Hi everyone, new member here. I am trying to help my son in law and his wife out by buying there 3.2 CL type S. I see by the board that this car seems to have transmission problem. Can anyone give me the run down on this car? They have never mentioned having any problems with there transmission before. What generation car is this....etc. it is a 2001 Cl type S with 50,000 +/- miles on it . Thanks for all you help.

 

the tranny problem with the CLS is a 'when' not 'if' it will die. Some go at higher mileage depending on how the car is driven, some within 1500 miles. it's a shame because everything else on the car is rock solid in terms of reliability. if you are looking to keep the car past 100k miles then i would advise against getting one. under 100k and acura will usually replcae the tranny at no charge (there's an extended warranty on the tranny because of the problem).

 

Acura increased the warranty on the tranny to 100,000mi. because of the problems. Other than that, they are pretty trouble free.

 

The tranny has a warranty for 100k miles, but since the car is discontinued the value of the car is dropping fast...

 

Some people on here make it sound like the car is a rolling time bomb. The fact is, most of the early '01s for some reason or another don't have any tranny problems. I haven't, and it seems like a lot of other who have (or had) an early model '01 didn't have any either. Simply put, most people don't have problems.

 

simply put, we have an entire forum devoted to the tranny problem. saying some aren't affected is just wishful thinking IMHO. there have been many early 01 model tranny failures. my 02' went at a mere 1500 miles on my 02' cls...it IS something to consider when thinking of purchasing an 01-03 CL Auto without a doubt.

http://www.acura-cl.com/forums/forum...s=&forumid=126

 

That statment isn't true. Your making it seem that at one time or another ALL 01-03 trans have or will fail.

 

Yes, trannies failed, but we on this board are a minority. Most owners of CL's aren't on this board. I'm sure since most people on the boards are also enthusiast and drive their cars pobably harder and mod their cars to get more power, the trannies may go quicker. My tranny is fine and I have a 2001 CL. The tranny issue affected maybe 10-15% of the cars, MAYBE. Acura says 5 but on the boards its like 25% but I don't think its a big deal. You have the extended warrenty, and if the trans doesn't go before 100k miles, I doubt its gonna go because it was defective.

 

ok let me ask you a question here. i would assume the people at acura look at statistics all the time for failures in their cars and use that info to determine where problems lie...obviously with this statistical info they would be able to determine which trannies are failing on which VIN#s and which ones aren't. if, like some have suggested in this thread, some cars aren't affected, do you honestly think acura would be spending so much time with tranny revisions and PCM changes if they already have a tranny that doesnt have the problem available to them? the obvious answer is no. ALL the auto trannies are defective, all of them are time bombs.

 

It should not be a big deal. You are cover by acura extended warranty for 7yrs/100k. This was extended by the manufacture for all 01-02 and some 03 auto only. I had a 01 Cl-S auto for 1.5 years with 12k miles on it and never had trouble, but then came the 03 6 spd and I had to trade to the manual box. A must IMHO!!

 

Get them a 6-speed.

 

I had a 2001 cls... first tranny broke at 30 000 miles... second one broke 8 000 miles later and then it was fine but I changed for a manual at 50 000 miles.

everything else about the car is great though

 

 

Does the transmission problem seem to occur when your using the auto-stick or in full automatic mode?

 

doesn't matter which mode you use. but remember, most cars aren't affected by the transmission, as you have read from above. it is only 15~10% and thats fact.

 

I think you are blowing it a little out of proportion. I agree to an extent on the logic you are using but not everyone's tranny has died (eventually all will fail, but thats true of every car and every gearbox!). There are plenty of trannies that have not failed and I notice fewer and fewer posts about this.

Unfortunately mine has been one of the failed trannies.

 

I agree that not all the trannies fail, but just knowing it's a potential problem would be enough to steer me toward a CLS 6 Speed or something else. It's a pretty high rate of failure, IMO.

 

i agree that the tranny is faulty. Should not hinder you from buyinh the car, tho. supposeldy only affects 10-15%.

 

I hear ya, unfortunately I have to live with the car now. Still love it but every once in a while the thought of tranny failure creeps back into my mind.

 

yea the failure rate is high, i knew this before buying the car but it had no affect on my decision, plus you have the warranty till 100,000 miles

 

That's the reason I bought a 6spd instead of an automatic CLS.

 

WAKE up your dipshits and read... He is buying the 01 CL-S off of his son in-law!... there is no option to buy a 6-speed in the question he is asking..

 

nd4spdmd

To answer you questions, it comes down to how long you think you want to own the car Vs how many miles you intend drive it before reaching 100K.

The bottom line is once you come to 100K after that your on your own as far as Tranny issues goes, from what i read a new tranny costs around $5 to 6K. The question comes how many trannys you will go after 100K and IF you buy a new tranny after 100K does it come with any type of a Warranty.

Did it stop me buying a 2001 CL/s 3 weeks ago ? No.

I will be at the Acura dealer tomorrow and will ask him some of these questions.

