Topic: New family ride. - 08 MDX

[Black Hatch]

Five!  And I think Vanstar has a TL too.

I think more here own Honda/Acura than any other brand..

but but...
Mixmanmash - Protege
Arthur Dent - Mazda2
5-wheel-Drive - Mazda3
Dkaz  - Mazda3
Solstice2006 - Mazda5
Julie - Miata
johngenx - Miata
My CX-5

Even if we can't beat the numbers for Honda/Acura, can we beat for the variety of Mazdas?

that's impressive.. did you memorize that?

Those were on the top of my head. I didn't want to alarm the Honda/Acura members.

As mentioned above GD has a mazda6.
Mike has a Miata.

Also Slybry has a mazda3.
Careener has a mazda6.
Intial-D has (had) a CX-7 / RX-8
Cybernick has? Mazda6

and members who previously had mazdas
gosteelz (mazda3)
Carcrazy (mazda3)
Wing (Mazda3)
quadzilla (mazda6 wagon)
angry chicken (mazda3)
and
Railton (RX-8) ... the person who convinced me to get an 8.

I am probably missing more members. I give up.

[Railton]

Five!  And I think Vanstar has a TL too.

I think more here own Honda/Acura than any other brand..

but but...
Mixmanmash - Protege
Arthur Dent - Mazda2
5-wheel-Drive - Mazda3
Dkaz  - Mazda3
Solstice2006 - Mazda5
Julie - Miata
johngenx - Miata
My CX-5

Even if we can't beat the numbers for Honda/Acura, can we beat for the variety of Mazdas?

that's impressive.. did you memorize that?

Those were on the top of my head. I didn't want to alarm the Honda/Acura members.

As mentioned above GD has a mazda6.
Mike has a Miata.

Also Slybry has a mazda3.
Careener has a mazda6.
Intial-D has (had) a CX-7 / RX-8
Cybernick has? Mazda6

and members who previously had mazdas
gosteelz (mazda3)
Carcrazy (mazda3)
Wing (Mazda3)
quadzilla (mazda6 wagon)
angry chicken (mazda3)
and
Railton (RX-8) ... the person who convinced me to get an 8.

I am probably missing more members. I give up.

Man, maybe I should be in sales! I had my 8 for 6 years. Still say it had a lot of good things about it...the engine was not one of them though.
Top Gun also has an RX-8.
Railton

[carcrazed]

Congrats.  Looks great.   Does your spouse or kids need the running board to climb in?

I came back to find my thread as it's been just over three years since I got the MDX.

Now that my kids are 4 and 2 years old, they use the running board to climb up to their car seats. My older one can strap buckle herself in for the chest clips, so it saves stress on my back.
I had the running board plasti-dipped in matte black, but it's coming off in some areas.  I'll have it properly painted in black to blend in with the body on of these days.

I have considered trading it in for a newer car since we no longer need all the space most of the time.
OTOH, the extra space is comes in handy when we go camping or trips where I need to take my golf clubs.
Low value for trade-in (over 240K on it with some superficial rust spots and a dent in the rear corner) and the fact that I have put in $1400 on replacing suspensions convinced me to keep it as long as possible.   If I were to trade it in, I think I'll be lucky to get $3K on it.  It also suffered $8K damage last year as well.

[Great_Big_Abyss]

Ouch.  I seem to remember you posting about that accident when it happened.  Did it get satisfactorily fixed?

How has the car fared for you in the past three year?  Do you consider it a successful run with a nice car?

[mmret]

Yep, this one seems like a keeper. I'd buy it for $3k in an instant.

Amazing how little it takes to rack up $8k in crash damage. Looks like a minor hit.

I have the urge to float the idea of a used last gen MDX to the wife, especially since she prefers button heavy interface as well, but I doubt she would acquiesce.

[safristi]

Cor...................

[carcrazed]

Ouch.  I seem to remember you posting about that accident when it happened.  Did it get satisfactorily fixed?

How has the car fared for you in the past three year?  Do you consider it a successful run with a nice car?

I should have taken it to a local carstar, which, as I later found out, TD's preferred shop.
Instead, it was taken to a much farther shop called North Sky Auto Collision. It was my first accident and I was too uneducated at the time. Lessons learned.
It look a long time to get it fixed up and the shop was not very friendly at all.  I had to switch out of a rental Durango they provided because it felt like it must have been in a serious accident. It just felt so floaty and 'off' in corners.  I ended up getting a 2012 Q7 for the next 3.5 weeks until the MDX got fixed.
The shop got the windshield wash nozzle mixed up so it was shooting the washer fluid towards edge of the windshield.  They couldn't understand the issue until I showed them. 

