static808

Hey everybody,

Had the time to video the 5K RPM hesitation when the RL is in 3rd gear and sport shift mode.

I did a straight line acceleration in 3rd gear. I got the car up to 6K rpm.

You will see that around 5300 RPM the trans does a little "two step", which is really annoying.

My RL got the transmission TSB in late 2005 when I bought the car.

Question to Touge and the resident experts...What should I do? Any thoughts. I think a number of people have also noticed this.

Link to Video: Acura RL Transmission Hesitation

Touge

I noticed this problem too on my car when it was on the dyno under sportshift and also on the road in 3rd gear in that rpm range. A few others noted it as well on there RL's. Under automode it's fine, so not sure why it only does that in manual mode.

gavine

I still think it's the lock-up torque converter engaging. I notice this happing in manual mode under light acceleration if I up-shift too soon. The RPMs will stay at 2,000 as the car continues to accelerate until the torque converter fully engages....then the RPMs continue to rise again.

To "feel" the lock-up torque converter engage, start-out in 2nd hear and as you accelerate, you'll "hear/feel" like a slight gear-shift but it's not actually switching gears.

I've also notice when in manual mode going only 40 or 50mph in 5th gear and then pushing harder on the gas, it seems to downshift but stays in 5th gear. I think the trans disenguages the torque converter instead of downshifing. The car is still new to me so I haven't really figured it all out yet.

Not sure why it doesn't happen automode.

scottj

Hmmm. Would you feel the same thing in 2nd going down hill? The car feels like it is shifting gears even though it isn't as I try and hold 25 mph. I've wondered what might be causing it.

CleanCL

iTrader: (4)

i'm not transmission mechanic, but the above posts i feel are people attempting to seek an explanation that does not involve something actually wrong with the car.

torque converter or not, the car should not be doing that. acura has some extremely bad automatic transmission history. i would not be surprised if RL transmissions begin failing.

static808

CleanCL, you make a good point. I will look to show this to my dealer, but not sure what the heck they are going to say.

And calling Acura isn't even worth the time and effort, they aren't gonna investigate.

Slim options, but at least I have a warranty till 113K miles, and by then, I should know if the transmission gets hosed.

neuronbob

The guy who did my dyno yesterday also noted this pause at 5500 rpm and wondered if he'd FUBARed the engine. I told him that it was a known issue on our cars, which it appears to be.

Our drivetrain is definitely "special" somehow, as I keep saying.

Touge

I don't think it's a mechanical issue we are experiencing, my RL for eg has only 5k miles, so it's too early to blame the drivetrain, especially when most of those miles are stuck in traffic during the daily commute. More likely it's something with the programming of the ecu that controls the manumatic mode.

neuronbob

Good point, Touge. I'd be really interested in tuning our ECU if it's proven it will add gains or provide other benefits.

static808

I'll second that, Good Point Touge regarding the ECU. I have 34K on my '05RL and its been present on in the manual mode since purchase. As mentioned, I had the TSB transmission done. Not sure if that's the "root cause".

The only thing is that the 3.5L power band in 3rd gear is awesome. The VTEC starts screaming between 4500-6000+ RPM. This little hiccup drives me nuts when I throttle 3rd gear.

Flooring the car in auto-mode doesn't do any justice, the gears shift too soon.

It would be nice to hack the ECU for some hidden power enhancements.