[Chazzy J]

So...
#1 - Controller error - will take a bit to get to the controller as is buried inside the seat. Once they have access they can diagnose better (connection vs. controller)
#2 - may be working as designed, sensor much more right side-side biased. Still can't get it to work more than 5 out of 10 times. Will review later.

I decided to mention that the air-shock inflator at times shows on, either lowering or raising when in my garage and car just idling (even for 5 long minutes, dash indicator remains). That caused some concern as they've had one where the airbag leaks overnight (small leak) and then the pumps correct for it upon start-up. I didn't think it was a big deal, the dealer did and asked to keep it overnight and provided a loaner. Bummer.

Gotta love teething pains. We appreciate you taking the time to update the thread!

For what it’s worth, I’ve read plenty about how unreliable the kick sensor is on the liftgate. It’s actually like 1 of 3 accessories I didn’t put on my A-Spec. I had it on my 2020 CX-9, while it worked well, I think I used it functionally all of 5 times in 2 years. Every other time it was just me and my daughter playing with it because she thought it was neat.

 

[nsxtasy]

Oh, I forgot to mention, I have a nice panel malignment on the right rear of the car. The right upper rear quarter panel doesn't sit as flush as the left rear quarter panel but there's no give. There's a similar malignment on the roof line compared to the left.

Definitely not going to mention it to the dealer--no way do I want them "trying" to fix it.

If that were my car, I would ABSOLUTELY take it to the dealer for them to fix it. It's a warranty issue, and it won't cost you anything to get it fixed there. They should know how to fix it. Most of the movable body panels have alignment adjustments that can be made, whose procedures are precisely described in the service manual, so they should be able to make it line up perfectly, without damaging anything in the process. If you can't trust your own dealer to fix it properly, take it to a dealer you trust.

 

[Moopai]

Even if you wanted to fix it, they will tell you this is normal! Nothing should be aligned with the new Acura MDX's... I have a door that has a jerking/vibrating feeling when you open it (literally). Dealer attempted to fix it but they couldn't get rid of that stupid vibration and I was told that's the best they can do. As to your tailgate, ours is not aligned properly either and that is not the only part that is not aligned. I complained to Acura Canada and they did not do anything about it.

This is the new way of doing business at Acura, once our lease is over, we are never getting another Acura, not worth the $$$.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I have a nice panel malignment on the right rear of the car. The right upper rear quarter panel doesn't sit as flush as the left rear quarter panel but there's no give. There's a similar malignment on the roof line compared to the left.

Definitely not going to mention it to the dealer--no way do I want them "trying" to fix it.

View attachment 120646

 

[mdxstang]

I've recommended this on this forum several times now, but based simply on posts on this forum (and really, many other makes/models as well), one should absolutely check the panel alignment 'before' accepting the vehicle, even if one ordered the vehicle like many did with the 'S'. Unfortunately one can't assume the panels will be perfectly aligned regardless of the price they paid for the vehicle. They 'should' be able to make that assumption but it's evident from the beginning of the 3rd gen to the beginning of the 4th gen (at least) that some vehicles will have panel alignment issues.

If I was to head out to buy a new MDX I'd check it thoroughly for panel alignment (as well as a number of other things) and if there's a misalignment to the degree where it'd bother me I'd decide to either reject the vehicle outright or have them fix it and then inspect it again before accepting it (in case they mess something up during the fix).

 

[brian_tii]

I just don’t understand the alignment issues. I swear I don’t recall seeing this stuff on base model Nissans, much less a 50k+ premium car. It just doesn’t really make sense to me.

 

[Chazzy J]

I just don’t understand the alignment issues. I swear I don’t recall seeing this stuff on base model Nissans, much less a 50k+ premium car. It just doesn’t really make sense to me.

^^ This. This just isn’t a thing these days with robots and lasers and all that good Jazz. CAD and stuff like that has this down to an exact science.

