Sunday, February 02, 2014

CAR IT: Mazda CX-5 Bluetooth Does Not Download Text Message on iPhone

Symptom:

On your Mazda CX-5, you have successfully paired the Bluetooth and it works mostly but when it comes to text message, it prompts you to Download but it does not show any message with your Apple iPhone.

Fix:

Two answers.

First answer is, there is no fix for this so just give up and deal with it.

Second Answer:

The only phone that is 100% compatible with your CX-5's sound system appears to be Motorola Moto-X, so if you absolutely have to have everything working that's one of the options that is likely to work. I recently changed to Moto X and have confirmed that it works completely.

Apple is not the only phone that does not work with your Mazda, Nokia Windows phone would not work neither are many other Android phones or even plain pocket phones.  According to recent inputs, Samsung phone are working well too.

Mazda does have a compatibility list at this web site: http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/displayPage.action?pageParameter=bluetooth

Note, in general in 2014 when I writing this, there are still quite a bit of incompatibilities among all car systems paired with different phones. So I would not advise going all the way to buying a different car that's compatible with your iPhone.

At any rate, wait for a few more years (wait until 2016 or later model year cars) when all of this is settled, which is likely to occur.  If you are or will be in a market for a new car, you may have to research if your phone brand or even carrier carefully. Your brand new $45,000 car can easily ruin your phone experience and little did you know that your $5,000 investment in iTunes purchases go down the drain.




CAR IT: Mazda CX-5 (or others): Inflate Tire Pressure Warning But Tires Are All Inflated

OK, this is not a computer topic. Well actually it is. It is your car computer problem.

Symptom:

Your Mazda CX-5 warning message come up saying "Inflate Tire Pressure." You checked the pressure and pressed the Pressure Reset button but nothing happens.

Fix:

There are two ways this info comes on. One is actual low pressure condition. Another is that there is a Maintenance Timer in your INFO mode which you can reset and adjust yourself!

If this happens, park your car in a safe place, and press the INFO button, then you should be able to scroll the menus through Maint mode.

In there you will find the Tire Pressure check maintenance mode. This is a count-down timer and will tell you how many days or months between checks.

Of course, the purpose of this is for it to remind you to check the tire pressure from time to time, so now is a good time to check it and set it up to remind you in a few months, but there is no need to panic.

Side Note: This comes on immediately after you start an engine then it is very likely due to the reminder since the "actual" tire pressure warning won't kick-in until all the wheels are in motion at speed. Your Mazda CX-5 (an many other Mazdas too) uses the wheel rotational speed differential sensing technology and not the actual air pressure monitor stems in the tires. Since the rotational detection is significantly inexpensive to implement as most cars have ABS wheel speed sensors this is becoming much common. In addition this will never run out of the sensor batteries which is the case with the stem embedded pressure sensors. My other car had the stem sensors and after the 8th year, the batteries started to "go" one by one, about $250 replacement cost each. $1000 total.