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SUVs Acura MDX Acura MDX Transmission Problems
68 messages, Last post on Jun 27, 2009 at 1:33 PM
You are in the Acura MDX Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & tidester
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Replying to: EandOH (Feb 06, 2009 7:21 pm) For all the people out there, who have these tranny problems, don't think that Honda/Acura is irreliable. I know that these problems might seem disturbing, but this is merely a small bruise into Honda's excellent reputation. They have recalled this problem, so it is not unknown. It is just like toyota, when it had the engine oil sludge problem, it affected all cars with that same engine layout. But it is still considered to be reliable. EandOH, I am glad they replaced your transmission, like they are supposed to. Don't think of this problem as anything really bad against the Honda Company. I know the transmission problems might be discouraging, but every company has its faults. |
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Ok here goes... we have a 2002 MDX that has had a rebuilt tranny installed March 2008 with 110,000 miles (or so). The reason why we took it in was bec the diff was leaking. We had ALL the ATF fld chgs done at dealer. I remember one other time we took it in the fld was down about 1 qt. But, being the faithful Honda owners that we are we chose to just take a "wait and see" approach. We bought the car at 60,000 and I had another Honda/Acura specialist (my sister runs the shop!) do the 60k service. I thought that maybe the tech who did the svc didn't fill the atf up all the way. I used to manage a Honda/Acura shop with the same co that my sis still works with for 10 yrs. So I am NO dummy when it comes to cars! Suffice it to say that I know more than my husband does about cars. When I worked as a manager/svc mgr I gained a whole new respect for the industry and KNOW that you can't just be a dumb redneck and work on today's complicated cars! No problems with the tranny until the weather got REALLY cold here in NC right before Christmas 2008 - 16 degrees. My husband noticed that car felt like it was in N after pulling away from a stopsign and barely going 30-40 ft. Took it into the dealer and they found that it was 1 qt low. They put dye in the system and we brought it back a week later to have it rechecked. They could not find a problem. (Are you surprised???) Since then, he has had a few times where it did the same thing, with the hesitation - only in cold weather (under 30 degrees). So last Sat 1/31/09, at 26,000 mi I told hubby that I felt we needed to get the ATF chgd (bec I am a FREAK about keeping the flds clean). I do the ATF every 15k on my 2002 Honda Accord. He said that on the way to the dealer on 1/31 the tranny hesitated again. Of course, they didn't find anything. I had to FIGHT to get the warranty on paper and even called Acura HQ and have a case#. The dealer tried to act clueless. At first, the dealer tried to tell me that we did NOT have a warranty. He read the notes and said that it stated R&R tranny to repl the rear main seal. I told him that I REQUESTED the rear main seal be repl while they had the tranny out bec you HAVE to take the tranny out to repl the seal anyway! Acura mgr said "OH!! I think we can make that fly. That way you WILL be cov under the warranty." I tell you... if I had been some dummy walking in off the street they would have just ripped me a new one!! I MADE the mgr create a dummy work order stating that we would be cov under the 36,000mi/3 yr warranty. I also stated that there are only 3 reasons WHY the ATF would be low: 1. There was a leak (dye showed none) 2. Their tech did not fill it up all the way when the tranny was replaced 3. It is burning it. Well, this week (on Wed 2/4/09) hubby said that the hestitation happened again in the same manner but this time he told me that the D5 light was blinking. I just about FREAKED! I told him THAT was important to note. I talked with sis and she said that in order to ck the light it MUST be ckd before the car is turned off. Well, I didn't know that until it was too late. Instead, I decided to go to my local AutoZone in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, there would be a code stored. NOPE! Note: It was 35 degrees this morning. On my way up to AuoZone I drove the car and tried to duplicate the hesitation problem. Nothing. However, when I got on the highway I noticed that the rpms were ONLY 1700 at 65 mph. Then at 55mph the rpms were 1500. I know that is WAY too low!! I drove my son's 95 Accord today to compare and at 65mph the rpms were about 2600. My 02 Accord is the same. Any suggestions here? I read some of the other posts and think that it MAY be the ATF temp sensor or possibly the torque converter (that was supposedly replaced in March 2008). Hubby has a friend who used to work at the Acura dealership as a tech (he now works at Lexus) so if that is something that is simple to try, maybe we should try that first. Anybody know the cost of the sensor? I read in a post here that it's a 15-30 min job (for someone who knows what they are doing). Needless to say, the MDX is at the dealer right now awaiting a Monday morning diagnosis. I am anxious to hear what they have to say.... we still have about $10,000 on the warranty. (hubby drives a lot) Any comments? Suggestions?