I don’t know what Acura’s methodology is for hanging panels. But it ain’t working well - that’s for sure

I love my MDX, but man, seeing the challenges some of these members have really just makes me shake my head - come on Acura…you have some beautiful products. These are silly things that ruin one’s reputation

 

[mdxstang]

his just isn’t a thing these days with robots and lasers and all that good Jazz. CAD and stuff like that has this down to an exact science.

I don’t know what Acura’s methodology is for hanging panels. But it ain’t working well - that’s for sure

One would think that's the case about the robots and lasers but the evidence is that it's not reality.

As an exercise do this - google 'panel misaligned <insert manufacturer name>' and see what you get. You can do this for BMW, Lexus, and probably any manufacturer and see people complaining about misaligned body panels. It's definitely not just an Acura problem (but I still fault Acura and any other manufacturer for letting misaligned panels onto dealer lots).

I do think it's more likely to happen on a first year or two of a new body design such as the 2022 MDX.

 

[brian_tii]

One would think that's the case about the robots and lasers but the evidence is that it's not reality.

As an exercise do this - google 'panel misaligned <insert manufacturer name>' and see what you get. You can do this for BMW, Lexus, and probably any manufacturer and see people complaining about misaligned body panels. It's definitely not just an Acura problem (but I still fault Acura and any other manufacturer for letting misaligned panels onto dealer lots).

I do think it's more likely to happen on a first year or two of a new body design such as the 2022 MDX.

I just did some quick searching since your post surprised me…. Not finding egregious examples from the other manufacturers unless it was collision damage or a used car where the history wasn’t known. Not saying they aren’t out there, but sure seems like the Acura hood & hatch alignments seem to struggle more than most and not just the MDX, but the TLX too.

I can tell you our Pilot has perfect alignment so clearly Honda knows HOW to get it right…I just don’t understand why they aren’t especially when they’ve been making the MDX for close to a year and a half now.

 

[Hodog16]

At delivery I did a walk around to look for scratches but didn’t notice panel alignment. Heck it took me about three weeks of ownership to notice.

I wouldn’t have rejected it because of this. Maybe if they had another identical one on the lot at the time but not after waiting 2 months.

My 2018 Odyssey had horrible panel alignments (among other nagging issues) which I fixed by trading in for a 2021 where all the issues were fixed.

 

[Chazzy J]

I mean, at the end of the day there are vehicles that make it out of the factory that check all the QA boxes. It’s just disappointing to see Acura take the brand in a desirable direction but forgets about the little stuff (which honestly, after a deep dive on this subject, it looks like this has been a problem for quite a few years). I would honestly be singing Acura’s praises if it wasn’t for the little stuff like this, but their QA is just too inconsistent.

There are some of us who were big on car culture back in the 90s and 00s. Like, it was a real thing and I met some fantastic people who shared similar likes. Acura is attempting to recapture some of that with the beauty of the new MDX and TLX (and now the Integra). Like if there’s a brand that “speaks to me” right now, it’s Acura with what they’re attempting to do - I love it. And while the overall majority of buyers will not be part of what was once car culture, there is still a subset like myself that want see those glory days return (they won’t, I know). But car culture folks expect solid QA on cars they’re buying because they’re the picky ones.

Just my two cents…

 

[Moopai]

One would think that's the case about the robots and lasers but the evidence is that it's not reality.

As an exercise do this - google 'panel misaligned <insert manufacturer name>' and see what you get. You can do this for BMW, Lexus, and probably any manufacturer and see people complaining about misaligned body panels. It's definitely not just an Acura problem (but I still fault Acura and any other manufacturer for letting misaligned panels onto dealer lots).

I do think it's more likely to happen on a first year or two of a new body design such as the 2022 MDX.

