Generationz

Well as my subject line states my 2002 CL type s almost killed me last week, It was the weekend before Thanksgiving and i was driving down I 95 on my way to my office to pick up some paperwork i needed for the next day i was doing about 60-65 normal speed not using select shift (i rarely ever use it) when all of a sudden i feel a violent jerk almost as if the car wanted to brake by itself and i lost complete power at my gas pedal ... i would put my fooot alll the way down on the accelerator and all i would hear was a revving engine as if i had slipped it in neutral, yes you guessed it my tranny blew i had no warning no previous signs of it going it just died on I 95 at a considerable speed while other motorists swerved like hell to get out of my way. I attempted to put it into select shift 5 gear no power 4th no power and so on ... at this point i had to think quick cause i was still cruising but losing speed so i swerved in and out of all the lanes to my right hit the wall damaging my rear quarter panel and let out a sigh of relief as my life was spared and my heart was still racing.

I called my dealership got my car towed in they confirmed it was a bad transmission and voila part ordered car being fixed ...welll needless to say now im wondering to myself why did a buy this car ??? its my fourth honda and its my second cl ( i traded in my first gen manual for the type s )i have had a lot of faith in acura/honda products over the years and never had i experienced a problem that would make me even call their customer service department.I picked up our little roadside assistance card flipped it over called customer service explained the problem and basically they asked me "What do you want us to do???" so i made it quite simple to them i gave them 3 choices 1) Replace my car with a 6 speed manual (a transmission that wont fail) and i will continue to buy honda/acura products forever 2)Fix the rear quarter panel damage caused as a direct result of your shoddy craftsmanship and of course replace the tranny under warranty so i can sell this POS and never ever buy or reccomend an automatic honda/acura again or 3) do nothing so i can pursue litigation and get a hell of a lot more money as lawyers can do then this whole problem was ever worth...well ill be real honest i never expected them to just hand me a six speed that was more wishful thinking then anything however option 2 i thought they would jump at, the damage cant be more then $1000-$2000 and i told the rep that over the phone but guess which option our wonderful acura decided to go with??? you guessed it ding ding ding ding ding option 3 balls out legal battle with lawyers judges jurors settlements etc...

I am shocked, dissapointed, angry, and plan to take this as far as i can i hate courtrooms and i gave acura a very fair set of choices and they spit in my face they refuse to admit they made a substandard and now dangerous product and whats even worse they refuse to make their customers happy when reasonable requests are made to avoid lawsuits .This is ridiculous.

Im sorry If I spoiled anyone elses mood or fun I loved my car i really did and I hate having to put this post up but i feel its necessary and I urge anyone who is behind the wheel of this car or who has a family member, or friend driving either a cl or tl with auto tranny to get rid of it plain and simple its dangerous and there are many other choices out there for us as consumers.

Moderators Im posting this in car talk and in tranny problems please do not delete.

astro

sounds more like you panicked and didn't know what to do when you lost drive power...
the tranny didn't make you hit the wall, your poor reaction to the situation did...
what would you do if a tire blew or worse??

madmax-cl

Seriously, Acura better come up with a suitalbe settlement with all our cars....this is bullshit.....I too had tranny problems....the second tranny they installed went bad in 30 miles.....why doesn't Acura fix their tranny, do a recall, and change all our trannies?

Rescuer

file a claim with your insurance company to go after acura for the damages to the car since it's been proven that the tranny failure caused the accident

IntegraVT

iTrader: (1)

I'm so sorry...

Whatever you do, you must report this to NHTSA.

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/ivoq/default.htm

Generationz

I had no choice it was either hit the wall or let a car hit me from behind i am a good driver and no i didnt panic i kept my cool the whole time admitedly i was worried but i believe i made the rfight choice and saved more then my own life

Generationz

no way dog my insurance aint payin i refuse im not gettin this on m,y record im not tryin to be a dick i just want whats right

Generationz

oh and a tire blowing is hardly the same thing ive had that happen plenty of times no biggie got throuh that with no scratches

chikai

I've never had a tranny blow (knock on wood) but w/ a blown tire you can still accelerate enough to know that cars behind you won't ram your ass. losing all power at highway speeds is completely different as you have no choice but to either cruise or slow down.

