This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Vehicle engine started making noise. Called Acura customer service. They advised have taken to Acura dealership for examination. Did so ($450 tow bill) there is a motor recall on 2016 Acura MDX. The Acura garage advised ( in writing ) that they felt this was the same engine problem ( rod bearing ) as in the 2016 Acura MDX under recall.. Acura corporate advised mine was not listed as recalled.
The contact owns a 2016 Acura MDX. The contact stated that on several occasions while driving at various speeds, the vehicle downshifted inadvertently. The vehicle was towed to a dealer where the failure was not able to be replicated. The contact stated that on one occasion while attempting to place the gear in any gear other than reverse (R) the gear selector indicator displayed the gear selected but the vehicle did not operate as intended. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 70,000.
I have had numerous instances of the car not engaging the transmission when driving. This can happen at highway speed; the car will not accelerate and acts like it is in neutral. You must take your foot off the gas pedal for the transmission to re-engage before accelerating. This has been an ongoing problem for a few years, and Acura says there is nothing wrong. This is very dangerous. I know multiple MDX owners who have experienced the same issue. I think there may be a class action lawsuit about it.
While waiting to turn left from a busy street onto a highway, the engine seized. The car was unable to be moved from it's location in the center of the busy street with cars approaching quickly from behind and weaving around my stopped vehicle. I had the vehicle towed to Metro Acura in Montclair, CA and they confirmed that the connecting rod bearing had failed causing the engine to seize. They also confirmed that the vehicle is not part of the existing recall. The engine produced some rough noise prior to failing but otherwise did not provide any warning lamps or other messages.
- Chino Hills, CA, USA
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Our engine is exhibiting symptoms currently related to an open recall by Acura for Connecting Rod Bearings. Our 2016 MDX is one of the affected model years but as of now our VIN is not included in the recall. I don't believe this is coincidence. I believe the mechanical issue is more widespread than Acura wants to reveal and is subsequently limiting the VIV numbers it includes. I am trying to be proactive in this regard prior to an incident taking place.
There are two parts to this complaint. The issue regarding the transmission is potentially a safety issue and could result in an accident, while the peeling paint problem is already addressed in the Acura Service Bulletin 19-029 for VINs other than mine. Both are well documented problems that have been experienced by other 2016 Acura MDX owners. The transmission issue is an intermittent problem while accelerating and decelerating. There is a abrupt hesitation, or surging. While coating down a steep hil, the transmission will stay in gear at very high revs instead of shifting. These are an annoyance, but the acceleration problem could cause someone to hit the car from behind in heavy traffic situations. Some individuals note on the internet that their engines would accually stall when accelerating. I have brought my vehicle into the Acura Dealership on a number of occasions without the problem being resolved. The paint issue involves the white diamond pearl paint coming off the roof and is already addressed in Acura Service Bulleting 19-029. It is unthinkable that only some VINs are covered while others are not, if the same exact problem seems to exist on non-listed VINs. Honda Motor Company indicated that they would not add additional VINS unless directed to by NHTSA. Please have Honda extend the warranty on ALL 2016 Acura MDX models with the same problem.
The contact's wife owns a 2016 Acura MDX. The contact stated while driving 60 MPH and depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle failed to respond and lost motive power. A message indicating a transmission failure was displayed. The contact was able to veer to the side of the roadway. The contact was able to restart the vehicle; however, the vehicle failed to shift into gear. The vehicle was towed to a AAA Center. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that the vehicle was covered under an extended transmission warranty. The vehicle was then towed to the dealer, where it was diagnosed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The dealer informed the contact that the vehicle was not eligible to be repaired under the transmission extended warranty. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 117,000.
I have a 2016 MDX v6 88k miles and I purchased the car as a Certified Pre Owned (CPO). I recently had two lights come on 1) Blind Spot Info System Problem and 2) Transmission System Problem. The car has been driving fine and has been well maintained. Since the lights came on, I've put about 8000 miles on it over the last 6 months and no change to the way it drives (transmission seems to work fine). It seems odd that both lights come on at the same time? Recently my family took a 150 mile trip and both went off during the trip but then did both come back on later that day. Looked on line and it seems many are having this exact issue. One of the websites I visited was - https://www.mdxers.org/threads/2016-mdx-transmission-system-problem-valve-issue-blind-spot-info-system-problem-light.178519/. I can provide more links to websites if needed. The dealership wants us and others to pay for a new transmission and installation charges. It seems odd that most if not all are having these issues just after the warranty expires. Reminds me of that issue with Volkswagen a few years ago when they would pass emission test when they went to get tester because the computer was programmed to recognize the driving habits of being tested but the other 995 of the time it failed. Also seems odd that cars made in 2016 have a shorter life span than cars built in 1980's. My vehicle is currently in for service at the local dealership (Acura of Seattle) and they want me to pay $8000+ for a new transmission.
The contact owns a 2016 Acura MDX. The contact stated that while attempting to accelerate from a stop, the vehicle hesitated and then accelerated. There were no warning lights illuminated. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was contacted but provided no additional assistance. The approximate failure mileage was 75,000.
Transmission shifted to neutral limiting controllable forward movement. This occurred without any warning while in traffic. This created a VERY HIGH SAFETY RISK. This issue occurred three times creating a need to have it towed into a repair dealer, diagnostics, and resetting of the electrical circuit. The diagnosis code was P0973.
