Hello fellow Cl owners.

I am a lurker on this site and visit here everyday. I love my 2001 CLS despite hearing about the tranny problems and what not. Tonight was the first time that my car actually scared me, I was wondering if any CL guru's can give me some advice and help me with my problem.

I was driving tonight in SS mode. All of a sudden, as I tried to shift from 3rd to 4th grade, it seemed as though my shift did nothing but instead, the gear shifted down into 2nd. My tachometer rised to around 6k rpm... I immediately slapped the shifter into auto mode but that didn't help. The tach. was still around 6k rpm, the vsa light, the traction control (!) light, and the check engine light came on.

I proceeded to drive to the nearest neighborhood and put my car in park and turned off the engine. When i restarted the engine, the check engine light was still on... can anyone help me? Am I looking at a new tranny? I'm at 150k+, what could I possibly do? According to the previous owner, this is the 2nd tranny and it was installed around 90K. Do you think my local Acura Dealer would give me a goodwill tranny? Any help would appreciated!

 

I would go to your local dealer and talk with them about a goodwill replacement or maybe a 1/2 and 1/2 situation.

 

Sounds like a textbook trany failure to me! At 150K it is safe to say you are probably on your own paying for a trany. It’s worth a try but I am sure they will not pay for something like that when you are 43000 miles out of EXTENDED trany warranty. Your best bet would be to get a trans from a junk yard for $1000 or less and go balls out. Buy a shop manual, get some tools, grab your balls, and change that sucker yourself. It’s not that hard and the 3” thick, commercially available for about $100, service manual gives you a step-by-step idiot proof instruction with pictures and diagrams on how remove and then step-by-step to reinstall the replacement trany. Otherwise you are looking at $4000+ at the dealer unless they cut you a deal on the trany but either way it aint cheap. You could also have "Joe-blow" local mechanic install whatever trany you locate and get away for less than $2000 probably. Start searching at junk yards on the web. I like http://car-part.com/ but I’m sure there are many good places to locate one. I would also try to locate a used one that is from the newer redesigned batch of auto trans's where the problem was supposedly fixed. Hopefully someone will chime in with exactly how to identify a trany as one of the newer redesigned units. Best of luck with that though and I am sorry you have to go through this.

If you are really feeling BALLSY, forget about the autotragic trany worries, step up to the big time and do a 6 speed manual conversion. With enough time, lots of confidence, help from the more than qualified board members, patience, willingness to learn, and the right tools, anyone could eventually figure the conversion out. While that is optimistic I think it is probably true. Take a look at these treads on the 2G TL board where these guys are converting their auto TL’s to 6 speeds. Fsttyms1 comes to mind as the God and pioneer of this process here at Acurazine and is helping many others do it simultaneously. I am sure he would help among others. The process is identical on the CL as it is on the TL and the same parts are required.

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172618
https://acurazine.com/forums/technology-16/anybody-have-sony-t616-132270/

 

that's what i was afraid of. I'm hoping for a goodwill tranny replacement. I know it's a LONG shot but I guess it's worth a try?

I wouldn't mind the 6 speed swap at all except for the fact that I am still in school and really have no time for any major projects since the CL is daily driven. The thought of $2-5k coming out of my pocket hit me like a baseball to the groins. I love the car but I don't know what to do.

 

The swap for the 6mt wouldnt really take that long. 3-7 days if planned properly based on what I am seeing fromt the guys doing it and if you read those whole threads I linked you to you will see that you can keep you current motor ecu and gauges using a special adapter mentioned near the end of the first thread. I think they are doing it for 3K total. Try to get it repalced goodwill at the dealer and then take it from there.

 

So I should go ahead and call all the local Acura Dealerships and ask them tranny replacement? Should I mention the goodwill thing or do you guys think they will just say if they'll do it or not?

 

Go in with a hot chick, sister, or mother and have her cry hystericaly. Have her display her extreem emotional distress over finances and the loss of the use of the car. Play the good guy routine and go directly to the top of the food chain.

 

if that works, I might as well drive to Lafayette and pull that stunt on you, maybe I'll get a comptech'd CL for cheap? =]

 

Sorry, I dont do goodwill. Stay focused.

 

Ok, so I just went for a drive. Most of the time I drive in SS mode but this time I just drove in auto mode. Only the check engine light was on.... *fingers crossed* maybe my car is just throwing a code? Maybe it's the MAF sensor or oxygen sensor like my mom's car a few months ago?

 

Take it to Autozone and get the code checked out. That'll give you a very good idea as to what's going on, although it does sound like very common symptoms of a failed tranny.

 

Your tranny is dead. Face it dude.

I wouldn't really suggest driving it much. When mine was on it's last few breaths it would slip from 5th -> 2nd while going 50+ mph.. definitely not fun to have your face almost go through the windshield (luckily there was a seatbelt involved)

 

Have the CEL code checked. Have them reset the CEL and drive it for a while and see if it comes back. There are tons of anomolies that occur. Could be nothing, could be your tranny. Only one way to find out.

 

See posting https://acurazine.com/forums/ramblings-12/tivo-replay-tv-etc-193617/,


I am here in South ATL, and my tranny died two and half weeks ago. I am on my way to pick-up the car from Aamco now. total cost $2500. I tried Nalley Acura, and the best they offered was 25% off and the cost of $2600 to $2700 out the door. I found a tranny shop here in south metro area that will replace the tranny with a rebuilt one for $1900 to $2000. I found it after I told Aamco to take apart the transmission so I was already in bed for $550. The shop is in Fayetteville, GA called Speedy Transmission. He gets the transmissions from a local guy who rebuilds nothing but Honda transmissions. The turn around time can be 2days if he has one, or 7days if he has to rebuild your tranny.

 

Clear the light & trade it in or sell it. Dump it before you have to sink even more $ into it. 150K miles on a dd is nuts. Get a used civic or something cheap. Then save your $ up for a newer car.

 

This is good advice if you dont know how to or dont want to turn all your own wrenches.

 

Has this ever been a symptom of a tranny going? Only happened once but...getting on onramp I go to WOT and first-second was normal then when I hit vtec in second and then the tires slipped on some sand or ice or what not and then caught again but then the car just started bouncing off the revlimiter. I was In D5 not SS. I instantly got off the gas and snapped it into neutral to let the revs fall off then engaged D again when they came down to the proper rpm. Never happened before or since and tranny feels generally fine but I am still slightly concerned...any input?

 

Thank you so much for everyone's help. Toure1, a very big thank you to you! I love this car, I'll just have to see how things play out. As of right now, the car is garaged and I took mom's car to classes and to dinner with the girlfriend. I'll check out the CL today.

 

If you need any info PM me and I will give my contact info.

 

This is exactly what my '03 with 45K did without any other warning. I limped it in to the Acura dealer. In 15 minutes he handed me the keys to a 2007 TL. They called in about 3 days that my car was ready. Got a 'new' trans. and a car wash. The new unit has improved oiling capacity of the lower gears.

 

Alright, UPDATE!!!

So I've been shopping around for a tranny shop but in the mean time, I had time to flush and change the ATF. I've had the car for about 15k miles now and I do not know how long ago the previous owner changed it... let's say it was not pink to say the least. Since I changed the tranny fluid, it's been running find and has no slip on me yet *knock on wood*. Any care to chime in on if changing the ATF could've fixed my problem momentarily?

 

id b worried if i were you. my tranny blew 3 days after it malfunctioned exactly like yours did. i went to shift from 3rd to 4th on the highway and it shifted to 2nd! then 3 days later it started jumping gears then got stuck in 3rd gear and was donee. just be careful