I haven’t had this car for too long so I don’t know how the transmission is supposed to feel. However, whenever I punch the gas pedal, there is around a second delay between me hearing the engine revving loudly and the power actually being delivered to the wheels. This is especially noticeable when I need to accelerate suddenly on the highway. The strange thing is that it doesn’t happen when I ease the gas down. Does anybody have any thoughts on this?

 

The automatic transmission CL-S is well known for tons of transmission problems. Acura actually extended the warranty on them (though that's long past now) but the problem is a design flaw, so simply rebuilding the transmission or replacing it doesn't resolve the issue. You can read a ton about it in these forums but the only real premanant solution is to replace it with a different model of transmission from a later Honda, or do a 6-speed swap (which takes a lot more cost and specialized work).

 

that's known as kick down, which is normal to have a delay on our cars. The intended feature to address kick down is the select-able shift feature which allows you to ride in the lower gear and then accelerate, rather than the car kicking it down which take a little longer.

if you are concerned about the transmission, you can search through the 2G CL and TL forums and you can get a good feeling for what happens when they die.

in general:

• doesn't shift into a gear
• flares (engine RPMS go really high) when shifting up to the next gear (which should drop RPMS)
• flashing D5 light indicating a transmission error has occurred
• transmission automatically shifting down to a gear such as 2nd (very common) or 3rd.

there are more, but that's what I recall mostly.

 

Thanks for the information! It doesn’t really bother me as much now that I know it’s normal. I’ve heard of the many transmission issues with the CL, so every little flaw gets me worried of a major problem down the road.

 

All of the Honda transmissions are sensitive to proper and complete fluid changes. That's one thing that really stands out among those who've lasted as long; they perform the 3X3 transmission fluid change regularly. it keeps passageways, filters and solenoid screens free of materials so that the clutch mechanisms can continue to work properly and prevent clutch material from being worn away, building up, clogging and promoting to the cycle of clutch not full engaging even more, slippage occurring and more buildup occurring.

unfortunately, in some earlier transmissions, this is unavoidable as there are design flaws that no amount of fluid changes can counter.

 

x2 on all of that...

My CL-S went through three transmissions before the last ‘fix’ that Acura had that supposedly did when it went in for the last transmission before I sold it. After my first transmission replacement through Acura I was the same way worrying about every small thing when the trans didn’t feel right.

Seems like normal down shift, just keep up on the maint and if it gets worse make sure you give Acura a ton of crap. They know the transmission had issues and they should work with you on any kind of replacement.