How many people have had their trannies die already and have they only gone out on Type-Ss?

I'd like to know what your experiences have been with failing trannies and how the dealer handled it.

I felt my tranny kinda slipping between gears and shifting more sluggishly than usual a couple days ago and then on my way home the other night it got completely stuck in 3rd gear while in D5. It wouldn't even change gears if I put it in sportshift, the gear indicator wouldn't even show the gear it was in. The check engine and VSA lights came on. The same thing happened to me this morning and the D5 light kept blinking so I'm taking my car in to the dealer after work. My car is completely stock, except for Comptech springs, and I don't race or torque brake.

I'm wondering how the replacement trannies have held up for those of you that have already had them replaced? Do Honda/Acura auto trannies really suck this much? Should I be worried about the long-term reliabilty of the tranny?

I'm seriously considering trading it in for an IS300 when the 2002 is available b/c of this, even though I know I'll lose money on trading it in so early. They seem to be more reliable and built better, but I really like my CL-S. I won't be getting the manual if I do opt for the IS, but I know that Toyota makes good automatics.

 

i don't know what's wrong with your transmission but it seems like springs have affected the VSA sensor on other CL's...

 

i lost one...they gave me a new one...simple as that

 

And I'm assuming the replced tranny has held up without any problems, right?

 

Rod,

You have a cooked tranny, you need one ASAP. I guess you are looking for 2-3 weeks till you got your CLS back.

Good luck!

 

Yeah, I figured it'd take a while to replace too. Hopefully, the loaner's a TL-S, but that's doubtful. They said probably a TL or RL, that's fine as long as it's not some crappy Geo rental.

 

Well I think the people here who have tranny problems are the people who ride it to the rev line all the time. I haven't seen tranny failures on cars that are driven more conservatively (more normally). Sure, we all redline it once in a while, but if you do that all the time, can you really expect it to hold up? It's only a frontwheel drive automatic after all. It's not some race-tuned/strengthened rearwheeldrive manual tranny that's made for the track. If you drive the former as the latter, you gotta expect it to suffer eventually.

-J

[ 07-09-2001: Message edited by: JRock ]

 

True, but I don't race and never even tried torque braking it. I mean, I don't drive like my grandma, but it's not like I'm making the tires chirp all over the place and redlining it all the time. Some people do say I drive a bit aggresively, but not to the point where I should be killing trannies with only 11K miles on them. My last car was auto and the tranny was fine for about 100K miles until it got flooded.

 

I disagree. My 1980 Toyota Corolla SR5 was not a "race-tuned/strengthened rearwheeldrive manual tranny" and I tore the absolute crap out of it. I got the car (from my parents) when it was 7 years old, drove it til it was 12 years old. This was my first car and I abused the crap out of it. Constantly dropping the clutch, peeling out and doing all sorts of awful things to it. I never had ANY problems with the engine or transmission in that car. I don't think incidents like these are isolated either. Some cars are better than others, some can handle this sort of stuff. I'm not making judgments on what our tranny can handle, but I know other cars can take this and they don't have to be race cars to do it.

 

This is rediculous! If there are this many trannys going out with less than 15,000 miles I hate to see what happens in a few years when the warranty runs out. If my tranny takes a dump with anything less than a 100,000 miles I'm going to be seriously irritated. Especially if it happens after my warranty expires.

 

I lost my tranny a few weeks ago. I never had the VSA light come on.It just was slipping really bad a every shift!! I told the dealer when it started, and they just changed the tranny fluid, but that didn't do to much..So i took it back two days later and they ordered a new tranny, only took 4 days and i had my car back, so that wasn't bad..The dealer i went to didn't have loaners so they put me in a rental. I do a lot of traveling so i had a little talk with the enterprise guy and had him put me in a Maxima , he tried a saturn at first!! Good luck with everthing, and i hope it goes smoothly for you!!!

 

Exactly, I don't think this car may be worth keeping after the warranty expires. Even if I don't go for the IS I think that by the time all these sweet 2003 models we keep hearing about are available I'll get rid of it.

 

My tranny has been acting weird lately too. In between gears, it gets confused and I can rev the engine like it is neutral and once the revs come down a bit, it will go into the next gear. Is this the same thing that other people have been experiencing? Or is this something different? I want to take it to the dealer now, but I want to be able to show a tech what it is doing so I think I'm gonna wait until I can figure out how to make it happen or it gets bad enough to where I can't drive it. Otherwise they will probably say "Nothing is wrong. Runs fine." On the other hand, I have to go in soon to get my new OEM mufflers put on. I have the droopy muffler syndrome and they ordered me a whole new set. I'm going to ask about a loaner before I leave my car anywhere, too.

EDIT - {I have just over 12,000 miles on my CL-S. Bought in January 2001.

