• The Media Oriented Systems Transport (MOST) bus network / FAKRA coaxial service cable connectors failed. This failure directly controls the primary infotainment assembly and the central safety display screen. The vehicle and its active components are currently intact, fully operational (with the defect present), and available for inspection upon request. • The hardware defect causes sudden, unpredictable total blackouts of the central display screen while driving. This completely disables the safety rearview/backup camera and mutes vital audible driver-assist safety alerts. Additionally, the defect causes extremely loud, jarring, and distracting popping and crackling noises through the audio speakers while moving, creating an immediate driver distraction and safety hazard on public roads. • Yes. The vehicle was brought to an authorized Acura dealership service center, where the active symptoms (crackling audio and system instability) were documented. Furthermore, the issue perfectly matches the diagnostic criteria of Acura's official technical service campaign (TSB 23-025). • The vehicle has been inspected at an authorized Acura dealership service department to initiate a corporate claim. However, because the vehicle is just 345 miles past an arbitrary 100,000-mile warranty extension threshold, Acura Corporate has refused to perform the physical repair, meaning the defective factory components are still currently installed in the vehicle. • There were no traditional dashboard warning lights or error codes prior to the failure. The primary symptoms are loud audio popping, crackling noises, frozen screen menus, and sudden display blackouts. These symptoms began appearing intermittently and escalated in frequency as the vehicle approached its current mileage of 100,345 miles.
Acura RDX screen failure problems
11 of the 2,191 owner complaints about the Acura RDX describe screen or infotainment failure, most of them for the 2019 model year.
- owner complaints
- 11
- worst model year
- 2019
By model year
- 20251
- 20232
- 20201
- 20197
Often reported together
Adaptive cruise 2Power steering loss 1Lane assist 1Collision warning 1
What owners say
The center infotainment display went completely black, with only the backup camera feed still functioning. There was no audio output at all (radio, navigation prompts, or Bluetooth). The dealer diagnosed and replaced the FAKRA service cables under Acura TSB B23-025, which addresses this exact display-blank/audio failure. After the cable repair, the screen remained black and audio remained completely non-functional. The dealer then determined the tuner/AV control unit had failed, confirmed by swapping in a working unit from another RDX which restored function. Acura Client Relations was contacted and declined to provide any coverage for the tuner unit replacement, stating the TSB only covers the cables themselves, despite the failure occurring immediately downstream of the covered repair. The vehicle is safe to drive but loses infotainment display, audio, navigation, and rear camera guidelines during forward driving, which is a distraction and safety concern. The vehicle remains available for inspection. No warning lamps preceded the failure; the screen simply went black."
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.
The infotainment system on this vehicle keeps failing when using Apple Carplay. The problem consistently happens when driving. The problem consists of the apple carplay going black screen and disconnecting entirely and then taking long to reconnect. This is a safety issue if you’re using the gps navigation from iOS while driving. The problem has been reported to the Acura Service dealer multiple times and they were able to reproduce it as well. They have said there is an interruption caused by satellite communications interfering with carplay while driving. They said currently no fix for this issue.
The infotainment screen went blank 4 times. It works intermittently and reset itself. The dealer performed service bulletin S/B 24-004 on May 21, 2024. Since then it has gone out twice. I taking the vehicle in again. I seen there are issues with that system draining the battery and the car not starting. That had to me this morning.
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.
On November 26, 2022 RDX rear glass shattered while parked. This was reported to ACURA to find out if this is a known defect. Acura replied that they don’t have a recall on this problem. Coincidentally, few days after glass was replaced (insurance) the remote start failed due to “open trunk, doors or hood”. Acura dealer replace defective trunk switch. On a few other occasion the infotainment screen will go blank and then turned ON and stay ON while vehicle is off. Battery died several times while this happened. Last occasion was Jan 15, 2023. Again, Acura was called and didn’t have a recall/repair solution. Battery was disconnected and screen resumed operation!
Infotainment system does not work (goes bank, freezes or goes in and out), specifically carplay which connects and discontents (in and out) on a regular basis. I've been experiencing this problem since first purchasing the car in july 2018. I have taken it to the dealership 3 times now and filed a complaint with acura, which blames apple and claims it's not their product's fault. I waited until I got a new iphone thinking that would solve the problem; now acura says my phone is too new and still not compatible. This is a dangerous issue and distracting while driving. The problem occurs while the car is stationary and in motion.
Car infotainment system frequently freezes or crashes, rendering many of the vehicles' features inoperable. The infotainment screen intermittently turn from night mode to day mode. The infotainment system is un-reliable and un-stable. The infotainment screen goes black intermittently. The drive mode is un-available
Infotainment system has multiple glitches causing many of the features, radio, GPS operation, drive mode changes, sound, clock freezing, knobs and dials not working. Reported to dealership and went in several times. They said there were updates which they tried to install and the vehicle didn't respond to any updates provided by acura. Called acura, got a case number, and was virtually told they are still working on these problems . These 2019 cars have been out since may of 2018 and they are still manufacturing cars and putting them out to the consumer knowing these electrical and system issues have never been addressed properly. These problems happen whether the vehicle is stationary, in motion, city or highway driving. The problems are intermittent. It does become a safely issue when something happens because the driver is not able to deal with issues while operating the vehicle. Acura has been less than cooperative with either the dealership or the consumer, just telling all they are sorry to be patient "they are working on it". My vehicle has been doing this for several months (since the day I drove it out of the lot.) I have screen shots of the messages received on the screen when it is inoperable and well documented notes and dates as to when it was reported to the dealer and to the acura service represented.
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the Acura RDX screen failure
Which Acura RDX years have screen or infotainment failure problems?
The model years with the most reports are 2019 (7 complaints), 2023 (2 complaints) and 2020 (1 complaints).
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