- The problem
- Mazda North American Operations (Mazda) is recalling certain 2016-2023 MX-5 Miata vehicles. A software error in the air bag control module may cause the front air bags to deploy with excessive force during a crash. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 208, "Occupant Crash Protection."
- The risk
- An air bag that deploys with excessive force can increase the risk of injury during a crash.
- The fix
- Dealers will update the Sophisticated Air Bag Sensor (SAS) control module software, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed November 7, 2024. Owners may contact Mazda customer service at 1-800-222-5500. Mazda's number for this recall is 6924I.
Vehicle safety record
2016 Mazda MX-5 Problems, complaints & recalls
Owners have filed 34 complaints about the 2016 Mazda MX-5 with NHTSA, most often about the transmission & drivetrain (11) and the airbags (5). Those complaints describe 3 crashes and 2 injuries. It is covered by 3 recalls, the latest in September 2024 for the software. For comparison, the 2015 has 1 and the 2017 has 11.
NHTSA data checked
FFar more problems than a typical MX-5 year, for its age
#153 most complained-about 2016 vehicle
- Complaints
- 34
- Recalls
- 3
- Crashes
- 3
- Fires
- 0
- Injuries
- 2
- Deaths
- 0
Most common 2016 Mazda MX-5 problems
Share of all 34 complaints. One complaint can name more than one area. Tap an area for its complaints and recalls.
2016 Mazda MX-5 recalls 3
Recall repairs are free. Your dealer fixes them whether or not you bought the car there - check your VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls to see if yours is done. What to do
- The problem
- Mazda North American Operations (Mazda) is recalling certain 2016 Miata MX-5 vehicles. The skid plate and metal bracket may detach from underneath the vehicle.
- The risk
- Parts that separate from the vehicle may become a road hazard, increasing the risk of a crash.
- The fix
- Mazda will notify owners, and dealers will replace the skid plate, free of charge. The recall began August 2, 2019. Owners may contact Mazda customer service at 1-800-222-5500, option 4. Mazda's number for this recall is 3619F.
- The problem
- Mazda North American Operations (Mazda) is recalling certain 2016-2019 MX-5 (Miata) vehicles with automatic transmissions. Due to incorrect programming of the Transmission Control Module (TCM), certain conditions may cause the vehicle to unexpectedly downshift and abruptly decelerate.
- The risk
- If the vehicle abruptly downshifts, the driver may lose control of the vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash.
- The fix
- Mazda will notify owners, and dealers will reprogram the TCM with corrected software, free of charge. The recall began March 14, 2019. Owners may contact Mazda customer service at 1-800-222-5500, option 4. Mazda's number for this recall is 3019A.
What owners say
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34 complaints about the 2016 Mazda MX-5
Newest first, as filed with NHTSA by owners. Page 1 of 2.
2016 Mazda MX5 club: In warmer weather(70 degree F or higher) and after driving for 5+ miles, the steering becomes less sensitive and gets "stuck/sticky" and requires more force to turn. When applied more force the car over corrects and you swerve cause the amount of force you needed to apply. Seems like something in the steering rack expands with heat which then creates friction which you have to overcome to continue driving. Seems like it's becoming more of a issues the more people drive
The contact owns a 2016 Mazda MX-5. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V695000 (AIR BAGS); however, the parts to do the recall repair were not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The dealer was made aware of the issue. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact stated that while driving at 5 MPH, the bumper of a parked 2001 Lexus LS400 was crashed into and the vehicle came to a stop. There...
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was damage to the contact's license plate holder and the other vehicle bumper. There were no warning lights illuminated. The driver's and passenger's side air bags deployed in the minor collision. No police report was filed. The contact did not sustain any injuries. No one else was injured. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer or to be diagnosed. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer did not want to repair the recall per the contact. The failure mileage was approximately 60,000. Parts distribution disconnect.
Contacted Rohrich Mazda 2690 W Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh Pa 412.344.3600 regarding the airbag recall today. They have no knowledge of this recall and therefore I am unable to have it corrected. Is my car safe to drive? When will I be able to get it fixed? Thanks, Bill
The contact owns a 2016 Mazda MX-5. The contact received notification of the NHTSA Campaign Number: (Air Bags); however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available.
6 speed manual transmission failure at 59,000 miles Started not shifting into 3rd, then shortly after, the transmission locked up in a intersection. Which stalled the vehicle out. Was able to move the vehicle by hand, out of heavy traffic. Since this effects all ND1, ND2 and ND3 manual transmissions. I dropped and changed it for a used one. While I rebuild the original. As I am also outside of warranty.
