Thanks for review on Type-S.

Now, can anyone comment on the regular A-Spec AWD vs RWD? I felt RWD handled better....

 

I have never driven RWD since I set my eyes on Type-S. But considering AWD is 5900lbs with 50:50 balance, RWD at 5400lbs must have rear bias. That should translate to lighter turn in, hence better handling.

 

With 850 miles on the odometer, the B&O speakers are breaking in nicely. I've noticed improvements in bass depth (great for EDM/Pop) and harmonic overtones (in classical music). Mids and treble are clear and present, though still lacking some spark or "color."

Adjusting the seat to the furthest back position created a fuller, concert hall-like soundstage. Focusing the sound balance toward the driver also improved the experience. However, a software update is needed to allow for more precise audio adjustments beyond the "mood wheel."

Overall, the B&O system outperforms most high-end car speakers but still lags slightly behind Bowers & Wilkins for natural fidelity.

 

Cannot agree with you more on all points.

An extension to your suggestion about moving the front seat rearwards, I would like to add that the audio system sounds surprisingly nice from the rear seats. Better than the front, and easily blows ELS 3D away. Same concert hall vibe like you described, and slightly warmer than the front. Even reminds me a little bit of ELS Signature.

 

I found that all of these probably are related to the position of the front roof speakers. They sit quite far back. At the lowest surround sound setting, they only whisper high-pitched sound, and contribute little to the soundscape, at least for me.

I never bother tweaking the surround setting until this weekend. I find that adding more surround increases the volume of the roof speakers, and also widens the frequency range of the speakers. Too much surround sound, the audio sounds hollow. Too little, no effect. 15-25% seems like a decent balance for me.

 

Sport+ Explained

ZDX Type-S has a sophisticated damping control system, plus the flexibility in ride height and spring rate adjustment from the air springs. In its sportiest mode, ZDX is in the same ballpark as MDX Type-S. It just does not have the sharp front end, and the excellent steering feedback of MDX Type-S

However, there is a problem with the suspension system, at least on my car. Mine does not consistently switch to the sportiest setting (I called it "sport+" in my earlier posts) in sport mode. I think the key variable is the air spring setting. Somehow, the ride height adjustment has its own mind, and does not always obey the drive mode.

Here are what I learned after some investigations:

• Sport+ = Stiffest air springs + sport damping.
• The suspension setting in individual mode only alters the damping.
• The ride height seems to correlate with spring stiffness.
• Normal<-> sport almost always triggers ride height adjustment, with the green icon flashing in the instrument panel.
• Most of the time, the car does not adjust ride height when switching between sport and individual.
• This explains why the trick I mentioned before helps. When the system forgets to lower the ride height in sport mode, pressing the ride height adjustment button nudges the system to take action.
• Even if the car shows itself lowered in sport mode with the flashing green icon, I still feel sometimes pressing the ride height button helps sharpening the handling. Cannot explain why.
• In total, there are four combinations of height/stiffness and damping, set depending on how you engage the drive mode. For example:
  Normal->Individual in sport suspension = Normal height + sport damping.
  Normal->Individual in sport suspension->Sport = Tends to be normal height + sport damping.
  Normal->Sport = Lowered height + sport damping, supposedly but not always on my car.
  Sport->Individual in normal suspension = Lowered height + normal damping.
• Personally, I like "lowered height + normal damping" more than "normal height + sport damping". The stiffness in the former setting is leaned towards the initial compression phase, which slightly improves the steering feedback.

In the end, my conclusion is the sport+ is probably more like a bug in the ride height control software. It is the sport mode that is not engaged properly.

 

Two Tips on EV App and Interior Care

With the latest 2.4.0 Acura EV app on Android 15, the stability in communicating to the car seems to improve a little, but only when the app is always in the foreground.
I found I had to change the battery usage to "unrestricted" through "App->Acura EV-> App battery usage->Allow background usage->Unrestricted", for the app to consistently establish connection in the background.
It could be an Android 15 thing, as I feel the app could establish connection more frequently when my phone was on Android 14.

ZDX interior may look cheap in photos, but the benefit of a simple interior is that it is super easy to clean.
One tip about interior maintenance - I highly recommend applying ceramic wax to the grey-painted dashboard panel. It gives the panel a deeper shine, hence a slightly richer look.

 

This is unrelated to ZDX, but I find it informative. SLDP CEO talked about where the industry is in the solid-state battery development cycle, and more. Basically, we are at least one car generation away from seeing solid-state battery in reasonably-priced EVs.