No other manufacture has this severe issue accept Acura. For God sack the other day I parked next to a probably $30K KIA, I walked around the car looking for faults, everything was aligned non of this Sh*t that we are experiencing. I'm 52 years old man, I bought and leased vehicles since I was 25 and I can tell you I've never experience this crappy quality that Acura released with the new MDX. For the Acura Canada Rep to tell me there is nothing we can do to align your doors, our concern is you may experience water leaks later on tells me, this company doesn't give a crap about their clients. They think because their engines are reliable, this is enough for the market and people should suck it up and by whatever quality Acura delivers. Like I said earlier, this is the last Acura we will buy. My wife has been driving Acura since late 90s, we had 3 MDXs nothing with this crappy quality... People need to start moving away from Acura to teach this company a lesson not to take their clients for granted...

 

[mdxstang]

I just did some quick searching since your post surprised me…. Not finding egregious examples from the other manufacturers

That's odd - I see tons of hits regardless of the manufacturer I plug in. The term 'egregious' is subjective though and I didn't exhaustively search through all the hits to check on the detailed circumstances. Tesla got a lot of bad press for body gap issues but again, I see hits for any manufacturer.

For the Acura Canada Rep to tell me there is nothing we can do to align your doors, our concern is you may experience water leaks later on tells me, this company doesn't give a crap about their clients. They think because their engines are reliable, this is enough for the market and people should suck it up and by whatever quality Acura delivers.

Well, that's just plain wrong for Acura to tell you that. There likely 'is' something they can do to align the doors. This is something body shops do all the time. It sounds like they were just blowing you off. Did you try taking it to a different dealership?

Almost all manufacturers have reliable engines nowadays for the majority of their vehicles so if that was the main criteria to consider a vehicle a viable candidate to purchase I could purchase from almost any manufacturer - this isn't something unique to Honda. They won't capture and retain the market relying on that line.

While there are multiple posts here about panel alignment issues on the MDX I think the majority are from the first model year of the gen (2014, 2022) and that 'most' owners do 'not' have panel alignment issues. That still doesn't speak well for Acura though in my mind because there sb 'no' panel issues in the first place, even on the first model year. Having a misaligned panel indicates at least three major areas that failed - the engineering design of the panels and how they go together, the actual assembly processes that somehow allowed panels to be misaligned on the build, and a quality control issue where a QC inspector (including both people and automation) didn't catch the panel, or worse, they caught it but management decided to ship it anyway. Of course there are more failures also such as the dealership not catching the misalignment and selling the vehicle anyway through either ignorance of not inspecting or disinterest in the issue and just focusing on making the sale.

So it comes down to - we know that Acuras and some other manufacturers 'do' sell some vehicles with the panel misalignments and it's especially likely to occur on a first model year so we as buyers need to do a good inspection if it's something we care about. I'll do that inspection regardless of whether it's an Acura, BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Hyundai, Dodge, Ford, GM, Tesla, etc. since it's an area I care about.

 

[brian_tii]

That's odd - I see tons of hits regardless of the manufacturer I plug in. The term 'egregious' is subjective though and I didn't exhaustively search through all the hits to check on the detailed circumstances. Tesla got a lot of bad press for body gap issues but again, I see hits for any manufacturer.

Yeah I only looked at a few... but I kid you not, the first hit for "Lexus" was someone with a REALLY obvious defect on a TLX hood along with someone else saying something like "The Lexus factory I work at would be shut down if that ever left our plant".

The BMW and Audi examples seemed to fall into two categories:

• Used cars where the used car dealer said "it's never been wrecked"... but well... let's be honest - it clearly had.
• So incredibly minor that even with it circled it I really struggled to see it as a real problem. Like 0.5 - 1.0mm.

Again not trying to argue or say they don't exist, but the sampling I saw I didn't really see a lot of what I consider manufacture issues.

I have heard Tesla has really struggled with it and I did NOT search for those, but I FULLY believe you'll find worse there and probably a lot more of them. I was just surprised to see Acura with so many. My old 95 Integra GS-R despite being a salvage titled car lined up better than some of these new cars - that to me is disappointing and frankly surprising.

 

[mdxstang]

I was just surprised to see Acura with so many.

Yeah - IMO there's no excuse for any misaligned panels on a new car regardless of the price of the car but especially a mid on up tier brand (Ford, Chevy, Hyundai) and more especially a brand that positions itself as a premium brand.

