Gear Head

Our 2020 RDX Tech continues to impress with irritating tricks: 1) The dreaded "5 beep" for keys left in vehicle occurs without keys-in-vehicle repeatedly, 2) "STEER" flashes on highway every few seconds on straight-sways with hands-on-wheel, staying in lane, and only minor steering input needed, 3) Safety sensors are irritatingly oversensitive and incorrect making backing out of a garage or parking spot with everything around stationary a cacophony of distracting/incorrect alerts while the blind spot monitoring often requires a vehicle as big as a barn to light up 4) the power tailgate often becomes unresponsive to key fob, inside button, and manual opening requiring a start/stop of car to reset, 5) summer MPG is still only at best 19.7 in gentle mixed driving, and 5) it's SLOW to shift out of park, and often KLUNKS into gear

Anyone else having similar issues? 6 mos/5K miles and haven't ever had a new car so comprehensively unlikable. I honestly can't find a single positive thing to say about this car that a car of much less cost and complication can't do equally as well or better.

JB in AZ

Regarding 1)
If you walk away from the vehicle very quickly, the "walk away auto lock" will let you know it didn't lock with the 5 beeps. This happens to me when I close the rear hatch, and walk away before it is fully closed. It will beep once then you can walk away. It may also happen when a passenger closes the door and walk away briskly.

Wander

(1) Check your settings. Or lock the car with the handles. Call me old-school, but I still find that reassuring.
(2) You might need to have dealer adjust calibration of the road departure, lane-keeping-assist, etc camera. But I don't have that stuff enabled. Ever. OTOH the emergency braking has saved my bacon a few times. Mostly when I'm messing with the ridiculously distracting infotainment system...
(3) I turned off the parking sensors in less than a day. I felt much better.
(4) Make sure nothing is blocking the tailgate from closing completely, like a misplaced cargo tray. But probably another thing for dealer service.
(5) Mileage may improve with time. Mine did. Dunno why. Right foot is still hyperactive.
(5') The "clunk" may happen if the car is on a slope, as the parking pawl disengages. It's probably not clunking into gear, it's clunking out of park. But I could be wrong.

Gear Head

Except I've not walked away at all. Door shut, five beeps. Open door, shut door, 5 beeps. Walk away auto lock is also disabled.

Gear Head

Thanks Wander. Appreciate the suggestions.

With regard to the safety features, we have these features on two other makes of vehicle and neither misbehave in this manner. I appreciate the old-school approach but it's counterintuitive to turn them off because they're poorly executed. They're all useful features - but on the RDX feel more video game like than real. The dealer isn't adjusting any safety equipment without manufacturer direction - for obvious reason.

In terms of the liftgate, nothing blocking and it works after vehicle is powered on/powered off - as if a "reboot" resolved the tone deafness to the commands. Same for transmission, it's very slow like moving through sludge between any gear combination, then gear engagement is a thunk/bang.

MPG = Ridiculous.

Wondering if Honda/Acura have outdone the Italians in problems/poor reliability. We have a 2019 Fiat/Chrysler Jeep has more features and with a V6 is getting 25%-35% better MPG - and has not had a single solitary issue since delivery. We leased the Jeep fearing FCA reliability and bought the Acura because of the historic Acura/Honda quality reputation and resale that has apparently evaporated.

Wish we did the opposite deals.

Madd Dog

Engine off, door shut, 5 beeps means, to me, it thinks there is a key in the car.

Gear Head

Yup. Even with the key in the house: Hours later, walk out to garage open door/close door and it's screaming beep beep beep beep beep. Then it'll reset on one of the next starts/stops and come back randomly.

kboo74656

Read the manual and check the settings for door locks and the rear hatch settings.

Gear Head

Done that - that's why I'm asking here if anyone else is experiencing this. The settings are correct.

DJA123

I'd get these things checked. Something is not right. Other than the lousy mileage, none of the other issues sound normal.

Gear Head

The last time i was back to a dealer this much with a new car was 30 years ago during Audi's worst days. Hard to believe an Acura met that low standard.

kboo74656

Have you tried a factory reset of the infotainment system the redo the settings?

Mark-RDX

In regards to: 1) The dreaded "5 beep" for keys left in vehicle occurs without keys-in-vehicle repeatedly
Yes, this happens to me a lot and it was driving me nuts to figure out why it was beeping 5 times. Now I understand by everyone's comments what the issue is. It does it the most for me when I walk away and the tail gate is not all the way down. It is a good alarm to let you know you are walking away and the car is unlocked. It's a pain in the neck but I have learned to expect the beeping and just click the lock button on the FOB. I also had the habit of keeping the FOB in my pocket and exiting the car. Now that I have it in my hand and get out, I no longer have the beeping occurring. I think maybe I was blocking the frequency with my body? IDK? If you keep having the issues I would go back to the dealer. They have been really helpful with me on a variety of questions.

kboo74656

Also if you have your FOB and phone close together the phone will block the FOB signal. Done it many times after forgetting.

