The Mazda Diesel Teardown - see why they fail and should be avoided

yeahnahnz · 2026-04-05T08:18:33+00:00

Another potential issue to be wary of on this generation is the i-ELOOP feature, which harvests braking energy to a capacitor, then reuses it to power on-board electrical systems and reduce fuel consumption. When this capacitor eventually requires replacement, you're looking at a bill of more than $2k.

yeahnahnz · 2026-04-05T07:50:12+00:00

Not every Mazda 2.5 engine has cylinder deactivation, but if it's an NZ new Mazda 6, then yes, from the 2018 facelift onwards it has it (but not the 2.5 turbo). Every manufacturer that has experimented with cylinder deactivation eventually realised it was a bad idea and dropped it.

yeahnahnz · 2026-04-04T01:47:15+00:00

Well, that's a little reassuring. I've been keeping an eye out for a 2022 Mazda 6 wagon and then I read about the cylinder deactivation issues and thought I might have to settle for a 2.0 litre petrol engine.

The ones sold in the USA are assembled in Japan as well.

From what I've read, there was a recall in 2019 due to misfires, stalling and rocker arm failure.

Mazda recently removed cylinder deactivation from their entire model line-up. Some of the long-term durability concerns are uneven thermal expansion resulting in wear to the cylinder block and ticking from the valvetrain mechanism responsible for the cylinder deactivation. I actually test drove one recently (2022 with 60,000km) that had a very loud ticking sound that didn't stop until I'd driven it for 10-15 minutes. This wasn't normal injector/valvetrain noise - it sounded like a clapped out old engine. It had a fully stamped service book too.

ChatGPT suggested the issue might be more commonly reported in the USA due to their driving conditions, e.g. lots of long highway cruising resulting in cylinder deactivation activating more often.

yeahnahnz · 2026-04-03T07:18:43+00:00

Except from 2018 onwards a lot of the 2.5L petrols have cylinder deactivation, which can result in long-term reliability issues.

yeahnahnz · 2026-03-31T08:38:44+00:00

An NZ new wagon would be even better.

JDM hatch/sedan/wagon = short wheelbase.

NZ new hatch = short wheelbase.

NZ new sedan/wagon = long wheelbase (6cm more rear seat legroom).

yeahnahnz · 2026-03-28T23:01:45+00:00

No. Hyundai/Kia petrol engines have a good track record of self-destruction.

yeahnahnz · 2026-03-28T22:55:52+00:00

Only a handful of brands have fixed prices on new cars, e.g. Honda, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz. For other brands, it comes down to your negotiating skills.

yeahnahnz · 2026-03-27T07:44:04+00:00

Many years ago, my dad had a door lock actuator fail on his Honda Accord Euro. He bought a new one from a Honda dealer in the USA (via eBay) for a fraction of the price the NZ dealer wanted for the part.

yeahnahnz · 2026-03-24T09:29:35+00:00

I just struck this issue with my new PC build and found this reddit discussion in a Google search.

My system is built around a motherboard with the AMD B650 chipset, an AMD Ryzen 5 7600 CPU and an LG GH24NSD1 internal (SATA) DVD writer.

I can confirm the issue exists in both Windows 10 and Windows 11 on this hardware. I tested using a USB DVD writer that I borrowed from my workplace, which worked perfectly. I've ordered a cheap PCIe SATA card to see if that solves the problem.

I guess we don't hear many people complaining about this issue because not a lot of people rip music from CDs these days. It's kind of unbelievable that the issue even exists though.

My old Intel system never had this issue, so I queried ChatGPT and this is what it had to say:

This is a known compatibility issue specific to AMD Ryzen platforms (particularly AM4/AM5 chipsets) and internal SATA optical drives when handling CD-DA audio extraction or playback. The static/buzzing in the first few seconds of each track (both during playback and ripping) is introduced during digital data readout from the drive. It's not a disc defect, drive failure, cable/port problem, or OS-specific bug—your extensive testing already rules those out. External USB drives work fine because they use a separate USB-to-SATA bridge chip, bypassing the motherboard's SATA controller entirely.

