Changing the oil after towing near max rating?

[cammyfive79]

I'm taking my wife's 2021 Mazda CX-9 AWD (Skyactiv 2.5 Turbo) about 400 miles this weekend to load a 6'x12' Uhaul trailer and tow it back home to Tennessee. The trailer will contain some heirlooms from my grandmother that passes away last year. I probably could have gotten a slightly smaller trailer but some of the furniture is tall enough to warrant the 6'x12'. Our CX-9 has the factory trailer hitch and wiring harness with a tow rating of 3500lbs. Being way conservative with my figures, the total figure that will be hitched including trailer itself will probably be 2800-3000lbs; so not at max capacity at all, but loaded enough to notice. The trip will be 100% interstate except for the last 5 miles home and I always drive safely when towing so keeping it around 60-65mph on the high end.

We have 6 pre-paid maintenance visits left on our Mazda Maintenance Plan so the cost is not really an issue, but I'm curious if it's a good idea to change the oil fairly soon after towing for a few hundred miles. We do the 5k OCI per the package and last OCI was about 1200 miles ago.

 

[wpod]

No need to change the oil especially when doing 5,000 mile oil change intervals . Todays oils are very good.

 

[Titan]

If you are just itching to change something after towing, how about the differential and/or transfer case? Keeping the speed down and the load less than max, I wouldn't worry about the oil needing to be changed after less than 2000 miles since the last change.

 

[Merek]

You'll be perfectly fine, I used to tow a cattle trailer over the mountain here that weighed 9k lbs with a Ford F150 w/ Inline 6. Just make sure to check everything and that all of the fluids are topped off beforehand. If there are any hills involved just make sure the coolant system is in perfect condition, I'd be more concerned with overheating than the oil.

 

[spasm3]

I'm taking my wife's 2021 Mazda CX-9 AWD (Skyactiv 2.5 Turbo) about 400 miles this weekend to load a 6'x12' Uhaul trailer and tow it back home to Tennessee. The trailer will contain some heirlooms from my grandmother that passes away last year. I probably could have gotten a slightly smaller trailer but some of the furniture is tall enough to warrant the 6'x12'. Our CX-9 has the factory trailer hitch and wiring harness with a tow rating of 3500lbs. Being way conservative with my figures, the total figure that will be hitched including trailer itself will probably be 2800-3000lbs; so not at max capacity at all, but loaded enough to notice. The trip will be 100% interstate except for the last 5 miles home and I always drive safely when towing so keeping it around 60-65mph on the high end.

We have 6 pre-paid maintenance visits left on our Mazda Maintenance Plan so the cost is not really an issue, but I'm curious if it's a good idea to change the oil fairly soon after towing for a few hundred miles. We do the 5k OCI per the package and last OCI was about 1200 miles ago.

Short trips in cold weather will cause far more damage to the oil than towing. The 2.5 is a cold weather diluter. Towing a few hundred miles is no problem for the oil.

 

[oil pan 4]

Worst case scenario heavy towing cuts the oil life in half. It's the transmission you have to worry about.

 

[oil pan 4]

Short trips in cold weather will cause far more damage to the oil than towing. The 2.5 is a cold weather diluter. Towing a few hundred miles is no problem for the oil.

Yes I change my oil after 3,000 to 4,000 miles in the winter because my oil gets loaded up with fuel. It's a gasoline direct injection thing. Then 7,000 in the summer.

 

[Mainia]

If you are just itching to change something after towing, how about the differential and/or transfer case? Keeping the speed down and the load less than max, I wouldn't worry about the oil needing to be changed after less than 2000 miles since the last change.

100% agree, the rear diffs in these front bias AWD have as little as a 1/2 Qt and get dirty very fast if they have never been changed, transfer case not as bad as the rear diff oil. Also from what I have seen in Hyundai/Kia and Toyota's, when towing a heaver weight use "sport mode" as that allows a 95% front 5% rear and puts some load to the rear diff. Full load on a FWD transaxle diff is very hard on it. When I tow my boat I can feel and hear the load on the front diff and I flip it into sport mode and the front diff stress load all goes away. Same with my wife's Rav4.

 

[atikovi]

I'd be more concerned that Uhaul won't let you take that trailer when you pick it up. They can be pretty conservative in how much you can tow based on your truck's tow rating and you may be too close to cut it. But of course they would be more than happy to rent you a truck to go along with the trailer.