Also another question i would ask yourself is what are the in-laws willing to sell the CL/s for. A private party seller / 01/cls/clean/50000 miles your looking around $15,000.

the bottom line is you got untill 2006 or 50000 miles before your tranny warranty runs out.

But from the looks of it, future book values do not look promising, especially with the car been discountinued. So if your looking to buy the car as a 3-5yr replacement my advice would be to pass, 1 to 3 years then buy. If honda/acura offer some kind of an extended warranty after 100K it will help.

What should of been done when honda/acura where getting alot of complaints about tranny issues, owners should of demanded to be able to purchase some kind of extended warranty after 100K along with it been extended with the 7/100k. I dont think alot of owners where looking to keep the car long term so then this was never looked into, of what happens to a CL/s owner after 100K.

I don't have all the answers, i'm still researching into options.

I will say its a nice car to own and drive, yes 6 speed is nice to have but its not a must. After all the car still has 265HP is its not underpowered my any means.

 

The summary of what is wrong and what has been done to fix the problem:

http://www.acura-cl.com/forums/showt...hreadid=104677

There is a problem. But there has been a resolution. The new transmissions and software are revised. 2 years ago lots of people initially received bad replacements, bad work, and bad service. I don't think anyone who has gotten a new transmission in the past year have had a problem with it.

I just had mine replaced. Excellent service, fixed in a week. Totatlly different transmission/car.

However, if you drive +20k miles/year, this is NOT a car to consider. I'll reach the 7 year mark before 100k. I'm covered for 4 more years.

4 more years is better than most NEW car warranties. Not bad for a 3 year old car.

 

I read that, but he doesn't have to do it....given the issues with CLS trannies, we're just looking out for the guy.

 

I'll rephase my response.

I didn't even consider buying a CLS w/ an automatic. The tranny issues scared me enough to convince me to look at other cars. Luckily Acura made a 6spd, so I avoided the auto tranny issue all together.

It's nice that you're helping out family members, but you should know that there is a possibility of future transmission problems.

 

Is it a red CL-S, is your son in law named Joey and in the Army by any chance?? If so, I worked with him for a little while in Maryland. Had thanksgiving dinner at their house last year. Good people. Anyway, I cannot give you any firsthand advice on the automatic transmission because I have a 6-speed CLS, but as far as the rest of the car it is solid and I am very pleased overall. Good luck in your decision.

 

I really appreciate everyone comments. FYI I Have to buy this car, and am buying for the balance of what they owe which is apprx. $18,000.00 Everything in the car looks and sounds great, they have never said anything about the trans, so i can only assume they haven't experience any problems with it. Becuase this will be a backup car/weekend car, cause we both drive older cars now, we're going to try to save it just for the weekend. This will help keep the mileage down, cuase normally I average about 20,000 mile a year. When I do get it, I want to put on a wing in the back. something that looks like it came from the factory. Anyyone have any recommendation on where i can get one, and have pics of it on there 01 cl-s

 

check with junior at c-c-c.net...I think they have some wing options including the OEM spoiler...

 

m5 lip looks better imo......not a wing, tho

 

52,800 miles - NO TRANNY problems ever.

 

Typical reaction by some to the tranny issue. It's actually about 2% at most and isn't it funny how some guys have blown 3 !!!!

Yeah we have a tranny forum, we've got 15,000 members, how many total of them have had a problem ?? Probably not any larger percentage than M3 owners who were blowing engines.

They extended the warranty and are fixing any problems, and 99% of the members of this board drive 5ATs and have had zero problems.

 

:bananahump: :buff:

 

sorry, meant a spoiler

would love to see what they look like on an 2001, if anyone has pics of it

 

its much more than 2 or 3%....do a poll and no, even people with the new tranny are still blowing theirs...

 

sorry, meant a spoiler

would love to see what they look like on an 2001, if anyone has pics of it

 

Let me put the 'tranny' issue to rest... IF there would be a significant defect reported - Acura would do a RECALL... I am not certain what the failed number must be for a recall to take place... But if there was no recall - then the number wasn't significant...

Also... and a service I haven't ever used myself ... but for a 'hi roller' which puts over 20kmiles... I heard some folks 'cracked' how to 'roll back' the milage... Yeah.. 'unscupulous'... and perhaps immoral.... but if your tranny has a deffect and which Acura KNOWs about ... but decides to RISK and NOT fix ... I certainly beleive anyone is entitled to roll back their mileage and if within 7 years fix it 'under warantee'.... An eye for an eye baby ...

$.03

 

Back it up with some #s. I looked at the Tranny thread and the poll for " By year and model of failure " came up with 127 members over a lengthy period( 113 CLs or CLS-s ) out of 16,176 members registered or 0.698%

And that's for an Enthusiast site where we tend to drive a tad aggressively. Remember, Acura has sold hundreds of thousands of TLs, TL-Ss, CLs and CL-Ss going back to 2000 with this 5AT.

 

Uhh, Acura made 2 different CL's with 2 DIFFERENT trannies. There is no way to tell exactly by registration numbers because you can't tell who has a 1st gen, who has a 2nd gen or who doesn't even own a CL. The only accurate way is a poll of some sort.