "I DIDN'T QUOTE YOU".

If you know me like I know you do, then this is not the first time for this response tactic of mine. hehehehe!

Your response was dead on and its target member.

 

Absolutely NOT... My wife drives this car daily, around ten miles per day and occasionally, longer trips. I'm 77 years old and over the course of our fifty-year marriage, my wife has had several cars that have been driven similarly with little to no problems. She usually likes to get a new car about every ten years.
Long ago, I raced NHRA and built racing engines, and for the past quarter century, have been assisting my son-in-law, racing GT4. I work on Porsches, Audis, and Aston-Martins. I've collected and worked on Muscle Cars most of my life, and those cars mostly run less than 4,000 miles per year. NEVER in my near seventy years with cars have I ever heard of such car design nonsense as this clogged heater core issue.
I think Mazda designs cars as BMW does, focused on performance; little that there is in a Mazda. and these cars are really finicky.

 

Ed , Iam surprised about your responses? I respect your past experience but sad that you are not as experienced as u think from this last response. I have raced NHRA for about 4 decades in several classes S/G , Stock, Super Stock and even Gas Altered's back in the 70’s. My X wife was taught how to drag race from Sheryl Muldowny . I also owned and operated a Performance engine machine shop . Iam ASE certified master technician current and for over 35 years . I also worked on British cars and likely have owned more American steel (muscle cars) than you .
I would go on but to my point…. Your post was lacking a lot of information and supportive information from the service department. Then you go on a rant to Mazda on this forum about an engineered system that has no record of it ever being defective and you have not even seen the actual suspected part? For all your experience you Jumped to a lot of unsupported conclusions? Sorry but at your age and experience I hope when I get there I’m don’t lose my experience level and forget how things are built from the auto manufacturers and also the basic 5 steps of resolving questions and the proper order of service trouble shooting. And I may as well mention that you really need to take night class on how to use a professional grade scanner and all the areas of the ECU to check. Then learn why some auto manufacturers use some sensors in the HVAC system that report to the ECU.

Best advise next form you join get to know members before being so negative . My Mazda is a Dailey driver but I still like to do upgrades and reading your bs negativity just makes me go

Oh and as you are in Ca … I managed 2 Super Shops (1980s) when they were around before getting my own Performance auto parts store

 

Driving around 10 miles a day with an occasional longer trip is not good for any daily driver vehicle.
And it doesn't do much for keeping up one's driving skills either.

Cooling systems in race bikes and cars are completely different than those in a daily driver.
Age is irrelevant when it comes to knowledge. I'm 71 years old and had experience in motorcycle racing and engine building for nearly 50 years (mostly Ducati).
That did and does not make me a certified motorcycle technician or a modern systems design engineer.
Racing knowledge is not the same as being certified in vehicle repair especially in today's world of modern electronic ECU and digitally controlled vehicles.
Like the stability, traction and launch controls on a new Ducati, which are a specialty all on their own.
Yes, we both have experience and knowledge, but we don't have a current ASE certification with an active working knowledge of a modern daily driver vehicle.
What we think about any modern vehicles and their systems are opinions unless we have certified engineering evidence to back it up.
I would think your knowledge base would understand what you would encounter by coming to a Mazda forum (people who like Mazda) to say you don't like Mazda.

 

This is a forum, and I've never posted a response like this on a forum before. I preferred to keep it abbreviated, but as info is what you want, I'll add it.

I got the CEL and DTC P011A and took the car to the Mazda dealer. He took two days to evaluate it and came up with the clogged heater core issue. He then presented me with an estimate of $2,700 to fix it. It involved removing the whole dash and twelve manhours just to replace the core. I thought this ridiculous and took off the glovebox door. If it weren't for a steel strut, which would be cut/bent/rewelded, I figured, even with my age-related limitations, this job would take me a couple hours to do.

Complaints about this heater core issue are pretty common in CX-5s from their release to at least 2016. All that I've read have occurred at around 50,000 miles, so if the car had been newer, maybe four years instead of nine, Mazda might have helped.

But the issue is that there is a clog. Is it due to a defective in core design? Maybe. But flushing the system, I found a lot of tiny bits of black rubber. Apparently they are from disintegrated radiator hoses, which is another possible design defect. Next time I service the engine, I'll replace the radiator hoses and inspect them for degradation.

The real rub is that Mazda knew about this for years and did nothing to fix it. And in Mazda's wisdom they added an ECT2 to monitor this problem and when it happened it turned on the CEL. For most people, they're held hostage to the excessive bill to fix this because it will keep the car from passing state required smog tests. And that's a terrible way to treat customers.

It was interesting to read your resume. But found your condescendence and age remarks a bit abusive/offensive. I don't know you, but I've never experienced true car guys talking like this, except in bars where it's in fun.

To give you an idea of how sharp my mind is, just google Ed92626. You'll find the half-million answers I've given to questions like this on other public car sites, like CarGurus. I'm not a nasty person like you, just one who's helpful to others.

 

I had already read your original post there was no need to repeat.

Nasty person?
Please quote anything nasty from my postings that I said to you.

I never questioned the sharpness of your mind as I have zero knowledge of you or your mind other than your dislike of Mazda and now me.
I'm not certain why you believe giving a half-million answers on the Internet is relevant to anything.
Literally billions of people have accomplished that keyboard task.
Doing so doesn't necessarily make any of them "helpful" to others.

Wishing well, live long and prosper, may you find peace on Toyota and Lexus forums.

 

LOL I started to do a long response but then I re-read the responses. So the coolant was NEVER tested, and the ECU access for faults was not done completely only generically.
The flushing procedure described could easy have damaged other HVAC system parts because that is not how you do a cooling system flush/cleaning /coolant replacement on most newer vehicles manufactured.
Maybe I missed it somewhere but the actually heat core has not yet been removed and examined?? Then I thought I would look into the design and the base core. LOL guess what the main core not the tanks or tubes are the same design as many Mazda model over the last 10 or more years. And companies like 4 Seasons(one of the most well-known for HVAC system oem replacement parts) heater core replacement is built to the same OEM specification?
Then there is my causal looking to see about a TSB, nothing directly relating and worded targeting a 'defective" heater core that I could find?


Basically we are back to a member that joined a forum that most members are here to ask for help or share a positive experience with other Mazda owners. And we get another occasionally new member that sole purpose beeetch about their Mazda and in the end has stated they will not be keeping the Mazda ?

 

Never before have I seen so many dupes/shills on one website. You're responses are perfect for Social Media: insulting and born of ignorance. E.G., "Driving around 10 miles a day with an occasional longer trip is not good for any daily driver vehicle." That's about the stupidest thing I've ever heard.