 

[nsxtasy]

While there are multiple posts here about panel alignment issues on the MDX I think the majority are from the first model year of the gen (2014, 2022) and that 'most' owners do 'not' have panel alignment issues. That still doesn't speak well for Acura though in my mind because there sb 'no' panel issues in the first place, even on the first model year. Having a misaligned panel indicates at least three major areas that failed - the engineering design of the panels and how they go together, the actual assembly processes that somehow allowed panels to be misaligned on the build, and a quality control issue where a QC inspector (including both people and automation) didn't catch the panel, or worse, they caught it but management decided to ship it anyway. Of course there are more failures also such as the dealership not catching the misalignment and selling the vehicle anyway through either ignorance of not inspecting or disinterest in the issue and just focusing on making the sale.

Another possibility, and I'm thinking specifically of the one pictured above, which is really obvious, is that the panel misalignment happened after it left the factory - either when in transit to the dealer, or at the dealership before delivery, or maybe it somehow happened after the car was first delivered (maybe in a parking lot mishap). I have a tough time believing that that car left the factory that way.

FWIW, I picked up mine in December and the panel alignment is perfect.

 

[Chazzy J]

I mean, look at those pics on this TLX Type S - atrocious. The guys door and deck lid.

2021 TLX Type S: Panel gaps/misalignment and wind noise

Recently took delivery of a new 2021 TLX Type S in Tiger Eye. However, later that day in the garage, noticed large panel gaps and misalignment with window trim, particularly on the driver's side. Almost as if QC was missed on that side. The passenger side is much better overall. Brought it in to...

www.tlxforums.com

Like I said, the wife’s ‘22 TLX Advance needs the drivers door brought up a 1/4 inch to latch correctly without excessive force. Her hood is shifted to the left too, but she doesn’t care. Again, my wife is a perfect example. Doesn’t care about her door latching with excessive force, or her hood being misaligned. She’s just thrilled her car is phantom purple and her interior lights up purple. These are the people Acura hopes for so they don’t have to retool for exact alignment lol

 

[mdxstang]

I mean, look at those pics on this TLX Type S - atrocious. The guys door and deck lid.

That TLX is an example of why one needs to inspect the car thoroughly before accepting it. I realize that a lot of people are excited, sometimes even giddy, to get the vehicle, especially if it's one they ordered and have been waiting on for months, but even a 30 second perusal of that TLX would've indicated the panel misalignment, and one is in a much better position to deal with the issue before driving off in the vehicle, i.e. when they can still walk away. I also realize sometimes the vehicle is picked up at night when it's dark out but in that case one needs to pay even more attention to the fit and finish before accepting it.

On that thread I see some posters are also complaining about seeing issues with other manufacturer's vehicles but just because some other manufacturer sells a shoddy build doesn't excuse Acura from doing so.

I wonder what ever happened with that TLX - if the poster ever got it fixed.

 

[brian_tii]

Yeah - IMO there's no excuse for any misaligned panels on a new car regardless of the price of the car but especially a mid on up tier brand (Ford, Chevy, Hyundai) and more especially a brand that positions itself as a premium brand.

Maybe these guys are at Honda too?

 

[Hodog16]

I'm pretty sure my MDX came like that from the factory. I was on top of it from production to transit and it seemed to arrive on time when expected. I guess one never knows, but like I said above, I've had other Honda products with similar alignment issues.

The panel malalignment seems to bother you all more than it does me haha. I'll update this thread if I ever get it fixed, but to me I think it's more trouble than it's worth.

 

[Rockflyer]

I inspected my A spec when I bought it. Noticed a small dent a little less than 1/4 inch on the very front edge of the hood and I could see the bare metal in the dent and the upper rim of the front passager door looks not completely shut while it actually is when closed. The dealer said no new car is perfect. A little touch up paint for the dent and nothing done to the door and then I drove it away. I did not want to wait another 5 months. It is a seller's market sadly. But I think they do not bother me much now.