[ 07-09-2001: Message edited by: SidVicious ]

 

SidVicious,

That's pretty much what I felt, but I also couldn't duplicate it so I didn't take it into the dealer immediately. It would only happen occassionally for about a week and half before the check engine light came on and all this other crap happened. I was going to take my car in this week anyways so I would've had them check it out anyway. I'd say you have them check it out ASAP.

 

Thanks, hopefully everything DOES go smoothly. I don't think Rick Case will hassle me though, they seem to be very good with this sort of crap. I called Acura and they were going to take my car into one of the dealers here in Miami, but I didn't want to bother going to the dealers down here so I told them I'd take it up to Rick Case myself. Hopefully going all the way up there, instead of going to one the the 2 closer dealers, pays off. I know for sure that the Miami dealers would make my life impossible trying to get them to fix things.

 

This is how mine started, then just went down hill fast. It seems that there really are a lot of tranny problems lately. I know most every car out there has some problems, but there seems to be a lot of issues with our transmissions, and most people don't even have over 25k on them!!!
For all the people that are thinking of putting a SC on their car when it comes out,(if ever??) you may want to reconsider that unless you want to put another few grand into a new or better tranny!! THis is really starting to worry me about are cars, what is going to happend when the warrenty runs out? I know if mine goes AGAIN, I'm not paying for a new one myself!!Oh and by the way, I'm not that hard on my car, so for all the people out there that think that it only happens to people that beat the crap out of their cars-beware!!!

 

So everyone that's had their tranny replaced so far hasn't had anymore problems? Were you told exactly why the original tranny died and if any revisions have been made to our trannies? I know this is highly unlikely, but if our trannies are that shitty to begin with and no revisions have been made, we're just going to keep on swapping out trannies until we use the lemon law.

 

Rod,
I was not told what was wrong with my tranny, I was only give a new one. I would have to agree with you on is this going to be a reoccurring problem. I sure hope not!!As far as having problems with my new one, I have only had it for like 1000 miles, so far no problems. We'll have to wait and see...

 

I drive 3 days a week at 200 miles per day. I now have 31,000 miles on my CLS. So far NO complaints, but my toes and everything else is crossed ! I have a 1998 Accord Coupe EX-V6. Tranny died at 78K miles and Honda covered the replacement cost etc....Aggresive driving WILL shorten the life of HONDA/ACURA Automatic Transmissions ! Give me back my manual tranny !

 

mine was leaking tranny fluid but they couldn't figure out where the leak was coming from so they gave me a new one. no problems so far.

 

Today as I was driving to work, I had the VSA, Check Engine, and the triangle lights all come on. Also, I completely lost my 3rd gear (in SS and regular auto) completely. I had to shift to 4th from 2nd to continue forward. I think I will be heading to the dealer as soon as possible.

Didn't someone go to South Coast Acura to get their transmission replaced? Did you get a loaner? What kind? Any hassles getting a replacement tranny?

TIA

 

All my lights came on too, but I was pretty much stuck in an upper gear, like 3rd for a while. This really sucks.

I took it into the dealer last night and they're looking at it today, but now word from them yet. When I took it in last night I went to park my car in reverse, but my car wouldn't move in reverse...WTF? Hopefully they'll get everything working fine again, soon, but for now I'm in a 2000 RL. I thought the RL's interior would be much nicer than ours, guess not, but it does have nice little touches. I have yet to see an interior as nice as the CL's, not even on some MB and BMWs. I'm going to have to see Lexus or Infinity interiors. The new Q's looks real nice, but haven't seen it in person.

 

If you'll remember, way back in Feb, I had this problem. I took it back because It just wouldn't shift correctly, and I took it back ot Acura (after having to leave the car with all the christmas lights on..VSA (both), the D5 light flashing, etc.) they ordered a new part. On my side, my sister had spilled some tea in the shift assembly and it was sticky and the sugar was probably shorting.

They replaced it, smiled, and washed the car.

not bad

 

I am not too worried about my warrenty running out, I got my dealer to throw in the 100K extended @ signing. However, what scares me, is not being covered under that warrenty. Has anyone with modifications similar to mine had any problems with the service department saying that the cause of the problem was a mod and therefore won't be covered? Goes for any problems, not just tranny? Thanks

 

OK, the dealer replaced the transmission shifting solenoid on my car and let it sit overnight, test drove it again, and told me that it doesn't seem to be shifting as it should so they ordered a new tranny. I should have it back by next week. This sucks, I didn't think I'd miss my car this much, but the RL's 4 speed auto is really sluggish and if you thought the CL-S felt like a boat...

 

At least you are still in an Acura. I got a Camary. Going to get my car now. Hopefully all is well.

 

we replaced one so far, due to a noise with less than a thousand miles, happened on some preps but noise went away after like 40 miles, had the transmission in 2 ship direct for the customer

 

Mine poofed at 8k mi. It was replaced in 3 days.