If his poor reaction only made him hit the wall, imagine if a grandma or grandpa was behind the wheel. Chances are they probably have no clue of the tranny issues as we do on this board. The situation could have been much worse with an even less experienced driver.

Generationz: this has been my worst nightmare since I started hearing about tranny problems. Sorry it happened to you. Good luck with taking Honda to court. I think if anything you should bring some publicity and spotlight on the situation. Call 60minutes

Generationz

my ego is killing me i did not have a poor reaction to my stuation Grrrrr im doing 65 mph cars behind me ar doing the same or faster my car jerks all of a sudden im doing 55 or so and losing speed fast i hit the gas nothing i slam my shifter to the left to see if i can find any gear that works nothing so i get the fuck outta everybodys way

beerknurd

hey, sounds like this is going to court. if so, you don't need to be posting the details on here. you may give the bad guys an oppurtunity to misquote you. I'd love to hear how it turns out, but don't do anything to jerpordise your case.

If it was me, I'd call your acura dealer up and tell them not to touch the car. get it towed off of their lot as soon as possible. tell them it was by the adivse of yoru lawyer and you'll see them in court.

also tell them you are now impotent and cannot reproduce. $$$ baby $$$

Slimey

You are probably obligated to let your insurance company know.

Especially if you are going to pursue legal action, I would play by the rules. Most insurance contracts require you to notify them if something like this happens. You may not want them to do anything, but you cannot keep them in the dark (by the book).

I agree with Astroboy in that Acura is not obligated to repair body damage caused by your driving, however, I think that to do so would be appropriate...that being said, if they pay to fix it they may be indirectly admitting guilt by association to the collision, and therefore it may not be in their interest to fix it. They may want to take the gamble that you don't seek legal help.

Please let the NHTSA know about your experience.

Generationz

absolutely right i have a pissed off lawyer now lol i wont give any more details

Shawn S

I understand your frustration, but just admit that you made a mistake.
Obviously you picked the lesser of two evils by swerving HARD to the right instead of sitting in traffic, but it was still a conscious decision to do so. The bad tranny didn’t turn the steering wheel.

I had something similar happen to me many years ago so I know what you’re talking about.
I had the timing belt snap in my Daytona Shelby-Z in the middle of interstate traffic.
When THAT happens you lose EVERYTHING. No acceleration, no power steering, no power brakes.
Basically it’s like I turned the car OFF at 75MPH.
I held my lane for a second and slowly made my way to the right shoulder.
I just held my breath that no one hit me.
Lots of honks and screeching tires, but I made it unscathed.

Hopefully they get things fixed up for you, but I don’t think they really owe you the bodywork.
That’s what you have insurance for.

Shawn S

chatapuggy1

Sorry to hear about your problems man, I will not slander you for hitting the wall, we all react in different ways. As it will probably be your fault, I may have done the same thing, I dont know how Miami is, but LA during rush hour, aint nobody letting you over, dont care if your shit is on fire! You are stuck...

We trust our cars (especially Acura/Honda) and it would never cross our minds when taking a trip or crusing down the highway that something like this would occur. I am sorry to say that I trust my 88 Toyota Corolla with 170k on it more than I do the CL, thats pretty sad, but thats why I dont use my CL much anymore, want to sell it, just gotta get the pics and ad together.

I am not giving up on Honda, all automakers have issues, it just seems I chose the one with the issue. Anytime we buy a first gen auto (i.e. new tranny, body style, engine, etc in this case because I know its really a second gen) we risk problems and recalls, thats what happens when you gotta be the first to on your block to own something, you become the real beta tester.

In the future, I think I will wait until at least the second or third model year to purchase. Or I will stick with the old classics, Camry/Corolla, Civic/Accord, I am a Honda/Toyota fan and these always seem to be the models the automakers pay attention to, cause they make the most money off of them as these models are sold all over the world. Sure I will be like everyone else, but at least I can have some confidence when driving down the road.

No I am not whining, just my 2 cents

beerknurd

get one of the mods to delete this thread for ya.

SilverBullet_RENAMED

Sounds like it to me.

At least the tires didn't lock and it gave you time to pull over. You should have hit the hazards and pulled of the the shoulder instead of swerving back and forth between lanes being stupid.

