LoveToZoom

Hi Everyone!

I am a newbie to the club and a fairly newbie with my 8 and I have a couple of questions. My name is Karen and I live in Twinsburg, OH (about 30 miles outside of Cleveland). I got my 8 the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

As you might guess, it gets rather cold in these parts. About a week ago it was very cold here...around 12 or so degrees and on my way to the office, my check engine light came on. Hubby took it to the dealer who could find nothing wrong. Finally, the service tech called Mazda. They said that the sensors are reading temps wrong and thinking the car is too hot or too cold. It's a software issue and there is supposed to be a fix coming out around the end of the month. When we got cold temps again this weekend, the check engine light came on again. Has anyone else experienced this issue? If so, have you heard the same thing about the software update?

Also, I'm curious as to how long each of you let that engine warm up and cool down. I've been religiously warming and cooling for a full minute (based on what the dealer told me). Are you all doing the same thing?

Thanks for the help and I'm happy to be here

Omicron

Hi Karen -

Just noticed no one had responded to your question, so I will.

I have not heard much about cold weather causing a CEL, or "Check Engine Light." This forum you're in now (Tech Garage) would be the best place to find info if this has been an issue, but honestly, I don't recall seeing much - if anything - about a CEL due to cold weather.

I'm in Colorado, and can tell you I've had no problems.

Finally, you might try getting in touch with another dealership to see if they've heard anything about this. Trussville and Rosenthal Mazda both come to mind as "impartial third parties" They also have a relationship with this board and have access Mazda's tech line and inner-corporate messages. Check the Vendor forum for how to contact these dealerships.

Finally, as for warm up times, I typically let my car warm up anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes, but that's more due to my routine than to carefully following the manufacturer's recommendations. However, a lot of wear and tear can occur on an engine if it's run too hard before it's properly warmed up, so if you've already formed the habit, by all means stick with it! The payoff will be longer engine life overall.

Hope this helps!

Len

I have experienced a check-engine light in very cold weather twice in the last week. I'll be taking it in to the dealer shortly. In both cases, the light came on shortly after I started driving, when the temperature was <= -20 C (< 0 F). In the first case the light stayed on for a couple of days (drove the car 2 or 3 times) until the weather got "warmer" (-10 C).

To warm the car up, I let it idle until the RPMs settle down (to about 1750 in cold weather), then I drive gently, keeping under 4000 RPM as much as possible, until the temp gets up to normal. Which takes me almost all the way to the office in this weather.

Omicron

Well there ya go. Just me speaking up got others talking about this. :D

Thanks for jumpin in here Len. We'll be interested to see what your dealer has to say about it.

Go4It

Len

I forgot to update this after I took my car for servicing. But there's not much to say - they couldn't find anything wrong, and just cleared the check-engine codes. Since then the weather has been milder and I've had no problems.

Trx8

I have been driving my car daily (Ann Arbor, Michigan) since January 23. Most of that has been cold weather including some in the 0 F range. My car is kept in a garage, so it is protected from the cold, but its left outside when I am at work, and in a recent trip to ~Chicago it was left outside for several days. I now have 1700 miles and I haven't had the CEL symptom that you described.

I start it by turning it to On, waiting for the sensor lights to come on and a few start to go off (a few seconds), then it starts after a few seconds of cranking; The turn On and wait before cranking is called "initializing" elsewhere in the forum. I then let it idle until it drops below the 1750 RPM range. After that I drive very gently until its well into warmed up mode, typically less than 2000 or 3000 RPM.