I am the second owner of a 2004 MDX touring, This is my first Acura.
I have noticed that the steering wheel will move on uneven roads more than what I think is normal.
My question is: Is this normal or should I have it checked out? What are the symptoms if the previous owner used the wrong power steering fluid?
Thanks

 

I doubt its the wrong power steering fluid. Maybe an alignment?

 

I'm not so sure about the alignment, it goes straight down the road, but when you go over bumps, you get a lot of feedback through the steering wheel.

 

I was about to post something similar today. I've had a 2005 MDX for about a month now. It always seemed to me that I was getting too much movement in the steering wheel. A couple of people that drove it commented on it as well. When I initially picked it up, I noticed the truck was pulling to the right a little and the dealership did an alignment and said that indeed the alignment had been off a little and they fixed it. When I drove it, it was definitely better; however, I've noticed that I get a lot of steering wheel motion, especially over uneven pavement. This movement was there before the alignment as well. It doesn't get worse when driving quicker, so I don't think it's a wheel balancing thing. It seems like the steering wheel doesn't want to stay centered, any little imperfection in the road moves it. It's hard to describe, it's not a huge change in the steering wheel position, just a little nudge, but it's very noticeable when you are driving. And it's not just turning the steering wheel in one direction, it'll go one way and then the other way. It's kind of like there is a weight suspended in liquid in the steering wheel and it keeps moving side to side; I don't really know how to describe it. Could it be something to do with power steering or the steering column? Sorry to hijack the thread MDXin... hopefully we are both talking about the same thing.

 

I think we are talking about the same thing. What I've done is replace the front sway bar bushings ($7.00 ad Adv. Auto parts) made by Moog. The factory bushings are urethane which are hard and transfer a lot of feedback. The Moog bushings are a synthetic rubber, Replacing them made a huge improvment. It is a DIY but the Driver side one is a biatch because there are brake lines in the way, you need a swivel on your socket wrench. After doing this I wanted to replace the rear bushings also, for some reason Moog doesn't make these. I found them at Napa, I still haven't figured out how to get to these to replace them aside from dropping the entire rear suspension out. I think I will return them unless I can find someone that has replaced them and can give me some instruction.

 

Was your OEM bushing cracked or anything like that? I know when I installed my CT swaybars in my CL, I hadn't tightened the sway bar bushing in the front enough and I got a knocking noise when going over bumps, but once it was tightened the noise went away. I didn't feel it in the steering wheel at all though. Interesting idea. Has the weird feeling in the steering gone away? I don't think replacing the rear sways bushings will do a whole lot in terms of the steering feel.

 

I just noticed that if I don't have the tilt on the steering all the way up, there is a lot less of this feeling in the steering wheel. When my wife drives it, the steering wheel is lower and I drove it like that over the weekend and I noticed there was a lot less steering wheel movement than when I have it in my usual steering wheel position which is all the way up.

 

I put on a new set of rims/snow tires and the steering wheel doesn't shudder anymore...well I haven't noticed it for the first 1K I've put on it (only put them on this week)