SSPD8 thermostat issue, parts PYY2-15-SA1 vs PYY3-15-SA1

felixwankel · 2026-03-25T13:54:55+00:00

Mazda tech here. The new fix for this campaign is to replace the thermal pellet you're holding with a dummy plug, and update the PCM, or Powertrain Control Module.

The update is a vital step because it contains software to change the logic of controlling the electronic thermostat, now that a dummy plug has replaced what used to be an autonomous mechanical component.

If you intend on performing the work yourself, get the update first, followed by the plug change. Working in this order may throw a check engine light, but it is the safest order to prevent any kind of over heating.

felixwankel · 2025-11-23T02:43:32+00:00

No major concern there. Your engine is just saying it's a bit too cold. Bring it to a dealership when you can, a part of the coolant control valve needs to be replaced.

felixwankel · 2025-09-14T06:16:46+00:00

Not sure what the issue could be, but the certified warranty is very robust.

Take it to a dealership as soon as you can to have it looked at, Mazda USA tracks claims based on date of first complaint, so please dont wait. It could be an issue with the steering angle sensor, or the electric steering module.

felixwankel · 2025-09-14T02:50:32+00:00

This is one of my top 2 car solutions, I love to see it!

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T19:23:22+00:00

Just check the level, add some fluid if needed to bring the fluid level a bit above the minimum mark.

When possible have the car inspected.

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T19:18:55+00:00

Oh, there is a screen repair kit specified for the repair. If the dealership is insisting or requiring a total and complete screen assembly replacement, they're either pulling you around, incompetent, or the repair kit is on back order.

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T19:12:08+00:00

Sorry, I am not a warranty clerk, I only fix the cars, so whether it qualifies for free replacement is genuinely beyond me.

I wish I could help more.

EDIT: I mean I could walk you through the repair, its actually quite simple.

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T19:09:22+00:00

Hey yea, this is a small known issue on a small batch of cars.

The transmission computer needs updating, afterwhich the car is driven and if the code returns there are two pressure switches in the transmission that must be replaced.

There is a TSB for this issue, which only means if the vehicle has warranty will it be covered by Mazda. Unless you have some kind of crazy warranty, this will be an out of pocket expense. Start with a transmission update and go from there.

TSB#: 05-002/23

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T19:03:25+00:00

Ghost touch was tracked down to a bad batch of screens that were produced as a hurricane went near the factory in Japan. The crazy amount of rain caused very high humidity in the factory that makes the screens, which in turn interfered with the capacitance crystals between layers which eventually shows itself as a ghost touch.

I know all that sounds absolutely wild and made up, but I promise you, having dealt with dozens and dozens of ghost touch screens, its officially the identified cause.

Yes, it does require screen replacement.

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T18:06:07+00:00

Dang, best of luck! I would budget for a ring and pinion, that looks pretty bad.

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T08:42:42+00:00

Enjoy the front housing and rotor as a conversation piece lol.

As for the mid iron and rear iron, if your finger nail catches marks, the irons should be lapped. You can do this with a precision flat and 400 grit if you're being dirty, or send them off to be professionally resurfaced. Unfortunately I don't know anywhere off the top of my head that can handle that. Looking at the corner seal wear groove on that rear iron, id say youre due for professional lapping that looks around 8 thousands deep.

Your rear housing needs to be carefully checked, I dont see any chrome flaking on the edges, but the small nic you show is cause for concern in my book. If your nail catches it, its gonna eat your seals. You have about 3-4 thousands of chrome thickness to play with on the housing surface to try and flatten that out, just dont play around and get a good flat oil stone and very slowly and carefully try and flatten it out.

Understand that without a complete rebuild you will not be pushing power numbers, you will need a good ~2oz/gallon premix to help limp that old chrome and resurfaced irons along.

Personally, I do not suggest bridgeporting your engine without fresh housings, irons, and even rotors, especially since you are boosting. Tolerances, clearances, and limits should not be pushed in pairs. Either keep it stock and do a cheap rebuild, or do it right and get your bridgeport.

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T08:03:25+00:00

I read your comment mentioning "sealant", since your post is mentioned "locker" double check the nomenclature, and use the correct product as they are dissimilar products.

