Hey guys new member here, just bought my first Acura, a new to me 2018 RDX Tech. It's an off lease vehicle with only 22,000 miles! It's in great shape, start easily, runs smooth and gets 34 MPG on the dashboard gauge cruising at 70 with the AC off. Very nice and luxurious. But, it's slower to accelerate than 3 others I've test driven that all had higher mileage, 0-60 is 7.7 seconds using the Drag Racer app. For comparison, the same app shows my wife's 2013 Altima V6 having a 6.5 second 0-60, right where it should be so the app is at least ballpark correct. It's a little slow on throttle tip in but not too bad, low RPM and midrange seem OK but when it revs out there's no top end rush of power. This with a dozen tanks of 93 octane thru it now. I put a new Fram Extra guard filter in and have also disconnected the battery for a few minuets to reset the ECU, no change. I tried 3 back to back 0-60 runs, no change. Exhaust comes out both outlets evenly when my wife revs it a bit. Looking under the oil filler cap with a flashlight it's vey clean, no sludge or brown stains. Idles super smooth. I've had it about 2.5 months so no idea how it runs in cooler or cold weather.

When holding the brakes down hard it revs to about 2300- 2400 RPM and stays there, slight chirp of the tires when releasing the brakes (AWD).

I'm kind of suspecting the VVT isn't working, can I simply disconnect the wires and test drive it or will that throw a CEL? I see the one connector on the front cylinder bank, where is the other one?

There isn't a valet mode turned on perhaps, I couldn't find mention of one when searching?

Thanks!

 

if you can rev it past 5000RPM, vtec should be working!
as that is the crossover point.

yes, if you disconnect the wires, it will throw a code.

 

Does it FEEL slow in normal driving? Off the line? Merging on the highway? Is there a particular RPM range where it's not performing well? Did you try with transmission in Sport mode?

 

a lot of people just dont understand the characteristics of this engine.

it's absolutely gutless below 4500RPM.
the engine makes peak power at 6000 RPM.

so, of course if normal driving is centered around 2400RPM, absolutely no torque is being made.

this is a "higher" revving engine.
I put higher in quotation marks because when people think of a high revving motor, they tend to think of 9k Redline.

the J32 and it's derivates, including the J35 and J37 absolutely need to be wrung out to 6K RPM to make any sort of power.
of course, there are gearing tricks to make the car more responsive at lower RPMs, but that doesnt change the engine's characteristics of max torque and max HP at 6000RPM

 

In the words, it's an old lady car unless you really put your foot in it. I might suggest disconnecting the battery for a while and see if you can reset
the learning the transmission has done for the previous owner.

 

When you say slow acceleration, does it feel sluggish to about 3500 rpm, and then all of a sudden you start to feel the power and performance you expected? If so this is what I experience too. My theory is that the engine is programed to suck as little fuel as possible, so when you need power, it takes the fuel pump about 1-2 seconds to respond to the demand. It has nothing to do with the VCM, as I have a tuner for that.

 

Coming from a Volvo that had VERY intrusive TC, the RDX felt "jumpy" on tip-in, but at highway speeds it's very clear that the J35 is a very peaky engine! Whenever I make a move, it's going to be back to turbos for me!

 

You all might look into a VCM disabling device. that does make a difference.