xradman

Just picked up a 2006 Silver 5spd AT with 38,750 on the odometer and clean Carfax for $13,750. It was missing both front air grills (next to fog lights) and both door handle inserts (? removed during detail and not replaced). All 4 tires are shot and needs to be replaced right away (ordered 225/45R17 Yokohama AVID ENVigor from TireRack). Left rear passenger PW was also out. Back of driver's seat (map pocket) also pops out (? broken plastic clip). The car supposedly is still under warranty until end of this month, so I'm going to see if I can get the PW and seat back problem taken care of under warranty. Other than that, the car drives perfect. The power or pickup seems down compared to the 2003 Diamante LS, but gas mileage on this thing is fantastic (33 MPG over last 100 miles).

I looked at 2 other TSX (both 2007) prior to this purchase and both of them had some electrical glitches (sunroof out on 1, power adjustment to side mirror out on another). Is this common?

This has a timing chain, so I shouldn't have to worry about that. How long are brakes good for on these cars? Anything else major maintenance wise coming up ~40K miles?

Boulder TSX

Congrats on your purchase -- and welcome!

To answer your questions, the electrical glitches you mentioned are not common.
As for brakes, it probably depends on your driving style...(speeding and/or tailgating will wear out your brakes fast.) There's a poster here ("nj2pa2nc"), who I believe has 108K on her 06 TSX and is still on her original brakes. (Maybe she will chime in.)

In regard to the power seeming down a bit compared to your last car, part of that may be due to the fact that you have an automatic. The manual TSX's are quicker. (See Car & Driver road tests.) Still, should be plenty quick...and if you don't think so, you can get Hondata to help it. (Which luckily works for your 06.)

Good luck and enjoy!

Jimmy The Saint

i think you should still have the full factory warranty - take it to the dealer right away and have them fix everything.

Brakes: I think acura stock brakes on the TSX suck. That said some people do fine with them. When you do decide to replace the brakes do not go to the dealer and get oem rotors and pads.

go to heeltoe and get one of their packages and have them installed. They will be huge improvement over stock and will last much longer.

Here is what I recommend for brakes.
HT-Spec Brake Package: Stage 1 Street Enhanced
http://www.heeltoeauto.com/HT-Spec-B...-pr-65408.html

xradman

Thanks for the welcome. I think acceleration wise, it's probably quicker (0-60), but there is definite lack of torque around town when you jab on the accelerator. That's probably due to this being a high RPM 4 cyl vs. other car having a V6. Idle is also slightly rougher (vibration wise). I'm sure I'll get used to it over time.

xradman

I'm taking it to the dealer after work today to see what they can still fix under warranty. I don't have any maintenance records and the service book that came with the car doesn't have any entries. The oil life indicator shows 70% oil life and oil looks clean. I'm inclined to replace most fluids. What are recommended fluid replacement intervals for coolant, brake fluid, and transmission oil? I guess I'll be getting partial power steeling fluid replacement with the PS hose recall.

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

Welcome and congrats!

Boulder TSX

No question that the V6 in your old Diamante has more torque than the (still respectable) 166 ft. lbs of the TSX's 2.4 liter 4, and you'd certainly notice that, regardless of transmission.

I drove both versions of the TSX and felt the difference was distinct, with the manual being more lively than the auto, especially in situations like around town. Part of that is the 6MT being well-suited to utilize the high revving aspects, but much of it is lighter total weight, (magnesium transfer case, etc.)

Your mention of your idle being rougher is a surprise...the TSX is usually extremely smooth idling, (mentioned specifically in several reviews by the automotive press.) If you notice it all, there's probably something out of tune. I would have that looked at when you take it in for the other warranty work.

To answer your other question about fluids, the brake fluid is the one thing I would look at changing at 40,000 miles & 4 years, if it hasn't already been done.

nj2pa2nc

I had the brake fluid and MTF fluid changed when the car was 3+ years old with 100K miles. I do mostly highway driving. When I had the oil changed last week at a acura dealer they wrote down my front brakes were a 8 and the rears a 6 (in the green zone). Not bad for 107K-now almost 109K miles. I have the maintenance booklet filled out and stamped each time my car is serviced.

xradman

I've just been told that my car's warranty expired on June 22 (27 days ago), so no go on the warranty repair. Service adviser is going to charge $110 diagnostic fee for the power window problem. I called Acura for goodwill warranty exception, and they denied me.

Any idea on what rear power window problem might be? Both front and rear switch don't work and I've already checked the fuse. Other 3 windows work fine.

Jimmy The Saint

Well on my old mercedes it was simply the switch itself, you could try swapping switches to test that.

Jimmy The Saint

Also, I work in McLean VA so if you need a hand with stuff let me know.

xradman

Thanks,

If the problem was switch related, wouldn't it be unusual to not have the power window work with both driver's master switch as well as the passenger switch? BTW, where do you work?

Boulder TSX

It would seem very unusual to have two switches to the same window fail simultaneously. It's possible that the motor in that passenger window is bad...or maybe a connection to the motor is loose. Also, since you just bought the car, there's no way to know whether the assembly that raises the window gradually got bogged down and stuck--but that's been known to happen, too. --I would bet the source of the problem is inside the passenger door.

