Turning at a 4-way stop today and car looses all power and this big warning come up I the dash. AWD WARNING AWD has stopped working and you may now only have front wheel drive. Wtf!!! Of course I am out of country in the US. So phone the dealer and guess what they say !!?? We have never seen this. Grrrrrr
oil has dilution
infotainment system glitchy
now this. What a joke !!!

seems to still drive fine in front wheel drive.

 

do you have an OBD2 sensor to read any codes? Probably as simple as a sensor getting a bad reading or somethibg

 

Are you in the path of the impending snow storm, perhaps?

I thought I did it by putting fuel stabilizer in my snow blower to "summerize it". ( And swapping out winter tires, of course ). But maybe it's your fault!

BS aside, I agree with getting codes pulled to see what's going on. You might even stumble upon an Acura dealer in the US. I doubt a generic OBD2 reader will be sufficient.

In a pinch, Honda dealer service has HDS scanners, but they can't do warranty work on an Acura unless you're more than 50 miles from the nearest Acura dealer, if memory serves. This is detailed in the warranty guide.

 

wait I can have my warranty work done at a Honda dealer?!?! I am about 70 miles to my nearest dealer

 

That depends upon the severity of the warranty repair.

Technically, you can be reimbursed for emergency service performed at ANY qualified repair facility, if the car was rendered inoperable ( or unsafe to drive ) by a part under warranty and you were more than 50 miles away from the nearest Acura dealer.

But the reimbursement might not cover the full cost of the repair.

In case of a breakdown, you also have the option of having the car towed to the nearest Acura dealer, wherever that may be.

But you have to call the nearest dealer and have them arrange the tow, or call the Acura road side assistance phone number that's probably on a sticker on your driver's side front door window.

The emergency repair options are intended for emergency service only, and it would be prudent to clear it with Acura Client Relations. For OP, he should probably contact Canada Acura Client Relations.

Dig out the hard-copy RDX Warranty Information booklet that was provided with the vehicle in a nice faux leather case, along with the printed Owner's Guide, and browse pages 36-37. Page 38 of the US manual covers travel outside of the US.

 

I had this exact problem happen to my MDX 2012 last year after I was involved in an accident. Car drove fine but AWD was off with the warning light. After I got the body shop fix the door and front fender, I stopped at the honda dealer and they were unable to diagnostic the issue and told me to go to Acura dealer. Since I was on my way to trade the car for a new F150, I just dropped it off at the Ford dealer and they did not seem to care. Seems like SH-AWD issues can only be fixed by Acura dealers... Good luck.

 

Good anecdote, but that was a long time ago. There are current Honda AWD systems that are very similar to Acura SH-AWD systems. In fact, AFAIK they are mechanically identical but differ in software.

Having said that, there may be separate subscriptions for the diagnostic software that the HDS ( Honda Diagnostic System ) uses, for Acura vehicles vs Honda vehicles. Dunno.

Diagnostic Tools and Software

 

Swansong - did you ever get an answer on what was wrong? My RDX with 992 miles just started doing this.

 

The Acura dealership where I bought my RDX doesn’t even have a service department...they use the service department at the Honda Dealership they own next door. They have one trained Acura tech. Sad but true and I don’t know how Acura allows this.

 

Eh, my Chevy only has one tech per dealership trained on it specifically. My buddy who works at Mercedes also has a couple techs at his dealership that are the only ones trained to work on specific models. Not really a unique thing. Considering the RDX has the same engine as the Accord and Civic Type R, it's not too surprising that they share some techs.

 

DarkNinja75, It is a unique thing for a stand alone dealership not to have its own service department...

 

Unless it's a Tesla dealer. ( This should not be construed as an endorsement of this business model ).

But to be fair, I bought my first Honda car at a motorcycle dealer. And then I promptly moved across the country, so it didn't matter.

 

FYI.. getting back on topic here

Brought my car to the dealer for the AWD warning. Turns out I was the fourth one this week - all RDX's with under 5k miles. They said there appears to be a bad batch of rear differentials and have ordered the replacement part.

 

Oh boy. I wonder how many differentials in a "batch"?

 

Probably not many. I’ve read here that the CR surveys are bunk and fake news so this must be a small isolated issue. Definitely not indicative of any underlying issues with quality.