Rumor is that Hyundai is working with SLDP on its pilot line. I have a feeling SLDP will officially announce the partnership in the upcoming earning call.

https://wsw.com/webcast/needham143/r...3/sldp/2257662

 

MY26 Lyriq/ZDX

Since getting ZDX, I have probably spent more time than I should exploring the GM universe. It is a darker and more obscure place, quite different from the Honda globe.

By reading the faint lights from the stars, here are some interesting, mostly nerdy, things I learned:

• Lyriq program name is L233. ZDX/Prologue are S233/R233 respectively.
• The Prologue/ZDX infotainment HW is "GM Aegean" while the Chevy 17" one is "GM Burmese." Aegean is mid-tier with slower CPU and smaller memory, Burmese and the IVE Lyriq unit are higher-spec'd.
• Some said there would be no MY25 ZDX, and suggested ZDX was done. To me, skipping MY25 makes total sense, and simply means Acura will go straight to MY26 in late summer to align with MY26 Lyriq.
• MY26 Lyriq is a mid-cycle refresh, with noticeable changes inside and out. The infotainment will be on Android 14. There are no significant changes to the infotainment HW, so theoretically MY24/25 can be upgraded to Android 14. But….
• GM OTA is the blocker. GM OTA mechanism showed new signs of life in 2024, but one insider said the OTA might still too problematic for a major software release, like Android 14, in 2025. The OTA issues appear to be convoluted with HW-related issues. For example, GM confirmed that one issue could brick the infotainment unit. Another inherent issue with updating control modules is that some modules are sensitive to voltage during the process.
• Therefore, no way to tell if the big Android 14 update will ever be OTA'ed to MY24/25 Ultium EVs.
• Seems to me two new features in Android 14 are "themes" and "connected camera" (GM's partial sentry mode). MY26 Lyriq will have themes, but so far no sight of the connected camera. Currently, GM only promise that Vistiq and Escalade will gain connected camera through software update.
• Themes on ZDX, if it ever gets the feature, would be more subdued than Lyriq.
• Video apps seem to be coming to GM Ultiums. Don't know if Honda is onboard to open the floodgate for ZDX/Prologue.
• I still cannot find solid info about where the MY25 GM Ultiums hp/range bump came from. Some said it was from inverter/motor improvements, but in an out-of-spec video, Kyle said it was purely from software. Anyway, I feel MY24 ZDX is unlikely to receive any SW update to unlock the elusive 1hp. Also don't think MY26 ZDX will gain launch mode, therefore it will not have 615hp like Lyriq-V and Blazer SS.
• While editing this post, I saw the TSB that EELife just posted about using Techline Connect to update control modules. This is a good indication that a SW package is incoming for MY24.

 

Lifetime Efficiency & Fragile Panels

The lifetime efficiency reported by the infotainment stands at 3.7 miles/kW. Clearly, that cannot be right. The incorrect reporting turns out to be a known bug across Ultium EVs. For fun, I crunched the numbers while the charging history was still traceable, and came to 2.6 miles/kW over 10k+ miles.

The body panels and paint seem more fragile than pure Acuras. My ZDX has gotten several door dings in less than a year. All of them are accompanied by chipped paint. They are all minor, so I think if the car has PPF, it would come away intact.

From the look of the chipped paint, the clear-coat and color layers seem thinner on ZDX. The body panels are apparently thin and pliable. In particular, the rear fender is uncharacteristically soft. I can easily bend the rear fender with a moderate press. I am afraid that paintless dent removal is going to be part of the maintenance if I keep ZDX for longer term.

Recently, there are quite a few OTA updates pushed to GM Ultiums. GM appear to split SW updates into several deliveries. I think they update body control module (the power master of the electronics) and serial gateway first (F172-AC/D/E updates), then push out several packages to update the rest. Let's hope the momentum spread to ZDX/Prologue soon.

 

I did my first 210 km with no AC on, and average of 103km/h in highway and 50-60km/h in local roads with a 60-70% highway and 40-30% local roads.

To be honest , in 11 degree celcius , it was so close to actual km range on display. Again zero heater and zero ac.

On the body parts, compared to actual acuras it is very poor quality. In terms of performace, it is a beast.

I have 21k on it and so far not un happy, in terms of software updates, i actually stucked in snow storm where zdx refused to charge level 3 . It was horrible trip took 16 hours instated 3.5h. I had to find fast level 2s and wait for hours in -14.

 

I have two chips on my passenger back door, both were caused by door hits that, frankly, should not have been strong enough to damage the paint. It looks like it's just clear coat that was hurt. I'm going to see if they can be fixed, but yeah disappointing. So much I like about the car, and then something reminds me it's a GM.