Good luck, on your battle.

madmax-cl

or just edit what you said by pushing the edit button on each of your quotes

Rod

First off, glad to know you're OK and nothing really serious did happen. But the bottom line here is that these POS trannies put us all in dangerous situations, no matter how great of a driver you may be or claim to be. Go after Honda/Acura with everything, it's about time they resolve this issue. They've acknowledged the problem by issuing the extended warranties on our vehicles, but now they have to really do something to rectify their screw up.

My second tranny is about to go out, it's been slipping just about every day for the past week or so and with the occasional sign about a week before that, but has yet to completely die on me and my dealer says that there's nothing that they can do until it completely dies on me or at least shows the "christmas tree" lighting effect on the dash we all know about. How the hell am I supposed to drive around normally when I don't know when this tranny is going to finally give out. It's not an "if" question anymore, but a when question. I love the car too, but can't deal with having to worry about this tranny anymore. I hope I'm able to lemon law this car and that the tranny doesn't go out at the wrong time.

Generationz, seeing that you're in Miami you may want to try getting your case on channel 7's Help Me Howard. I know, I know, channel 7, but it may be a good opportunity to have Honda give us/you a better response. It's free legal work, plus it brings the tranny issue to the public eye again, and this time on TV.

JasonT

Glad your ok. Sucks man. How many miles on your car? My car seems fine. I had a similar experience with a car. However the first thing I did was put the hazards on, & then just cruised, let cars past me, then pull over to the shoulder. This was also on 95, by ft lauderdale airport.

t-rd

Astroboy is mean! This guy almost killed himself and you are saying he freaked out. Anyone in the right mind would freak 100% if the same situation happens.

eclipse23

What dangerous about tranny failures in motion or timing belts is that fact that there is no brake lights. I'm glad to hear your ok and that you only sustained minor damage.

Slimey

I think the point was that control of your car is your responsibility regardless of the situation. The Honda/Acura Corporation is not necessarily responsible if you crash into a wall when your power goes.
As you can see my some of the posts in this thread, NOT everyone would freak out. I had a similar situation to Shawn S when I had a timing belt go. It was in city traffic and not as bad of a situation as on the highway. The power went without warning, but I still was able to control the car to a stop without hitting a wall.

Not everyone bashes up their car when the power goes.

bkknight369

Dude i dont think astro was trying to be mean...I just think it came out the wrong way. OF COURSE we all feel for you bro, since it could happen to any of us.

I think astro was just saying in the most technical terms, that technically, the wheel didnt grow hands, and turn itself into the wall, technically. Of course realistically, if you go to court, Im sure you'll win, cause there hasnt been a full recal on the 2001 trannies yet.

Good luck man! Get the cash and get an //M

Nashua_Night_Hawk

bu imagine this happend on 2-lane HW where is there is no shoulder!! You would be deep shitz

Generationz

dealership just called car will be ready tommorow 319.50 for the brake job and alignment my ride needed

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

lol .... if he paniced when the tranny went... what would it do if the engine blows

Just kidding of course... glad you're OK and it's obviously scary (and freaky) when something like that happens suddenly. I hope that my tranny is OK... but just in case I keep my hand on the shifter to throw it to Neutral.

Good luck with everything.. and if you're planning to sue.. go through all of the proper channels like Insurance, etc.....

Eggplant-EX

I was in my Pontiac GP, about 5 miles S of Seattle CBD in the fast lane with the carpool lane on my left when the damn car died on me. This has happened before but never going on the freeway (turned out I had a bad alternator).

Anyway, all I could do was cruise to a stop (in the fast lane). I knew the car would restart once I stopped and turned the ignition off.

I think there was no need to swerve into a wall cause the tranny goes...

Sorry!!

Slimey

chatapuggy1

Yeah me to Slimey, I am lost Generationz, why are you worried about an alignment and brakes after that accident?? I would assume if you hit a wall, you car would be waaaaay out of alignment, but that should be the lesser of your worries.

mrdeeno

The only thing he'd win if he went to court is repair cost for his car.

There would be no PUNITIVE charges because Acura didn't INTEND for him to get into an accident or get hurt.

and in a REALISTIC judicial system, the judge would turn it over to insurance, Acura would pay the deductible, and the insurance company could go after the repair costs from Acura (if the ins. co. accepts it's not your fault).

