2025 Mazda CX-5. The vehicle experienced a severe, dynamic charging system failure that creates an active safety hazard on public roads. A dealership service department attempted a software update, which turned off the active dashboard layout indicator but completely failed to resolve the root hardware issue. The system failure remains active and has thrown consecutive advanced safety system faults. VEHICLE DIAGNOSTIC TIMELINE & BRIEF •Vehicle: 2025 Mazda CX-5 •Warranty Status: Active (Under Bumper-to-Bumper New-Vehicle Limited Warranty) •Modifications: None (100% Factory Standard; No aftermarket accessories) On the evening of [XXX], while preparing to leave on a cross-country trip, the car would not start. It was originally believed it was because while loading the car we left one of the key fobs in the car and tried to lock the doors. We reset the fob and tried the manual override to get the car to start with no luck. There were several warning lights coming up on dash to include an istop warning. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of the original incident. We contacted AAA and they came and jump started the car. We left on our trip the morning of [XXX]. The car started with no issue. That afternoon as we were driving through a small town, we stopped at a traffic light and received the "Battery Malfunction" warring light. We headed to Auto Zone, they checked the battery and said it had low charge, even though we had just driven the car over 400 miles. We parked the car at the hotel fulling expect to have to call AAA again but the next morning the car started without a problem. On [XXX], we continued our trip. When we stopped for gas that afternoon the car would not start. We again had to jump it. When we left the gas station the check engine light came on (amber). We were close to Wichita Falls, TX so we stopped for the day and made an appointment with the dealership there for the nINFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Mazda CX-5 won't start problems
28 of the 2,483 owner complaints about the Mazda CX-5 describe won't start, most of them for the 2013 model year.
- owner complaints
- 28
- worst model year
- 2013
- typical mileage
- 60,000
By model year
- 20253
- 20231
- 20211
- 20203
- 20193
- 20183
- 20163
- 20154
- 20143
- 20134
Often reported together
Key fob 6Check engine light 6Stalling 4Fuel pump 4Warning lights 2Loss of power 2Battery drain 2
Trouble codes mentioned
P0192 1
What owners say
Life-threatening, unoccupied rollaway vehicle with personal injury. Possible and/or suspected issues: "Not-P" switch circuit malfunction; "false park"; lack of cross-module redundancy; lack of BCM and PCM redundancy; Diagnostic Blind Spot; lack of Occupancy-Brake interlock; systematic safety failure culminating in unintended, driverless, runaway Zombie vehicle with personal injury. Background Info: * Low mileage, mainly in-town errands driving. * Not previously reported quirks, possible latent defects: liftgate opening that was hit-or-miss requiring multiple unlock trunk-unlock doors + get out of the car manual attempts; intermittent off-shutdown double-tap issue to power off car; ill-timed "rear seat alert". * Reported "engine won't start" resulting in three key FOB battery replacements and a locked key FOB. Day of Incident: * Auto-lock and the EBS were not used. * Driver intent was to park and unload, then permanently park. Car was in-park twice before ultimately placed in reverse and backed into position, facing downhill on a slight slope and along a left-side stone retaining wall. * Driver thought vehicle was fully in Park. * Attempted open liftgate via "open trunk, open door" routine, which did not work, so I exited the vehicle to try the manual liftgate button, which also did not work. * Three back-and-forth "unlock trunk/doors + manually press liftgate button" did not work. * Note: Upon opening the door or anytime after, I did NOT hear an audible warning that the car was not fully in Park. Nor did the car move/creep in any direction. * Deducing I must need to shut off the car to open the liftgate -- I leaned in and depressed the on/off button. * This caused the car to move forward, driverless, door open and scraping the stone wall, across a secondary road, over an 11" curb, and down a hill before stopping due to a tree. * I was injured. Pinned between a narrowing door and the car, I tried to turn the wheel right before being knocked down/falling
I purchased this vehicle new in June 2025. About a month after the dealer service inspection, the vehicle suddenly would not start at all. The key fob sometimes cannot unlock the door, and I have to use the backup key to open it. After entering the vehicle, the engine will not start. I previously brought the car to the dealer for inspection, but they said no issue was found. Now the problem has happened again and the vehicle cannot start. This is a serious reliability and safety concern for a new vehicle.
The battery died, the car wouldn't start one night. The battery which is the original that came with the car is only about 2 years old. I googled the code from the code reader, it said some mazda cx-5 have a starting problem but then I checked the recall website and there was none.
Drove 39 miles, around ~55 minutes. Parked the car, realized that I parked a little too far from the spot, car just stalled while rolling. Pressed accelerator, nothing. Turned off the car, tried to start again, it cranked but didn't start. Had to tow it to the nearest mechanic (total of ~2 hrs until my car got picked up and dropped off), mechanic calls me and tells me my car started fine. I'm thinking it could be 5321K recall but not sure as my VIN is not in the recall nor did I get any recall notice. What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? - No idea. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? - Got stranded for hours in the parking lot. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? - No Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? - No Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? - Yes, fuel cap like icon and check engine light were on when trying to start the car after it stalled. The car would crank but not start.