On a multi-day road trip, the car had a temporary complete loss of power on two separate days. Both times this happened after several hours of driving at highway speeds on I-15 in California, outside temperatures were in the 90s. After a slight deceleration and then applying the accelerator again, there was a 'clunk' like sound possibly from the transmission, and then a complete loss of power. The first time I tried to pull over to the breakdown lane, and then regained power after about 2-3 seconds. The second time, we were in the middle of traffic and were not able to pull over, but again after 2-3 seconds, the power came back. The engine did not rev up when applying the accelerator and there were no dashboard lights. This appeared to be either a transmission, fuel delivery, or engine management/drive by wire issue. While we luckily did not get into an accident, we did slow down significantly on the highway, requiring other drivers around us to break, or change lanes. I have made an appointment with my independent mechanic, but the car has not been inspected yet and I am not able to forcibly reproduce the issue.
Transmission issues with my 2016 Acura MDX slipping into neutral and staying there while driving at high speeds on interstates. This could've caused injury to myself, my passengers, and other drivers on the road due to the high speeds. Without being to able to accelerate when needed, it could've resulted in harm. Transmission Service Problem and Blind Spot Malfunction lights appeared. I took the vehicle to Acura for service 3 weeks before the last incident and Acura said there was no problem and to bring it back if it happened again. 3 weeks later, it happened again. I had reported slippages in the transmission for several service checks with no issues found by Acura. After the most recent incident, Acura recommended to either keep driving and bring it back or replace the transmission. Diagnostics were run and error codes cleared. The CSR at Acura mentioned he saw this on at least 5 Acura 2016 MDXs this year already. The warning lights did not appear until the last issue. Several other incidents occurred with no warnings. All transmission maintenance activities have been performed.
I have had the vehicle since beginning of March and I noticed the transmission slipping. I had the transmission flushed which made the problem not as bad but it was still there. A couple weeks later the transmission started slipping hard again and I had the transmission replaced by the dealer. I take it home and its shifting all over the place and not accelerating. Acura did a reprogram and I picked it up and the minute I left the dealer, it started to do a hard shift/slip between 4th and 5th gear that is not going away after a new transmission was put in. I'm not getting any warnings or lights, just the hard shifting that has caused me to return to the dealer on 3 separate occasions and now will be a 4th time. This can be dangerous because I do not know what the car will do at any given moment while I am driving.
My SUV would accelerate when going down hill and the message: -??transmission system problem-??along with -??blind spot warning malfunction-?? would come on. Took to dealer the message went out. Will come on intermittently. This has gone on For past month. They sai it had to stay on for them to diagnose. Now car will not go in reverse at all. This transmission was replaced November 2019 because of a defect. They told me there is no recall but the other was a service bulletin that required my engine to be replaced as well. If there is a class action I want to be added as this is a big inconvenience and the company is denying there is an issue with the transmission computer system so they can get us to pay high repair fees. Please help!
The contact's wife owns a 2016 Acura MDX. The contact stated that while his wife was reversing out of the driveway with his grandchildren in the rear seats, she stopped the vehicle to check for incoming traffic but the vehicle switched gears to drive on its own and accelerated forward. The contact's wife depressed the brake pedal but it failed to respond and the vehicle crashed into his unoccupied vehicle that was parked ahead in the driveway. The driver's airbags deployed. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact's wife parked the vehicle. There were no injuries sustained. A police report was not filed. The contact stated that his wife switched gears to reverse and attempted to reverse the vehicle. The vehicle only reversed for 2 feet and switched gears back to park. The contact stated that the vehicle continuously switched gears to park whenever they attempted to reverse. The dealer and the manufacturer were not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 37,592.
I believe my transmission or the electrical component(s) to my transmission failed. I was driving down the road and all of a sudden my car shifted into neutral and would not allow me to accelerate so we had make our way to the shoulder to put the car in park. Having my vehicle thrown into neutral while driving and not being able to accelerate put not only us, but other drivers at serious risk! There were several warning messages popping up on our screen (see attached photos). In researching this issue, I found that there had been several TSBs and a class action lawsuit claiming the same issue faced by many drivers. It is currently at the Acura dealership getting serviced and they will be replacing the entire transmission and TCM harness under the CPO warranty. I cannot believe there has not been a recall on this potentially life-threatening issue.
Every since I've owned my 2016 Acura MDX I've had infrequent, and intermittent transmission issues. Several have been safety concerns: - Transmission is slow to engage when first pushing accelerator, leading to unexpected lag pulling into traffic - Transmission did not shift into park as expected, causing car to keep moving as I was opening door and starting to step out - Transmission slips and does not respond when accelerating to merge into fast lane on highway to pass slower traffic. Car speed stalls and you have to let off the gas and wait for a few seconds before the transmission reengages. - Overall horrible/hard shifting all the time... to which we're told... the car learns your driving style. We've reset it multiple times to try to get it to start learning again. No luck. - After coasting on highway, very hard shift with loud noise when you go to hit the accelerator All of these situations have happened numerous times over the past 2 years of owning this car. All of them infrequent, but also unexpected... leaving you to really worry if this is the time the transmission is going to let you down and cause you to wreck. Dealer now says a new transmission is needed, but I waited until 78,000 miles to first report it, so it's out of warranty now. Hoping Acura will step up and address this serious safety issue with the 9 speed transmission.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Robbins , NC, USA