R. White

My three year's off trouble free ownership has come to an end. The front brake rotors are warped with 80% life left according to the dealer. 32,000 miles. I showed them TSB 19-009 regarding brake judder, but they didn't bite. In reading through this forum, brakes seem to be a weak spot on the 2nd generation RDX. I am wondering if the occasional hard braking by the automatic brakes has contributed to this situation.

acuratech481

With 3 years of driving and 32,000 miles on the vehicle I would say warped rotors is normal wear and tear...

If the brake pads have plenty of life left just have the rotors resurfaced!

Clickit02

Resurface rotors and move on.
This is my 3rd Acura and, before Acuras, multiple Honda cars, so I can say that Honda never had great brakes. On one of my Acura-s I replaced OEM rotors with Brembo plane rotors and never had an issue since, until the car was gone.
Also, make sure you are not going through a car wash right after long drive, especially with enough braking. When you splash hot rotors with water, you almost guaranty they will warp.

Base2014RDX

Acura aspires to be Lexus but they retain Honda mindset when it comes to customer services. Where I live, the Acura showrooms are in worse shape than the Honda ones. That tells you something.

Tech

What do you mean by the "occasional braking by the automatic brakes"?

I always got 5 years and almost 60,000 miles out of my Honda CR-V brakes, but not due to wear but due to rust since the vehicle is parked for 6 weeks out side while I am on vacation. My RDX is suffering from the same issue; slight rust due to being parked a lot.

Rust on the brakes may make it feel like they are warped. The KIA Sorento I was in had over 100,000 miles on it. They were original brakes and I doubt they are any better than my Acura brakes. And this car is hauled down from over 120 MPH on the autobahn a lot...the brakes are gleaming a bright chrome and not warped.

Clickit02

Rust on rotors is normal when car seats for a while and it is humid. Rotor surface is not treated at all to avoid decreasing friction between rotor and brake pads and bare and untreated metal rust rather quickly. All cars have rust on rotors, with the exception of some very high-end European cars with ceramic rotors. The rust is only on surface and is about few microns deep, so it cannot cause a vibration.
Vibration come from either warping or, which is rare and not typical, from brake pads uneven material baked to a rotor surface. Later is from very hard braking on track.

Tech

Well it can due to the different friction surfaces. Where the pads sat on the disc and along with weeks of rain, it might have rusted more than the rest of the disc surface. So when I apply my brakes now, they pulsate. I need to hit the highway with nobody around me and apply my brakes hard. They did not pulsate before I went on vacation.