2022 MDX Type S Advance- Brake issue
 

I went in for the B16 service today with 17K miles. I was waiting for the service and within 15 minutes of waiting the service writer came out and said we are going to need to get you in a loaner. I asked why and he said upon inspecting the brakes the front drivers side had an issue: The inside brake pad was at 4 mm and the outside pad was at 8mm. The passenger side front pads were both at 8mm (inside & outside pad). Thus something is amis with the drivers side front Caliper.

They contacted Acura and apparently this issue has happened to a few other Type S with the brembo braking system. Acura approved all new Calipers, Rotors, and Pads for the entire front braking system. This has to be at least 5K if purchased new by a customer etc. Just an FYI for you to watch for this if you have a Type S model.

The service writer said it’ll take 1-2 weeks to get the parts to due the “never ending” supply shortages.

Thanks for the heads-up!

You bet! I’ll add that when I’m driving alone I always have some music on, unless I take or make a call or course, and I don’t recall hearing any noises from the brakes (grinding etc). I’m also very observant of sounds my cars make or its driving behaviors & I did not notice anything unusual from the braking system. So it seems this inside caliper “always rubbing” for whatever amount of time wasn’t noticeable to myself. Thinking back I did smell from time to time that “burning metal smell” but I have a company near me that emits that odor also so I didn’t think much of it.

Just an update on this: The work order states: Drivers side outer pad worn to 4mm, Passenger side inner pad worn to 4mm. The other pads for both are at 8-9mm. Thus BOTH front brakes had this Caliper issue!

The replacement Calipers & brake pads are in but the Rotors are the slow poke part. Rotors have an ETA of 12/22.

Rotors are finally in and the replacement front brake system is being installed tomorrow.

Just another update for the group. Front brake system replacement was finally completed today. I asked the advisor, who used to be a higher level technician, if the new parts had a design change. He said no and Acura requested my front brake system to be sent to them for inspection. I then asked him if he thought I’d be back again and he said it’s possible but they haven’t had many other Type S’s with this issue. He thinks it’s the slide pin that gets “gunked up” and then doesn’t use it full range of motion and thus why I had more wear on one pad versus the other on each side.

He’s guessing this may lead to a TSB for the front Brembo brakes at some point.

Thus when in for service with a Type S ask them to check the pad thickness and the “slide pin” area for gunk.

17K already! How do you like the rest of the car since you have put a good amount of miles on in a short period of time.

19,200 miles now :).

I like it a lot as I came from a 2019 RDX Aspec. I wanted the extra space as well as the Type S trim options and I went with the Advance trim as I also wanted the signature series ELS audio system. I’ve come to really like the air suspension and have noticed it’s improvements more especially after having a few MDX loaners lately with my brake replacement.

One other thing I’ll add about the Type S brake issue I had that led to Acura replacing the front brake system. With the original brakes, the ones that had the issue, when using the brake hold feature I noticed that when I’d go to push the gas the brakes were very noisy (almost like they didn’t release fully). Thus pay attention to “noises” when using the brake hold feature as this could be an indicator to this caliper issue (like they are sticking in the closed position somewhat). Now that I have the vehicle back with the new Calipers, rotors, & pads there are ZERO noises from the brakes when using brake hold.

This is great information and thank you for posting it and the follow ups.

I "think" I really want one of these, lol. I keep flipping back and forth between loaded rdx or this. I don't need a 3 row suv but I like all that this offers. Watched a lot of videos on it. Savage Geese does a good review as he's pretty blunt and honest when it comes to vehicles he tests. He really likes the mdx types s except for the gas mileage, the piano black trim and infotainment nits. For him, that is saying a lot.

I have the car in the shop right now for the same thing. Rotors started warping and I noticed a ton of brake dust.

Took the MDX Type S in yesterday and both sides are having issues. On the passenger side, the outside pad is half the thickness of the inside pad. On the driver's side the outside pad is right at the warning tab and the inside pad isn't much better. It's only a year hold with 11,500 miles on it.

They are working with the tech line folks to see what the next step is but I'm sure it's going to result in a caliper, rotor, and pad replacement. I wonder if they got a bad batch of parts vs. a bad design.

We have a little over 10K miles on ours and thankfully, no brake caliper issues so far. FWIW, our MDX was built in late April 2022.

Question: Did you use the brake hold feature much during your 11,500 miles?

Yeah only more time will tell if the replacement parts are immune to this happening again. Being that it’s the braking system I’d think Acura will take this very serious to determine root cause but who knows!

Nope, never used it. On a side note, now the dealership is telling me they think that only the driver's side caliper is defective - not both. Either way, they need to at least replace the pads on the passenger side to keep the pads on equal wear lives.

Hopefully it was just a bad batch and not a design defect that ends up affecting every owner essentially. Keep us posted on what they get approval to replace in your case. You’d think the entire front brake setup would need to be replaced to ensure the pads on both sides are at the same thickness. So at a minimum new rotors, new pads for both sides & then new Caliper for driver side.

Repairs just got approved. They are replacing the pads and rotors on both sides but the caliper just on the driver's side.

Ask if they have any insight to what caused the driver side Caliper to “malfunction”? They might not have a clue either this early in the “defect”.

Just FYI, they don't really know what caused the issue. And they are still waiting on a new, backordered caliper with no ETA. For now, they put some new pads in and I have the car back. Just sort of a weird issue...

Here’s to hoping the replacement parts are fixed for both of us & any others!