It's been serving our family well for the 3+ year so far.  I like the space, adequate power from the V6, SHAWD is great in on-ramps.  I've added bluetooth audio streaming for $20 so usability increased quite a bit.  Adjustable shocks have been replaced by regular ones.  While I miss the sport mode sometimes, it's not worth the extra $4000 for this car.
I hope I won't have to do any major maintenance for another four to five years.  It should have over 300K km by then.

[carcrazed]

Air conditioning stopped blowing cold air yesterday. Hopefully it'll just need a refill.
I'm bringing her in to a local shop first thing tomorrow.  We can't have a non-working AC in the summer!

[rrocket]

Air conditioning stopped blowing cold air yesterday. Hopefully it'll just need a refill.
I'm bringing her in to a local shop first thing tomorrow.  We can't have a non-working AC in the summer!

bummer....hopefully just a recharge

[HeliDriver]

Air conditioning stopped blowing cold air yesterday. Hopefully it'll just need a refill.
I'm bringing her in to a local shop first thing tomorrow.  We can't have a non-working AC in the summer!

bummer....hopefully just a recharge

If it needs a recharge, then there must be a leak somewhere. Will a reputable shop do a recharge without first fixing the leak?

[JohnnyMac]

Air conditioning stopped blowing cold air yesterday. Hopefully it'll just need a refill.
I'm bringing her in to a local shop first thing tomorrow.  We can't have a non-working AC in the summer!

bummer....hopefully just a recharge

If it needs a recharge, then there must be a leak somewhere. Will a reputable shop do a recharge without first fixing the leak?

Does a refill automatically mean a leak?  Not that mechanically inclined so I'd be interested to know.  I just assumed that the liquid/gas used in the process breaks down over time and you need to refill it at some point.

[dirtyjeffer]

Does a refill automatically mean a leak?  Not that mechanically inclined so I'd be interested to know.  I just assumed that the liquid/gas used in the process breaks down over time and you need to refill it at some point.

yes, there has to be a leak somewhere...the refrigerant, when compressed, gets cold (as it is a gas)...blowing air over this gives you the "cold air"...if the refrigerant leaks out, nothing is being compressed, hence the lack of cold air...it could be some corroded lines, bad seals (likely most common, aside from a compressor failure) or a compressor failure...if it's just lines/seals, likely only a couple hundred dollars...i'm not familiar with compressors, but they aren't cheap...likely about $1000 new, but you might be able to get something from the wreckers for much less, depending on how common they are.

[johngenx]

Modern AC can lose a small amount of coolant from the rubber lines, but it's usually a tiny amount and the systems don't require topping up for many, many years - like 10-15 or more.

If the system is low, then you probably do have some sort of a leak.  It could also be the compressor has shut off due to any issue in the system.

[EV-Light]

Does a refill automatically mean a leak?  Not that mechanically inclined so I'd be interested to know.  I just assumed that the liquid/gas used in the process breaks down over time and you need to refill it at some point.

yes, there has to be a leak somewhere...the refrigerant, when compressed, gets cold (as it is a gas)...blowing air over this gives you the "cold air"...if the refrigerant leaks out, nothing is being compressed, hence the lack of cold air...it could be some corroded lines, bad seals (likely most common, aside from a compressor failure) or a compressor failure...if it's just lines/seals, likely only a couple hundred dollars...i'm not familiar with compressors, but they aren't cheap...likely about $1000 new, but you might be able to get something from the wreckers for much less, depending on how common they are.

a new compressor will likely run for $200-$300....you don't need to get OEM, Universal will fit just fine given these units are the same used in popular Hondas like Accord, Odyssey, etc.

[johngenx]

No need to mess around if it needs a compressor.  Denso makes an OE fit for $400CDN.

[carcrazed]

Thankfully it wasn't a compressor nor a leak. The shop did initial diagnosis and the compressor wasn't kicking in. It came back on after they did checked out the relay and unplugged/straightened out fuse for the compressor.
I should have done that and saved the trip and labour cost. 😦

Sent from my LG G6 using Tapatalk

[2JDM]

Thankfully it wasn't a compressor nor a leak. The shop did initial diagnosis and the compressor wasn't kicking in. It came back on after they did checked out the relay and unplugged/straightened out fuse for the compressor.
I should have done that and saved the trip and labour cost. 😦

Sent from my LG G6 using Tapatalk

I believe the same thing happened to me with my 2004 TSX. A quick fix and I was on my way.

[Solstice2006]

Past 3 years bad luck with A/C.  First when I got the Odyssey, 2nd year a small stone hit the compressor.  Close to $750 to have it replaced, including charging the system.  Then about a year later I sold the van, still regret that.  A few months later the A/C on the Entourage wasn't blowing cold air.  Crappy Tire charged the system, worked fine all summer.  Could be a small leak, they didn't find anything.