I'd love to be joining your ranks with my head held high, but I'm very concerned about my very recent purchase of a 2014 FWD Tech w/ 25k miles. I would appreciate any wisdom/advice you could offer!!
After saving up since my last car purchase (12 years ago) and looking for over a year for the perfect certified pre-owned model, I finally bought my MDX on Monday. When I test drove it a few days prior, it seemed to ride great. And, to be honest, I wasn't overly concerned that there would be any issues -- it had low mileage, clean CarFax, and had been through that rigorous 182 point inspection after all! And I was paying extra for the peace of mind that comes with buying a CPO vehicle from an Acura dealer.
So I pulled the trigger and headed home in my beautiful new-to-me reliable ride. I didn't want to fiddle with all the buttons for the radio while driving, so I allowed myself to relax and and just appreciate how quiet the cabin was. Then I heard it. Or did I? Wait, there it was again. Wait, and again. Oh my Lord. What is that sound?!?
Not always, but often enough to be irritating, I could hear a grinding sound when I got to the 35-40 mph range.
I immediately called the dealership. As much as I loved the car, I had a terrible, sinking feeling that I had been had. I asked if we could put the deal on hold (remember, this is an hour or so after the purchase) until we knew what the issue was. They quickly let me know that was not an option.
Fast forward to today. The car has been in the shop since the day after I bought it. First they told me it had been overdue for several software updates (shouldn't these have been covered during the very recent certification process? They said no; updates can pop up all the time. Should I believe them?).
Those updates didn't fix the problem. Now they said they will be replacing the torque converter, and my car should be fixed sometime next week.
My questions:
Will this in fact fix the problem?
Could the transmission (or any other components) be damaged if the previous owner just ignored the issue for the past however many miles? [I've read a lot on previous models having issues with the TC, but not as much on the current model?]
Given this issue, could this particular car give me trouble for years to come? It has a decent warranty (2 more years of basic), but I plan to keep it for a decade. I don't want them to fix the TC and then be slapped in the face with this issue again or worse the day after my warranty expires...nor do I want to spend any more time than necessary at this dealership :/
So MDXers, what would you do in this situation? I'm all ears!
Is CPO eligible for AcuraCare extended warranty? You could negotiate with dealer and/or Acura rep on discounted purchase of AcuraCare. Yeah, it's probably more money, but it would offer peace of mind. Like the factory warranty, AcuraCare is good at any Acura dealer, or even other repair facilities in the event of a break-down far from a dealer, so you aren't locked into getting it serviced at the same dealer.
But even without an extended warranty, the transmission is covered under the Acura new car drivetrain warranty for 6 years/70,000 miles from first purchase. AFIAK the transmission is the only other component that would be likely to be damaged by a failing torque converter, but yeah, it's a big one.
No one here can tell you what the problem is from the description. It's very difficult to do with random noises unless a knowledgeable person can hear it for themselves. I haven't seen any TC issues posted here with the 3rd gen MDX so I don't think there's any endemic problem with them. I have a 2014 with around 27K miles and have no weird noises, etc. and have had no problems with the vehicle.
For your issue I think you need to leave it to the service people. If they really think it's the TC then they can change it out and maybe it'll fix the problem but if not it'll be readily apparent and they can then move onto plan B (once they figure out what plan B is).
Fortunately you have a decent warranty on the vehicle and they need to fix it. Just beware of the "it's normal" statement you might hear sometimes where you need to really put your foot down and not accept that response. At least they didn't do that to you this time so you're ahead on that point.
I don't think there is a transmission pan on these. If a torque converter goes out, there is possible metal debris floating around in the oil. That means its in the transmission too. I would have them drain the trans and look for metal debris. If there is, the trans should be replaced. Metal plugs up valve bodies, solenoids, and whatever else is moving. It will decrease the life of the transmission. It may work fine after TC replacement, but in a short time the trans will fail. More than likely, fail after warranty is up. If there is no metal, should be ok.
Heck, after removing the TC, they can drain the fluid out of the TC into a bucket or pan and see condition of fluid.
First of all, I would see how the car performs after the fix and see if you are happy with the results.
Second, if you bought the car Certified Pre-owned from and Acura Dealer, the transmission (which includes the torque converter) has a 7 year/100,000 mile warranty from Acura. That will give you plenty of time to see if there are any further issues,
Thanks, everyone. Your input was very helpful and much appreciated. The service tech said they would not be draining the transmission, but I was able to get a sample of the torque converter fluid after they removed it.
Dealership continues to patronize and act like I'm crazy to pursue this. Manager told me I was just having a case of buyer's remorse, and it's a small noise that doesn't affect safety and only occurs at low RPMs. And that I wouldn't even notice it if I had the radio and AC going. Silly ol' me, I didn't really need a repair that requires having all the guts of my new car removed and splayed everywhere... all I needed to do was turn up the radio!! ?
We've all been in this spot with customer service on the decline across all industries, but negative experiences like these sure do make you appreciate the few remaining companies that prioritize customer relations. Sigh.
Well lets just be perfectly honest here... Noise is just Noise in this case..
There hasn´t been 1 issue with a noisy TC that ends up in damage because is just noise from the propeller when the RPMs are low (Specially under TC lockup), The fault of this is probably a bent turbine fin which does not affect the performance but creates unwanted noise. Once it gets going the noise goes away because the RPMs change the pitch of the noise.