On December 7, 2023 at approximately 10:30pm, I was traveling west bound on [[redacted]] . Suddenly, there was a loud thumping noise from under the passenger seat. After about 10 seconds, it escalated to an extremely loud banging and the smell of oil. Not a single warning light appeared on my dashboard. I immediately attempted to pull off the road. This area is in the middle of a mesa with no streetlights and a speed of a 65mph road. I immediately put on my hazard lights and was stranded. The dangerousness...
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of this situation was insurmountable. I was in a 2 seated convertible, partially on the road with no streetlights as cars and trucks flew by me at speeds above 65mph. Had I been hit from behind; I would have been killed instantaneously. I contacted AAA for emergency towing. The tow truck was deployed. In the meantime, I sat there helplessly. A passerby stopped to try to help but was unable to get the car to roll to a safe area off the road. Time passed. About an hour later, I called AAA again stating the dire need for assistance and the call was elevated to emergency. At this time a police officer drove by. I explained the situation and he parked behind me with lights on, potentially stopping a fatal situation. The tow truck finally arrived, and my car was towed to the address on my warranty above. I contacted Southern Automotive in Rio Rancho and was placed on a wait list for the car to be seen. I contacted CareGuard and they stated I could take the car to any automotive place for repair that was qualified to work on a Mazda. I confirmed this with Southern Automotive. They are AAA qualified, and service qualified for Mazda. They were not able to get the car in until 12/18/23. The car sat in my garage. On 12/18/23, Southern Automotive sent a tow truck to pick up the car. On Tuesday, 12/19/23, I received a call from Cody at Southern Automotive. The car had had a "catastrophic event in the rear differential" INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
I recently bought a used 2016 Mazda Miata convertible, and when the convertible top is up, the inner liner droops down and obscures about 1/4 to 1/3 of the rear window. I looked online for this problem and found that there are lots of 2016 Mazda Convertible Owners with the same problem. There are some fixes posted online about the problem, but many of the folks doing the fixes report that the problem reoccurs after the fix. Is there a NTSB bulleting about this problem? The rear window in a 2016 Mazda convertible is small enough to start with, let alone having a goodly portion of it obscured by the drooping headliner.
Steering: At 55+ MPH I feel a slight bind when I make a steering change. It then releases only after I've put in too much steering correction. This occurs when in a steady direction, or whether I'm in a steady, high speed turn. It feels like a snapping rubber band. You can read about other Miata drivers who have the same issue at: miata.net in the forum. The link: https://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=714849&highlight=steering+stick
The top windshield trim piece popped off while on the highway. The windshield has never been replaced and this trim piece has never been removed. All but one of the clips failed.
I was in an accident on May 1st 2022. I was traveling south when another car hit me. The airbags didn't deploy at all none of them did you can see from the pics and video I have attached and hear the audio from my dash cam saying the airbag deployment was detected but no airbags came out. (Dash cam video won't upload but I can email or text it if needed) the car is currently at the Ken garff Honda body shop in Riverdale Utah.
Since 2019 there have been several instances with my vehicle where someone has been able to knock the power offline thereby disabling it. It happened in five locations - a storage location in Olive BranchN MS, a former address in Memphis, TN (4330 Angarath Dr), a restaurant (Sonic) in Greenville, MS and twice in Greenville, MS both at a local park (Hardee Park). I never received any recall notices during this time regarding my vehicle ref a problem with the internal lighting for the odometer / gas meter, for the...
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alarm system, for the battery, chasis - the frame shakes - I even reported feeling something when I first bought it back in Nov of 2015, and the door locks on the driver side stated losing the notification of being locked so I have to walk back to check and have found out that some additional delay is happening causing it not to lock properly so I open and close it to get it to lock. I have received any notifications for issues with locks, power, or the suspension (chasis). My car has been stole from the dealership in Memphis near the Germantown TN area, from storage and then from the parking lot of my current address in Greenville MS. I reported all of this to local management and I told the prior people that had the dealership that something had happened to my car and they joked around trying to make a joke out of it. I called the prior service manager and a Mazda dealer in Atlanta when it was knocked offline in 2019 and was told it was an issue they could not resolve over the phone but told me to try a couple of things to see it would start. I finally heard back from the one in Memphis who agreed and I got it to start after sitting in that park almost stranded. They did it again yesterday but it would not start even after I know I spent almost $200 on a new battery after it shutdown at a local restaurant and it would not start after an electrical spark hut the car and shocked my leg. The car is only 5 years old; it shouldn't have these problems.
I was driving on the freeway and I heard a loud cracking noise. I stopped at a gas station to check and saw that the upper molding part of the car had broken off.
Spider cracking on center display mazda service bulletin r018/18. Since vehicle is out of warranty will not repair even though it was a noted mfg defect. Should be a safety issue as screen will become on readable and safety is a 5 yr warranty adv no. Mazda should of notified owners of this issue did not.
Air conditioner stopped working. Ac compressor hose cracked. Shop said this is happening so much, to this year/ model, that they keep the part in stock.
When driving, most of the time the blind spot sensor does not turn on (sound and light). It can go days without turning on at all then all of a sudden it works 1 or 2 times.
Sun visors on first generation nd mx-5 subject to catastrophic failure, leading to dangerous driving conditions. I was at highway speed when the driver's side visor failed on my car. The visor would no longer stay in position. It just hung at the bottommost position. As a tall driver I first scrunched down in the seat in order to see properly out the windshield. Eventually I held the sagging visor up with my left hand and steered/shifted with my right hand. Not ideal and definitely not perfectly safe. Online...
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forums indicate this is a widespread problem with first generation nds.Though the sun visors in my 2016 nd have been used sparingly, both driver and passenger side visors have failed in the same place: at the hinge near the dome light. The replacement part is nearly $300, not including installation. The part was quickly redesigned by mazda but owners of early vins are out of luck.
6 Speed manual transmission, vehicle stationary and doesn't want to go into 1st gear and you sometimes must shove it in, intermittent issue. Also a ton of gear whine under moderate throttle in 3rd and 4th gear. Failure mileage is 41,118 miles. Failure of the transmission in gear at speed could result in a catastrophic accident due to loss of forward propulsion. Mazda has released a tsb on this ref is r083/16b and 05-007/16 yet are basically telling me it's up to the nhtsa to recall it or there's nothing they will...
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do until it completely grenades and potentially causes an accident. This is not a small issue affecting a small batch of cars, this is a fairly widespread issue affecting a large span in production. From internal sources I've learned mazda is on the fourth separate revision of the 6 speed manual transmission in the 4th generation mx-5 and even some 3rd revision transmissions have shown weakness. In short, the 6 speed manual transmission was not designed for the 2.0L engine in the u.S model, instead was only intended to be used with the less torquey 1.5L in the european and japanese model. Mazda usa pushed for the 2.0L last minute in production for more power in the u.S market despite not having a suitable manual transmission available. The difference in manufacturing tolerances has led to several instances of complete gear failure in stock completely unmodified cars and is an accepted design flaw by mazda and why they have had so many complete transmission overhauls in a short span. In short every manual mx-5 that was produced before september 6th 2016 has a transmission that's a ticking time bomb. Mine is september 2015 production date. I strongly believe this tsb should be referenced and these transmission recalled. A weird coincidence is this very car also had an automatic transmission recall. I have attached the referenced tsb below. Please recall. *Tr
These tires are the original tires that came on my car which was purchased in september of 2016. When I was rotating these tires for the second time in 6138 miles I noticed that these tires were splitting open in the grooves that run around the circumference of the tire. I am afraid to drive this car for fear of a blowout in one or more tires. These brigestone potenza s001 tires should be watched closely if they are splitting open with only 6138 miles and 3 1/2 years of use. I feel that these are very unsafe tires.
Tl* the contact owns a 2016 mazda mx-5. While driving approximately 10 mph across an intersection, the vehicle decelerated. There were no warning indicators illuminated. Another vehicle traveling across the intersection colided with the rear passenger side of the contact's vehicle. Police report number: 2019643494 was filed. There were no injuries reported. The vehicle was towed to a body shop and repaired. The manufacturer and dealer were not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 49,000.
While driving on a public 2-lane road and upshifting into 3rd gear at about 6,500 rpm my transmission failed. I immediately slowed from about 65 mph and coasted to a stop. I was lucky that there was a just adequate shoulder, and I was able to avoid being rear-ended by faster traffic. I pulled as far to the right as I could, still withing 4 feet of the pavement. I determined that I could still drive in 1st gear and, driving only on the shoulder, drove the car to a wider, safer spot. A friend came by later with his...
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truck and trailer to take my car to my home. I thereupon had it towed to a mazda dealer the next day. The dealer diagnosed a manual transmission failure, 3rd gear specifically, and told me I was lucky the gearbox didn't sieze and cause a lack of control. They replaced the entire transmission at no cost to me.
I own the 2016 mx-5 nd gt with manual transmission and it has about 35,000 ish miles on it, but it's starting to have transmission and gear shift problems. 1) The car has issues with acceleration delay from gear 1 & 2, the torque, hp, none of it feel the same as when I bought it. 2) The car will start having rattling noise issues coming from under the hood, I suspect from the heat shield which is made from thin aluminum material. Also rattling from inside, all the plastic parts from within the cabin, seat,...