I was under the impression the software is all Acura. But I don't know if that is true.

 

EV Tire Wear Is Real

I am starting to have tire replacement anxiety. I was well aware of the infamous EV tire wear. I thought I was prepared, until I noticed the amount of wear beyond 10k+ miles. I do occasionally go WOT and sometimes get close to the grip limit in corners, but most of the time just normal driving. I think the main factor has to be the weight, because I feel the wear easily looks 50% more than it would be on RDX, if I drive RDX in a similar style.

I have done one tire rotation, and am overdue for the second one. Somehow, the rear tires are heavily worn on the center rib. The wear on the left tire is especially bad, with the threads almost gone. I follow factory tire pressure, so the wear cannot be from overinflation. One thing I know is that I have done more WOT accelerations recently. Maybe WOT really eats into the tires? At this rate, any fuel saving I earned from going EV would go towards replacing the tires.

Even worse, there are limited options in 275/40R22 size. Most are touring tires, and none of them have self-seal, besides the two OE ones. High-performance all-season ones are basically limited to Pilot Sport AS4 and DWS 06+, but both show 10+% range loss on other EVs. Pirelli supposedly have EV-specific Scropion MS (BMW OE), and non-EV Scorpion Zero AS (one Land Rover OE, and the other in 107W speed rating) in this size. But only the Land Rover OE one is in stock, the others are either out of stock or unavailable in US.

So my advice is to check the tire every 1~2k miles unless you practice Zen driving, to do tire rotation as soon as there is any accelerated tire wear.

 

wow, thank you for the heads up. I did around 22k on mine didn't notice much ware and tear. However I will look in details. In terms of tire selection, which one did you buy ?

 

Hmm, RWD has a 100% bias to rear bias all the time. I don't know which axel the RWD drives but rear wheel drive is usually preferred. But I don't know the weight distribution, especially with the heavy batteries.

 

Right now I am leaning towards Hankook Ion Evo AS. I have good experience with the brand before, but I am not sure about the durability of foam sound absorber. Many complaints on the web about disintegrated foam. DWS if I end up wanting much more grip. Also cannot rule out OE Primacy, as I am still lingering on the thought of having self-seal for road trips.

 

Curious as to why choosing a tire other than the OEM offering. Price? Some other attribute like wear, or grip? Personally I've been happy with the OEM tire so far (5,000 miles in).

 

Correction: Rear Tire Wear Is Fine

Today I took a closer look at the rear tires, and found I made a huge mistake. The center ribs somehow looked shiny, and I mistook the shininess as severe wear when I casually checked from the rear bumper. Upon closer inspection, the grooves are reasonably entrenched in the ribs.

So nothing crazy on the rear tire wear. What a relief, I hope by the time I need to replace the tires, there will be more new generations of tires available.

Maybe I need a new pair of glasses.

- Why do I want to move away from OE Primacy?
Because the OE tires don't take abuse well. The corner grip is fine when the directional change is gradual, but the tires tend to slip when they see quick action. Also, the feedback from the tires is quite vague in normal mode. Otherwise, yes, I also think the OE tires are good.

- Weight bias of ZDX
The 50:50 ratio is on AWD for Lyriq. RWD is slightly rearward-heavy if I remember correctly.

 

So you can you put your ZDX AWD into some RWD mode that doesn't really put it in pure RWD but with a bias of RWD? Or it usually just runs in pure RWD and only puts it an AWD automatically if needed?

 

I made around 22k km on the zdx and tires looks fine, however I am not too sure if those are rated for electrical vehicles. I am thinking to get Michelin ice-X ev 22inch or 21 inch

 

There is probably no pure RWD mode as the front motor is permanent-magnet, meaning the computer needs to drive the front motor to cancel out any magnetic resistance from the permenant magnet. The cancellation probably isn't precise across the rpm range, so I assume in many cases, the front motor would lightly drive the car.

 

Central Gateway OTA - Any Improvement Besides OTA Itself?

Unexpectedly, the my car drives better - it feels crispier and more mechanical after the OTA update. The difference is mainly in the throttle and braking responses.

The throttle lag is slightly reduced, similar to the level before OTA with traction control off. For braking, the most noticeable change on my car is that the car rolls more at 10-20mph. In particular, the throttle-liftoff regen seems to roll in smoother, or lighter. In fact, I picked up my first curb rash because the car approached the curb faster than I anticipated. The side effects of the reduced regen is that I could use the brake pedal to module the regen braking, instead of having to hold the throttle to cancel out regen at 10-20mph. The mechanical braking also seems to blend in faster, making the regen-to-mechanical transition smooth in a wider window. BTW, I don't use one-pedal braking.