Jimmy The Saint

old meadow road. Probably right. I would take the door panel off and look at teh connections

xradman

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to try to take the door apart this weekend. Are there any pitfalls to look for while taking the rear door off? I don't have that fancy tool in the DIY guide. Is that really necessary or will a large screw driver do? Also the DIY guide states to lower the window, which I cannot do. Is there anything to watch out for when taking the door apart with the window up?

Jimmy The Saint

screw driver should be fine. Put some tape on it. Just do it slowly.....

Jimmy The Saint

i wonder if it is just the actuator then, because there is an actuator for each door i think. gotta be something internal, could have even come loose - especially if the car has had any body work done. They often take the inside panel off when they paint match from 1 panel to another.

Boulder TSX

My understanding is that the actuators are only involved with lock mechanisms. I'm fairly certain that power windows are independent circuits.

--But yes, the connectors to the power harness could be loose within the door.

Jimmy The Saint

ah ok.... i bet its a loose connector

xradman

I removed the door panel after work today. I could not believe what I found!

Anyone want to take a guess?

Boulder TSX

A nest of those drilling, squid-like sentinels from "The Matrix"?

xradman

LOL, not quite.

What I found was that the window was detached from the motor-regulator and tied to the door with heavy duty fishing line!!! The part that attach to the window from the motor-regulator was stuck in down position and could not be budged. The regulator appeared to be quite dead. All the wiring harness was intact. I ordered a replacement motor-regulator from Acurapartssource. It came to ~$250 including shipping, considerably less than $800 (including both parts and labor from the dealer). It looked like it would be simple repair since the motor-regulator comes as a single unit and simply bolts into the door and attaches to the window with 2 screws.

What I don't understand is why the window was tied to the door instead of being repaired. The car was under full factory warranty until last month.

Simba91102

An easy answer is that the reason is stopped working is not warranty related. For all you know that's not even the door that came with the car. Hopefully this is the only surprise you'll find, though considering the few little oddities you've included with your description of the car, (door handle inserts removed to detail the car? Hmm..... maybe they were a different color to begin with?) I wouldn't bet the farm on it. As they say, if it sounds too good to be true (clean 06 with <39K miles for $13750), well...... hope it all works out OK.

xradman

Well, the regulator finally came in today and I replaced it. It's very simple once you have the door panel off. But guess what? It wasn't the regulator that was busted. It turns out to be a bad switch. In these cars, it turns out that if the back window switch is bad, then the front switch for that window also does not work. When I swapped the window switches from the right rear window, the windows go up and down just fine. Now I have to order a switch for ~$50.

Jimmy The Saint

I told you it was the switch

Boulder TSX

Good call, Jimmy.

But in fairness to the OP, the way that the regulator was disconnected, stuck in a down position, and tied up with fishing line, it would make almost any logical person suspect there was more than a switch involved. --Still have to wonder why they disconnected the regulator and tied the window to the door like that. Quite bizarre.

kanonen

was this car stolen or something ? fishing line? I hope no other weird stuff pops out...and how the heck did the previous "owner" lose the air grills ?

Jimmy The Saint

Agreed - I was just breakin balls. Totally baffling why the window was tied with fishing line. That just doesn't make any sense.

xradman

I'm at a loss myself as to why it was done that way. It would have been just as easy to leave the windows up and connected to the regulator.

Anyways this week, I installed

XPel headlamp protective film - Bloody expensive from XPel, but I've installed one from them on every car I've bought for the past 10 years or so.

Acura TSX Genuine Trunk Liner - Very cheap on eBay from an Acura Dealer (1/2 the cost of what they cost at my regular dealership)

Clear Vinyl Floor Mat Liner - Not so cheap from eBay, but once again, I've bought one for every car I've bought for the past 10 years.

Acura Logo Aluminum Pedals - Ones on eBay look identical to the ones offered here couple years ago as a group buy. It took ~2 hours to install them. I ended up installing the dead pedal on top of the existing plastic dead pedal, because it was just too dang hard to screw into the body sheet metal (you can get the existing dead pedal off without damage by inserting a small screw driver into the slot along the side of the dead pedal and pressing in on the plastic tab inside). I installed the brake pedal on top of the bare metal pedal, because the screws that came with the kit was too short to install over the existing rubber pedal cap. I was able to disconnect the bottom of the gas pedal without difficulty thanks to the instructions I found on this website (press in on the small plastic tab at the back of the base of the gas pedal and then pull the entire pedal up). They look real nice.

Tomorrow I'm getting wire mesh grill inserts installed at Figure LLC in Manassas. They look real good. I'll post some pictures once I get that done.

xradman

Wire mesh grill installation and my front license plate solution here.

kaliraver69

Looks good xradman, congratulations on your purchase and hope you don't find any other weird issues with your ride. BTW, nice to also see you here on this forum

xradman

Hey, a familiar name. BD.com, right?

kaliraver69

Yup, that be me

Jimmy The Saint

how much did you pay for the trunk liner? 69 shipped? I wonder if it would work with my bumper bully. P.S. Let me know when you get your grill inserts I'd like to check em out - we can meet up in mcLean

xradman

Sent you a PM

RGoose18

Nice ride, just bought the same one only CGP