AtWhatMileage
Engine · 13 owner reports

Other engine problem on the 2012 Mazda CX-9

1 crash 1 of the 13 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.

Reports of this failure 13
With an odometer reading 11
Reports per 1,000 built 0.5 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 64%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 1
Typical repair $300–$4,000
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 5th

When other engine problem gets reported

Owners of the 2012 Mazda CX-9 report other engine problem at a median of 35,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 55,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 70,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 68,000 miles across the middle 80% of reports.

A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.

64% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 11 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
4,000 miles 13,525 miles 33,000 miles 53,500 miles 72,000 miles

Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.

What a percentile can and cannot tell you here

These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.

What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.

Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.

What happens, and what it costs

Of these reports, 1 a crash is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.

Putting it right typically runs $300–$4,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2016, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 2015 at 110,000 miles.

By volume the 2018 carries the most reports, with 20; the 2012 has 13. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.

If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

I had an incident yesterday resulting in a minor collision. My accelerator stuck, my engine kept revving, and I could not stop. I kept applying the brakes but it felt as if everything locked up. I rearended the person in front of me no damage to their car and only minor to mine. I am now afraid to drive the vehicle. My husband contacted the dealership and they are waiting to hear back from mazda corporate. *tr

15,049 miles NHTSA complaint 959162 filed 2013-01-22

Incident -1 traveling about 45 MPH decelerating to make a right turn, the car stalls out leaving me with no control of steering and little ability to brake. Incident 2- making right turn (decelerating) car stalls out leaving me with no steering and little braking control. Incident 3- pulled up into driveway on slope. Put the car in reverse to back out, car stalled out leaving me with very little ability to brake. *tr

12,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1014137 filed 2013-10-06

I have a mazda 2012 that spontaneously stalls while decelerating. It also stalls predictably on an incline. Mazda corporation has stated "the stalling on an incline is a characteristic of all cx-9 models" and are not willing to fix it. They have informed me that stalling while decelerating in my car has not been able to be recreated by their tech so they are doing nothing about it. I have been in two near miss accidents. The car loses power steering and braking and the driver has little to no control when it stalls. Please watch this video of a brand new (loaner from the dealer while they looked at my 2012 cx-9) 2013 cx-9 (125 miles on it). This is the "characteristic" I am referring to, please advise future buyers of this very unsafe "characteristic". When it stalls in my driveway, I cannot brake "sharply" or effectively enough to stop the car from drifting into the road. Http://youtu.be/pbzhvieihkc. *tr

17,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1016879 filed 2013-10-21

Also reported on the 2012 Mazda CX-9

Other brake problem

75 reports median 53k

Loss of braking

18 reports median 75k

Airbag inflator rupture

14 reports median 80k

Other speed control problem

9 reports median 54k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 13 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.

Questions this page answers

At what mileage does other engine problem happen on the 2012 Mazda CX-9?

Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 35,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 55,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other engine problem on the 2012 Mazda CX-9?

13 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.

What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars

Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed