NHTSA Complaint #11662805 — 2021 ACURA TLX

2021 Acura TLX Type S. Car has 53k miles on it. No modifications, bone stock. When accelerating from a stop at ~50% throttle, there was a sudden loud pop from the front of the car, followed by immediate loss of power to the back wheels (AWD car) . The vehicle was about to shift from first to second gear, so thankfully I was still only going about 10-15 mph at the time. Had i been traveling faster, turning, or if the roads were wet/slick, it could have caused an accident due to my loss of control of the car. There were no warning lights or indication prior to this occurring, and no warning lights or indication after the incident occurred either. In fact, the torque distribution screen on the console showed power to the back wheels, despite that not being true. All recommended maintenance and oil changes were performed on the car at appropriate times. The problem ended up being a completely stripped transfer case housing / damaged splined shaft on the transmission (picture of transfer case attached). This was finally diagnosed after 2-3 weeks once the dealer lifted the vehicle and checked for power in all 4 wheels (of which only the front two tires would spin). Dealer replaced the parts under warranty after it was shown that the back wheels had no power. However, I believe the same part number was used in the replacement, indicating a potential likelihood of another failure in the future if this part is defective. I'm not sure if this has been reported by others, but I was only able to identify the problem by finding a post on an owners forum that showed identical problems to mine. Conversations in other owners groups suggests this is a wide spread problem with the early renditions of the new Acura TLX Type S line (~2021-2023). A poll in a TLX Type S Owner facebook group I am in, indicated that 16% of folks have had similar failures (out of 170 members polled).