KnownCarProblems2010 Mazda CX-9 Problems and Recalls
Owners filed 195 complaints with NHTSA about the 2010 Mazda CX-9, most often about the brakes (47% of complaints, typically around 84,500 miles). It is the 2nd most complained-about CX-9 model year since 2000 and has 6 recalls.
⚠ Safety advisory4 recalls for this car came with a do-not-drive warning. See below and check your VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls.
Most common 2010 Mazda CX-9 problems
Brakes
91 complaints · 47%Half of these problems showed up before 84,500 miles. Parts named most often: pedals and linkages.
For several weeks now I have been hearing a hissing noise coming from my brake pedal when engaging the brakes. Now, for the past several days I have noticed that the brake deal become very hard to press down when trying to stop. Today I was very scared because I didn't think the car would stop.
The brakes on our 2010 CX-9 are hissing upon brake engagement and have a hard feel to them for the first half or so. The brakes are slow to engage during this time. After the half way mark the brakes engage quickly and forcefully. It is consistent with the other complaints for the brake booster failure. I am having it…
Engine
27 complaints · 14%Half of these problems showed up before 81,000 miles. Parts named most often: engine.
When I am at a stop ad start my vehicle accelerates without my assistance, this happened also while backing up and my foot was on the brake.
The engine overheated while driving on a highway at high speed and failed without warning. After investigation it was found that water pump malfunctioned forcing coolant into the engine. It is now completely inoperable and the car has only around 80,000 miles on it. This is a major safety issue! The car was serviced…
Transmission
23 complaints · 12%Half of these problems showed up before 76,500 miles. Parts named most often: transfer case (4-wheel drive).
Power transfer unit leaking oil, I may lose my 4WD if this is not fixed soon. It will cost $1150.00 to fix. There is a horrible smell from the leak that is coming into the vehicle. I have had 4WD vehicles for years and never ran into an incident where something like this had to be replaced. Dealer made this seem like…
The contact owns a 2010 Mazda CX-9. While accelerating from a traffic light, there was an abnormal burning odor coming from the front of the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the contact was notified that the transfer case had a leak. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of…
Air bags
18 complaints · 9%Half of these problems showed up before 44,000 miles.
The contact owns a 2010 Mazda cx9. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 16v356000 (air bags); however, the part for the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The contact stated that the vehicle's…
The weight sensor for the front seat is defective. My son is 105 lbs. He has just started sitting on the front seat. I notice that the "air bag off" light keeps going on and off while the car is in motion. According to the manual, the weight limit is 66 lbs above which the passenger airbag should be active. Manual…
Suspension
16 complaints · 8%Half of these problems showed up before 125,000 miles.
There are noises coming from the front tires, when driving. No one could pinpoint the problem. Brake booster went out a couple months later.
The contact owns a 2010 Mazda CX-9. While driving in reverse, a loud metal on metal noise sounded outside of the vehicle. The failure occurred two days after the vehicle was serviced per NHTSA campaign number: 15v451000 (suspension). An independent mechanic confirmed that the front passenger side lower control arm was…
Speed control
9 complaints · 5%Half of these problems showed up before 19,000 miles.
Was driving on I-495e in maryland between exits 28 and 29. Changed lanes and put foot down on gas pedal to accelerate. Suddenly felt like gas pedal was stuck and that braking could only slow but not stop acceleration. Moved over a few lanes to right shoulder and after continued failure of brakes to stop acceleration…
The contact owns a 2010 Mazda CX-9. While driving approximately 10 MPH, the vehicle uncontrollably accelerated into oncoming traffic. The brakes were applied repeatedly when suddenly the vehicle came to a stop. The vehicle was towed to an authorized dealer for diagnosis where the technician was unable to locate the…
Body and structure
6 complaints · 3%Half of these problems showed up before 66,500 miles. Parts named most often: body.
11 year old son went to open the passenger door up front and the door handle broke off.(the dealership told me that it happened from normal wear and tear)..scary.
Noticed dashboard on the passenger side was melting. Driver side is ok, but that's because in the 2010 Mazda 6 I sport models, at least, the dashboard is made of two different materials between driver side and passenger side. If you put your finger on the melted area, there will be a black tar-like residue on your…
Electrical
6 complaints · 3%Half of these problems showed up before 44,500 miles.