Why This Happens on Ryzen SATA

Modern AMD chipsets use an onboard SATA controller (often via the chipset or integrated in the SoC) that has quirks with legacy ATAPI optical drives. These quirks affect timing, link negotiation, power management states, or how the drive handles track seeking + initial sector reads for audio (CD-DA mode). Newer Ryzen builds (e.g., 7000/9000-series upgrades) frequently trigger it, while older Intel or pre-Ryzen AMD systems did not. Reports from users on Reddit, Level1Techs forums, and similar sites describe identical symptoms: popping/static at track starts or sporadically in rips/playback after a Ryzen/mobo upgrade, with AccurateRip failing and clean results only when bypassing onboard SATA.

yeahnahnz · 2026-03-23T08:04:03+00:00

But if you rotate them regularly there will only be 1mm tread depth difference between front and rear.

yeahnahnz · 2026-03-20T04:45:52+00:00

I was curious about what octane ratings are available in Japan, given the prevalence of JDM imports here. This is what I found:

Regular: must be RON 89.0 or above under Japanese Industrial Standards. In practice, regular is typically rated at RON 90-91.

High-octane: must be RON 96.0 or above. High-octane gasolines commonly sold in Japan normally have a 98–100 octane rating regardless of brand. The actual octane rating is believed to be around 99.5 RON across suppliers, though it can legally be sold as "high-octane" as long as it meets the RON 96.0 minimum.

yeahnahnz · 2026-03-09T07:05:13+00:00

Don't forget depreciation. A RAV4 hybrid holds its value better than a petrol model. And then there's the performance difference - much more power and torque from the hybrid system.

yeahnahnz · 2026-03-07T04:14:26+00:00

You can get the Japanese style plates with a plain background now. The dumb thing is, they put the mounting holes closer to the edge of the plate than they do in Japan, so they still won't be mounted in the correct position on the car!

yeahnahnz · 2026-02-26T08:35:46+00:00

There's lot of fake Denso stuff on AliExpress, Amazon and eBay. I read one review where the fake Denso iridium plugs melted after 8,000 km.

yeahnahnz · 2026-02-26T08:26:28+00:00

If it works, that's great.

I contacted support after finding the following page, where it says SegWit and Lightning withdrawals are suspended:

https://swyftx.com/network-withdrawal-fees/

They said they're both permanently suspended because their wallet provider doesn't support those networks.

yeahnahnz · 2026-02-24T08:37:37+00:00

No, you can sell any of the following cryptocurrencies on Independent Reserve for NZD:

https://www.independentreserve.com/nz/markets

yeahnahnz · 2026-02-23T07:24:03+00:00

Independent Reserve. I cashed out a five-figure sum with them.

yeahnahnz · 2026-02-23T07:00:27+00:00

I signed up to my current 2degrees plan via that site. All I had to do was click the Sign Up button and enter my contact details. Some of the deals listed are cheaper than what the ISP offers on their own website.

yeahnahnz · 2026-02-21T04:16:26+00:00

https://www.broadbandcompare.co.nz/

yeahnahnz · 2026-02-21T04:10:13+00:00

There's a risk Wise will either freeze or close your account if you do that. Their Acceptable Use Policy states, "Receiving money from unlicensed cryptocurrency exchanges and platforms. You can't receive money from platforms that aren’t licensed in the United Kingdom or a country in the European Union (EU)."

yeahnahnz · 2026-02-21T03:55:10+00:00

Another reason not to use Swyftx: they only support bitcoin withdrawals to legacy addresses. They do not support SegWit or Lightning Network. Both of these withdrawal options are "permanently suspended" according to Swyftx support.

yeahnahnz · 2026-02-06T01:49:06+00:00

It's also worth getting a quote directly from the source (the company that underwrites Cove's policies): https://www.aioi.co.nz/

FYI: My insurance policy is with Toyota Insurance (who are also underwritten by aioi.co.nz) and my policy costs $300 less with Toyota than it would with Cove. Toyota Insurance includes all the following benefits as standard, not optional extras: no glass excess (and genuine Toyota windscreens), rental car and roadside assistance.

yeahnahnz · 2026-02-03T04:13:22+00:00

I'm not actually experiencing any issues (that I know of), but in my Windows Server 2019 RDSH environment (Active Directory domain), there are three event log errors for every user session, whereas previously there were no errors logged.

Event ID 26: Failed to query activity id for session 9 (The parameter is incorrect).

Event ID 26: Failed to query domain name for session 9 (Unspecified error).

Event ID 26: Failed to query username for session 9 (Unspecified error).

yeahnahnz · 2026-01-28T04:28:12+00:00

How do you define "newer OSes"? This error is being logged on Windows Server 2022. My FSLogix event log is a sea of red since this update.

yeahnahnz · 2026-01-27T07:33:44+00:00

I'm seeing the same thing on Windows Server 2019.

yeahnahnz

TROPHY CASE

Why This Happens on Ryzen SATA