I drive a 2010 TL SH-AWD AT that's currently in the shop. Acura gave me a 2010 MDX with 20k miles on it. I was thinking of getting this for my wife but noticed two things.

First, there is a very loud very noisy vibration when turning the steering wheel at slow speed or when stopped. Second, the engine during constant light to moderate acceleration seems to go through surges of power that one second and then drop off as the engine RPM rises. This is not the switch from one cam profile to another. These little one second surges can happen 3 or 4 times between 2000 and 6500 rpm.

Is this common in the MDX or just specific to my loaner which has probably been beaten on for it's entire life? I can tell if the surges are engine or transmission caused....they almost seem like they're caused by a spastic torque converter locking and unlocking but I believe the 6-AT doesn't have a traditional TC. None of this happens in my TL. Any thoughts?

 

hmmm...i dont' have any of these issues in my 09 and i bought my used with 25k mi. try test driving a new one. the loaner has probably been abused.

 

Ironically, I think we may have a similar situation with our steering. When you turn the wheel stopped or just taking off you can feel something not as smooth as one would expect. We have a 2004 TL and its perfect, but our 2008 MDX feels like something is going on. It goes in tomorrow for review...

 

Now that I've been driving the loaner for a few days....it's really annoying and 100% reproducible. It happens all the time but if I put the car in "sport mode" and go into 4th gear around 35 mph and try and accelerate the tachometer needle "bounces" constantly with the little surges as the RPMs rise.

I'll have to test drive a new one....still with 20K on it how much of a beating could this car have taken?

The steering issue happens maybe 20% of the time but isn't constant.