SidhuSaaB

For the last month or so I have been having problems shifting into gears. This happens most commonly with 1st and 2nd gear and usually when I am at a dead stop, but quite less often when the car is moving.

Symptoms
When on a dead stop and clutch pedal fully pushed in, even using both hands and feet the gear wont shift into any gear. No matter how hard you try. This does not happen all the time but atleast once or twice a day in my 50km daily driving.

The only way to get it going into gear is by releasing the clutch pedal fully and pressing the pedal again to the floor. Then it would shift into gear like it normally does.

What has been done so far?
I originally thought it could be my clutch slave cylinder or maybe there is air in the clutch lines. About 3 times in the last 2 months, during normal shifting into gears, the clutch pedal would go in and never return. I had to pull it up manually while driving.

So I looked at the clutch fluid and it was the most disgusting colored-liquid I ever seen. The color of the fluid was dark green-black-brownish. I replaced it with OEM Honda DOT3 Brake Fluid and also noticed there was a lot of air in the lines. So after fixing this, the clutch felt better and smoother, and never again it got stuck. Upon close inspection I also noticed that the rubber boot was dry and out of grease. Upon pressing the plastic piston inside, it would return back but not fully. Its the piece in yellow.


It was almost 11 at night and only walmart was open at the time in my area. I grabbed Castrol Wheel Bearing MP grease and filled the rubber boot. The piston would now return back with constant speed and much better than before. I also bled the line again to be sure there was no air left. The clutch felt good. Since I had the center console open already, I used the same grease and put some in the gear box to make the gear shifts a tad bit smoother. I also applied some grease on the Shift lever.


My gears were hard to shift into since I bought the car and was told by the previous owner that it was standing for more than a month. It was also winter time so I thought it would get better as I start driving it everyday. It did get better but the gears are still somewhat stiff. The gear stick moves freely between neutral like it does on all the other TLs I have seen but only when shifting it gets stiff. I also noticed when the engine is off, the gears shift smooth like a hot knife on butter.

History
I bought the car with 270,000 KMs on it this March. At the time I had replaced Engine Oil with Pennzoil Platinum and Transmission fluid with GM Syncromesh.
It ignored the brake fluid and clutch fluid since it felt okay and decided not to touch it.

What's next?
I am getting a new slave cylinder this week to replace the original slave and see if that fixes the problem. What really irritates me is that the problem does not happen all the time. When it does not happen the car shifts just fine. The actual clutch disc and pressure plate seems fine to me as the gears dont slip or anything like that. Its just that I cant get it into gear at times and now I try to start putting into 1st 3-5 seconds before the light turns green so that I have enough time to clutch again and get into gear without causing line up behind me in traffic. If you know traffic in Toronto, people would honk at you even if there is a delay of half second in moving your car after the light has turned green.

Supreme TL

Sorry to bring this back from the dead but this is spot on to how my 6spd TL-S is acting, anyone resolve this issue? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

you have an automatic.
this thread covers 6 speed manuals.

WDPanda

I have to double clutch too for it to sometimes get into 1st gear while rolling slowly or very rarely when at a dead stop. Takes just an extra second and I never force or put pressure when it resists. I was told clutch is low. Been a few years now, knock on wood.

SidhuSaaB

The problem went away for a few months and I didn't want to spend any more time on it.

Fast Foward to May 2016:
A day before I am to leave for a 2 month trip to Japan... I am at the lights, waiting for them to go green. I clutch in, try to shift the gear, took some effort but got it in. Took my foot off the pedal and realized the clutch pedal didn't return back up. I smashed it a few times, nothing. Now I was in 1st gear with no clutch pedal. Lucky for me, I was only 2 km away from house. I limped it home in 1st gear, not revving past 11-1200.

I parked my car in the garage and then went with a buddy to finish my tasks. So I came back and towed the car to mechanic where he found my master clutch assembly and slave cylinder were done.

Replaced them and everything was good..or so I felt like it

Fast Forward Oct 1st...

Same thing happened again. I clutched in and pedal didn't return up.

Took it to the mechanic and this time he said we have to replace the clutch. We took the transmission out yesterday and noticed all failure points right away: the throw out bearing was worn out, the pressure plate was messed up and the clutch disc was cooked.

While I was doing this, I decided to replace the driver side driveshaft since the boot was torn and the side mount (towards the front of the car) needed replacing. The rack and pinion needs to be replaced as well since it was leaking slowly this whole time.

A clutch job becomes clutch + driveshaft + engine mount + rack&pinion job.

