2004 Acura TSX problems
NHTSA has received 195 complaints about the 2004 Acura TSX, and 15% of them involve air bags. Next are electrical system (15%) and seats (11%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 195 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 15% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 13 and 3
- Injuries and deaths
- 8 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 70,000 miles 138 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 25 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 8 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 24 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 23 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 9 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 19 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 11 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 10 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 5 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 1 |
| 200k+ miles | 3 |
What the data shows
Of the 138 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 70,000 miles. For air bags specifically, the median reported mileage is about 62,000 miles (23 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 13 complaints mention a crash; 3 complaints mention a fire; 8 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2004 ranks 1st most-complained-about out of 10 model years of the Acura TSX with enough data (95 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 3 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
My 2004 acura tsx and I were involved in a front collision (the front of my car hit the rear end of a car in front of me. The front left side of my tsx struck the right rear side of a late model chevy impala. The impact set off my passenger side airbag, but not my driver side airbag. I was driving and struck my head on the steering wheel of my tsx. The seat belt did not catch me and airbag did not deploy. I sustained a concussion from the incident and feel that my airbag should deploy.
Consumer rear ended a vehicle at 25 MPH. Upon impact, passenger's side air bag deployed and the driver side did not.
2004 acura tsx driver's seat movement - during normal driving and stopping, driver's seat will frequently shift or move approximately .25"-.50" after several months of experiencing this, vehicle was taken to acura dealer (arizona) and inspected. Vehicle was returned without repair where issue was diagnosed as acceptable. On several occasions there has been sufficient seat movement to cause driver to temporarily lose contact with clutch (manual transmission model) due to foot slipping off clutch pedal.
There is a known defect with acura 2004 tsx A/C compressor grenading and contaminating the complete A/C system. There are no real events that lead up to the failure, you will suddenly hear a grinding sound coming from the A/C then it goes out without warning. Instead of acura addressing the problem that has affected thousands across the country, they pursue goodwill discounts on behalf of the customer which never cover the full cost of the issue which is usually around $4000 to fix.