Now dealership should have taken care of this obviously, No one wants a noisy TC regardless of no damage will occur, having a drivetrain noise is unacceptable when driving a newly bought car. The reason they are changing it is because they have to! under warranty a noisy TC is a faulty TC not a good working unit. They will change the TC to a new one but bare in mind that the new TC will probably come from the same stock..
Some users have claimed that they have the same noise after replacement, The majority seems to be fine after the TC change.
To clear all your doubts.. Nope the Noise is not a drivetrain problem, Its just noise.. Noise that should not be there.
Thank you! I appreciate the feedback. I do hope replacing the TC solves it. So you don't think a faulty TC could produce metal debris that might affect the transmission?
Let us know if this solves you issue. Just reread your post how you hear the sound between 35-40mph. On my 2015, had a resonating sound inside the cabin going 40mph tach at 1600rpm. When I brought this issue up, they tested my torque converter which was not the problem. They thought it was TC related at first. It was a pain for them to resolve it, but they did find the issue and it was fixed.
So if you still have the issue after repair, let me know.
I have the same noise and it's the variable cylinder shut down and seems to be pretty common on this Mdx. That's not to say my noise what you had but it's the exact mph range and has been well discussed on this board
If it comes back and it drive ok don't sweat it.. Likely normal
At least so far there hasn't been an issue with metal debris from the noisy TC problem.. In any case I highly doubt they change the TC without ATF Flush so you will have brand new ATF in there.
Hello Guys I am a newbie and I am writing this post because I have a leased 2014 MDX Teck package in Ontario Canada. My Mdx; regardless of the steering grunt noise and other TSB issues was very precious to my wife and I as we found it to be the best amongst our top choices and the next best thing after a Honda Odyssey or pilot. Anyways I leased it in May 2014 and the lease will be up in the next 10 months.
I leased the Acura with the intention of buying it out and recently every morning it had a serious jerk from 1st to 2nd gear and it went away and did not do it the rest of the day. My wife use to complain before I noticed this that it does not drive the same way on the highway and at the cruising speed of 100 to 110 Km/h it did not feel as powerful (lose of the feeling of torque when putting the foot down) as it did before and felt like it had a really bad lag.
Anyways my front and back rotors always gave me problems and were machined and replaced even after the braking servicing couple of times and I called my contact at the dealership and he said to bring it in and he would take a look. I went in for an oil change and mentioned all the issues with the rotors and the tranny jerk and that seem to make the guy freeze like I said something that was taboo.
Then he explained to me that there is TSB and the solution to it is 3 X fluid flush and software update. Long story short all that could be done is done according to TSB they also did a computer reading on a road test (which was performed after I drove the SUV for 1000 kms after the TSB including the software update) as it is a learning tranny and all. They found nothing wrong and said everything is okay.
The driving characteristic of the vehicle is completely changed it does not drive like the aggressive rocket it use to be when I first got it. It felt like a rocket new and now it feels like a four banger just makes noise and rpm goes up but takes a while for the vehicle to get going (FYI, the tranny is not slipping for sure). Also sometimes i still feel the jerky gear shifts especially from 1st to 2nd. The jerks are subtle not as obvious as before but new things have happened since the update.
1) it up shifts to the highest gear as soon as possible and i believe its called the Torque converter lock. so the responsiveness of the car is gone
2) around 80 Km/h and 110km/h the car has vibration (which is according to the dealership after road test and computer analysis is VCM induced)
So the bottom line is with these issues with the 6 speed tranny I guess buying it out after the lease is up is out of the question. Correct? and secondly I have the opportunity to buy the extended acura warranty before it hits 80K kms for about 3K which I think covers till the suv bumper to bumbper 8 years and 150K kms.
My lease ends in May of 2018 so what would be the smart thing to do as I do not see whole lot of people on forums complaining about the 6 speed as much as the 9 spd.
Should I hope for another software update and buy warranty and buy car out and drive it for another four years?
Should I trade it for a new 2017 MDX lease now?
Should I just drive it till the end of the lease without warranty and return it and get 2018 MDX or whatever else makes sense next year as the 9 spd is not that great either and that is according to the dealer?
All and all very disappointing that my this is happening and is a prevalent problem with Honda and Acura products! Why does other manufacturers granted only few get the power train of products year after year where as Honda is on a new Tranny yet again for 2018 Odyssey.
Leasing over and over again, or even once, usually isn't a good choice to begin with as it's about the most expensive way to have a vehicle so you might want to spend some time doing the math on that.
I assume this is still under warranty, especially the warranty for powertrain components - right? If so, and if you think there's really something wrong with the vehicle, then consider continuing to work with the dealer to get it corrected. If it can be corrected to your satisfaction then buying out the lease so you now own rather than perpetually lease is a good idea as long as you actually like the vehicle.
I don't have a similar issue with mine and there haven't been a lot of posts here about problems with the 6 speed although there's the TSB you mentioned.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Acura MDX SUV Forums
732K posts
85.6K members
Since 2000
Acura MDXers Forum - a community where enthusiasts discuss engines, tires, service and everything you need to know about the MDX!