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Acura RDX adaptive cruise problems

22 of the 2,191 owner complaints about the Acura RDX describe adaptive cruise control problems, most of them for the 2019 model year.

owner complaints
22
worst model year
2019
typical mileage
4,500
Is there a fix? No recall or service bulletin covers this area of the car yet.

By model year

What owners say

Filed Jul 18, 2025 · Brakes, Driver assistance · WI

Started vehicle in the morning and had driven about 5 miles. LKAS, Adaptive Cruise Control and all other collision avoidance systems turned on. ACC Speed set, but disengaged due to prior braking for the curve. Weather overcast but dry. While turning left around a sweeping curve at about 40mph the vehicle suddenly started emergency braking and trying to turn right into the guardrail on the side of the road. Major force required to keep vehicle in the lane and under control. Power steering went out. Collision braking warning, Power steering warning, LKAS warning, Road departure mitigation warning, Low speed braking control problem, also power steering icon glowed orange, safety system icon glowed orange, Lane keeping icon glowed orange, Brake system icon glowed orange. No place to pull off, continued several miles to a parking lot. Took photos of dash warnings (provided to dealer). Cycled engine power to no effect. Cycled again waiting about 1 minute and opening door to turn off nav display. Upon restart warnings all remain, power steering returned. Drove home and parked for about 1 hour. Upon restart all errors gone and functioning normally. Noted Acura Link sent CMBS Problem! notification. Car now at Acura of Brookfield (WI) for evaluation. All notification on vehicle and Acural Link cleared by time I arrived at dealer. Note vehicle defaulted back to "Normal" drive mode after this event. Had been set on "Comfort" which is normally retained at power cycle.

Filed Mar 4, 2025 · Driver assistance · NV · 1 injury

The car was just purchased Turning left going about 5 to 10mph in a 25 mph zone it hit the brakes. Then about 100 yrds later at a stop light, the car was turning left with traffic going onto a 45mph road. It slammed on the brakes, saying "brake", on the Display, causing whiplash, and almost a major accident. After calling Acura, they mentioned these driver assistance systems were tied into cruise control. When the car was tested on the highway a couple days before and used cruise control, the collision and another warning system were faulty. It said "sensor is covered or..." I do not remember the 2nd part. They specifically said if these systems are problematic with warning lights, you should not use cruise control. These cars should not be on the road. No shortage of people complaining about this online.

Filed Nov 27, 2024 · Engine · CA

I started driving on the freeway for a few miles in the rain and suddenly started to hear a low rumble/rattling sound from the engine area. The car began to cycle through error messages for every one of the electronic safety systems (Brake system, vehicle stability assist system, electric power steering system, adaptive cruise control system, collision mitigation braking, & road departure mitigation) The car then began to lose drive power (wouldn’t maintain/increase speed when pressing the gas pedal). I moved over to the furthest right lane/slow lane and continued to lose propulsion from the gas pedal. Being forced to such a slow speed on the freeway in inclement weather was very unsafe for me and my wife who was in the car with me. I had to drive on the shoulder in order to exit the freeway and the engine rattle got increasingly louder and worse sounding. I pulled into a parking lot and the car was not drivable. AAA tow to a AAA certified mechanic repair shop and was told that there was metal debris in the oil pan and oil filter which was signs a faulty engine components that has now destroyed the motor. I’m currently without the RDX and being told it is in need of a whole new motor.

Filed May 18, 2024 · Driver assistance · CA

While driving today around 30 MPH using cruise control the display suddenly changed from showing a vehicle icon on the HUD and dashboard display to a black box with a white line around it with the words in white "Cruise Mode" and disabled my cruise control operation while I was driving. This action almost resulted in a rear end collision with the vehicle in front of me as I was barely able to stop the vehicle before hitting the rear of the car in front of me. There was no warning no message that the function was being disabled. It just suddenly happened. I have contacted multiple dealers on this, contacted Acura Emergency services and Roadside Assistance. No one has ever heard of this happening and have no idea of the cause. Acura Client Relations is closed on the weekends and has no hotline on the weekend for reporting safety issues. I can't even get any constructive feedback as to if the car is currently safe to drive without using the cruise control. I have scheduled an appointment with Acura of Fremont Service on Monday at 2:30PM PDT. This may be a flawed vehicle update that was pushed onto the vehicle while driving as I have run in car diagnostics and everything that should be normal in green seems to be. In my opinion this should be a high priority as it can lead to collisions.

