Ok, so I'm driving down the New York Thruway today and all the sudden I look out my rear-view mirror and see smoke coming from my exhaust. I drive for another mile or so and it goes away temporarily, then when I go to accelerate, it awkwardly dropped a gear for half a second before bringing back up to 5th, never happened before. Then the smoke comes back maybe a minute later and I pull over, open the hood, under the hood is smoking too. Had it towed to Acura to be checked out tomorrow. Anyone have any ideas what it could be?

 

Spontaneous downshift to 2nd is the classic sign of transmission failure - it's done.

I've never heard of smoke accompanying these failures though, so that may be unrelated. What color?

Bluish - Oil
Black - fuel
White - coolant (head gasket)

 

Hopefully its not a serious problem. We all the trannies are glass, but the engines are pretty damn solid.

 

It was a grey-ish white smoke. It didn't downshift all the way to 2nd as I'd been cruising on the highway (5th gear on the regular auto, not tip), and it may have dropped to 4th or 3rd, not really sure as I was focusing on the smoke. Would white smoke mean I blew a head gasket or what?

 

Also to add, the tranny was replaced at 55,000 miles, I bought the car at 62,000 and have driven it fairly conservatively to 67,000, doesn't really make sense. I understand it's a glass tranny, but 12,000 miles for a new replacement? Seems shitty enough to ask for a brand new car for the inconvenience. Also, wouldn't I have recognized some shifting problems earlier? Or would it just slip out of nowhere and be done that day?

 

If it downshifted and overrev'd couldn't it damage the head? Wouldn't that cause it to smoke? This happened to my friends car but I dont remember what color smoke was coming out.

 

driving conservatively doesn't mean anything cause i remember a while back on here that a guy went to Acura for a tranny replacement and not even a thousand mile went by the tranny took a dump again.

 

That's absolutely ridiculous and even though under warranty, a terrible misconvenience. I may be looking into an '05-'06 TL if that's really the case. Hopefully Acura will be willing to help with it.

 

Well was it one of the trannys made after 02/05. Acura updated those trannys and people seem to think they are built much better then the old ones. The good thing is your under warranty so if you failed it will be covered at no expense to you.

 

Maybe you blew a line off and sprayed AT fluid on the manifold?

That would explain lunching the trans and the smoke.

 

Did the VSA light or check engine come on and stay on? Both times my tranny died that happened.

 

My tranny was replaced maybe a year ago (only a few months before I bought the car, so yes, after 2/05). Neither the VSA or check engine lights came on which was something awkward I was wondering about. Also, the engine temp (by the needle inside the car) was still normal, so I think it has to be a head gasket. I'm just hoping there is no head/valve damage. I'm kind of hoping it's completely destroyed because I really have my eyes on the 3G TL.

 

Bump! Any input?

 

I hate to tell you this, but if it were your head gasket you WOULD likely see the temperature rise, not stay the same. When the head gasket goes, you either lose coolant, coolant goes into your oil, or oil gets into your coolant. Any of these will cause your temperature to not be normal. I would say it's not head gasket and listen to the previous half a dozen posts of the people who told you it's likely your tranny.

 

If it's not, then I'm happy, I get to keep my CL. If it is, then I'll move up to a 3G TL, so either way I win.

 

Also, in my opinion, unless the engine had work done on it by unlicensed techs, i highly doubt the head gasket or any mechanical failure would occur in the engine at 67000 miles while at cruising speeds on the highway. The JA32 motor is bulletproof... it's the automatic tranny that has issues . Turning 2500 RPM in 5th is like an afternoon nap for that motor. The symptom you described with the shift hiccup does sound like the grade logic circuit issue, hence a failing transmission. I'm on my 3rd.

 

I've decided if it is the transmission, I think I may get rid of it anyway. I need a reliable car and I can't worry about just driving the car around every day and having the transmission blow after 12,000 miles, you know what I mean?

I guess it's my fault for having purchased the car prior to knowing that it had transmission problems, but what can you do. We'll see what happens.

 

if it is the tranny, then just have acura replace it. no need to replace the car. my 01 CL-S has 77k and the tranny is shifting hard 2-3 but i still drive it everyday.

 

Get the new tranny and enjoy the car... not to many have failed with the latest updated tranny.

 

Whatever happend it doesnt sound good...!!!

 

Update everyone:

It was just the transmission. It is completely being replaced under warranty and I'm actually kind of excited for it. If I like the way it's driving, I think I'm going to have to reward it with a few mods. If not, well...we'll see.

 

I'm beginning to think more and more that my coolant issue is head gaskets, but before I rip hold the engine off I have some questions:

What are some determining factors or telltale signs that an acura head gasket has failed? Should I even try to do this myself or bite the bullet and let a shop do it?

 

Oil and water cross contamination.
Hydrolock with coolant in a cylinder.
Fouled plugs with coolant or oil.

Leakdown test should confirm the problem and cylinders affected.

 

did u have a extended warranty or does the original warranty cover tranny problems bc of the recall?(i have 01 cls with 63k and am just curious, i had heard its warrantied to 109xxx but i didnt know if thats with the extended warranty or just the orgignal....)

thanks for any responses

 

Covered under original warranty because of the bad transmissions Acura made for this car. Also the engine mounts had to be replaced as well, which were also under warranty.