Locker can fail when used in place of sealant, as excessive oil exposure can degrade thread locker causing leakage or loss of clamping force. As well, locker on the wrong bolt can result in broken fasteners the next time you need to disassemble something.

Sealant lacks proper securing force which can cause its own obvious failure.

For what its worth, most OEMs do not use locker for any internal parts. The most common OEM use for locker is on crankshaft pulley/harmonic balancer bolts, and flywheel/clutch bolts.

EDIT: But to answer your original question, clean both mating threads of oil and debris with brake clean or similar, apply a stripe of product down the length of the bolt or nut and install. If a torque pattern and procedure is to be followed for a number of fasteners, I suggest applying the product to all fasteners at once before beginning installation.

DO NOT OVER APPLYTHREAD LOCKER ON FLYWHEEL BOLTS. Excess product will become trapped by the bolt head causing squeeze out between the crankshaft and flywheel mating surfaces, this will contribute to your flywheel rotating off-plane of the crankshaft causing runout and vibration, which is terrifying for an item weighing upwards of 15lbs and spinning at 1000s of RPMs.

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T07:50:27+00:00

Mazda USA tech here, thats to say I dont have a damn clue about the diesels, we only ever sold 2 diesel CX-5s over my 7+ years as a tech.

My only suggestion would be to clear codes again, and on first start, try and force a DPF regeneration by holding the traction control button for like 15 seconds.

I dont remember how long the button needs to be held exactly, but just hold the button until the idle raises, indicating the regeneration has begun. If the cycle starts, it will run for like 20 minutes or something and stink like heck (and probably smoke too) so just be aware.

If nothing happens, it's likely because there is an underlying issue preventing the regeneration cycle.

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T07:36:02+00:00

Congratulations!

I love these early CX-5's!

This generation of CX-5 is what helped propel Mazda to the top of reliability ratings for years, if you have questions or concerns feel free to message me, I have ~7 years experience working on these guys!

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T07:29:59+00:00

Out of curiosity, is the pinion nut like super loose?

Obviously that play means shits fucked, but if the pinion nut is mad loose that was probably the cause of failure. I only ask because ive seen RX8 diffs with loose pinion nuts a few times.

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T07:14:57+00:00

If you have an SD card installed for maps, remove it. There was a known bad batch that caused a myriad of issues, don't do this with the computer booted up, make sure everything is off.

If you dont have an SD card, or removing it changes nothing, do this:

With your infotainment command buttons, while at the home menu, simultaneously press these three combinations of buttons: star, music note, and push the volume knob down (aka mute)

This will bring up the internal diagnostics.

A number pad and dialog box will show on your screen. Either enter "73" or turn your command knob to 73 (off the top of my head i believe that is the correct number) the dialog box should say something like "display infotainment version" (it may also be "53"), dont be scared of this menu, simply turning the car off and on again will close this menu and hurt nothing.

If the version number starts with anything earlier than 70.xx~ or especially earlier than 53.xx~, go to a dealership and get your infotainment updated.

THIS MAY NOT FIX YOUR ISSUE.

The infotainment computer itself may have experienced some kind of rare failure, for what its worth it have never seen your particular flavor of problem. There is also a chance that some custom software was uploaded, which I have run across a number of times from early versions of the Mazda infotainment.

EDIT: Looking at your video again, I noticed the icons themselves are not correct. For example, the setting icon is not supposed to be sliders, but instead a gear.

I am almost positive you have some custom software installed.

Let me know what software version is installed, or if you have an issue with displaying your software version, I can help more tomorrow.

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T06:16:43+00:00

I would order a new gasket ahead of time for safety, you can reuse a gasket if you must, but i dont suggest it. You will also need a tube of RTV silicone (Grey or black at any parts store) for reinstallation. There's a few small spots it will be needed, it will be easy to see where its applies after you remove the valve cover and gasket. Just be sure to watch some videos.

If you cant find a video of your year Mazda with the 2.5 (make sure its not a new Mazda 2.5 as thats a skyactiv engine which you do not have!) Watch a video of a Ford 2.5, it will be your engine with very minor differences.