 

GO To this page in the forum and search the various technical service bulletins for subject matter and your VIN

https://acurazine.com/forums/third-g...letins-970256/

 

Because Acuras are essentially Hondas. Many of their parts are interchanged and their powertrains are similar or identical. Why is it so unbelievable? Your Acura isn't anything special ...

 

AFAIK there isn't yet a TSB for this problem ( SH-AWD differential ).

But in general, that is a good strategy for determining whether a given vehicle is known to be potentially affected by a known defect, although there always seem to be a few vehicles that don't follow the rules and have problems even if they aren't within a suspect VIN range. And not all vehicles within a suspect VIN range will have a given problem.

I'm told car manufacturers and suppliers have tracking systems for components that allow them to track defects and narrow down the field.

Anyway, at this point I'm not overly concerned about whether my vehicle is potentially affected; I'm just pondering whether this is gonna be an isolated glitch, or a Big Hairy Deal.

 

I asked my Acura dealer if the Honda dealership that is "across the street" is under the same ownership. The answer was grudgingly "No". I haven't had any service requirements yet. We'll see what happens.

 

I’m about to lease one in Quebec City. Do you think I might end up getting one from the same batch? When did you get it?

 

They dont always issue TSBs, look at suspension noise, they silently updated part numbers for lower arm controls, but never had TSB for it

 

sorry for the late response. It did it a few more times and went into like a front wheel drive mode.Acura ended up putting a complete new rear differential assembly in the car.

 

Swansong, how long did you own the car before it crapped out? At what miles?

 

about 6 months.

 

Thanks.

 

I have a 2022 MDX Type-S. I first got the same AWD error message around 8k miles and i attempted to pass someone and the rear tire hit the lane detector dips in the road. It has also gone off when turning on lose gravel or rain/ice. Over the last couple weeks. It would always reset after shutting off and on the vehicle. I am now at 44k miles and the error has been coming on every time I drive. It is now a hassle to stop and turn off/on the car. Before you say I should have taken in in, I live in Montana and the closet Acura dealership is 400+ miles away in Salt Lake. I am currently sealing with Acura warranty support to see if they can make an exception and have the MDX looked at by the the local Honda dealership. According to both Acura / Honda, only Acura can look at it, However, that would mean driving 400+ miles through snow covered mountain passed and risk the AWD giving out. Hopefully they can resolve this locally so I won't have to expense a trip and risk an accident.

 

I had experienced this problem on my 2021 RDX with only 4-5k on the clock. Sometimes the light would come on while driving, sometimes not, but it was coming on more consistently. The day I had taken it to get looked at, the light was off, however there was a code stored so they could diagnose the problem. The actual repair was quick once they had got the part in after a few days. In your case, i find silly they won't let you take it to a Honda dealership considering the I-VTM4 system is basically the same at its core.

 

I also find it silly. Hopefully it all pans out. Thabks for sharing your experience and glad they addressed the issue.

 

Can you tell me what parts they replaced? I'm out of warranty and replacing a few parts is likely going to be less expensive that putting in a complete new axle. Thanks in advance for the reply.

 

In my case they replaced the left rear linear solenoid. The whole replacement process took less than a half hour and no further issues after that. Based on that I'm guessing its a relatively inexpensive part and does not require a lot of labor to replace. If I recall correctly, there was a bad batch of solenoids for the rear diff that would end up rusting internally and would cause the error. Seeing as it appears to be an issue that wasn't widely reported, its a fairly uncommon failure so its probably a non issue. Based on the 5k mileage on mine at the time of occurrence, I'm going to hazard a guess this specific failure generally happens at low mileage, so you should be ok.

 

The dealer looked at it today and said that the 2 solenoids need to be replaced - about $695 Canadian for the complete job, labour included - I'll let you know if the cost is different when they do the work next Wednesday April 17th. A lot less that the cost of a new rear end - thankfully. On the other hand almost $700 for .5Hr Labour and$ 275 $C for parts is pricey. As they have already ordered the parts I'll let them do it this time. See Acura Service bulletin 20-032 or https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...77397-0001.pdfMC-10177397 ACURA-0001.pdf

 

Another known issue that is not covered outside the warranty. The TSB is relatively easy, you literally remove some bolts and swap solenoids. If you are comfortable with DIY, it seems easy and you can follow steps in TSB