Hi gang, stumbled onto this site today. My wife has a CL type S with the 6 speed (I own the slow, light, tossable cars in the family). I love driving her car mainly due to the fantastic motor/transmission. My biggest gripes with the car are the clutch takeup (I've gotten used to it) and the throttle response, or lack thereof. She has a fairly early build of the 6 speed and whenever you take your foot off the gas it seems to take about a quarter to half a second for the revs to actually drop. In fact they seem to spike slightly most of the time before dropping. My question basically is whether or not this is standard behavior for the car or if possibly Acura has made changes to the ECU over the past year and a half to rid the car of this annoying habit and the dealer can flash the unit. Thanks in advance.

 

what did have to say about this?

 

standard.......that's the dual mass flywheel keeping the revs up for a second before they fall


btw, welcome to the board and the 6speed owners club!!!! we are a rare bread heh

 

I bought my '03 CLS 6sp late January of this year. If anything, it's throttle response it nearly instantaneous. Much better than my '01 CLS I traded in.

 

Ugh, I was afraid that would be the answer. Very "un Hondalike". This coming from someone who has owned 2 Preludes (1 4WS, woohoo!) an Accord and Civic Si hatch. It's really my only major complaint with the car outside of the weight but just about anything feels massive compared to my 2300 lb Miata and 2600 lb Mini

It's really a shame the CL is going away. Sales didn't seem that bad and the type S is a truly amazing car. Honda does motors RIGHT!

 

I've got mine in Oct. 02 and it acts the same. When I put in the clutch I need to wait a sec for the rpms to drop so that I make a smooth transisition to the next gear.

It's normal. Like Zapata says it's probably due to the dual mass flywheel. They make this car's clutch for non performance people, so it's takes a bit to get used to if your a hotrodder

 

Throttle response when revving the motor is excellent, my complaint is how long it takes to drop revs. With my Miata it is instantaneous, same with my friend's RX8. Most of the BMW's I've driven lately seem to exhibit the same problem and the Mini is horrible building AND dropping revs, but still a blast to drive.

 

Yes mainly from the heavy dual mass flywheel. Sometimes the ECU does seem to hold the revs especially with the AC on. Welcome to the board!!

 

I hate having that half second wait to shift gears to make it smooth Of course the flip side is if you're beating it to the rev limiter (umm, not that I would ever do tha....oh hell yes I do it EVERY time I drive the car) you don't notice it at all. It is a truly amazing motor, I have NEVER driven a car that will get rubber twice in one gear with just me in the car. Once from a standstill and then again when the Vtec hits, very cool! My wife traded in a V6 Solara with a 5 speed on the CL, what a difference for two cars with the same MSRP. Yes, it was an extremely loaded Solara.

 

I just wanted to say...

i my CL-S

 

I love mine more

Yep. it's kinda weird that you can bang gears pretty easily (up to 7K in each gear), but if you want to drive like a grandpa, you have to wait half a second and be really percise w/ your shifting and release of the clutch. It's all in the timing, unless you want to "rock the boat"

The CLS definitely kicks butt on the Solara even tho' they are almost in the same class. I even think the styling is somewhat similiar (I'll get flamed on this point I'm sure), but the CLS definitely is a heck of a lot sportier performance wise.

Your wife has great taste in cars

 

wow hehe.....welp Comptech USA makes flywheel for the car.

www.comptechusa.com

 

Ah yes... the revs not dropping off fast enough issue... I don't like it but have learned to deal with it. But I've heard upgrading to the Comptech Flywheel/Clutch helps. I remember driving in CompTech's proto CLS with their flywheel/clutch installed... revs dropped twice as fast... made for smoother upshifts/downshifts.

 

It's standard response but I don't credit the flywheel. I think it's the engine computer trying to minimize poluttants by lowering the revs slowly.

 

good sir, i beg to differ It's the DMF......our's weighs close to 60lbs or something....that's alot of rotating mass....

Perhaps the ecu has a little but that dang flywheel is HEAVY....

 

 

Dual mass flywheel it is. I noticed it when I test drove the car. Yoiu get used to it, & you can time shifts & make it smooth. You can get rid of though. Comptech make a new flywheel/clutch for out cars. But it's $1149! A few guys have it installed.
http://solar.innercite.com/comptech/510130.html

 

Besides the heavy as a tank flywheel the ECU is designed to hang the throttle a bit for emissions purposes .The clutch takeup is a perverse set up that virtually everybody complains about early on but aftersome drive time you get used to the lightswitch action of the thing .The CT flywheel seems to have a pretty good effect on these cars so it is a pricey but worthwhile upgrade.
Jens

 

Someone said the same thing to me the other day after seeing the commercial for the '04 Solara...

 

Thanks for all the replies guys, this is a great board with some obviously nice people. Well an least I know it is fixable even if pricey. My wife plans on keeping the car for a long time so at some point in the future I'm sure we'll end up dropping the new flywheel in. I had a feeling the ECU might be doing it for emissions reasons and have a hand in it as well, mainly because the car seems to build revs quite happily. I suppose a heavy moving flywheel would too though.

As far as Solara styling, I actually thought it was pretty nice. When I saw the commercial for the new one the other day I honestly thought it was for the new Accord coupe. My wife was lucky enough to get the Solara at a HUGE discount. It was a 1 year old demo with 3000 miles on it and she got them to knock $5000 of the sticker. She was insistent on having a stick and, needless to say, your typical Solara buyer has no use for one so the dealer had two on the lot that they were dumping. Nice quiet car with a nice motor and ride but the handling was abysmal. It was a real eye opener going from the Solara which seemed very nice at the time to the CLS which was amazingly better in every category and even felt lighter in spite of weighing a couple hundred punds more than the Toyota.

 

Any thoughts on the longevity of the lightened Comptech flywheel/clutch? Should it last 100K (with average use) like other OEM Honda/Acura set-ups or do these things have very short lives?

I hope Comptech is still around (and still making stuff for the CL) in 5 - 10 years when I need to change out worn parts on this car.

 

The revs staying up when you let go the gas is because of the flywheel+pulley (weighing in well over 35lbs!!). The throttle being hesitant is a 'feature' some cars have... can be relieved by adjusting the throttle-position sensor. Search back to former posts of mine we have discussed this in great and excrutiating detail.

I currently have the UR pulley + Comptech Flywheel... and the car is bitchin'!

Welcome to the club...

 

I don't know about you guys, but I think the throttle respojnse on the CL-S is awesome. I actually like the rpm hang because it helps at the drag strip when I powershift. After driving my CL for a coupel days in a row, then going to my Mustang there is a very noticeable difference in throttle response, to say the least.