2018 Mazda 5 Reliability Report

Cracked cylinder heads show up here too. Owners report a burning oil smell in the cabin, white smoke and oil puddles, mostly between about 52,000 and 62,500 miles, with no dash warning. Others describe stalling and loss of power while driving, including a high-pressure fuel pump failure. Some report bursts of warning lights with lurching and limp mode on the freeway. New cars with only a few hundred to a few thousand miles drew complaints of a dragging feel and loud engine noise. One crash followed the car stopping while driving.

Most of these filings are about a recall repair that couldn't be done for months because dealers had no parts. Owners who did have failures describe stalling, losing power and failing to restart. Others report hesitation and jerking at low speeds or after cold starts, and rough idle with the check engine light on. Dealers diagnosed fuel pump failures at about 51,000 and 78,000 miles. One owner found a crack in the top of the fuel pump after smelling fuel inside and outside the car after refueling.

Rear calipers stick or seize. That overheats the rotors, wears out pads early, and sometimes causes loud grinding. Owners report badly worn or corroded rear brakes between about 13,200 and 40,000 miles while the fronts still look fine. The electric parking brake draws complaints that it doesn't hold, that it works on only one side, or that warning lights stay on. Four crashes are reported. They include false automatic hard braking in traffic that led to a rear-end collision, and claims that the car sped up while the driver was braking.

Wipers stop working without warning in rain or snow, on any setting, while the washer fluid may still spray. Some owners say the wipers quit after a swipe or two on the interval setting. One wiper failure led to a crash with three people hurt. Dealers fixed some cars by replacing the body control module, and one owner was quoted $1500 or more. Other complaints cover windshields and a sunroof cracking without impact, a cloudy film on the glass, windows freezing shut, and corroded backup camera wiring.

The car speeds up suddenly at parking speeds while the driver is braking. Three crashes resulted, some with front camera sensor malfunction warnings on the dash, and dealers found no fault. Other owners report stalling and losing power at highway speed, even after a software update. Some cars go into limp mode and slow to a crawl, or hesitate when accelerating. Some cars refuse to accelerate in cruise control or slow down on hills while it's on. Others hold speed after the driver lifts off the accelerator.

A passenger-side airbag or seatbelt fault warning comes on and goes off, and scan tools point to a faulty sensor or restraint module. One owner reports it at about 54,000 miles, and owners say it often shows up after the warranty runs out. There are also reports of unexpected deployments. In one, the side airbags deployed but the front airbag did not, injuring the driver's neck and chest. In another, a seat airbag went off on its own while the seat sat on a shop floor. Several crash reports filed here describe sudden acceleration rather than an airbag fault.

The car suddenly stops responding to the wheel, and all four reports involve a crash. Drivers describe the car swerving hard to the left at highway speed and crossing lanes into a divider, and losing control on a sharp exit ramp. In one case the power assist and brakes failed together, every warning light came on, and the car would not shut off. The driver was hurt. A separate complaint says a 3 mph bump broke a blind spot sensor, with a repair quoted at $670 for the part plus $300 for labor.