As the central gateway is the backbone of cross-domain communications, I feel there might be a hidden improvement in this update that reduces the latency of communications across control modules. More specifically, I suspect the gateway update fully decouples the signal timings on Ethernet and slower networks. Therefore, control modules that talk through Ethernet, such as BECM and drive motor control module, can now communicate more rapidly.

Lastly, the duration of the "downshift" sensation on the onset of acceleration seems shorter, which again can be explained by better communication between the control modules to synchronize the front and rear motor quickly.

Of course, I do not rule out the possibility that all these could end up being simply a result of the OTA resetting control modules, similar to the throttle position relearn on ICE Acuras. Regardless, it is good to see that the car now drives tightly, more similar to Tesla is in power delivery.

 

Now, if they would just get rid off the dang automated breaking when backing up of our driveway. I still don't know how to get out of this without putting the car into D or P and then again R. Super annoying. It's mostly my wife's car so now she parks it backward because when going out of the garage forward this never happens, only when backing out of the garage.

 

Hello, I might missed earlier but what is OTA update?

 

OTA = Over The Air. So there is an update wirelessly, i.e. when your car connects to your network. It showed up on our car's display yesterday.

 

thank you, is it mass distribution or US only ? I am at the 51st state.

 

51st state? Are you located in Canada... I don't know if this is limited to the USA but considering the popularity of the ZDX, or lack thereof, that might just be the case. I hope that's not the case, though.

 

Some Canadian have reported receiving the central gateway update recently in their GM EVs. So Canadian ZDX should see the update before long.

 

thank you for the quick messages.

My last update shows Aug 2024 I am not to sure if that is it.

 

BECM Update: Any Differences?

After the BECM update, my car seems to operate more efficiently under light load. This is most noticeable on flat highways, when following another car. Previously, the car rarely reaches 3.0 miles/kW at 70 mph, but now it can get 3.0 with relative ease. The warmer spring weather might help, but I don't recall seeing 3.0 miles/kW under the same condition throughout last summer. I forget the exact number, but I think it was around 2.8 @ 70mph before.

Under heavier load, e.g. cruising alone, I see similar numbers as before, which means ~2.5 @ 75mph and ~2 @ 80 mph.

BTW, I have sometimes mistakenly used "kW/mile"when talking about energy consumption in earlier posts. Please auto-correct those occurrences in your mind.

Overall, the estimated range sees a small but definite increase. Before, the estimations usually fell between 310-325 miles. Now, I see numers consistently between 320-330.

On Lyriq, the changelog of its BECM update says the update improves charging performance. Unfortunately, I observed zero improvement on my ZDX. If anything, I suspect the update is less diligent in regulating the battery temperature to improve HVAC performance. This is based on observation of a wider swing in DC charging speed when the battery is not pre-conditioned.

Another possible improvement was the loading speed of the Acura EV app. Unfortunately, the recent 2.5.0 Android app update pretty much resets any progress back to ground zero. The app is in its worst ever shape, most of the time fails to communicate with the car.

 

Random Ultium News

There are a lot of SW-related news on Ulitum vehicles lately.

First is the confirmation that video apps and Google Chrome will be available soon. Most likely, Prologue and ZDX will get the entertainment boost as well.

On the OTA side, GM publish information about OTA updates on the NHTSA website. From the pieces there, GM seem to have made good progress on the OTA flow, and can push out different packages under the same OTA label based on a car's features and SW versions. They are also able to update many modules at once now, at least on Equinox EV.

One interesting bit is that on Lyriq, the BCM has yet to see any OTA update since OTA resumed last year, but there have been several BCM updates available to dealerships for manually updating the module. This makes me think that there are still OTA issues on Ultiums vehicles that have the power on/off button, like Lyriq and Hummer. In contrast, Ultium EVs without power button like Blazer and Equinox, have both received BCM OTA updates.

Currently, ZDX lags behind MY24 Lyriq by one combo OTA update, which brings more power and addresses the rear automatic braking issue. A similar OTA for ZDX would be nice. Another potential feature to watch is the newly-added, lane-centering-everywhere feature on Vistiq. Will it be added to existing Lyriq and ZDX in the future?

You guys are probably tired of my software babbling, so the last piece is hardware-related. From the recent Blazer SS reviews, we see that without the WOW boost mode, the powertrain is rated as regular Lyriq AWD at 515hp/450lb-ft. We also get confirmation that there is a tweak to the packaging of magnets in the drive motors. The improvement reduces eddy currents, hence heat, generated by the motor. This in turn gives engineers more headroom to bump up power in WOW mode. As a result, finally we can conclude that the powertrain in MY24 Type-S is forever stuck in the 500-600 hp/torque range.

