new transmission for my 2023 - a rant mostly
 

I had this problem from day 1 where the car would make a high-pitched whistle at highway speeds. Unfortunately, since I already had a 2019, I did not take the car for a test drive on the highway thinking it would be pointless. Anyway, I thought maybe it's just a seal or something like that and so I mentioned it at my first service at around 6000 miles. They couldn't reproduce the sound. I had a tech ride with me after the car had been serviced and the tech heard it and but didn't know what it was. Since I was under time pressure, I decided to let it go and maybe try and get it addressed at the next service.

But it kept bothering me and was increasing. Additionally, I started to notice hesitation, gears holding, etc. So I thought maybe it's something with the engine. Since I had this week off, I decided to take it in today and asked to ride with a tech before dropping the car off. Car has a little over 9000 miles now. I demonstrated the sound to him and he said it may be something with drivetrain, but not the engine, otherwise the engine would have thrown an error code and check engine light. This afternoon I get a call saying they need to replace the transmission! So basically I have been driving a car with a defective transmission from day 1.

Moral of the story -- always drive a car at highway speeds before signing the dotted line. And if something doesn't feel right, don't brush it under the carpet and hope it will go away. Just walk away and ask for a different car. The pressure to close the deal from the sales folks is immense.

Once it has a new transmission, I hope it fixes the sound issue.

A bummer is they put me in a loaner which is a 2019 RDX base with 65K miles (more than the combined mileage of my 2019 + 2023!) whose interior is doused in some Armor All type high gloss product. Everything is slick -- the steering, seats, dash. I'm missing wireless CarPlay sorely, not to mention the BT on this car is unreliable so I end up using speakerphone and the tires/wheels badly need to be balanced (steering vibration on the highway and bumpy/skippy ride even around town). I have been told the service will take at least a week, so I have requested a different loaner. Hope they can accommodate, or this is gonna be a painful week or longer.

I thought that transmission issues with the RDX had been fixed. Looks like not. :(

My transmission case has a slow leak, but not large enough for Acura to anything.

is that generally considered to be ok?

@anoop, I'm surprised you stuck w/the brand (and the same car) after all the problems you had w/the prior RDX. I'm not sure why so many folks still give Acura a pass but reliability apparently missed the Honda/Japanese train!
You have MY23 RDX and I have a MY23 X3. I have nearly the same amount of miles in my X3 as my TLX had when I traded it in with one year on the lease. In that timeframe, my X3 has been far more reliable, dependable, and enjoyable than the TLX ever was (my little SUV gets better fuel economy than the 4 cylinder TLX as a bonus!).

I know you had prior bad history with older BMWs and I get that. If you don't consider BMW for your next car, you should seriously consider leaving Acura!

Apparently for Acura it is!

Its not OK when you buy a new car. Normally transmission case should be completely dry. But if you asking if it's manageable, the answer is "yes" because is not enough to drip on the cover plate and with fluid changes every 30-45K miles there will not be enough fluid loss to cause an issue. But thats only if it does not get worse over time... I would want to get a new transmission, but they are not going to do it because its not a big enough leak. They first denied there was a leak, now they acknowledge it but its too small for them to do anything.

Sadly its true, they told me that Honda has very specific requirements to warranty leak repairs and this would not qualify. There is no gasket to change, its porous case and would need new transmission. They obviously do not want to spend money.

Would that leak force you to check transmission fluids sooner than the typical maintenance schedule calls for?

what a world where someone now recommends BMW over Acura for reliability.

my original plan was to get an NX hybrid but dealer was asking too much and they were in short supply. During the wait time I spent time in nx forums and saw complaints about infotainment glitches, RFT, other tech issues, battery issues, etc. When I was servicing my RDX I found they were offering a good deal so I jumped thinking they would have fixed all the issues by now. The Europeans were still in the midst of chip shortage with missing features and I didn’t want to complicate the buying decision. Acura shines in that dept — pick a drivetrain/trim and you know what you’re getting no surprises.

