It has been 5 weeks and 1 day. Today my AC compressor finally came. I should have the RL back Monday. Meanwhile I have put 4000 miles on the laoner.

 

What was the delay?

 

5 weeks is about right. That is how long it took the A/C parts to get to the dealer after it failed last summer in my '05 RL. It seems that this is a very common issue and it takes many weeks to get the parts. My guess is that they just don't have enough to go around due to the high demand.

It's my hope that Acura does a recall for this known defect so it's addressed out of warranty. If I recall, many members on this forum have had the same ongoing issues with their A/C on the 2005 RL's. Just do a search.

 

I mentioned this in another thread. Recalls are typically for safety issues. Not unless a prematurely failing part is causing a safety issue (like the failing transmissions in the 2nd gen TLs/CLs) will they institute a recall.

What they'll probably do is issue a TSB so that consideration can be given if a part fails when the vehicle is out of warranty. If it's particularly pervasive, they may extend the warranty on that item.

With the 2nd gen TLs, they initially extended the warranty only on the tranny to 7yrs/100K miles. A case was then opened with the NHTSA due to "sudden and unexpected downshifting" at highway speeds. That's when they began the recall to install the oil jet to lubricate the 2nd gear clutch pack.

 

Did they fix this in the 2006?

 

GoHawks: Thanks for the info. I had no idea that recalls were mainly for safety related items.

vluu: Research I have done seems to indicate that most happen on the 2005 RL's.

Whatever the cause, both my dealer, as well as Acura Service Center told me they were unaware of the ongoing problems with the A/C system. That said, this is at least the 5th or 6th report I have seen here on Acurazine.

 

The 2nd gen TL tranny had two different issues: (1) Lack of lubrication for the 2nd gear which resulted in a handful of tranny failures, leading to the NHTSA case and the recall involving the installation of the oil jet kit; (2) Premature failure of the 3rd gear clutch packs due to excess heat, which resulted in the tranny extension to 7 yrs/100k miles. Several folks went through multiple tranny failures due to the 3rd gear clutchpack issue, though I believe Acura/Honda finally came up with a replacement tranny design with beefed up internals. I owned a 2003 TL Type S at the time - it wasn't included in the tranny warranty extension because Acura claimed the issue had been fixed by the time the car was built. Several folks with VIN #'s higher than mine had tranny failures - it was the primary reason I traded up to the 2005 RL, to avoid the tranny issue. Of course, 6 months after I bought the RL the transmission was replaced in an attempt to solve the 70+ mph whining issue, but that's another story.

It seems that many parts for the RL are on "national backorder". This has been covered here before but you have to wonder why that is. I went through it with the transmission and the drive shaft, waiting for almost a couple of weeks to get the replacement transmission in and a week or so for the carbon fiber drive shaft. The A/C parts seem to take much longer - they obviously don't stock them anywhere in the US and probably have to get the parts from Japan.

 

It's not even just the RLs. TSXs have this problem as well. See this thread:

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33350

 

My assumption is that they have to order the parts from Japan. Even so, it shouldn't take more than a few days to fly it in if the part's in stock.

Sorry you had to wait so long.

 

I shouldn't have looked at this thread earlier....I think it jinxed me. My A/C started blowing warm air today while I was out running errands. I got home and called the dealership immediately, at 12:55pm. The receptionist said service closed at 1pm, so basically I just missed them. I had taken off work yesterday and could have dropped off the car then, but no, the stupid damn thing had to wait till TODAY to pull this crap.