I am getting the car back today so will know how it performs. Hoping its all fixed

EvilVirus

iTrader: (8)

Damn hope she runs like new with everything it has gone through.

WDPanda

Those parts,you mentioned are a must. Your TL will last another decade on them

SidhuSaaB

I wonder if I did this to the car or was it already bad when I got it. Picking up the car later today...

Pressure Plate

Clutch Disc

Mount

SidhuSaaB

For me replacing the clutch would be the solution. I remember reading something similar on either driveaccord or v6p forums where this one guy had similar issues. He replaced the clutch and it was fixed too.

I hope it does I didn't pay a lot for her and she has already been worth it all. Made 3-4 trips to Chicago and New Jersey on this car this year and has been reliable throughout.

That's the idea with replacing them. I dont plan to keep it for a decade but since I bought it cheap (considering 6spd are hard to find here) I dont have any plans of getting rid of her. I am also thinking of head rebuild on the car once I have a winter vehicle. She has 310K Kms now and been through some abuse *cough* Bent exhaust Valves *cough*

SidhuSaaB

I went to see how the work was progressing today. My mechanic was replacing the master clutch assembly as it was still under warranty from replacing the last time. There was nothing wrong with it but he did it anyways since it was free.

An hour later, after hooking everything up, bled the clutch line and started the car. Oh man, let me tell you the first shift. I fell in love with my car again.

I didn't know what I was missing out on till today. The shifts are very crisp and with Short-Shifter installed the feeling is amazing. I now wish I had replaced the clutch sooner.

I forgot to mention, I replaced the clutch with Exedy OEM (HCK1007) bought from HeelToeAuto (Thanks Marcus). Since Rack n Pinion was replaced during the work, I have to get alignment done. The car drives straight with the wheel turned clockwise about 15 degrees.

ErikasTL

This looks perfect, PIXROB posted pix but I can't see them. Is it because I just joined? Those pix would be helpful!!! Look like PIXROB and other really added great info and I could use it!! Thanks

DMZ

I'd also replace the flywheel when replacing the clutch. That comes from 1st hand experience!

The Exedy OEM (HCK1007) clutch is the LUK repackaged at a higher price!
.
.

svang5

My 6 speed Acura TL 2006 is experiencing this right now. Mechanic says I have a huge leak in my Hydraulic line against the firewall that connects from the slave cylinder to the master cylinder. Says that my shift cable has been rubbing against the hydraulic line and causing it to leak.

My clutch pedal did the same thing, start up the car, but difficult to switch to first gear and second........pedal lays flat on the floor...no pressure/resistance. My mechanic had replaced my clutch 6 months ago (LuK clutch and flywheel).

Hopefully this post will be useful for others.....did you check to see if it was hydraulic line leak?

Bense

Side note. I just spent 2-3 minutes looking on the heeltoe website at the flywheels Marcus sells on there.

I love how overpriced this is.
https://www.heeltoeauto.com/clutch-f...j35-daily.html

I don't like aluminum flywheels because I don't like the way that the starter gear is fastened to the aluminum disc.
https://www.heeltoeauto.com/aasco-al...103212-11.html

Seems like there will be something offered from the new k20c (civic type R, accord sport 2.0t) that can work.

Bense

There's a clutch hydraulic damper that's between the clutch master cylinder and the clutch slave cylinder. I would look into deleting it and just running hardline to wherever the hydraulic hose begins. Search for "clutch damper delete" and you'll see where other people have done it on various vehicles.

WhiteLightning2

I see this thread is still open. Soon after I got my 2010 TSX/5 speed automatic, with about 70K miles on it, I changed the fluid. I don't think it had been ever done before. The car had been driven so it was pretty warm, and I had it up on jack stands. The stands on the left side were a few notches higher than the right, and I'm fairly certain I got more fluid out because of the tilt. I refilled level and hot and put 3.5 quarts genuine Acura ATF in to fill to the top off. So that's my number!

The car definitely shifted better, and I'm going to change it again this year. You will too if you ever have to pay for a transmission overhaul bill, thousands. Even a used one will run $2K or so, with installation. Tell your friends it's worth it.

horseshoez

iTrader: (2)

Not sure why you posted here, this thread is about 3G TLs with 6-Speed Manual transmissions, not at all what you have.

VI Massive

Just an update to this thread...I recently received my clutch kit from Rock Auto, and although the self-adjusting springs were not compressed 100%, it was not far from spec. I would definitely check your to see how far the springs are from its intended position before installing the clutch. BTW, the clutch is holding up and performing great. Here is my experience:

UA6-MT

obvious thread jack, sir