The vehicle stalls when idling at a stop light or in a drive thru. The vehicles motor begins to shake and then eventually dies and stalls out and the vehicle must be started again with the turn of the ignition. The braking system is also defective. When at a stop light and your foot is on the brake pedal. The pedal…
Hand free equipment (blue tooth) stopped communication with my mobil phone, due to a software issue. When contacting the Mazda dealer and Mazda north america customer care, they declined to repair the defective part, even though my vehicle is still covered under extended warranty.
Complaints are owner reports to NHTSA, not verified defects. One complaint can name several components, so shares add up to more than 100%.
2010 Mazda CX-9 recalls
Air bags: inflator module
Risk: An inflator explosion may result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.
Fix: Owners are advised not to drive their vehicles until the repair has been performed. Mazda will notify owners, and dealers will replace the front passenger air bag inflator with an alternate one, free of charge. The recall began december 3, 2019. Owners may contact mazda customer service at 1-800-222-5500, option 4. Mazda's number for this recall is 1317f. Note: this recall supersedes recalls 16v356 and 17v012.
Full defect summary
Mazda north american operations (mazda) is recalling certain 2007-2012 cx-7, cx-9, and 2009-2012 maza6 vehicles. These vehicles had their passenger frontal air bag inflators previously replaced under a prior recall using inflators of the same design. The inflators may explode due to propellant degradation occurring after long-term exposure to high absolute humidity, temperature and temperature cycling.
Air bags: inflator module
Risk: An inflator explosion may result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.
Fix: Mazda will notify owners, and dealers will replace the front passenger air bag inflator with an alternate inflator, free of charge. The recall began november 9, 2018. Owners may contact mazda customer service at 1-800-222-5500, option 4. Mazda's number for this recall is 1317f.
Full defect summary
Mazda north american operations (mazda) is recalling certain 2014-2015 mazda cx-9 vehicles sold, or ever registered in the states of alabama, california, florida, georgia, hawaii, louisiana, mississippi, south carolina, texas, puerto rico, american samoa, guam, the northern mariana islands (saipan), and the u.s. Virgin islands or "zone a." additionally, unless covered in "zone a," mazda is recalling certain 2011-2013 mazda6, 2011-2012 cx-7, and 2011-2015 cx-9 sold, or ever registered in the states of arizona, arkansas, delaware, illinois, indiana, kansas, kentucky, maryland, missouri, nebraska, nevada, new jersey, new mexico, north carolina, ohio, oklahoma, pennsylvania, tennessee, virginia, west virginia and the district of columbia, or "zone b." additionally, unless covered in zone a or zone b, mazda is recalling certain 2010-2013 mazda6, 2010-2012 cx-7, and 2010-2015 cx-9 vehicles eve
Air bags: inflator module
Risk: An inflator explosion may result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.
Fix: Mazda will notify owners, and dealers will replace the front passenger air bag inflator with an alternate inflator, free of charge. The recall began march 2, 2018. Owners may contact mazda customer service at 1-800-222-5500. Mazda's number for this recall is 1317f.
Full defect summary
Mazda north american operations (mazda) is recalling certain 2013 mazda6 and cx-9 vehicles sold, or ever registered in the states of alabama, california, florida, georgia, hawaii, louisiana, mississippi, south carolina, texas, puerto rico, american samoa, guam, the northern mariana islands (saipan), and the u.s. Virgin islands or "zone a." additionally, unless covered in "zone a," mazda is recalling certain 2010 mazda6, cx-7 and cx-9 vehicles sold, or ever registered in the states of arizona, arkansas, delaware, district of columbia, illinois, indiana, kansas, kentucky, maryland, missouri, nebraska, nevada, new jersey, new mexico, north carolina, ohio, oklahoma, pennsylvania, tennessee, virginia, and west virginia or "zone b." additionally, unless covered in zone a or zone b, mazda is recalling certain 2009 mazda6, cx-7, and cx-9 vehicles ever registered in the states of alaska, colorado
Air bags: inflator module
Risk: An inflator rupture may result in metal fragments striking the vehicle occupants resulting in serious injury or death.
Fix: Owners are advised not to drive their vehicles until the remedy is performed. Mazda will notify owners, and dealers will replace the passenger frontal air bag inflator with an alternate inflator, free of charge. The recall began on august 30, 2017. Owners may contact mazda customer service at 1-800-222-5500. Mazda's number for this recall is 1317f. Note: this recall supersedes recall 16v356 and all vehicles that were not remedied under that campaign are now covered by this one.
Full defect summary
Mazda north america operations (mazda) is recalling certain 2009-2011 mazda6, and 2007-2011 cx-7 and cx-9 vehicles. These vehicles are equipped with certain air bag inflators assembled as part of the passenger frontal air bag modules, and used as original equipment or replacement equipment. In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the front air bags, these inflators may rupture due to propellant degradation occurring after long-term exposure to absolute humidity and temperature cycling.