 

[cammyfive79]

I'd be more concerned that Uhaul won't let you take that trailer when you pick it up. They can be pretty conservative in how much you can tow based on your truck's tow rating and you may be too close to cut it. But of course they would be more than happy to rent you a truck to go along with the trailer.

They actually make you enter your year/make/model/driven wheels on the reservation site to ensure that your vehicle meets the trailer criteria.

 

[cammyfive79]

100% agree, the rear diffs in these front bias AWD have as little as a 1/2 Qt and get dirty very fast if they have never been changed, transfer case not as bad as the rear diff oil. Also from what I have seen in Hyundai/Kia and Toyota's, when towing a heaver weight use "sport mode" as that allows a 95% front 5% rear and puts some load to the rear diff. Full load on a FWD transaxle diff is very hard on it. When I tow my boat I can feel and hear the load on the front diff and I flip it into sport mode and the front diff stress load all goes away. Same with my wife's Rav4.

Good info. I’ll try that!

 

[mr_boring]

Severe duty 1/2ton gas trucks usually go at least 5k on oil. Not an apples to apples comparison, but pretty close to an oranges to tangerines comparison.

Be cautious af. Don't overload the vehicle payload wise. My 1/2 ton has a very low payload so I will VERY cautiously tow 6k, but much prefer to keep it under 5k. It has plenty of torque, but braking is the X factor.

Does the Mazda have a 'tow mode'?

 

[cammyfive79]

Severe duty 1/2ton gas trucks usually go at least 5k on oil. Not an apples to apples comparison, but pretty close to an oranges to tangerines comparison.

Be cautious af. Don't overload the vehicle payload wise. My 1/2 ton has a very low payload so I will VERY cautiously tow 6k, but much prefer to keep it under 5k. It has plenty of torque, but braking is the X factor.

Does the Mazda have a 'tow mode'?

It does not. The newer platforms like the CX-50 and CX-90 do though.

 

[cammyfive79]

The CX-9 does not have a Tow-Haul mode; the newer platforms like the CX-50 and CX-90 do though.

The first 1/3rd to 1/2 of the trip is though the flatlands of Illinois and very Western Kentucky. The last 80 miles or so do have some hills so I will use the manual mode to hold gears up and down as necessary.

 

[cammyfive79]

Uhaul specs of the trailer is 1920lbs unloaded so with 500-700lbs max of cargo I should be almost 1000lbs under capacity.

 

[mobilnissan1991]

You'll be perfectly fine, I used to tow a cattle trailer over the mountain here that weighed 9k lbs with a Ford F150 w/ Inline 6. Just make sure to check everything and that all of the fluids are topped off beforehand. If there are any hills involved just make sure the coolant system is in perfect condition, I'd be more concerned with overheating than the oil.

How well did the old 300 handle towing 9k?

 

[Merek]

They actually make you enter your year/make/model/driven wheels on the reservation site to ensure that your vehicle meets the trailer criteria.

I can vouch for this, when I purchased my '99 Civic I used my 2004 GMC Sierra w/ 5.3 to use their car hauler to bring it home. I purchased it just outside Roanoke VA which is around 2 hrs from home. This truck is pretty much loaded, towing and everything except leather which I didn't want anyways, when I picked up the trailer they commented that I was the first one they had that actually was setup to haul because most people come in with their little trucks or SUVs and expect to tow a car with it. I could've used the dolly but not really a big fan of them and with the distance I figured it was best to put it on the trailer. It was cheaper for me to rent the trailer here for a day and take it with me rather than to pick it up there and then return here.

 

[Merek]

How well did the old 300 handle towing 9k?

Slowly but surely, it had the Mazda transmission which wasn't the best, it had 3.55 gears and going up the mountain I'd pull over and shift the transfer case into 4-LO and use 4th gear to climb but at the top I'd put it back in 2wd. The first time it ran hot but running the heater stabilized it, needed a larger radiator for sure. For the subsequent trips I had flushed it out by then and used a bottle of Redline Water Wetter... it was weird, the gauge started getting hot same as before and I was getting ready to run the heater but then all of a sudden it stabilized and was actually cooling back down so I didn't even have to run it.

I would've installed a larger radiator and swapped in a zf transmission, possibly an underdrive unit as well, 3.73 gears if I had kept the truck but the 300 would do it all day long and not stop.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

Short trips in cold weather will cause far more damage to the oil than towing. The 2.5 is a cold weather diluter. Towing a few hundred miles is no problem for the oil.

If anything, the extra load will get the oil temps up high enough, for long enough, to boil off the water and maybe a little of the fuel dilution.