Take a look at the attached pic. Is this normal or is it leaking? The pic is from the driver's side front but it looks like that on the other side as well. The car is on a jack by the way.

 

Wow, that's weird I just rotated my tires today and I noticed the same thing on my car too, and it is on both sides then I touched it and I noticed that it was very sticky the same kind of sticky that's sprayed for the under coating so I would say that its normal, but just to be safe you could bring into the dealer. If any one else could chime in and post some pictures of their front struts so we can tell if this is normal that would be great, THANKS!

 

Kinda surprised more people haven't chimed in given that so many have rims and lowered cars.

 

Bump

 

Looks like undercoat applied by the dealer. Go ahead and touch it. If it is undercoat, it should be dry now. It just looks wet because the strut sleeve covers it all the time.

 

as a2b said, it feels tacky but not dry.

 

YES! the pictured shocks are LEAKING.

get them replaced.

To clarify; shocks have no mileage limit.
They can blow straight from the dealer; or last 100k miles.

Seeing that there are 2 people with leaky shocks; it might be a trend.

 

I would appreciate if others would take pictures of their front struts, I am curious about it, I have never seen both leak exactly the same at the same time before.

 

^it shouldn't be leaking.
if you're under warranty, I wouldnt wait for people to post up pictures of their front shocks. BTW, it is shocks, not struts.

 

That is because they are NOT leaking. What you are seeing is undercoat.

 

Sorry for asking to take pictures, didn't think it would be that hard for people to do on here, Plus the part that looks wet is more tacky then the rest of the shock, just wondering if all of them look like this.

 

Sorry I am used to having a Neon where on the front of that car they were struts.

 

Mine won't look that because I didn't have my car undercoated. And not all cars that that are undercoated are going to look like that. IMO, that is a sloppy job of undercoat. As you say, it feels "tacky". A leaking strut/shock feels oily.

 

Dealer will take a look at my car this week and we'll get to the bottom of this.

 

im leaning towards undercoat now.

 

Thank You, keep us updated. I would go to the dealer but round trip is about 158 miles

 

I'm lowered on s techs and def notice a clunk when I turn or drive off. It comes more from the rear. Kinda sucks

 

I didn't ask, pay, or was told the car was undercoated. I have owned under coated cars in the past and it was everywhere on the under carriage and much thicker. This is the only spot with it.

Anyway should be a easy win for the dealer if it's nothing. I'll ask to see other cars to confirm.

 

Any news from the dealer?

 

NOT normal...getting fixed tomorrow.

 

and BOOO to all the naysayers!!!
got me changing my mind and shit, lol....
I knew they were not normal!!

 

So did you get a chance to look at any other TSX on the lot?

Also, it would still be nice if someone could take some pictures of their shocks and post them on here so we can see how many of these are bad.

 

my mechanic just showed me the same thing this morning. sad

 

how are you guys getting this replaced by the dealer? my dealer is claiming there is nothing wrong with mine. The whole strut area is covered in oil and the struts are rattling over every single bump. They say with 23k miles it's "impossible" to have blown shocks.

I'm currently getting Acura involved but from the tone of the conversation they seem to be saying "well, if the dealer says there's no issues we can't warranty it".

 

^keep pushing them!!!!!
politely, of course.

 

Yea I've been polite to Acura the whole time. I told them the dealership has great customer service but the issue with the car is not getting addressed. The dealership probably had one of those express service guys check the car out on the lift. No offense but most of those guys don't know what they're talking about or checking for.

Here are the pictures I am trying to send to Acura:

 

Call me blind, but all I see are some dirty ass shocks. lol

No oil

 

i don't see it either. maybe it's a bad picture, but mine were way more wet than what i'm seeing on your car

 

Check these videos out:

Video #1-In this video you can hear a clunking sound coming from the
suspension area on the left front. The noise is only on that side and
does not seem to be coming from the right front. This does not seem
normal but you can confirm. Noise from suspension at 0:34-on.


----------------------
Video #2-This is a residential street with a speed limit of 30 miles
per hour. Notice the tire pressure is at 35 psi, which is after I have
been driving for about 20 minutes. The cold pressure was set at 33 psi.
Notice at 0:22-0:23 you hear the suspension clearly. You can see the
road is smooth. More clunking from 1:00-forward. At 1:07 you can
clearly hear how loud the suspension is and you can see how bumpy the
ride is where the suspension is not working correctly.


-------------------
Video #3-Same residential road speed limit 30 mph.Shot under the same
conditions as video 2 on the same night. Noise begins at 0:06 and goes
on all the way until the end of the video- clearly illustrating how
violent the ride and handling is on this vehicle. Please pay special
attention to the ride at 1:49 to the end. How is this normal? This
vehicle sounds and feels like it's ready to fall apart! This is
definitely not normal, even cheap Kia's don't sound like this!

 

Any mods to the suspension?

 

No, it's completely stock with the exception of different rims. They are the same as stock size though (18x8) and running the OEM tires which is 235/45/18.

 

While there is no legitimate reason for a dealer to deny a warranty repair because of non-OE wheels, some dealers have argued that a different weight and/or size wheel adversely affected the suspension system causing a failure.

You might want to research the weight, offset and verify wheel size of your current wheel as compared to the OE wheel so that you can counter any possible argument.

 

2012 TSX. Everything is OEM Stock. 18k miles.

I was at Sears getting a blown tire replaced and the mechanic said that my front struts are leaking. I did not believe him since he works for Sears and wants to sell me services - but the neither front dust boot is attached anymore and there is sticky goo all over both fronts. I guess i should go to the dealer. I wonder how many people are not even checking to see if there is a problem.

 

I suppose i had better check mine after reading this...