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dashboard, etc 3) the gear box is not smooth and sometimes would have hard time shifting. In my case, I have issues from 5 to 6. I literally have to give it 1 or 2 sec delay after shifting half way so that it will ease itself in. Also shifting from 1st to 2nd gear, the transmission jerks 4.) When moving or turning from stationary, the car makes grinding noise from under the car
Transmission is made of weak grade materials and running at high temps causing the transmission to fail randomly while driving. I am on my second transmission and mazda fails to help or address the concern. The problem has been proven by many shops at this point and most importantly by a mazda engineer on a youtube video. This mazda engineer specifically states that weak tolerances are causing manual transmissions to shear teeth under load. Both times my transmissions parts exploded I was at speed. The first time...
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was on a city street, the second time was on a very busy highway during rush hour. The first time, no gears were usable and I had to be towed home after coasting my car to a stop in neutral. The second time I could only use 4th gear and had to limp home.
Vehicle spontaneously jumps out of 4th gear into neutral at highways speed. This will typically happen on a moderately steep downward grade (e.G. California highyway 17 between sugarloaf road and glenwood cutoff heading towards san jose, or the curve known as the "valley surprise" just past summit road and highway 17 intersection) as the vehicle slows and engine braking kicks in. Steps to reproduce: place vehicle in 4th gear. Drive at approximately 60 miles per hour. On downhill grade back off accelerator...
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as engine braking begins the vehicle spontaneously jumps into neutral. This happens repeatedly and reproducibly. Vehicle is under mazda warranty. Date is just an indication. The fault occurs daily.
Headlights shake. Mirror covers on visors broke, never even used mirrors. Burns oil.
Car was in motion, while driving the car the red key light on the engine start button started flashing. When we got home the car would not turn off. Also couldn't shift the car. Finally got the car to turn off and when we started the car again the check engine light came on. Car dealership found several codes stored, but could not find the problem. Believe this is a serious safety issue with red warning lights start flashing when driving, car would not turn off and we could not shift the car.
Mazda MX-5: every year compared
All MX-5 years2016 Mazda MX-5 vs rivals
| Vehicle | Complaints | Recalls | Grade | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 Mazda MX-5 | 34 | 3 | F | |
| 2016 Dodge Charger | 182 | 6 | F | Compare |
| 2016 Chevrolet Camaro | 141 | 1 | F | Compare |
| 2016 Chevrolet Corvette | 105 | 2 | F | Compare |
| 2016 Dodge Challenger | 78 | 2 | C | Compare |
| 2016 Subaru WRX | 34 | 3 | C | Compare |
| 2016 Scion FR-S | 3 | 3 | B | Compare |
| 2016 Nissan 370Z | 3 | 0 | A | Compare |
| 2016 Subaru BRZ | 3 | 0 | B | Compare |
More sales usually means more complaints, so compare similar vehicles of the same year. The grade compares each vehicle with its own model's other years.
Questions about the 2016 Mazda MX-5
Does the 2016 Mazda MX-5 have any recalls?
Yes - NHTSA lists 3 recalls for the 2016 Mazda MX-5: software (September 2024); underbody shields (June 2019); control module (tcm / pcm / tecm) (February 2019). Recall repairs are free at any authorized dealer. Enter your VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls to see whether yours has been fixed.
What are the most common problems with the 2016 Mazda MX-5?
By the complaints owners filed with NHTSA, the most common problem areas are the transmission & drivetrain (11), airbags (5), body, doors & structure (4).
How many complaints has the 2016 Mazda MX-5 had?
34 complaints have been filed with NHTSA, the first on July 13, 2016 and the latest on April 30, 2026. Of these, 3 describe a crash and 0 a fire, and together they report 2 injuries and 0 deaths.
Is the 2016 Mazda MX-5 a reliable vehicle?
Its Safety Index is 9 out of 100 (grade F: far more problems than a typical Mazda MX-5 year, for its age). The index weighs complaints, crashes, fires, injuries, deaths and recalls against how long the vehicle has been on the road, compared with the same model's other years. It is not a measure of every repair - read the complaints and owner experiences, and have any used vehicle inspected before you buy.
Which Mazda MX-5 years have the most complaints?
2016 (34), 2017 (11), 2019 (11). See every Mazda MX-5 year compared.
What should I do if my 2016 Mazda MX-5 has a problem?
If it is a safety problem, stop driving it if it is unsafe and contact your dealer. Report it to NHTSA at nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem - enough reports start investigations and recalls - and share your experience here so other owners know what to look for.
Source: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaints and recalls, checked . Complaints are owners' own reports and are not verified. How we use the data