2023 Acura Rdx

On October 31, 2024, I was nearing the end of a three hour trip. I was traveling on a rural two-lane highway with a 55 mph speed limit. I had just pulled away from a 4-way stop intersection and was following a single vehicle traveling 40 mph. Once I could see there was a safe distance from oncoming traffic, I decided to pass the slower vehicle. As I moved into the opposite lane and accelerated, the engine lost power and barely made it around the car I was passing. If oncoming traffic had been closer there could have been a head-on collision. The engine light started flashing and I had to keep the accelerator pressed half way to the floor to maintain 50 mph. There was no shoulder on the road and no place to pull over, so I continued for 15 minutes with engine light blinking and struggling to maintain 50 mph. No other warning lights came on and the engine was not overheating. When I reached my destination I turned the engine off and then restarted it. The flashing engine light was gone and the car drove fine. The nearest Acura dealer was an hour away so I took the car to my dealer when I returned from my trip. They test drove the vehicle and called the Acura Tech Line. They could not duplicate the problem. They said they did not find any diagnostic codes so there was nothing they could do. They said if it happens again to bring it back. If it happens again I might not live to tell the story!

Highlight: The car was able to be started with a button press and driven away without any key inside the car. (Also, some side information that the car had it's annual check-up on the Saturday before this incident). Normally my wife keeps her purse in the house on the counter (along with the spare key in a drawer under that counter). Previously, if she forgot her purse (and car keys inside the purse), she would head out to the garage and attempt to start the car (she keeps it unlocked in the garage). In a normal situation, the car would beep at her that she didn't have the key and she would go into the house to grab her purse. On 7/31, after a frazzling day, she got a call from her doctor to come to their office for a checkup (40 minutes away). She forgot her purse again; however, this time, the car started without any warning. She took the complete drive to the doctor's office shut off the car and then realized she didn't have her purse. She even tried to turn the car back on to see if the key was in the car, it did not start. She called me, I checked her purse and spare key were both in the same location they were always in. I did remotely try to start the car to see if she could drive it back with me starting it, however, it wouldn't let her take it out of park. She continued with her doctor's appointment. Inconveniently, I grabbed her purse and took my car 40 minutes to drop off her keys and back. Luckily, she was at a doctor's office and in a safe space, however, this has the potential to be very inconvenient and unsafe for others.

Fast blinking engine light, and car not able to accelerate past 40mph. Was informed by dealership that it was possible water intrusion but had no guarantee or adequate mitigation strategy to ensure the problem would not occur other than indicating it is normal behavior to expect during heavy down pour!! The following codes were presented to dealership service dept after performing diagnostic: P0300, P0301, P0304 Car has 10k miles and it’s a 2023 RDX A Spec. Another issue happening with the car is an intermittent “Brake Failure. See Dealership” message on the dashboard. Was told it’s expected behavior for this to sometimes happen and due to no permanent code present, they cannot repair or identify the issue. I guess the breaks have to fail while driving before they actually prevent an accident from happening?!!!