 

Following up on Ultium news with information from the Lyriq pond.

I mistook the March ZDX BECM update as the recent Lyriq BECM update that improves charging speed. In fact, the ZDX one is an earlier version of Lyriq BECM update. So two OTAs behind MY24 Lyriq instead of one.

Navigation-route-follow capability is on its way to enhance Super Cruise. In fact, pieces of the capability are baked into the current ACC software. For example, at some intersections that Super Cruise cannot handle, the ACC still recognizes the intersection and slows down for curves accordingly.

The everywhere lane centering is part of Super Cruise on some MY26 Ultiums. No more confusing, harder-to-reach LKAS button. Just click the Super Cruise button to call upon steering assist. When the road is mapped, you get hands-free SC. When the road is unmapped, SC becomes hands-on lane centering. GM also streamline the SC light bar, and remove the intermediate blue light. Personally, I like this improvement, because I sometimes find the blue light confusing, especially when it is flashing and there is a need to take over the control. Removing the blue state is also a hint that MY26 Super Cruise can lock on a lane faster than the current system.

The OnStar Super Cruise website says that everywhere lane centering is only available to some MY26 vehicles. People think this means hardware changes, for example, front camera with wider field-of-view or higher resolution, faster processors, etc. Therefore, the new SC features are probably out-of-reach for MY24-25 Ultiums.

 

Please keep up these kind of information, it is very useful. Soon I will draft my thoughts on the ZDX, I started to feel/realize it has lacking some key elements of what acura provides as standard.

 

[Random Tips/Hacks]

• Cup holders: Every owner knows how bad the cup holders can be. My cheap fix is to add stripes of felt pads (~0.12" thick) on the paws. It is a decent compromise, leaving enough room for big bottles while medium bottles stay put. Smaller containers like Red Bull still wobble, but at least not tilting as freely as before.
  On ZDX FB page, someone 3D-prints a nice divider for sale. It has a swivel inner section that adapts to all sizes of bottles. I think Shark Tank should take a look.
• Engine bay rattles: After the BECM OTA update, I often hear a loud rattling noise coming from the engine bay after a long DC charging session. The noise comes the strong vibration of the heat pump compressor, which sends the beauty cover hitting the bracket. The loud noise is gone after I remove the cover.
  To my surprise, I quite like the exposed powertrain bay. The components look better integrated in person than in pictures/videos. I haven't decided what to do next. Should I throw a storage box sitting in the bracket as a frunk? Or put back the cover, but maybe replace the clips with anti-rattle ones?
• Courtesy gap: I only learned about this feature recently - press and hold the gap adjusting button on the steering wheel, and the car slows down on-demand until the button is released. The feature is especially handy when Super-Cruising, as it saves drivers from the double-whammy interruptions on ACC and lane centering from canceling Super Cruise.

 

In regards to software updates, I assume I don't have to do anything. These updates are just pushed to the car as they become available. So far I only got one update about 1 month ago. Though it's usually my wife driving the car so maybe she just didn't tell me or see that an update was installed.

Also are there items that require me to bring the car in for fixing/updating?

My biggest beef with the car is still with it breaking for no reason when backing up. This is rather annoying.

 

The back up breaking happens all the time when it is rainy or foggy (i have 100% samples during my kids drop off).

Technicians says that sensors compared to acura a bit more tent to settle dust and dirt. However with my eyes, they look the same.

 

I have disabled the auto-brake in reverse feature. Kinda glad I did now.

I only forced one update myself so far. The car informed me of a pending update and asked if it should update now (would take 15 minutes and car would be unusable until then) or wait until the night. I chose to update immediately. The other updates happened on their own, presumably at night at home. In Settings you can get a list of installed updates as well as check for any pending updates.

I'm anxiously waiting for the June update that will give us SuperCharger official access. Just don't know when this month it will happen.

 

Today, Google Maps showed a prompt to add NACS adapter out of nowhere. The routing then became Supercharging-aware. It smartly chose a Supercharger station over a EA station on my test route - same decision I would make myself.

Finally, we are halfway towards the official support.

 

Nice! I just looked on the Acura EV app, went to the maps section to find a charger, and the nearby SuperCharger (that I have used before) just popped up!

 

After checking the Acura EV app on my iPhone (see above) I then went to my car. No updates were ready to download. And the built-in Google maps in the car is not showing nearby SuperChargers that I know should be accessible to us. Bummed that you got an update but I did not.