I just had my 2022 Type-S Adv. diagnosed with this issue today as well. Driving down the canyon from Park City to Salt Lake City when I hit the brakes the steering wheel would shake like when my rotors were warped in my last MDX. Called my dealer and they had some time to get me in and found my inner pads are far more worn than my outer pads as well. Service Advisor will call his District Manager Monday to figure out next steps. At least around town I don't notice anything. About 20.5k miles on it right now.

The one “positive if there is one” is the car is still drivable and the braking feels pretty normal while this abnormal wear is happening. There must be a defective batch of rotors at a minimum.

So can I conclude that brake shudder is the symptom for this issue?

Could be. Get to the dealer and have them measure the pad thickness for all front pads then you’ll know for sure.

One symptom, yes. But also excessive brake dust, although that can be relative.

I don't think the rotor is the problem but the caliper itself. The question is it a design failure or parts that were machined out of spec. Perhaps some pistons were machined slightly too large so they are sticking and not releasing properly.

I *suppose* it could also be an issue with the brake-by-wire system where a computer relays a signal to the hydraulic system, but if that was the culprit you should see all pads wearing down too quickly. In my case, it was just the outer pad on the driver's side.

Shoot typo on my part yes I did mean the “Calipers” are the culprit NOT the rotors. Thanks for catching that.

Update: Just got a call from my Service Advisor. He said he talked to his DM and was told that the brakes come with a strict 12 month/12k mile warranty. Having bought four MDXs from this dealer since 2017 helped my case and they will do the job for a “$50 deductible”. Service Advisor said it would usually cost around $1200 for the brake job (no idea if that is true). I asked about how a brake job was going to solve the problem. He said current speculation was a bad run of materials and that they believe this should take care of it. I guess we will see after another 20k miles…but here is to hoping…at least it is all documented if there are future issues.

To be blunt, I don't think their interpretation of the Acura warranty is correct. Yes, brake pads and rotors are parts that wear down over time, but not the calipers. The calipers should be covered under the 4-year/50-mile warranty. And it's the calipers that are suspect.

In my case, my vehicle is more than one year old, but the mileage was under 12k, and my replacement (driver's side caliper, both sets of pads, and both rotors) is being covered under warranty.

I had just over 17K miles when mine was discovered. Acura covered new Calipers, Pads, & rotors for the entire front!

Exactly.

It’ll be interesting to see what is all done when I get the final paperwork. I was under the impression that calipers are not being replaced…but I could be completely wrong. I wonder if after replacing a few calipers and inspecting the old parts they aren’t finding anything, so they are trying this to see if it is actually a caliper issue? Pure conjecture on my part. Your guess is as good as mine. :)

I ran into this thread when I was searching the interwebs for aftermarket cross-drilled rotors, as I suspected the pedal pulsation I’ve been experiencing was due to the OEMs not holding up to excess heat produced by the occasional mountain driving we do. I’m really glad I found this, because it caused me dig into this potential caliper issue… and it turns out we’ve got it too. It took me a little while to get into the dealership to have them take a look since they’re just a little over an hour from our house. As of this morning’s diagnosis, the driver side pads are measuring 0.5mm / 8.0mm, and the passenger side pads are 8.0mm and 8.0mm… we just crossed over 30K miles, and we were the 2nd Type S delivered from our dealership back on 4/1/22.
Here's the frustration… after describing to the dealership our suspicion when making the appointment, and having it be confirmed this morning, they’re telling us that since there is no bulletin on this issue, the only thing they can do for us is charge us for a brake job… and that it’s actually a pad issue and not a caliper issue. They said normally they would charge us a $42 diagnostic for today, but they’d be willing to absorb that this time. After I pushed a bit letting them know that that other owners have documented this issue and that I don’t want to be replacing pads every 30K when the other side is still measuring 8.0mm, he said he would have to escalate it to the service manager. When I pushed a little more stating that other dealerships have not only been covering this under warranty, but actually bringing this to their customers’ attention without the owner even knowing it was an issue… I was then told that they know about the caliper issue, but he doesn’t know how they will handle it.

So, I created an AcuraZine account this afternoon, one, to add to this discussion and document yet another instance of a Type S caliper malfunction… and, two, get some feedback as to the best way to proceed with Acura on getting this covered under warranty. I’m hopeful that after getting the service manager involved, I’ll have a similar experience in dealing with this as others have had, but I also want to be prepared for next steps, should they decline to cover the issue.

Just to give an update on this... I called the service department last Wednesday to try and find out whether this would be covered under warranty, but I had to speak with their call center since none of the service advisors were available. I told her that we were starting to have some safety concerns since the one pad was only measuring 0.5mm, and she said she would mark my message as urgent and make sure the service advisor would call me back that same day. That was nearly a week ago, so I called again today and this time asked the call center to please have the Service Manager call me back. Fortunately, I received a callback within the hour, and he promised to research the issue and get back to me today. He followed through on this later in the day, letting me know that he did, in fact, find a service bulletin on the issue, and it turns out Acura determined that this is a rotor issue, NOT a caliper issue. He said he believes Acura was assuming the calipers were causing uneven wear when this issue was first being discovered and was replacing the calipers during that time. Since they later discovered the issue is actually only with the rotor, they are only replacing the rotors and pads. This makes me a little nervous, so I think I'll ask them to put in our notes to allow us to have another brake inspection 1yr out to make sure we're now getting even wear. We've got an appointment this coming Friday to have the work completed.