Suspension: lower ball joint
Risk: Over time, the ball joint corrosion may result in the front lower control arm separating from the ball joint, causing a loss of steering control and increasing the risk of a crash.
Fix: Mazda will notify owners, and dealers will replace both the left and right lower control arms, free of charge. The recall began on september 14, 2015. The recall will begin with model year 2007-2009 vehicles registered in connecticut, delaware, illinois, indiana, iowa, kentucky, maine, maryland, massachusetts, michigan, minnesota, missouri, new hampshire, new jersey, new york, ohio, pennsylvania, rhode island, vermont, virginia, washington d.c., west virginia, and wisconsin. The second phase will be for model year 2010-2014 vehicles in the same states. Finally, all remaining vehicles will be r
Full defect summary
Mazda north american operations (mazda) is recalling certain model year 2007-2014 cx-9 vehicles manufactured october 24, 2006, to december 28, 2013. The affected vehicles have front suspension ball joints that may corrode from water leaking into the fitting.
Seats: seat heater/cooler
Risk: This may cause burn damage of the seat cushion surface, or a risk of smoke/fire.
Fix: Dealers will install an additional ground harness on the seat heater control system. The seat heater control circuit will be replaced if necessary and/or the seat will be repaired free of charge. The safety recall began on march 9, 2010. Owners may contact mazda at 1-800-222-5500.
Full defect summary
Mazda is recalling certain model year 2010 cx-9 vehicles equipped with electrically heated front seats. There is a possibility under extremely cold conditions for the seat heater control circuit to overheat and fail due to insufficient electrical grounding.
Recall repairs are free at any franchised dealer. Enter your VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls to see which recalls are still open on your car.
NHTSA defect investigations
Inadvertent curtain air bag deployment
Summary
The office of defects investigation (odi) opened this preliminary evaluation (pe19-006) on may 2, 2019 to investigate two vehicle owner questionnaires (voqs) and early warning reporting data related to allegations of inadvertent deployment (iad) of side curtain airbags in model year (my) 2010 through 2013 mazda cx-9 vehicles. Odi sent an information request (ir) to mazda north america operations, llc. To gather information about the alleged defect in the subject vehicles. In the 20 months since opening the pe, odi has received three additional voqs. To date, there have been a total of 11 iad incidents within the identified population of 104,360 vehicles. Of the 11 incidents, no serious injur
Lower ball joint separation
Summary
In an july 7,2015 letter to NHTSA, mazda identified a safety defect that could result in lower ball joint separation in approximately 193,484 model year (my) 2007 through 2014 mazda cx-9 vehicles (NHTSA recall no. 15v-451,mazda 8515g).mazda indicated that damage to the ball joint boot may allow water to enter the front suspension ball joint fitting during use which may result in premature ball joint wear and a progressively looser joint.in january 2014, mazda implemented redesigned lower control arms in production vehicles to improve the durability of the lower ball joints.the redesign involved changing the shape of the top surface of the ball joint boot cover and adding a suspension plate t
Brake booster failure
Summary
In march 2014, mazda motor corporation (mazda) initiated special service program ssp93 to extend the warranty coverage for a specific brake booster fault condition on model year (my) 2007-2013 mazda cx-9 vehicles.according to mazda's dealer communication for ssp93, the subject vehicles may exhibit a condition were the brake pedal is harder than usual to depress. Complainants report hearing air leakage (hissing) from the driver-side foot area during braking.the mazda program extends the warranty coverage for repairing this condition to unlimited time and mileage for repairs performed between march 31, 2014 and march 31, 2015 and to 7 years or 90,000 miles for repairs performed after march 31,
Questions about the 2010 Mazda CX-9
- What are the most common problems with the 2010 Mazda CX-9?
- By NHTSA owner complaints: brakes (91 complaints, typically around 84,500 miles); engine (27 complaints, typically around 81,000 miles); transmission (23 complaints, typically around 76,500 miles).
- How many recalls does the 2010 Mazda CX-9 have?
- 6 recalls listed by NHTSA, the latest from October 31, 2019 (air bags). Check your VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls to see which ones are still open on your car.
- Is the 2010 a bad year for the Mazda CX-9?
- It is the 2nd most complained-about CX-9 model year since 2000, with 195 complaints. Complaint counts are not adjusted for how many cars were sold, so popular years collect more of them, and the newest years have had less time to.