Hey guys, I need a favor. My professor said we could write a paper on a company that we feel is in need of fixing a problem and what are the possible solutions. I decided to do my paper on Acura and their transmissions. (Go figure) I know that they offered the extended warranty and all the other jazz, but I have 10 questions that I need professional and direct answers to. ( I need this A guys) The questions are formed as if you are a service manager for Acura. I know most of these questions have been answered in threads, but I just need to show the prof. that I got good reponses and that this is a very serious issue. If you don't want to answer all them, answer the ones you want. Thanks alot guys. Hey Mods, if you want to move this to Ramblings, thats okay too.

Here are the questions.

Q1) What has been your experince with recalls that were issued?

Q2) What steps have been taken to rectify the problem with the faulty transmissions?

Q3) What is the cost for fixing each transmission? (if this info is known)

Q4) What are the possible problems that may get in the way of fixing the transmissions?

Q5) What are the vehicles that are most effected?

Q6) Will there be a warranty given to customers to cover future costs if the transmission were to fail again?

Q7) Do you know if Acura has any problems with its vehicles that hasn't been recalled yet?

Q8) What are some of the symptoms to look for to determine if he or she has a bad transmssion?

Q9) Has there been any statistics gathered on Acuras with these transmissions?

Q10) Will future models have the same problems.

 

EricL. Paging EricL.

This is right up his alley.

 

1) I haven't had any recalls on my '03 yet.

2) I've been reading and researching a lot of information on the transmission to get a general idea of what is wrong with it, and what I should do if and when my transmission fails.

3) Under warranty, zero dollars to the customer, but it will cost Acura corporate about 2,000 dollars per repair.

4) Aftermarket modifications. Some dealerships are very intolerant of mods, and they will blame it on the mods, therefore refusing transmission work.

5) It seems like '00-'02 models were the most affected by the transmission problem. I've seen more '02, however, most likely due to the Type-S model producing more power, which translates to more strain on the transmission.

6

 

Well, 10 is easy, since the car is no longer being manufactured.

 

You've gotta be kidding me. I clicked on Submit by mistake, so I edited it, and now it says I can only edit within 5 minutes of posting. Darn it.

 

I'll give it a shot

1) No recalls have been issued. We are servicing the transmissions as they come into us.

2) There have been a couple changes made within the transmission. The latest, and last revision seems to have fixed the problem.

3) (sorry, not sure of this answer. I believe a new tranny is around $4k... but these trannies are not new... so it's probably a fraction of that.. but then you have to add in labor/time to reinstall)

4) The biggest problem at first was supply. We were backed up for weeks due to the large number of failures that seemed to happen simultaniously. Thankfully things have slowed in the last 6 months, so we are now able to turn around a repair within 1-2 weeks.

5) The vehicles affected are the 2001 - early 2003 Acura CL, 2002 - early Acura 2003 TL, 2001-2002 Honda Odyssey, 2001-2002 Honda Accord and 2001-2002 Honda Prelude.

6) Honda/Acura has extended the powertrain warranty for 7 years and 100,000 miles for the cars listed above. Any failures beyond that threshold will be taken on a case by case basis.

7) A small percentage of cars which received new transmissions towards the beginning of the failures had reoccuring problems, but the last revision to the tranny has since fixed these errors, so we are no longer seeing multiple failures on one car.

8) If the transmission begins to slip, bring it to your dealer ASAP. The tranny will slip intermittently at first, so please bring it in then before it gets worse.

9) I'm not sure what stats you are looking for. We do know that the extended warranty covers a potential of approximately 1.5 million cars. Right now Acura's numbers have the failure rate at 2-3% of the total production of all cars listed above.

10) As mentioned, the transmissions have been redesigned which is why there are very few failures in the 2003 models. To date, all of the 2004 models are running great, so the changes they made appear to be the right ones.

Damn... I actually sound like a tech hehe....

 

The problem with the extended warranty is that it only helps AFTER then transmission fails. As a vital component of the car, directly related to the safety of the occupants, Acura must do something to PREVENT it from happening.

I know that "the fix" seems to have fixed the problem. But my '03 still gets hiccups sometimes, and it's worrisome, while at the same time, annoying as hell. Every time it gets a hiccup, I tense up and prepare for the worst. And it gets hiccups like 5 times a day. I can't live with such fear and worries. Argh.

 

Thanks guys, lookin good so far.