Mark-RDX

Great point. I do that all the time. Thanks for the tip.

Gear Head

Thanks for the thorough responses

With regard to the "five beep", yesterday the keys were in the house about 30 feet from the vehicle and I went into the garage and into the unlocked car.. No phone. No key/fob. Auto lock disabled. Upon closing door, five beeps. Opened and closed door again, five beeps. Repeated 4x. I gave up and walked away. After next run of vehicle, it resolved. This has happened several times over the past few months just like the tailgate intermittently not releasing nor power opening for remote, manual, or drivers door switch when all doors are locked or unlocked until the vehicle is powered up/down again.

The technology is very poorly sorted out on the RDX. It's maddening.

DJA123

Yep, happens with my other cars too. I think they mention it in the manual.

Dereileak

there is something wrong with yours. Mine works flawless, never does that, I always keep it in my pocket. The only time it will beep like that is if you walk away while the hatch goes down the auto lock will warn you. But otherwise it shouldn’t be doing this. I also love the parking sensors, they are one of my favorite things about the car, I depend on them pulling into our tight garage. I think you need to get it sorted out. I wonder if the battery is almost dead in your key fob, it’s worth a shot, would explain why it complains it’s out of range right when you get out and why the hatch is unresponsive. Or your somehow blocking the signal. I alway leave them in my pocket and they always work fine. Even if it’s a new key fob you may of just got a bad battery or one that sat a long time. Gas mileage will get better with time, I drive with a pretty heavy foot, and I get regularly 21-22. Also are you parking on an incline? Getting a clunk after putting it in drive or reverse while sitting on an incline is pretty normal. Now if it’s on flat Surface, probably shouldn’t hear anything. I noticed going from park to reverse is slower then most cars I have owned, going from park to drive is pretty normal for speed. Going from reverse to drive also can be kinda slow. I’m used to it, doesn’t bother me, overall I like the 10at

dweilbacher

I'm wondering if this has something to do with the fact that he has Auto Lock disabled. I assume most RDX owners have it enabled. Maybe there is a bug when this feature is disabled.

JB in AZ

Yes, like others have said, in regards to the beeps, you probably have something wrong, that doesn't seem to be a common issue among other owners here. Please do yourself a favor, and give your dealer a chance to resolve all the issues.

I also have a bit of slow going into reverse, but no klunks into gear. Do you have your foot on the brake when changing gears?

I am really happy with my 19 RDX Advance FWD after 18+ months and almost 20,000 miles.

Wander

My auto-lock is disabled, and no problems. It only beeps if I walk away with the fob while the engine is running ( for instance when someone is waiting in the car ).

Calibration of the forward-facing "safety systems" camera is a procedure that is performed by either a dealer or independent glass shop any time a windshield is replaced. I imagine this is true on any car that has these systems now, because the glass shops are all over it. Whether this is necessary for OP's car, dunno.

It is worth noting that these systems are extremely sensitive to the condition of the lane markings and fog lines on the roadway.

As for gas mileage, "ridiculous" or not, mine has improved from 20ish to 22.5ish in all-around driving biased toward highway. So I'm moderately disappointed rather than extremely disappointed. YMMV

dweilbacher

I'm always surprised by Gas Mileage reports. I was expecting to get 18 city and 23 highway. But I have been getting much better. I know I drive more highway than most, but typically see 24MPG in mixed driving. And in highway (just got back from a long trip, Ohio to Gulf Shores, AL) and averaged 28MPG. The RDX seems to do well at 70-73MPH. But once it gets closer to 80MPH, the MPG drops significantly. So I keep the speed closer to 70. I drove to Dayton earlier this year and keep the speed closer to 65 and got 30MPG. I keep the car on Sport mode.

CanTex

On touch-the-door-handle-to-open feature, on occasion I have to reach in my pocket and pull my phone up by about an inch so it's clear of the fob. It's very sensitive to the relationship of the key to the phone in my pocket. My key never leaves my pocket. No 5-beeps as you describe.

On the flashing steer light, I've found the system prefers to follow the separations between concrete slabs than the white lines, like in construction zones where you have to move over a bit to follow the lines. It's annoying but better to have a minor annoyance than not have the feature.

If I'm having a bad day I'll press the P button on the lower left panel to turn off the alarms when I'm exiting/entering the garage. What annoying song it can produce!

Other than several other designed-in annoyances and that evil nav/entertainment system input pad, we've had no warranty issues. 21.7 mpg indicated, probably 20.8 by calculator, miles/gallons, mixed driving, and 28 on a long run.

It's a fine car but we do miss the simplicity of our '17 Advance.

sonyfever

Just visit your dealership to have the car checked. You can do as much venting here as you want, but at the end of the day your car's electronics are in a strange state more than anything else. If you are unhappy with the car and don't bother to get it fixed, sell it or lemon it asap.

