I've put 300 miles on the car as of today, in 9 days. I've been reading through a bunch of these threads that refer to '04-'06, and I wanted to give my impression for problems I still see, and stuff that might? have been fixed.


1. Rattles - I have the steering wheel rattle already, probably started after about 60 miles. I'm taking it in next week to get checked out. I do have the wheel extended all the way, and I read that maybe that plays a part - have to try playing with that to see if it changes anything.

2. Buzzes - door panels buzz quit a bit during music, sounds like it's right around the lock mechanism at the top of the door. I ran a test tone CD and get a few other areas that come alive as well, but these are the most susceptible. The safety belt connector on the side of the car also can buzz quite a bit, kind of annoying (any fix for that?). I'm thinking of dynamatting the doors myself to deaden things a bit, also help with the road noise.

3. Paint seems kind of weak - already have noticed two very small rock chips on the front of the car, have an appointment to get a Clearbra put on in two days, hopefully that will help.

4. Doors feel really solid and have a nice "thunk" to them when you close... I've been reading about '04, '05 owners complaining about the doors sounding "tinny", so either I have a completely different standard, or the doors are substantially improved in the later models.

5. Road noise - I thought the road noise was pretty good until I was with somebody else in the car, on the regular concrete freeway, and tried to carry a conversation. It's loud, louder than our old '02 530i. Looking to Dynamat to help out with this. Would rather not change out the tire on a brand new car! Seems like kind of a pain.

6. Steering - the wheels react to the road quite a bit, at first I thought I had an alignment issue, then realized it wasn't in one constant direction - it just swerved around quite a bit, probably following grooves in the pavement. Now I kind of like the feedback, makes you feel like you're *driving*!

7. Audio - it sounds pretty good, but I can sort of see the problems that people on here have talked about after living with the car for a while. If I dynamat things, I might pick up some discontinued Type-S speakers on eBay and see if things sound better. If I can get a measurable improvement by spending less than $200, I'll go for it.

8. Navigation - it's nice, but coming from a state-of-the-art Garmin system, it can't really compare. The stupid fact that searching by name lists everything in the entire nation is one thing that bugs me. Otherwise, it's workable for most everything else, and it's great to have it all integrated. They need to figure out a way to get XM and audio info displayed on either the upper climate screen, and/or the driver HID thingy.


Overall, I love the car - plenty of power for me, I love when the car starts moving up the RPMs and just sort of "takes off". The gas mileage is a pleasant suprise too, 33 mpg on the freeway, woohoo! Backup camera is the best mod so far, absolutely love being able to see exactly what's behind the bumper.

Best part of the car? The handling, absolutely love going around corners.

 

i have a new 08 too and got 2xx miles on it, but looks like i dont have these problems that u mentioned....

 

I have the same year and I'm getting noise from the rear breakes. Also I hear the same noise when closing the doors. But other than that I love my car.

 

i agree with your #6... i have that problem. for some reason, i can't seem to get my TSX to drive "straight" (parallel with the lane marks) when I let my hands go. It swerves to the side. It makes me think i have an alignment issue.

 

Congrats on the new ride and welcome

I have an 07 and put approximately 5,500 miles in the 6 months I have had it.

Heres my

1. No rattle issues, yet.

2. I dont here any noise from the doors...that would irritate me!

3. Paint is definately weak!

4. I do have the tiny sounding doors

5. Road noise I thought was pretty good, but definately gets worse on concrete.

6. Steering wheel feels great to me, like you say, great feedback from the road.

7. I think the Stereo is ok, missing midrange adjustment, but still not bad.

8. Mine is not equipped with navi

Once again, Welcome!

 

glad to hear you like the car overall. have owned my 06 6spd with nav, bought new, one year (11/17). It has 31,000+miles. It had a rattle about 4 months after i had the car-fixed by the dealer-no more rattles (knock-on-wood). The paint is lousy-have numerous paint chips (dealer gave me a touch-up paint pen). both foglights cracked-dealer replaced them free and also very badly scratched headlight that also was replaced by the dealer. great car that gets excellent gas mileage.

