Brakes

It was a master cylinder as suspected. Dealer service was excellent. Hendrick Acura in Charlotte. They diagnosed the problem within 30 minutes and gave me new TL to drive while they overnighted the part. My MDX was back on the road the next day.

Thank you for the followup.

colj,

I just wanted to thank you for posting your followup with the problem resolution. It can be disheartening when owners or potential owners of a fine automobile see numerous references to problems or issues. Often, due to lack of information, these are taken out of context and sweeping claims of 'poorly designed this', or 'badly engineered that' are made. ALL vehicles experience failures of one type or another and your experience shows exactly how it should work: Problem seen, Problem diagnosed, Problem fixed quickly and curtiously.

(The End of any "I heard somewhere that the MDX has really mushy brakes" from propogating on the X5 and ML message boards)

The last thing the MDX has is "mushy brakes." All you have to do is drive one to see that good braking is a strong point. The Bimmer crowd has to justify that extra 10 grand somehow.

unsafe @ any SPEEEEED

My wife and I have had our MDX since march of 2001 and in august of 2001 she was driving the vechicle to work when her brakes completely failed. Took it to the Acura dealer and they found the brake master cylinder failed internally. Acura dealer in Fife replaced it and informed us that no other such reports of brake master cylinder failures in the MDX fleet. I check with their parts Dept. to see if the part in question is use in any other Acura/Honda vechicles, and was told the Honda Odyssey uses the same brake master cylinder.
Well Yesterday my wife had a second horrifying experience with our MDX, the brakes FAILED again! our MDX is in the Acura shop as I write this and there initial report to me was the Brake Master Cylinder appears to have failed internally? My wife was having nightmare from the first experience, now this. I don't think I'll be able to put my wife and kids back into this vechicle.

Easy to search

Given that MDX has the same master cylinder, and a few hundred thousand are on road, you'd think that if there were any problems there would be a recall.

Neither the http://www.apa.ca/template.asp?lang=english
nor http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/

lists anything

I never experienced a brake problem at all. The brake is actually the opposite of soft it's firm and high, braking is excellent especially for a rear disc brake system. Usually a drum gives you a better brake and firmer, but the Mdx is firm and great response!

Re: unsafe @ any SPEEEEED

knkcook said:

My wife and I have had our MDX since march of 2001 and in august of 2001 she was driving the vechicle to work when her brakes completely failed. Took it to the Acura dealer and they found the brake master cylinder failed internally. Acura dealer in Fife replaced it and informed us that no other such reports of brake master cylinder failures in the MDX fleet. I check with their parts Dept. to see if the part in question is use in any other Acura/Honda vechicles, and was told the Honda Odyssey uses the same brake master cylinder.
Well Yesterday my wife had a second horrifying experience with our MDX, the brakes FAILED again! our MDX is in the Acura shop as I write this and there initial report to me was the Brake Master Cylinder appears to have failed internally? My wife was having nightmare from the first experience, now this. I don't think I'll be able to put my wife and kids back into this vechicle.

Click to expand...

KNKCOOK,

Can you give us the details on your MDX? What year? Where are you located (general area)?
Thanks,
Rob

It is a 2001 MDX touring model. We purchased it 2/01 from Hinshaw Acura of Fife out of Fife, Washington. We live in a neighboring city, Tacoma, WA. Acura has only bleed the brakes this time and is refusing to research it any further. Their Service Rep. is suppose to be in our town tomorrow (5/20) to talk with me about it. We were told that air got in the brake line but they cannot tell us HOW it got in the brake line.

I'm EXTREMELY disappointed with this approach... love the car until this second round of brake problems occurred and not feeling safe about a car that you paid $40M for is not good!!!