2018 Acura TLX: What to check before buying

Connecting rod bearings fail. The usual warning is a ticking or knocking that gets louder until the engine seizes, loses power, or stalls at highway speed. Several cars drop into neutral or limp mode, and dealers often replace the whole engine. One failure came at 88,000 miles, and an out-of-warranty repair was quoted at $20k. A separate pattern involves the auto idle stop failing to restart the engine at lights. One dealer fixed this with a software update. Some owners also hear a rattle on cold starts that dealers cannot reproduce.

Most of these filings are about a pending recall repair for connecting rod failure. Owners say parts are on backorder and dealers cannot do the work. Some engines fail while owners wait: knocking that speeds up with the throttle, rough idle, loss of power, and stalls that will not restart. One stall at roughly 107,000 miles came with a seized steering wheel. A few owners report the engine failing again years after a repair, including one with blown pistons and leaking oil.

The engine stalls at intersections when auto idle stop fails to restart, and the car shifts itself into neutral. Dealers often blame a weak battery. Other cars shut off at random while moving and lose power steering. Some refuse to start: the key fob is not recognized, or the starter ticks rapidly while the dash lights flicker. Groups of warnings appear together, including electric parking brake, emissions, stability, and driver-assist faults, and one car had an ABS module fault. The alarm going off for no reason is common. One buyer found the title branded for mileage tampering.

Engine knocking and rod failure show up here too. One rod snapped and holed the block at 68,880 miles. Dealers are slow: one owner faced a 15-month wait for a recall inspection, and another was told to keep driving a knocking engine. On the transmission side, owners report a hard bang into second gear on the first drive of the day and rough shifting between 30 and 45 mph. Worn labels on the push-button shifter led drivers to press the wrong button, and the car rolled. One crash with an injury followed sudden acceleration while parking.

Fuel pump failures send the car into limp mode, cause stalls, or cap speed at about 15 to 20 mph, with the dash lighting up. One four-cylinder car lost its fuel pump module at 55,000 miles. A mechanic said he sees many high-pressure fuel pump failures. One owner says stalling continued after a fuel pump recall repair. Others describe jerking and hesitation when accelerating and surging at idle, with no codes and no diagnosis from the dealer. One new car was sold with an open recall the dealer had said was fixed.

The rear steering actuator fails. Warnings come on all at once for brakes, stability, lane keeping, cruise control, all-wheel steer, and power steering. Speed is limited to about 50 mph, and the steering wheel sits off-center or the car jerks to one side. Dealers quote $5,100 to $6,000 and refuse to cover it. One car had a failed weld on the front right lower control arm. Another had the steering seize during turns along with a stiff brake pedal. A seizing engine can also take out power steering.

Driver-assist warnings for collision mitigation, adaptive cruise, lane keeping, and road departure light up together. Shops trace them to the front bumper sensor or the windshield camera. One car failed at 54,000 miles, and another failed right after a wheel alignment, with recalibration not clearing the lights. More serious are false stops: the collision system slams on full braking at about 20 mph with nothing ahead. Owners say they could have been rear-ended, and one now turns the feature off on every drive.

There are two reports. In one, the car vibrates under braking at highway speed and when coming to a full stop. In the other, the brake sensing system brought the car to a sudden, grinding halt on a city street with no vehicle close ahead. The driver was thrown toward the wheel and loose items flew onto the floor. Nobody was hit, but a car following closely would have been at risk.

Neither report is about the seat belts. One owner describes the collision mitigation braking system stopping the car hard with no cars ahead, 12 times so far. One of those stops nearly caused a rear-end crash with a passenger aboard, and dealers found nothing wrong. The other owner says the rear lower anchors for child seats sit too far under the seat to reach, which makes installing a seat for a young child impractical.