I still don’t know what else I would buy if I was given the choice again today. A friend of mine recently bought a new Tacoma after owning his previous one for 20+ years and says the quality and sturdiness is just not there in the new one.

Yes, its not a bad idea. I will re-check mine in 15k miles. I think you will need to louse at least 0.5-1qt before it becomes an issue,

this is sad.

I don't know if you ever perused Bimmerpost but there are far fewer folks in a circle jerk convincing all that there's nothing wrong and less issues being reported reliability-wise (at least for the X3). Did you see this thread that Legend2TL shut down recently?

https://acurazine.com/forums/6g-tlx-...ecall-1005281/

Hopefuly you're familiar w/the saying: Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me twice, shame on me!

I haven’t spent much time with BMW since leaving them in 2018. I have spent time on MB and Lexus forums and know there are folks having problems with their cars. I would be more excited about owning an Evoque or E Pace because of their looks and comfort but I know JLR makes Acura look good in reliability.

I’m familiar with ”Fool me…” but there’s also the “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t” which makes things confusing. :)

Forgot all those prior expressions. These are just as timeless:

"Past performance is no guarantee of future results"

"The king is dead! Long live the king!" ;)

Did dealership tell you if they will be installing new transmission or its remanufactured ? In theory there should be no differences between the two...

It could have happened to anyone. Failures happen to everything. Don’t beat yourself up on not taking it for a pre-sale test drive, I didn’t have time for that during the pandemic and PDI. Great thing is it was identified, under warranty and you got a loaner.

I didn’t even know manufactured is an option for a car under new vehicle warranty. I will call and check. Does Acura sell remanufactured parts?

Called them and they said it’s going be a remanufactured one. :(

Apparently they are still waiting for approval to proceed with the change.

At least I got the loaner swapped for a 2023 Tech which matches what I have. But having trouble pairing my phone.

It was shut down for the simple fact not one of those recalls listed in the thread had anything to do with the the 6G TLX.

FWIW, probably the vast majority of AZ members are well aware of your anti-Acura/Honda agenda, no need to act naïve or disguise it.

AFAIK Acura and Honda both does sell remanufactured parts, typically short or long engine blocks and transmissions.

Legend2TL, how wonderful of you to join us! Did one of your little birdies tell you to come here or do have an alert every time the username "Legend2TL" is mentioned in a thread?
Very impressive how quickly that recall thread was shut down! One would almost think you were the Chief Engineer during that 2015-2020 timeframe!

You can say I'm anti-Honda/Acura all you want but I always present both sides of the argument and choose not to be one-sided like you and Tony.
Like many other AZ members, I want Acura to improve and become a real competitor to the Germans ("there's nothing wrong" never helped anybody).

For the record, where were you and Tony when I was having issues w/my TLX in the first ever 2G (what the hell is a 6G?) TLX Owner's Thread?

Your writing speak volumes about you and your various innuendos and in general fairly negative viewpoint. And we already know typically when someone writes "I want Acura to improve and become a real competitor to the Germans" they are not being sincere.
Mine? Fairly open and honest, presenting the good and bad of Honda's and Acura's. It's also easy to check on anyone's posting history by clicking on their name and "Find More Post By...".

Are you leaning towards keeping the car and roll the dice if the approval comes through?

Sorry to read about your 10AT problems.

FWIW, a neighbor had a 1G MDX with the glass 5AT and the original gearbox failed sometime in the 5 year warranty period. The replacement 5AT was remanufactured unit with the recall "fixes" (countershaft lubrication modifications), it lasted over a 100k miles. Acura regional agreed to cover the cost of the 3rd gearbox (also remanufactured) if the owners covered the labor (~$2k) which they agreed to since the 2nd gearbox warranty was IIRC 7 years and 100k miles, both of which were exceeded when it failed. This all happened in 2018 by then 200k+ miles, now long after she traded it in for a XC90 (she's in real estate so newer car image).