I've seen this many times before having worked in the insurance business.

Generationz

sigh... ok i understand a lot of you think im just an idiot driver who buckled under pressure well if i was you and didnt know me i would assume the same however i know me so i know this isnt the case no one was there but me so i know i did the right thing convincing you isnt necessary but i wanted to shed clarity on the situation because i have been in all kinds of road conditions driving beat up hoopties to well tuned performance vehicles iv hit black ice spun out and made it out ok (and in a cadillac) bottom line is i would not be in this situation had it not been for a piece of defective equipment and i shared it with the members of this board and the world for that matter blame me if you wish i was always one to praise my vehicle on this board i really love the horses and torque plus my navi and ac and many other things about my whip but something went wrong and i want it to be made right

mc222

Im w/ you man--If Im cruising on I95, in the fast lane and my tranny died I have 2 choices--Either get run over or get over and possibly hit a wall--IF you were in the right hand lane when this happened, I would say its your fauly --but otherwise, If your tranny didnt go--it would of never happened--

chikai

Sorry Generationz...don't mean to make an off-topic question, but I want to hear some perspectives.

What if he didn't swerve out of the way of traffic and he got rear ended by the car behind due to an instantenous slow down of the vehicle (w/o brake lights) then who is at fault...Acura, the owner, or the driver behind? Assume there was no time for reacting from the owner or the driver from behind.

mrdeeno

it's not that it's your "fault" for hitting a wall and damaging a vehicle, but in the eyes of the law, unless acura is willing to accept the fault, it is not their obligation either.

insurance is there to take care of accidents.

warranties are there to take care of defects.

and if you can convince that the tranny was a DIRECT cause of you hitting a wall, then you would definitely have a case. But in this case it was not a DIRECT cause, because it only caused the car to STOP ACCELERATING. It may be part of a combination of things that caused you to hit a wall, but it was not a direct cause.

an example of a direct cause would be your steering wheel falling off, or VSA going crazy, or the car accelearting by itself, where you REALLY have no control.

ChodTheWacko

A couple of months ago I loaned my Ford Taurus to someone who needed a loaner car. The Taurus is my backup junker car. Anyway, she was driving on the L.I.E. in the fast lane when the tranny blew up. She isn't a particularly skilled driver and didn't know what to do, so she just waited it out & the car ended up blocking the fast lane. Everyone was pissed and giving her dirty looks as they drove around her, but she didn't exactly have a whole lot of options.

On a side note, The acura tranny blowing is slightly different because the CL tranny blowing slows the car down much faster. Also I find in New York most drivers are very front defensive, meaning they are always half-expecting someone idiot to cut in front of them.

Okay, end rambling.....

mrdeeno

chikai...

it would be the driver behind that is at fault because he was not "alert". If you rear end someone, you are 90% of the time at fault.

I think most states see it that way, and the only exception to the rear-end rule I know is on on/off ramps onto highways.

i'm not trying to start an argument, so don't argue to me about htis...this is just the way the law sees it.

Slimey

In general, in a rear-end collision the fault will go the the rear-ender, not the rear-endee. You are responsible to maintain a safe distance behind the car you are following for this very reason.

There are always exceptions, but I doubt this would be one of them. The rear-ender could try to sue (or have his insurance company sue) Acura for the tranny issue, but I doubt it would fly.

chikai

If someone's brake light does not light up when decelerating I can't imagine it being the "driver behind"s fault. I don't know what the exact law says, but that just seems like it would be a law.

Being "not alert" doesn't seem to apply in this case either. From what I've read so far, it seems that when a tranny breaks the car sometimes goes into 2nd gear forcing the car to come to a near complete stop. Thereby leaving little reaction time for the driver in behind.

Imagine if someone pulled their e-brake on the highway...

that's the way I've imagined it from reading all the testimonials on this site.

EricL

Sorry, but this is really a transmission problem -- and it's heading over there.

The NHTSA is looking in to "spontaneous downshift" issues. If anyone has a 2001-2003 CL/TL/CLS/TLS and had a “near-accident”, “close call” or other similar event that is related to malfunctioning of the “slushbox”, they need to contact the NHTSA. There is a form on their site and there is a person -- at the NHTSA -- working on this matter (he’s investigating – or so it would seem)…