I am a long time Acura owner, I have been looking at a 1998 2.3 Cl for my son's first car, it has about 114000 miles
on it, other than the timing belt being done, is there any other issues with this motor that I need to be concerned with, also does this particular transmission have the same issues as the 5 speed of the 1999-2003 vintage second generations, thanks for any insight you can give me.

 

114k miles is nothing for these cars, and the 5 speeds are solid
i have 325,000kms (202,000 miles) on mine and still runs pretty good, especially good for original motor, tranny, and clutch
window motors go on a regular basis, every year or so expect to replace around 1 of them, easy to do
wheel speed sensors for ABS system, pretty cheap to replace, i haven't replaced mine because i don't like ABS
other than that i can't really think of common problems across the board on these cars.
maybe motor mounts as well, pretty sure i need to do them on mine, but still works without
honestly i think they are pretty good cars, and should be really good for a first car.
goodluck

 

the 5 speed are well made, i have had mine for 5 years now, when i bought it at 106,000 since the car is 114,xxx i would check the motor mounts, i need to replace mine soon. lol.

 

5 speed CL is a great 1st car. I got my first one when I was 17 and it took a beating like a champ. On my 2nd one and its just as good, you shouldn't really have an issue w/the trans or engine. Its little things like the window regulators and such that you'd need to watch out for.

 

Is your son's car an auto transmission? If so, look out for that. If it's a stick, just worry about the window regulators

 

Also on both my CL's I had to replace the exhaust because it was rusted, so if you live in a climate with snow you'll want to check that. Also check the Brake calipers for freezing as that can happen too.

 

Both my rear calipers siezed

 

Yes it is the 4 speed auto with the 3.0 motor, vehicle looks clean from the pics, going to look at it this saturday, it has 102000 miles, they are asking 2900, price does seem to be below the market price though, only thing is that there is no maintenance history, not sure if the timing belt or trans fluid was changed, same with the other fluids,

 

Uh ohhhhhh.......

 

how does the trans shift? they are notorious for breaking, I would look into if the transmission shifts smoothly, also check the transmission fluid. If it hasn't been changed, it will be pretty burnt and could have metal shavings in it

 

I have the 3.0 and it is fantastic. It is my first car (got my NJ license in April). It is really smooth, and it has enough power so you're not panicing when your merging onto highways (I take Route 80 and the Garden State Parkway normally). Really comfortable to drive, too. Fuel economy is good (as long as you don't get addicted to the sound of VTEC ). Mine has 63k miles by the way.

 

The 3.0 CL was the perfect first car for me. My ONLY complaints are that the handling sucked aswell as the god awful turning radius. Window regulators WILL go out but replacing them is pretty easy. The tranny is proven to be a joke but mine lasted 140k miles when I sold it and I wasn't gentle with it either haha. Can't really think of anything else.

 

I looked at a different CL today because the first one was sold , anyway this was a 1997 with the 4 cylinder and automatic, it had about 120k, I was excited when I saw the carfax that the last owner had it for 10 years, all maintenance was done including the timing belt, water pump, trans fluid changes, they were asking 4400 for it, well when I saw it , I was in shock, both front seats were torn in multiple places, chips and rust on the body, the ground wire for the motor was rusted off, white residue around the coolant hoses, both front tires worn unevenly, excessive inside wear, I didn,t bother even driving it or starting it, the most I would have offered would have been about 500 dollars, the search continues.

 

that's too bad