I have 1 2002 RL and am interested in others experience withthis model beyond 150,000 miles ( assuming maintenance is performed).

I would appreciate hearing about your experiences.

Many Thanks.

 

Well I can give you the experiences of Legend and 1st generation 3.2 TL owners.. (all 3 cars share the C series motor and similar automatic transmissions)

The RL is a very reliable car with very few problems. No car is perfect though, so I'll do my best to give you a heads up.

Several things to just keep an eye out for:

Starter: seems to cause problems around 100,000 miles. In my case, I got the contacts redone (rather than replacing the unit which is far more expensive). The RL may have a better starter in the later years and this might not be an issue.

Rear engine mount: This can wear out after 5 to 10 years. You'll feel it when moving the car from say reverse to neutral to drive, or during hard acceleration. I personally have not had this problem, but it does happen on high mileage Legends.

Ball joints: This seems to have only been an issue for the first 2 or 3 years of the RL. A 2002 most likely will not have this problem.

 

Just wanted to piggy-back on Ken wrote.....

I just crossed 80k on my 02. It's been making a banging sound from the front left for almost the last six months. Had my mechanic baby-sit and give a thorough physical for a few days, and yep.... wouldn't you know. Upper and lower control arm and the ball joint is going bad on the left, and there are bushings wearing out all throughout. Like you said Ken.... no car is perfect, so i'm not really worried too much. It would be too much of a blessing, if they were covered under Acura Care. But any whos.... I guess that can be expected from a (just under) 4k pound car that doesn't have sports suspension.

 

Hey let me chime in on this one. I don't think I got a dud RL, but I've had more expected maintenance than I thought when I bought it. My friends think the reason is because I'm extremely nitpicky about little annoyances, but you know you pay good money for a good car, you want it to be close to perfect as possible.

1. AC hose busted and needed replaced - AC was blowing hot air
2. O2 sensor died - CEL was on
3. Climate control display panel - When turning the temperature knob, sometimes the temp displayed would briefly display another temp before returning to the correct temp (told you I was picky, however this was a 1300 dollar repair that was covered under my Acuracare extended warranty).
4. Rear dome light and courtesy light on rear right door would flicker when opening and closing - Replaced wiring harness
5. Driver side window and rear right window would have trouble going up and down - replace power window mechanism inside the door
6. Driver seat cover under the front of the seat came loose - Removed the seat to reattach the plastic housing to hold in place

Heh, first of all, told you I was picky. As you can see, none of those things interfered with the operation of the car, but outside of the AC hose and O2 sensor, were just annoyances. When I bought the car at 36k miles, I opted to purchase an $1800 Acuracare warranty contract to cover me until 83k miles or March 2010 (the miles will come first). At first I thought maybe I threw away my money, but after that laundry list of repairs, trust me, I have come out ahead by a mile. I am hoping that I didn't get a dud and that those items were just minor annoyances that just manifested only once.

As for long term reliability, I still totally agree that this car is reliable. In my case, I could have lived with all those issues. I have never had anything mechanically wrong with the car like broken motor mounts, replaced transmission and throttle body (all 3 of which I had replaced in my 02 CL under 60k miles). The car gets average gas mileage, and still rides like a dream. Sometimes when I think of dumping the car in favor of a more fuel efficient one, I realize that there's not a Toyota or Honda you can get that has the quality of this car, hands down.

Sorry for the long post, but wanted to chime in on my experience in quality of the car.

Hey and also, I have noticed a knock when I make right turns on the front left side of the car, similar to the previous poster. Did you notice this knocking when you made right turns? I still have 8k miles on my warranty and if I can get that fixed, then I'll be good. Let me know some details.

 

251k miles before my '96 died. Mostly small problems and regular maintenance...

 

I have a 99RL 161K
Not much but here is the list
1) Main relay at 100K
2) O2 senser at 90K
3) Seat belt sensor, 80K and 150K, still covered under gov safety warrenty
4) Radiator 140K- Live in Fl so that may go sooner
5) Starter motor contacts 150K- corroded, resanded and fine but expensive to get to, had to pull left wheel.
6) Rear view mirror- leaked, still using can still see through it
7) A few dash bulbs, can live without them
8) Rear window wire to harness broke 120K, just clamped window closed

 

I have a 97RL with about 130-135K miles.
I had the started changed and something else having to do with emissions by Acura and some other work done free as a recall when I went to get something else checked. Wheel speed sensor went bad on one of the wheels and none of the mechanics could get a code reading, it's one of the few things that the dealer could only do.
So far.
Wheel speed sensor
2 bad window motors. Fixed one in rear right and then the one on the rear left went, I didn't bother to fix that one.
Ball and joints and sway bar links. Other than that it's not too bad. My concerns are the ball joints and window motors, hear it's a common problem with this car.

 

my 99 has 135,000 and is flawless. Thats with me beating the snot out of it. It is no stranger to going 100+mph. Just do regular maintainance, and it will take care of you.

 

I sold some RL parts to a guy (Larry B) from Richmond, VA who has 298k on his 96 RL and he says it is still going strong.... I don't know if he is ever on this forum or another one....