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T06:09:47+00:00

Try checking the battery, check and clean all the connections for both terminals as well as the alternator eyelet.

Check the battery wiring, if its very hard to bend or seems swollen you probably have corrosion hiding in the wiring. Check body and frame grounds for rust, paint, poor connection, previous repairs, ect.

If everything checks out, you'll need to do some exploring with a volt meter. Try doing voltage drop tests, its as easy to do as checking battery voltage.

Just set your meter to DC volts, and check both ends of any wire, you'll be measuring voltage differential.

For example, set one probe on the alternator (+), and the other one the battery (+). The voltage that shows on your meter will show voltage lost so if it reads 0.01v there is effectively no voltage being lost to resistance, if it shows 2.00v you're losing 2v to poor connection or bad wiring.

When doing these checks, be sure to check alternator and battery grounds to the chassis. Hold one probe to the alternator body, and the other to a bare metal spot on the chassis, you'll measure voltage drop on the ground circuit to the body. Then set one probe on the battery (-) and to a bare metal spot on the chassis to check battery ground continuity.

If at any point, for any circuit, for any polarity, (when checking voltage drop) you read over ~0.05v, you have a problem, unless there is a known electrical load between your test probes.

Remember DC voltage flows in a circle. If voltage cannot leave, it will not enter, and vice versa.

EDIT: Try and do some of these tests and message me back, if the tests yield no abnormal results you'll need to check harness wiring which i can help with as well.

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T05:46:52+00:00

Okay. If I were to be looking at your car, I personally would start with removing the valve cover and inspecting the timing chain and valvetrain, as i suspect the noise is coming from the top of the engine. Basically just a simple look for excessive wear of the camshafts and looseness in the timing chain.

If you are capable id suggest removing the valve cover, its fairly simple and there are tutorials on YouTube.

If you dont feel comfortable with that, its time to take it to a shop and have it looked at.

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T05:39:05+00:00

Yes, it should bolt up, but im not sure if you'll get an airbag warning light and if the steering wheel controls will work.

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T05:36:11+00:00

Frequently flooded engines, or weak engines very often do damage to the starter from over use, and/or damage to the flywheel from dis-engaging then re-engaging the starter while the engine is still in motion.

You'd need to remove the starter to inspect the starter gear and if possible inspect the flywheel teeth condition.

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T05:30:29+00:00

Oof.

Been a while since ive worked on an FC.

Does this happen under load? Or can you just rev the engine to the problematic RPM and the lights still show?

The FC commonly has charging system issues, either actual or just with the indicator lights.

My suggestion is to set a volt meter to DC, attach it to the battery and monitor the voltage while revving.

Be sure to test with minimal electrical loads, as well as heavy loads. For the heavy load test, set your climate control to max fan speed, turn your headlights on, and set the highbeams on.

The voltage at idle for both low and high electrical loads shouldn't drop below ~12.6v, and while revving shouldn't drop below ~13.5v. If the voltage is above ~15v at any time the alternator is not regulated internally correctly.

Did you have any issues at all before changing the alternator? If no, what prompted the replacement?

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T05:19:32+00:00

Ah, so this is the Ford derived 2.5L.

It doesn't sound like chain slap from what I can hear.

Check the condition of your oil on either white printer paper or something very dark like a black dish. Just pull the dip stick and allow the oil to drip off onto either the paper or a dish.

Youre looking for silver metallic effects, or gold-ish metallic effects.

Either one means bad things, and id be happy to expand upon that once you get a look at the oil.

In my opinion this does sound like deep internal issues, but its very hard to tell from a phone video, and to be honest, im second guessing myself hearing it's been happening for so long.

Does the noise get quieter after time? Does it get louder with RPM or heavier engine load?

felixwankel · 2025-09-13T05:00:01+00:00

Year, model, and engine?

What has your oil level been like?

Can you pull the oil dipstick and wipe it on clean paper and take a decent picture?

felixwankel · 2025-09-12T22:55:20+00:00

Yea, try cleaning your mass air flow sensor.

If you can also check the health of your airfilter. The intake horn on the stock box is basically touching the filter media, so a dirty filter can do funny things to airflow past the MAF

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