Not a perfect company but IMO Acura/Honda try to keep their customer base happy. My daughter's 2016 Civic A/C failed due to a condenser manufacturing defect which Honda admitted to. This happened outside of warranty, which Honda covered all the entire repair. Honda has been doing these good will out of warranty repairs since the 70's, first I heard of was the 1G Accord fender replacement (bad fender liners which caused corrosion) and engine head gasket failures (manufacturer defect). I know plenty of owners of early 2000's Honda/Acura 5AT failures (due to design and manufacturing issues), they were not happy and some walked away from Honda/Acura but many got gearboxes replaced well out of warranty that not many manufactures do.

The car is with the dealer now. I think they are waiting on approval to just change the transmission (to a remanufactured one). If they don’t approve I’m not sure what I will do. If it gets replaced and it runs ok (i.e. noise issue is addressed) then I will hold on to it. If noise is still there, I will be less enthusiastic about keeping it but I probably won’t do anything in a hurry. If I had to buy right now I might have to overlook the flaws of the NX hybrid and go with that.

Any idea if the current condition presents a safety issue?

I know when I hit the gas w/the steering turned all the way right or left, there was always a hesitation that made me think I was going to get hit by oncoming cars (main reason I got rid of the TLX).

The NX was always a tough sell for me: smaller and dealers asking for thousands of ADM for the hybrid!

The service advisor explained it is a safety issue which is why they didn’t just have me pick up the car and then come back when parts were available. If it is not approved by Acura I am interested in what he would say then.

The only things I like about the NX hybrid are the seat comfort (must get luxury trim for that) and mpg. Otherwise I prefer RDX in everything else. Local dealers are willing to order the car without markup but it takes 3-6 months to show up. The negatives of the NX are excessive and unnecessary tech, RFT & no spare, smaller back seat & trunk, and very expensive to buy.

Sorry to hear that!

I guess we both had bad luck. I've often wondered if my car ended up in a fellow AZ'ers household?

Yeah, and it’s only because I was changing oil myself and examining everything under car. I can guarantee that this would never get flagged at the dealer during regular services.

I just want to point out that forums are a place where people with issues go. So you're definitely going to see complaints on the NX forum, I don't think there is a car forum in existence for any make or model where people aren't posting issues. So I wouldn't necessarily base my entire opinion on forum posts.

With that being said, I'm super sorry you're dealing with the RDX issues. This should not be happening on a 2023 model.

Well, what do we have here? I’m speechless. :D

Even the NX Hybrid is rated lower than the RDX.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazi...1b35e3a184.png

Don’t fall for all the information on the interwebs is accurate or correct.

wasn’t everyone here lambasting CR when they ranked Honda/Acura lower than people here expected?

99 rating for XT5 looks pretty sus. Does any car deserve a 99?!!!

I give CR literally zero weight when considering a vehicle. I have seen them absolutely shit on a very good vehicle for the most ridiculous mundane shit, and then praise another vehicle for the same reason.

With that being said, I would certainly hope a 5 year old essentially unchanged model would be more reliable than a completely brand new model....

99 does seem interesting, also little surprised a Lexus would be so low. As for CR, not perfect but better than anything else out there for overall vehicle reliability especially long term reliability. They publish their procedures and owner collection process as well.

The NX Hybrid numbers are better in CR for 2024 but still below RDX.

I heard that NX is very underpowered compared to RDX, so it would be no go for me

Depends on which powertrain we're talking. This would be my assessment based on videos about them.

250 - 203 hp -- definitely underpowered
350 - 275 hp -- similar to RDX
350h - 240 hp -- better than RDX at low speed, worse than RDX at highway speeds
450h+ - 300 hp -- better than RDX at low speed, at least as good as RDX at highway speeds

Neither the steering nor the AWD system of the NX will be as good as the RDX. But with the hybrid, the mpg is almost 2x. However, you pay more for the NX.

did not realize they have NX 350, did they always have 350, or it was 250 only initially. I should check it out.