razorath

I won't go into all the details with the story, but basically what happened is that the driver of the RDX (I was the passenger) feel asleep while going down the highway (about 70 mph with cruise on) and drifted off the road and into the grass median.

I was playing on my i-touch to pass the time and didn't notice the drift until I heard the loud noise from driving on the grass.

The noise immediately woke the driver up, in which we jumped back on the road (eek) and did about 2-3 fairly hard steering wheel turns (i.e. corrections) before control was re-established.

We drove the car off the road to the shoulder and stopped. Somehow we managed to not flip the vehicle nor did we get impacted by other cars on the road.

The RDX drove just fine for the remainder of the trip, but it just made me wonder if there is any latent damage that I should be worried about. Suspension? Steering wheel component damage from the couple hard turning at high speeds?

Just looking for advice from anyone else that has ever gone through this before...

wrestrepo

I am really confused...you are concerned about damage caused by an evasive maneuver at high speed? there shouldn't be any if that's your question.
As for your little trip to the median, sounds like a ride on grass, nothing I would be concerned about, unless you heard weird things during and after the adventure, or if you know that you hit something. In any case, a trained driver should be able to "detect" any differences in the drive of the car.

razorath

To be honest, this is what I was concerned with: high-speed maneuvering and the fact that the car went into the median going about 75 mph.

I suppose I am just worrying too much about what happened so I was really just looking for reassurance from other posters. Thanks for the comment.

MMike1981

its not even your car, right? i mean, this question is sort of funny, regardless of what vehicle it is, what would you think would happen to any cars suspension hitting something going 75mph? maybe id be concerned that something came lose, or i smacked teh underbody somewhere, but you wouldnt know because neither of you were paying attention lol 75 + bumps and median then my common sense tells me if ur that concerned with it, throw it on a lift and have someone look underneath. or get under there yourself

roversix

Yes, Sir; I can only imagine the underbody would've been at risk if there was road debris (so have a looksie underneath)... even then, stock RDX suspension sits us pretty high off the ground.

Otherwise, he'd feel it if the alignment was thrown while driving, holes in exhaust systems change the exhaust tone, and I would imagine the RDX is technologically sound enough to throw an error code in your face if something was slightly off.

wspy

Ah yes!!... A prime example of the superior performance of the SH-awd system on the RDX.
I'm sure that there is nothing wrong with the vehicle and from what you described the RDX performed admirably with the steering inputs he/she put into it!
As long as you'all didnt 'hit' something I'd say you're good to go.
Yeah you can have a "looksie underneath" to ease your mind......... and maybe remove any grass left by the excursion ;-)

mrgold35

I've hit pot holes at 60mph in one car and bent the rim with no damage to the rest of the suspension. Then there were times when I bump one tire to the curb while parking and knocked out the alignment.

Some places like Sears with check your alignment and only charge you about $20 buck if the car is within specs. The dealership can check the underside for damage or grease/oil stains. The RDX is a very good road (pavement) vehicle, I don't think it was engineered for off road at 75 mph.

There is more than likely a 99% chance your A-OK.

razorath

It's my car. The road trip was about 14 hours, so we were just taking turns driving to ease driving fatigue. Guess I should have just stayed driving lol.

razorath

Once we pulled off to the side of the road and stopped, I got out to look underneath. Just bits and pieces of grass on the springs, but that was about it. Like I said, we were fortunate to have not hit anything (i.e. signs, poles, etc.) nor did we manage to hit any big bumps/rocks or whatever else could have been in the median. To be honest, it just felt like drivng on a rough gravel road...

razorath

I definitely agree with this. Neither the driver or myself are what you would call a "professional racing driver" by any means. As a result, I was really impressed how the car handled with the 2-3 oversteers that happened while trying to gain control of the vehicle from going back on the road.

razorath

Thanks for the advise. This was my concern all along ist he fact that we drove in the median at such high speed. I could understand a slow crawl through a median perhaps, but 75MPH!

In any case, I am putting the car in for service tomorrow (oil change/tire rotation) and have asked for them to look underneath and inspect for any visible issues. Like I said a few posts above, I've looked myself and didn't see anything obvious (i.e. things hanging down), but then again I am no mechanic. I will say, though, that I park the RDX in the garage at night and there weren't any oil stains/drips underneath. I suppose that has to account for something.

razorath

After hearing back some of the comments, I probably should have made the title of this post something more along the lines of, "my experience thus far w/ SH-AWD." As a result, I'd like to just take a few minutes to document my experience with the RDX in this situation:

Ultimately, I felt that the the RDX had superior control while turning sharply at high speeds (> 70 MPH). As a disclaimer to this post, I wasn't the one driving the vehicle and neither myself nor the driver really have anything to compare this situation against.

Now, with that said, to give everyone a better idea of how "sharp" these turns were at high-speeds, I would like to say that there were definite moments in time while going through this where the g-force from the turns was large enough to where I felt light in my seat. The car never came off the ground (thank goodness) and the driver managed to gain control of the vehicle after about 2-3 of these sharp oversteers.

If you are anything like me, I know that when I test drove this vehicle, I did the usual "accelerate while going around a corner on the highway" and didn't step into the realm of "adrenaline rush" type of testing. I'm not saying that I would have liked to have done sharp turning at high-speeds during my test drive, but this is just something that I don't think most drivers will see or experience while driving their RDX.

Even though I wasn't the one driving while this happened, I am just fortunate that the RDX was able to handle the driver's reactions and oversteering to help keep us safe in a definitely unsafe situation.

elcheapo

good to hear about this story (not the accident/excursion but the handling capabilities). i was fortunate not to have needed too much of this sh-awd when i was decelerating from 80mph in a highway to a 20mph offramp and braked too late. with the speed limit at 20mph you can guess how curvy this was -- unfortunately, there were spilled gravel/rocks on the road too... rdx handled it perfectly though it was a relatively scary experience. i had a similar experience with a corolla a decade ago, and it was definitely scarier then. (dunno if it's bec of the rdx sh-awd or just "experience" navigating through these LOL)

737 Jock

It wasn't the SH-AWD that saved you unless the driver kept flooring the throttle during your adventure. Assuming the driver was off throttle and attempting to slow duing the tail-sliding the SH-AWD was not active at all.

It was the Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) that was applying individual braking to a selected caliper that corrected the oversteer.

SH-AWD only functions under throttle during turning -- it generates oversteer rather than reducing it.

Glad you and the car are OK. Get your friend a John Deere for plowing -- it'll go straighter (and some Red Bull)

wspy

I stand corrected sir you're absolutely correct, assuming the off throttle situation!

I love to enter a round-a-bout (traffic circle to you guys) @40mph while modulating the throttle and seeing the VSA light on the instrument cluster flash as it works trying the controll the drift! My RDX has the Eibach lowering springs BTW! Handles like a champ


Hey Jock
You drive 73's still?
320 myself

MMike1981

traffic circle? u mean 'rotary'? haha

wspy

Oh, I see! LOL