Although driving the RDX with SH-AWD on freshly snow covered roads is a blast (and we sure have had our share of snow this winter) the one thing that concerns me is how brutal the road conditions have become. Frozen and cracked/bubbled pavement where the ground below the pavement froze and expands/contracts making for very bumpy driving jarring the poor RDX suspension like crazy!! Not to mention potholes everywhere. Melted snow that refreezes creating sharp bumps of ice, sheets of ice that just continues to beat the crap out of the RDX. Lastly, all the road salt, sand, and other sh*t on the roads just abusing the RDX under carriage and exterior.

The good news is this coming week it’s suppose to get into the 40’s during the day hopefully melting a lot of this leftover crappy frozen dirty snow. And I’ll be able to wash my RDX. Finally!! I refuse to wash it when temps are below freezing.

 

i hear ya carbon. my solution to this for now is slightly lower tire pressure (32 i/o 35psi) and visits to the coinop washes for undercarriage spray. where i used to live (3rd world country), potholes are the norm so kinda used to this game of frogger in north america LOL.

some touchless car washes have undercarriage blasts too.

 

how come? i guess you handwash (eg. numb hands, hose/pipe frozen)? otherwise, i see no reason why one cant wash it even if below freezing.

 

I had a very bad experience back in winter 1994 with my brand new Acura Integra GS-R in which I took it thru a car wash in sub-freezing temps and it got scratched not to mention the remaining water instantly froze all over the car. Was NOT a good experience. I just feel the ice cold water is harsh and can even act like an abrasive. Ever since then I will not wash my car if below freezing.

 

Game of frogger! Funny. Reminds me of that Seinfeld episode! Anyway, I use a really good brushless car wash that's just down the road and it does the undercarriage spray thing too. It's expensive like $12 without a coupon but does an awesome job. Hot wax and all. I'll drive back home and then do my quick detailing like removing remaining water, tire shine, touch-up here and there where it slightly missed. Good to go!

 

I'm sure it's been hell over in the east. To make matters worse, we were at the beach this afternoon, with a staggering 68 degrees.

Once in a while, i hope for icey cold days, but CA never gets cold enough, unless your're close to the Sierras.

 

The salt spreaders are the worst. Last month during one of the many snowstorms I was driving 2 lanes over and ~ 4 car lengths behind a spreader and as I passed him it sounded like someone threw a giant back of rocks at my car. As a result, I have 4 areas on the silver plastic fog light surrond that has chipped paint, not to mention a few other areas here and there, and wherever else I haven't noticed yet.

BTW, what kind of silver touch up paint would work best around those plastic surrounds?

 

The potholes are brutal this time of year. At least the RDX soaks them up a little better than my old TSX. Last year was the end of the road for me in that car. The suspension actually did take too much of a beating, and ended up breaking a rear control arm, sending the toe and camber out of spec so badly, I could not control the car past 65 mph. Hopefully spring will come soon and the road crews can get out there and start fixing the craters ($ permitting, of course...lol).

 

thanks for the heads up! i just spray washed my vehicle below 32F arnd 2 wks ago and yes, i got shell shocked at how the remaining water froze upon exit from the coin op bay. thankfully i didnt see any scratches. but will NOT do these things anymore to be safe.

 

yeah, it's costly indeed. that's why i alternate touchless and coin op sprays for me. yes, i love the works too but these days i just collect points/coupons as much as possible. winter's indeed abusive...

 

yeah i hear ya on these. not to mention those rocks/salt that your undercarriage gets from your or other tires spinning. the one you see, at least you can touch up, the ones you cant, that's the one i fear the most - though hopefully the acura/honda engineers our underbody for these eastern winters (at least the RDX was built in the Ohio, so maybe they know that it shld be "rust" ready/resistant)

as for your touch up paint around plastic silver surrounds, i would suggest the acura palladium metallic pens (i have mine and used it ok, so far -- the paint that i exactly have is part # 08703-NH743MAA-PN --- at least that's what's stated on the label of the pen i have).

 

We just got our RDX in mid December, and I have only been using the touchless car washes, because they also have the air dryers. I've noticed that dirt and salt build up on the inside of the doors, around the rubber seals, and the touchless wash doesn't get in that far. I'm concerned about rust prematurely starting in these areas. Has anyone had any problems with this?

 

>1yr old RDX owner here. touch wood but too early to tell. however, what you can do (if you have your own garage at home) is to open your doors and let the excess water drop off the ground first. then, if you have ONR plus bucket of water, wash off the dirt/salt build up. otherwise, just rinse with some water soaked chamois, i guess. (i'd still recommened ONR). but overall, i think even without ONR, you're ok... that's just my own experience with other honda/toyota/mitsubishi vehicles and so far, so good... i would hope that acura has better paint/corrosion resistance relative to its honda brother (though unlikely)

 

Roads here in Upstate NY have been really brutal on the RDX and the TSX. Just got back from vacation in FL and the only sand I had to deal with there was when we drove the rental car on the beach.
As for washing, one perk of being a firefighter is being able to use the firehouse to wash my cars in the heated bays. I rinse the inside bottom of the doors and jambs to get the salt and sand off.

 

You'll get rust where theres expose metal. If the paint is on there and sealed well, it shouldn't be an issue inside the doors.

Also the notion of cold water being abrasive and scratching paint is completely bogus. There is no problem washing your car in a touchless wash in cold weather. My only concern is the doors and gas door sometimes freeze shut, and its not good to open frozen windows. But beyond that, its not a big deal. We have a mall here with underground heated parking which makes for a good way to defrost a freshly washed/frozen vehicle.