Filed Feb 22, 2024 · Engine, Fuel system · WI

On a long road trip ([XXX]) from Milwaukee, Wi to Bowling Green, Ky. and from From Bowling Green, KY to Orlando, FL. While driving from Bowling Green, KY about 8 hours into the drive, we were in a massive rain storm which started in Atlanta, GA. and did not end until we crossed into Florida. About 60 miles past the border of Florida traveling on [XXX], I needed to over-ride the cruise control traveling at about 80 mph and allow for a merging vehicle, so I pressed hard on the accelerator and the vehicle essentially shut off and the MIL was flashing. I was in the left lane (two lane highway at this point) traffic was moving quickly, but fortunately I was able to merge safely across traffic to the right shoulder without causing an accident because the vehicle was slowing at a rapid rate. The vehicle came to a stop on the shoulder with my wife and two kids freaking out. I shut off the vehicle, successfully restarted the vehicle and accelerated into traffic. Fortunately this did not happen in the mountain pass where there is no shoulder to pull into. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Filed Nov 28, 2023 · Electrical, Engine · CT

Transmission intermittently gets stuck in a gear while driving and will not shift until car is powered off and on again. Brake system, LKA, power steering, vehicle stability/traction control, hill assist, cruise control, collision mitigation, and road departure mitigation intermittently stop working and error. Infotainment and audio intermittently error or get stuck on after powering off vehicle. Trunk randomly opens when no one is in range of the vehicle. Horn randomly sounds for approximately 30 seconds on hot days after vehicle is stopped. Engine cylinder heads, transmission, and horns have been replaced without resolution. MOST bus system has been replaced twice without resolution. All issues have been recorded on video and documented with the local Acura dealer and Acura Client Relations, but neither has been willing to help reach a resolution.

Filed Apr 3, 2023 · Driver assistance, Electrical · AL

The vehicles adaptive cruise control is unreliable. Guidance system goes haywire and cannot stay on track to destination. Carplay becomes inoperable. Have had Tameron Eastern Shore Honda who sold car to me check problem on multiple occasions and they cannot find problem.

Filed Apr 4, 2022 · Driver assistance, Visibility · CA

Purchased my 2021 in November of 2020. Two weeks after, i was driving with adaptive cruise on at 65 mph on a freeway. 100 yds ahead i could see a diesel going slower than i, so i looked and saw no one coming at all, so i moved over to the passing lane. I got 5 feet into the lane and the car slammed on its brakes, on its own!!! Thank god no one was behind me or i might have died!! I reported this to Acura within 1 week, and then reported it to DOT the next week. I own one of the first 2021 s made, so i didn’t see a lot of feedback. Now after a year and a half i get on the DOT website and see many complaints like mine. This has happens to me maybe once every 3 weeks. Why has the DOT done nothing about this??!!! Also the DOT says there are no recalls on my car but if you go to the Acura website it says my car is under recall for a driveshaft problem, of which i never received a notice. Why does the DOT exist??

Filed Aug 26, 2021 · Driver assistance · VA

On 3 separate occasions my Collision mitigation braking system has malfunctioned. The first time I was driving at 55 with my cruise control set with no cars in front, behind or beside me when, without warning or reason, the orange brake light abruptly flashed on my front dash panel and my car abruptly stopped in a whiplash manner. The second occasion I was driving on the interstate at 65, on this particular interstate, the 64, it splits to the right to a separate interstate, the 264, and cars wait until the last minute to go 3 lanes of traffic over to get off. My car again without warning or reason flashed the orange brake sign on my front dash panel and my car abruptly stopped. Thankfully the cars rushing over did not hit me but there were honks and swerves and I could have been hit or caused an accident. The third incident occurred 8/25/21 with my son in the car while the feature was disabled, I was not close to the car in front of me, at least 2 car lengths as we were sitting in traffic and all trying to merge left, thankfully this time I was able to take control of the brake because I was going at a speed of ~5 but it scared my special needs son to the point of not being able to go back over that bridge.

Filed Jun 8, 2021 · Driver assistance · MN

On May 9th we were driving on the freeway at around 3 pm on a sunlit clear day. It was a straight section of road. Dry pavement and traffic moving reasonably well. The car in front of us was at least 100 yards in front of us and about the same for the vehicle behind I believe. We were going around 50 mph. The car slammed on the brakes so hard the seat belt restraints engaged as we flew forward, enough so that my wife and I were both sore the next day. Items on the back seat flew onto the floor. If there had been a car behind us we would have been rear ended and potentially a multi car pile up. We took the car to the dealership the next day. They had the car for the day and returned it saying everything is calibrated as it should be. I have called Acura and they set up a case number and a case manager and said they would call me. They have not called nor returned my repeated phone calls. I have asked for a supervisor to call and that has not happened either. Acura’s case number is 12213602 and Simon is the case manager. His phone is 800 999 1009 x87723. The supervisor’s name is Terry. I don’t have an extension number for her. We have grandkids that ride in car seats in the back seat. Thank god this didn’t happen with one or both in the back seat with a car behind us. We have been driving cars with the braking feature on them for 10 years now (Ford and Infinity) and have never had anything like this happen. We’ve had the adaptive cruise pick up on something in the past and ease off the accelerator but never anything like this. The cruise was not engaged when this occurred. In googling this it sounds like we aren’t the only ones having this issue.

Related recalls

No recalls on record for this model year.

Questions about the Acura RDX adaptive cruise

Which Acura RDX years have adaptive cruise control problems problems?

The model years with the most reports are 2019 (8 complaints), 2017 (5 complaints) and 2020 (4 complaints).

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