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Replying to: dusty1959 (Feb 07, 2009 1:47 pm) I have an 05 MDX and drive the highway at 65mph (yes, I go the speed limit) almost every day. 1700 rpms is normal, at least for my MDX. In fact, I don't think my rpms are ever much higher than 2000 unless I am accelerating. Is your Accord a 4 cylinder? My 4 cylinder rice burner is at about 3000 (maybe a tad less) at 65 mph. Hope this helps! 
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I just found out today that I was dead WRONG about the rpms and boy am I embarrassed! I'm glad that part is dead on. Now we just have to wait for cold weather to get the hesitation from 2nd to 3rd gear (going 30-40mph) to reproduce. Thanks for the comment. |
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Replying to: jkotlar (Feb 09, 2009 2:29 pm)
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Replying to: tpulak (Feb 09, 2009 4:26 pm) We took it back 23,000 miles after the reman replacement and were told at that time that the fluid was about 1 qt low. My svc advisor friend said that since the transmission is a closed system, there is NO way for the fluid to burn. And since the dealer did not detect any leaks with the dye, the only conclusion we can come up with is that the ATF was not filled all the way. My friend said that if the MDX had the updated trans cooler line installed then the system would actually take MORE than normal ATF to completely fill the system. That makes sense. We have about 10,000 left on the warranty of the reman. I pray that we don't have any more problems. But my svc advisor friend told me that more than likely bec the car was run when it was low on ATF we would most likely need another trans. He said that the MDX trans tends to "act up" in extreme temps - either really hot or really cold. I guess we will see... thanks for the input. |
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Well, here's another story. 2002 MDX base with tranny problem at 44,000 miles a few years ago. Acura dealer first had "no idea" of the problem then offered through Acura home office to repair at no cost to us as good will. Now at 98,000, a slightly different issue has arisen: drive gear selector light flasshing, engine light is on, and when warm, VTM-4 lock-in light goes on. Would you believe the hard down-shift is probably the car attempting to shift back into VTM-4 lock at 30 +/- mph. Dealer calls Acura and they offer to pay HALF, or $2,000 even though they have not been able to diagnose the problem. Amazing, I drop down $2 grand because I trust that the unit cannot be repaired, or that the issue might involve a $100 sensor problem. I have no clue yet what my choices are, if any. |
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Update to my story from January 2009, where I initially wrote: My MDX has 95,000 miles on it and has the extended warranty to 100,000 miles. Three times in the last two weeks I've started the car in the morning and when it shifts to 2nd gear (going up a slight grade) it's like I put the car in neutral - no pwer but the rpms go way up. Twice it's caught and been fine, yesterday it didn't catch and I shifted down from drive to lowest gear before it would engage. When I took it in, they say they can't replicate the problem so can't turn it in as a transmission problem as they don't think there is one. They will charge me $120 every time I bring it in but they can't find anything wrong with it - so I guess I won't be bringing it in every week like I'm tempted to. Any suggestions on how to get this to replicate so I can get it fixed Also, something I didn't mention before, the torque converter had been replaced at 76,000 miles. This time, at 95,000 miles they told me it was an imput sensor and replaced that. Shifting is still rough, but it doesn't slip like before. However, at 98,600 miles all the lights came on again - AB, VSA, VMT-4, brake, etc. When I took it in, they said that it was due to a bad cell in the battery and recommended that I have my transmission flushed as the fluid looked "burned". I said that was odd since they'd replaced the fluid when they'd replaced the torque converter, and just changed the transmission fluid at 93,550 miles and that I was taking it to an independent dealer to have them look at the fluid and transmission. They then agreed to contact the Acura care and see if they could get them to agree to replace the tranmission. Today they said that they would replace the transmission under the 100,000 mile warranty. |
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Replying to: lbrickner (Sep 04, 2008 12:51 pm)  75k cost $6000 hate this piece of shit |
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Replying to: thebouncer1 (Jan 19, 2009 2:50 pm) Have you find out the jerky issue response from your dealership/ I had experiencing the same issue since I get my brand new car. I am not familar w/ sport seadan concept but feel like you mentioned that someone s on brake and the speed suddenly reduced. It's really bother me all the times druing the low speed. I don't think we should keep step on accelerator to waste more gasoline, right? |
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