 

just an FYI, i sound deadened the heck out of my doors and it definately helped reduce buzzes in my door but i still do have them at loud volumes and with certain frequencies. i have an aftermarket stereo though so when say loud volumes i mean LOUD volumes.

my doors definately close with a solid sounding thunk now though and road noise was reduced. i used products from this company http://www.raamaudio.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

i did both the deadener and a layer of closed cell foam.

 

Congrads! There are always pros and cons in buying the last year of the first gen model before the new gen comes out.

Pros: Build quality and other earlier defects should be corrected by now from 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 models. Also, you get every available option and more on a 2008 vs a 2004 TSX. I wish I had the bluetooth, aux jack, TPMS, MID screen, more bluish gauges, and memory seats on my 04 TSX.

Cons: In about 6-9 months your TSX will become outdated when the new 2009 2nd Gen TSX bodystyle comes out. Maybe resale value will slip also due to new model?

 

Well, I have an 07/Nav/Auto that I've had for almost 8 months/62xx miles. Here are my thoughts on your thoughts:


1. Rattles - The only rattle I have is from my glove box when driving over other-than-smooth roads. I don't get it all the time, only at low speeds (below 25-30mph).

2. Buzzes - I listen to my radio kind of on the quiet side. I rarely turn it up above 14-15, and that's when I'm on the highway. Normal listening level is about 7-8.

3. Paint seems kind of weak - Yup. A few rock chips here, too, but this seems to be a problem accross the board. My friends have the same problems with their cars (08 330i Convertible, 07 IS250, 07 RDX, 07 C230 Kompressor, and 06 Audi A4, to name a few). I think it has to do with the environmental requirements now in effect.

4. Doors feel really solid and have a nice "thunk" to them when you close... Mine are not solid, they feel "hollow" when closed. I don't really care, but others have mentioned it to me.

5. Road noise - I obviously don't have much road noise if I can listen to my radio at the volume levels I do. Maybe some people have too high of an expectation or they come from cars that had less road noise. My last two cars were a Civic and a tC so the road noise is significantly less for me.

6. Steering - Yes, plenty of feedback. The reason cars pull to one side or another is because roads are NEVER flat. There is always a crown to them (think of a half circle) so that water runs away from the middle of the road towards the sides.

7. Audio - No complaints here.

8. Navigation - Very nice feature to have. I travel around to unknown places quite often and it's great to be able to find a restaurant or a way around traffic.

 

I had the same steering wheel rattle you speak of when my '07 was new. I could make the wheel rattle when I hit my palm on the bottom of the steering wheel, not to mention it happened whenever I hit a bump in the road. I used this technique when the service guy wanted me to replicate the issue. They had to replace my airbag because of a broken clip. I believe that's your problem too.

 

Where did you get your backup camera??

 

I got it off eBay - the Wendy camera that other people on here have gotten. I posted a bit in the Backup Camera DIY thread with a link to the item I bought - you can PM her on eBay and she'll put up a new item listing on request, very quick shipping.

I'm a sucker for the backup camera, think it's the coolest thing in the world. I find myself trying to back into things (parking space, garage) just so I can use it, lol, I'm sure it will wear off.

And I forgot to mention - I have a lease, so I'm not that worried about resale. I'm currently planning that we'll buy the car (hence the clearbra installation), so I actually hope it tanks and Honda gives a discount on the buy-out price at the end, heh. I know people say to not do a clearbra on a lease, but even for 3 years I'd like the car to look in tip-top shape.

Course, the 2011 TSX will be pretty impressive I'm sure, so I'll most likely end up moving onwards. If they can get the navigation and audio system greatly improved (i.e. hard drive, iPod integration, greatly advanced navigation, Wi-Fi and/or cell data service), that would be the one thing that would sway me. I've gotten spoiled with Garmin's navigation system, and the independent XM units that let you record songs, set "favorite" artists and alert you when they're played, timeshift, etc.

