Mazda Problems

First things first: are you sure the leak is coming from the gearbox and not the engine? It can be very hard to discern the difference in a manual car, although it’s easier in an automatic as the transmission fluid is usually a red colour.

Beyond that, oil can escape from a gearbox through a variety of places. The breather could be allowing fluid out, the pan seal could be leaking, the rear gearbox seal could be faulty or you could even have a cracked transmission casing. Don’t rule out a leaking drain plug, either, as this is a very common source of a leak. You might even find the leak is coming from somewhere within the transmission cooler and its plumbing.

Modern cars absolutely hate having low battery voltage. It throws everything into chaos and can easily produce the sort of problems you’re having as the major components of a car are, these days, all controlled by computers.

By turning the car off and on again, you’re effectively performing the old Alt-Ctrl-Del function to reboot a home computer or laptop. As such, and especially since the transmission works perfectly when you reset it, this is almost certainly an electrical problem. A more permanent reset might be needed, so try leaving the battery disconnected overnight and then reconnect it next morning. This will often return things to normal.

It mightn’t seem like the vehicle is struggling, but when you consider that a caravan of this size can easily weight the best part of three tonnes, you can see how it puts a strain on every component of the vehicle towing it. It sometimes only takes a small hill or a headwind to push a towing vehicle into its discomfort zone. Do that long enough and eventually something will get hot enough to trigger the limp-home response.

But don’t rule out a check-up at a BT-50 or Ford Ranger (they’re the same vehicle under the skin) specialist who should be able to pinpoint the weak link, as well as offer solutions to stop it happening again. You might find you need a bigger transmission or engine oil cooler, or even a retune of the engine to bring it back to tip-top shape.

Accessories you’ve added can also make a difference. Have you, for instance, fitted a roof rack or larger wheels and tyres? A roof rack can add a lot of aero drag that has to be overcome, while bigger tyres can mess up the vehicle’s gearing, causing it to work harder for the same road speed as before.

A powertrain warning light can be triggered for literally hundreds of reasons. So there’s no point trying to guess what’s wrong here. Instead, have the vehicle electronically scanned at a workshop and see if the on-board computer can shed any light on what components or systems are at fault.

Theoretically, the computer should have logged the cause each time the warning light has flashed on. During a scan, these faults will show up as a series of fault codes which the mechanic will be able to decipher to get a good idea of what’s wrong. Without this information, you could be chasing up blind alleys for weeks and months.

The other thing you can do is make a note of what the vehicle is doing when the light comes on. For instance, if the warning light flicks on when you’re towing, you may have a driveline overheating issue.

The problem of the sump filling with diesel was not unknown on early CX-5 diesels. A leaking injector is possible, but the main cause of this was believed to be the car’s DPF regeneration process dumping large amounts of fuel into the engine, some of which finds its way past the piston rings and into the sump. Either way, a new engine is a large expense.

There’s every chance that Mazda won’t offer any help given the age of the vehicle, nor is this type of engine damage usually a cause for an insurance claim. It would definitely be worth contacting Mazda Australia’s customer service division, but don’t hold your breath.

Here’s the simple test. Does the vehicle have a body coloured front bumper-bar and chrome exterior door handles and mirrors? If it does, it’s an XTR. If not, it’s an XT.

It’s a bit hard to know what’s going on here. If a tyre is scrubbing on its inside edge, it’s often a problem with the camber settings (the amount of lean on the tyre from top to bottom). If it was realigned incorrectly, it’s conceivable that too much camber was removed and now the opposite problem is occurring where the outside edge is wearing too quickly. That said, sometimes incorrect toe-in and toe-out settings can cause similarly odd tyre wear.

Either way, this sort of problem should not be beyond the skills of a wheel alignment specialist to rectify without any mechanical changes to the vehicle or its suspension. In extreme cases, adjustable suspension bushes or mounting points can be fitted in place of the standard items to provide a greater range of adjustment. You may find that rectification is warranty issue, but if the misalignment came about through wear and tear or hitting a pothole or big bump, then it may not be covered by the factory warranty. Previous crash damage that has not ben repaired properly is also another common cause of weird tyre wear due to poor wheel alignment.

On the surface, you’d probably start looking at the car’s fuel system. A diesel, even a modern one, is controlled largely by how much fuel is being pumped into it and at what pressure. If the fuel pump is slack or the injectors, filters or lines are faulty or leaking, you might find that there’s simply not enough fuel to keep it revving on beyond that 2200rpm.

But you could also be looking at an exhaust problem, a partially blocked intake system, dirty air filter, or even a worn out turbocharger. A mechanic who is familiar with this make and model is going to have the best chance of diagnosing what’s wrong. Chances are yours is not the first vehicle to do this, and a specialist mechanic has possibly seen it all before.

This sounds like a potentially very dangerous fault. Any car that wanders across the road or doesn’t go where the driver points it is an accident waiting to happen. A serious one, at that. At this point, the first piece of advice is to not drive the vehicle any farther and have it towed to a workshop for it to be inspected.

There’s one other possibility here. And that is that what you’re feeling is the car’s lane-keeping assistance program. This can often feel as though the steering it trying to plot its own course (which it is, in a way) in order to keep you centred in your lane. It only works up to a point, beyond which driver input will overcome it. I wonder if that’s what you mean by 'unsticking' the steering.

However, as far as I can tell, this model Mazda didn’t some with lane-keeping assistance (it has lane-departure warning only) so I think you’re back to square one and a tow-truck. Either way, this should be a warranty issue if there’s anything seriously wrong, so don’t be afraid to try a different dealership.

This is a relatively simple diesel engine you’re dealing with here, so the first thing to check is the fuel supply. A dud or worn out fuel pump can mean the engine isn’t getting any fuel to the injectors, at which point it will never fire up. Even if you had a single injector playing up, you’d expect at least the odd cough from the engine as it tried to start on three cylinders, but from your description, there’s nothing going on under that bonnet.

The other common thing that stops a diesel starting is non-functioning glow plugs. These are designed to pre-heat the combustion chamber so that the fuel burns when it’s compressed by the pistons (a diesel has no spark plugs, remember). Without this pre-heating process, the fuel may refuse to ignite and the engine won’t fire. But don’t rule out the simple stuff like a blocked fuel filter that is preventing the fuel flowing from the tank to the injectors. A split or damaged fuel pick-up inside the tank can also lead to a lack of fuel at the engine, as can an air leak anywhere along the fuel line.