Car “died” while idling at a traffic light. It started but would not start several hours later and car was towed to mechanic. Diagnostics “determined “after several days that car needed an ECM. ECM was ordered and replaced, along with the battery. This took several weeks, in the meantime, I had to rent a vehicle. Vehicle picked up on May 29th and driven 250 miles and car sputtered, hesitated, slowing down in heavy traffic at high speeds on highway, putting other drivers and myself in a very unsafe situation. Several days later this happened again while traveling back home, again, at highway speed putting other drivers and myself in high risk situation. (This happened several times during both trips.) As I was focused on the road, I did not see if any messages were displayed. After returning home, the mechanic was informed via voice mail and again via telephone. The following morning (June 2), the car sputtered, hesitated to accelerate at low speeds and died while driving to repair shop (battery indicator illuminated as I was pulling over). Car has been towed again to repair shop.
While driving on the freeway the check engine light came on. I was able to drive the car home the remaining 20 minutes but there was some noticeable difficulty accelerating. When I went to turn on the car later that day the engine would not turn over and there was an audible rattling/chugging sound and the car itself shook. I was unable to get the car to start and the check engine light remained on. I had AAA check the battery the next day and confirm it was not a battery issue and a diagnostic revealed the P0192 code. AAA towed it to their shop where it was confirmed by the manager mechanic that the issue was with the high pressure fuel pump and that it was causing an issue with the low pressure fuel sensor as well. The mechanic was unable to determine what caused the pump to fail and has quoted me nearly $2000 to fix it. After some searching online it has become clear that this is an issue many other Mazda owners have faced and that is even a recall for the pump for years and makes from Mazda due to a known issue with DENSO fuel pumps causing this exact issue. Despite this being known and DENSO having admitted issue with fuel pumps in cars dating back to 2013, Mazda has not recalled the vast majority of the cars that could be affected. From information I've gathered, it is entirely possible that my vehicle could have just stopped running in the middle of the freeway due to this issue which obviously would have put me in great danger of an accident. To summarize: Low pressure fuel sensor and high pressure fuel pump with error code P0192 are cited as the issues. It's possible this issue can cause the car to stop running with no warning, which would be extremely dangerous especially on the freeway. The problem has been reproduced and confirmed by a AAA mechanic shop. The vehicle has been inspected by the AAA mechanic but no others. The check engine light came on but was not clear how extreme the circumstance was.
The infotainment system experiences a "ghost touch" at random times. Usually it is when it is warm out or in direct sunlight. This has caused some of the safety features of the car to be randomly turned off. The system becomes unresponsive to manual controls while the ghost touch is occurring. This is frequent and dangerous. It is shut off lane control warnings, lighting, dimmed the entire system, etc. This has been a known issue on past models and the dealer is telling me they are aware of this but it is not covered under the warranty on my model. The first time this occurred was around 35,000 miles but I didn't realize what was happening. When I asked the dealer about it, they couldn't repeat it and ignored my concerns. It didn't start regularlly occurring until after my 36,000 mile warranty was up.
Hello, I am writing to you for a possible failure post update to the software as specified in Recall 19V‑497 dated 09/06/2022 found on the manufacturer's recall website (https://www.mazdarecallinfo.com/). The status is marked as CLOSED. However, I faced the exact problem yesterday as described in the Safety Risk section of the recall details on their website (Summary section on the federal safety agency website). Below is my best attempt to describe my event: Event: I made a stop at a red light. As it turned green, I accelerated and the engine shut off/stalled. I pushed the engine stop button, switched gear to "P", and the car won't start at all. I was also not able to press the brake or accelerator. I was not able to move the gearstick. Safety risk: My car stalled in the middle of the road. It was a busy junction. If this occurred on a highway, it is possible this may lead to serious injuries or death. After-events: I got the car towed to the dealership where I was told by the service crew that the car worked fine. I was sent a video of multipoint inspection with recommended additional services, a business that I understand. However, they were not able to identify the cause of the engine stall. I decided to check recall information and found this recall (19V‑497) with status as CLOSED. But this is the exact problem I faced yesterday. Therefore, either/some/all of the below cases are possible: 1. The status is marked incorrectly as CLOSED 2. The date of recall on the website is misleading; this recall was placed 06/27/2019. 3. My service did not actually service the recall (I service my car every 5000 miles) 4. The recall failed to resolve the engine stall issue. 5. Issue may not be related to failure of this recall remediation; meaning, service did not perform a root-cause inspection of the problem itself. This message is intended to keep you informed in case point (4) holds true.
Unknown. The engine started to stall as I was driving and the gas pedal wasn't working. The car shutdown after reaching 0 moles per hour and it would jerk when I tried starting it. The car had enough fuel, battery and was service a month prior. The car would not start and had to wait a few hours to try again. The issue is similar to the recall this model has but when I checked my VIN is all cleared . Please Help.
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the Mazda CX-5 won't start
Which Mazda CX-5 years have won't start problems?
The model years with the most reports are 2013 (4 complaints), 2015 (4 complaints) and 2014 (3 complaints).
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