I checked with my local Car Toys place to see how much they'd charge to Dynamat the entire car... $1700 for everything, yikes!! $400 for just the doors, man, looks like I'll be doing it myself.

 

Sometimes when I shift into second the car looses all power for an instant like the engine died or something, then comes right back. If I slip the clutch a LOT I never have this problem, but that doesn't seem ideal. And my seat is already showing quite a bit of wear for 5k miles. And the MP3 capability I was promised does not exist. But other than that it's good

 

I have a 08 too... I don't experince a lot of the problems posted... but I also don't let the little things get to me lol

 

For you 2008 owners.

See if your VTEC kicks in at 6000 rpm. You will notice the car will pull a lot harder when VTEC kicks in. The reason I am asking, is on Acura's website it seems like they are saying that VTEC kicks in at 4500 rpm.

So does it kick in at 4500rpm or at 6000 rpm?

 

vtech does not kick in until 6000 rpm on my 3 month old '08 nhb AT tsx...don't know about the manual tranny...but i'd be surprised if it was different.

 

ditto for my '08 nhb MT

 

That's some typo though....the TSX would be a much different car with a 4500 iVtec crossover.

 

6000

 

I have an 08 and its at 6000

 

I have an 08 TSX Auto with about 2500 miles, which i picked up on August 17th. No problems so far, This is my third Acura.

 

The TSX's stock tires are overprices economy tires that offer very little performance. You will read this in several threads on this forum. Issue #5 and #6 on your list will be corrected by getting a decent pair of tires.

It makes me curious about who makes these sorts of decisions at Honda. What's the matter with sacrificing a few MPG for a set of performance tires in order to eliminate the majority of road noise and give the car better handling and steering? Bridgestone Potenza performance brand tires are OEM on many many luxury cars for a reason (just to name one).

 

I got my 08 TSX less than three weeks ago.

- I agree that the paint is a little weak. It's quite easy to get scratch.
- The door sound is pretty solid.
- In a quiet environment after I turn on the car (but not start the engine), I can hear "Hmmmm" sound from the navigation DVD player. It seems a vibration noise.
- For the sound system, I am unable to play mp3 CD. It's quite disappointed because the '08 TSX brochure mentioned the sound system should play it.. Quoted from the brochure: "MP3 capability is yours two ways: Insert your mp3-formatted discs into the 6-disc in-dash changer, or plug your portable player .... into mp3/auxiliar input...." It sounds the changer should be capable to play it. Does anyone play mp3 CD in '08 TSX?

Overall, it's pretty good car.

 

This is a bit of false-advertisment. Maybe in some strange Japanese translation, they mean you can convert your mp3's to regular audio CD's so that you can play CD-R's. But no worries, there is the mp3 input under the armrest .

 

I got my 08 2 months ago, it has 2200 miles on it now.

-Paint does chip easy, I've got two nice chips on my hood. I'm regretting not getting the 3M clear bra.
-Door sound is solid.
-The sound system is sufficient, although I wish it was more like the one my 01 TL had.

Overall I'm happy with the car. The MPG continues to increase each time I put in gas. I started getting about 20 and I'm up to about 26 with about a 70/30 mix of highway and city. I averaged 33 on the last highway trip. I'm still averaging 31 after 50 miles of city driving in same tank.
In my opinion, this is the best value car out there. When you consider options, re-sale value, and most importantly reliablity, nothing comes close. Heck, it's the same price as a new Accord.

 

I have 05, and I have to agree with you on Topic #1,2,3,5,6,7.

It seems like you are hesitate to change the "NEW" OEM tires. Well, not only they contribute to the road noise, but if you drive aggressively or like to do spirit driving once in awhile, you will hate it. I don't think those Michelin MXM4 qualifies as ALL SEASON tires when you drove over the limit, you will understand what I'm talking about afterwards...