NorthWestAnimal

hey im new i just went and got a 2001 acura cl 3.2L not sure what to do first? it is running completely stock!

Slobo7x

lol Congrats and welcome!

Enjoy it stock, then start modding a few months later. The car is pretty quick from factory as it is..

mikebikelife

iTrader: (3)

Search , The car is definitely not fast .

NorthWestAnimal

yeah i got some money to buy couple things for it just trying to figure out what i should do first intake and headers or exhaust???

OperationDarkie

iTrader: (1)

put some money aside for another transmission, cause it will go out.

NorthWestAnimal

the tranny has been replaced by previous owner should i still save?

03 tls nc

iTrader: (6)

You should do the CAI and headers before you do exhaust if your looking for performance gains. But should make sure all of your maintenance is up to date before doing any thing. A high flow cat would help, but with no engine mods exhaust will not change much but sound. If your stock exhaust is in good shape you can delete the mid or both rear mufflers but keep the resonator.

NorthWestAnimal

sweet sounds good yeah ill do that. thanks yeah i do wanna make it a little louder it is way to quite and not sure what to go for in exhaust and yeah ill do the cai and headers first

ASpirational

iTrader: (1)

Look into nature of the 'replacement.' If you can't ask the previous owner or don't have any documentation, a couple of minutes under the hood should clear this up. You more than likely have an OE unit that was either directly overhauled or replaced with another overhauled unit. There are known engineering issues with the OE CL transmission that can only be meaningfully addressed by upgrading to a compatible newer unit, so it's apt to fail again in both scenarios, and there's no set mileage or timetable for it. Some went through two, three, or four rebuilds before hitting 100,000 miles, some made it well into 100,000, and I hear that a few are pushing 200,000-300,000 miles on their original unit.

Ultimately, if the car has an OE transmission, you'd indeed do well to put aside $1.5-2 grand. You may win the luck of the draw, but if you don't, that should be enough to acquire a later-build 5-speed from a 7G Accord, 3G Odyssey, or 3G TL from a salvage facility and have it installed. By going this route, you'll have a unit that isn't as failure-prone as the CL OE unit (as it was redesigned to deal with the inadequacies of ours), requires little modification to work with our engine(s), and is often cheaper than rebuilding the OE unit, which has been known to fail again shortly after overhaul. Several members including myself have done this, and there's a wealth of information throughout the forums.

Universe93B

Congrats on the CL!

As far as the tranny issue goes -there are cars out there that have pushed high miles without failures.

I have a 2001 CL-S, tranny was replaced by the dealer at 44,000 miles when I went in for a regular oil change during that recall time. I currently have 161,000 miles with no mechanical problems, regular maintenance. I have changed the tranny fluid every 20-30k miles on it -not sure if that makes any difference. Fluid still light pink. I understand there's no way to "guess" if the tranny is going bad or not -mechanics always tell me to check the fluid color from time to time.

Friend's 2001 CL-S is approaching 200k miles soon with no tranny failures.

ASpirational

iTrader: (1)

It can't hurt, and it seems to be a common factor among folks who are getting good life out of the transmission. It didn't pan out for my OE unit (done at ~130,000 miles), but I still feel productive and educated from having gotten under the car all those times. In fact, I intend to keep that change schedule with my 3G Accord unit.

That said, I didn't mean to come off as the Grim Reaper as much as I wanted to suggest that transmission failure is a real possibility to consider not just because of the likelihood, but because there are good alternatives for getting it taken care of now. No need to launch into a driveling rage about how Honda sucks as some folks did in the past.

NorthWestAnimal

sounds good ill do that.

NorthWestAnimal

when i go for exhaust what should i go for?

aznboi2424

iTrader: (10)

Welcome to Acurazine! I hope you're enjoying this car as much as we have been during the years!

NorthWestAnimal

yeah i love the car so amazing!!! what cai should i get?