Ifyou really want to try DIY before dealership visit, try the old trick of disconnect the battery, let it sit for a 10 minutes, then reconnect the battery. Also check the three-finer diagnosis menu to see if there are any errors on the CAN bus....

Wander

I agree fuel economy drops off precipitously above 70 mph or so. This has relatively little impact upon my behavior on long trips. I'm bad.

Wander

I keep my phone and fob in opposite front pockets out of habit. I guess I'm just lucky that way. ( And I don't care if it looks dorky ).

For a while my wife had two smartphones in her purse ( work and not ) and she had all kinds of trouble with her 3rd-gen MDX door locks. As did one of her female co-workers with an identical vehicle. More anecdotal data points.

JB in AZ

Yep! And here the speed limit on freeways is 75 mph, which means the traffic flows at 80+

Madd Dog

It is my God-given right as a natural born American to do 10 over on any highway in the nation. No self respecting cop writes anyone up for that or less. Presuming, of course, that you are not weaving all over the road, and that you are driving a latish model car with all the lights working.

Gear Head

A dealer visit requires some preparation for the faux surprise until they see the problems and then shift gears to "yes we've seen that but there's no TSB so we can't really do anything". Then the referral to Acura Customer Care.

DJA123

I see you've never been to Summersville, WV...

JB in AZ

And yet, some years ago, (1996) I was driving a one year old Grand Caravan, with my 3 kids and wife on board headed East out of AZ to tour Carlsbad Caverns, and I along with two other cars, were pulled over by ONE cop for (get this!) going 2 MPH over the posted 75 speed. It was a small county near the AZ NM border, and I guess they needed some money. It would have taken a full day to go to court there and with the possibility of loosing, I just payed the fine, which is what I assume they expected. AND it was an UN marked cop car (until the lights fired up) too boot! Thinking back at it later that day, I remembered seeing another car on the right hand shoulder, this must have been the radar car, calling ahead to the "chase" car.
With that said, I generally try to keep it max 5 over. That was my last ticket.
EDIT: Well, I DID get a speed camera ticket a few years later, but it was really supposed to be the car that was flying by me on the left, and when I went to court all ready to fight it, the "speed camera company" rep pulled me over and told me it wasn't me, and the judge dismissed the case.

BTW, Carlsbad Caverns is a MUST SEE!

Gear Head

OK, so a small vehicle with lots of obvious weight saving measures a little engine AND a 10 speed transmission that can't manage to hold reasonable MPG over 70 MPG? This is not OK.

Indefensible.

Acure4RDX

It is also a God-given right for a government of the people to give you a ticket, "natural born" or not.

DJA123

I certainly understand that you're pissed about the car. I would be too. As has been suggested, give the dealer a chance to fix it. If there's no satisfactory resolution, get rid of it. Investigate lemon law process for your state. Ultimately, taking a loss, if it comes to that, might be better than being miserable.

Wander

Yes, it is!

But do not set out onto US 62 between Carlsbad and El Paso without a full tank of fuel. Trust me. There are worse things than a speeding ticket.

The Chihuahuan desert is savagely beautiful from the comfort of an air conditioned car. Otherwise, it's just savage.

Gear Head

​​​
You may be right. What a shame. I've trusted the Honda brand since the first new car I bought 36 years ago. This vehicle is a disgrace to the brand.

fiatlux

You owned an Audi at age 14? With that kind of pedigree, what are you doing in an Acura?

Gear Head

Profile age is a mistype, didn't see a need to fix that until now...

Why Acura? Notwithstanding Audi's not being as interesting as they were with 5 cylinders and manuals, there's a nearby Acura dealer, several prior Honda/Acuras that were good, and due to family illness didn't have time to shop around and had a lease ending. I bought instead of lease on reputation but had immediate problems and came to learn that Honda reliability ratings are now lower than Mini. We had a 2013 Countryman - and it was constantly problematic - but not as bad as this RDX has already been.

Wander

The upside: IMO the car drives very nicely aside from transmission logic stumbles now and then. The chassis is solid and handling is excellent. Good interior volume and practicality.

The downside: If you can't accept that some things may not function ideally, the thing will drive you nuts. I manage it by turning off stuff I don't really care about; somehow I have gotten by without most of it for about 40 years. YMMV

But yeah, I used to buy Honda/Acura vehicles so I would never have to set foot in the dealership after the sale. Now I'm on a first name basis with the Acura service advisors.

And I bought my first car, a brand new cherry red 1984 Honda Prelude, just about 36 years ago, plus or minus a few weeks. Thus beginning a run of over a dozen Honda/Acura vehicles over the years. We currently have three Acuras in our garage. So I feel your pain.

But my mom's Audi 5000 didn't exactly sell me on that brand, although the thing handled gravel roads like a Sherman tank. And current Toyotas are just so damn boring. Oh well. At the end of the day, a car is just a transportation appliance. This one always gets me where I want to go.

Madd Dog

And plan to keep it that way.

I do take extra care in Virginia, though, and always make sure not to lead the pack.