I'm curious to find out if anyones replacement tranny is holding up for them
after putting serious miles on it. My 01 TL just died at 50k miles. I hear so much
about multiple falures. I've also heard that there is supposed to be some
improvement in the replacement units in the last year (rumor).

So, is anyones replacement tranny actually working out better than the original?

/Steve

 

As far as I know the 3rd gear clutchpack issue is still in the replacements and it could fail again.

 

 

My orig. (2001) failed at 56K, after trying to kill me on the Houston freeway system.

Replacement is A-OK after 17K....at least so far....

 

1st tranny replaced at 46k and so far I have about 6k miles on the new one. Works great.... so far.

 

My first one died at 48K and I have put about 6K on mines and starting to notice a few hard shifts here and there which were signs of my first one dying. And it starts acting up sometimes in 3rd gear. Funny thing is, the service advisor and tech that I am friends with said this trans was from the "good batch". Go figure.

 

With the design flaw and weak materials for the 3rd gear clutchpacks, there is no such thing as a good batch of these transmissions. Perhaps lucky batches, but not good ones.

 

 

my new tranny has about 30k miles on it since replacement and it's about to die

 

Mine has lasted 25K thusfar

 

Dose anyone gets less miles per gallon after Trans replaced? I get about 2 miles less before the trans replaced..

 

this has been asked many times. with many answers. after 4 tranies mine never went down. but others claimed ot go up. do a search, there are acouple threads out there to base your own opinion

 

I bought my car last september with 89,xxx on it. The tranny went a month or two later, I'd say about 91,xxx miles. I now have 101,200 miles on it and everything seems ok. *knocks on wood* Havn't really noticed a change in gas mileage. Don't think I had it long enough on tranny #1 to really tell though.

By the way, it's a 2000.

 

Got my first one in 1 month ago and failed horribly, some tranny oil came out and the exhaust piped black smoke.
2nd one was in and started howling with a cats tail in first
3rd one didnt even make it into the car , was shipped back.
4th one is okay minor cats tail sound in first something beraable i can't wait 1 more week for another crappy tranny

 

I am about to join this not so exclusive club next week. Just near 50K, first tranny is being replaced.

 

i wonder if anyone has probed the possibility of using an accord tranny since they do not seem to have these problems. i know it's not just related to the type-S either, so it's not exclusively a horsepower issue.

this is just such a load of crap. personally i'm allready saving for a performance built tranny. i love my type-S and i have a fair sized loan left on it. i plan on keeping this car for the long haul and i don't think that a $3k investment into a performance tranny is a big loss on my part.

but it really is a shame that honda couldn't fix this issue for us loyal customers who continue to keep their cars despite having 3 or 4 trannies dropped in.

SSTS

 

my original tranny was replaced at 157,000kms (100k) and currently has another 90,000kms (56k) and is working well knock on wood

 

I thought the Accords and other Hondas have the same issue.

 

They did, especially the 6th gen Accords. The problem however is much more common on the TL/Cl lines, especially the Type-S versions. Probably due to the added strain of more power.

 

My TL-P must be a Monster from the factory cause ive gone thru 4 trannies

 

On my third tranny at 93.7k miles. Original went at 67k. First replacement went at 92.5k. On my second replacement now (1200 miles) and I really don't care for the shifting. (It's a bit rough/unsmooth).

In the process of selling it/trading it.

00 TL

Czar

 

Just curious about something. Am I causing any other damage while I am waiting for the Tranny to be replaced?

 

I have 25K on my first replacement and everything is fine at the moment.

 

they really need to address this issue alot better than they have...and i cant believe acurazine as a community hasnt tried anything...except to sign a petition

they either need to find a fucking solution to this mess, or offer lifetime transmission warranties.....i am so dissapointed in acura for this

i have only had my 2000 TL for 6 months and i already have to sell it due to transmission warranty going out

 

1st tranny went at 30k. Second tranny went at 88k.
The 2nd tranny went in May 2005 and given the number of 'repeat customers' represented on the site there is no truth to the story Acura dealers tell you that the company redesigned the 3rd gear clutch pack to fix the problem. The 'fix' will be the junk yard someday when all the 2nd Gen TL's reach the end of their lives. Until then there will be plenty of sales for Acura of tranny rebuilds once the cars get past either the 100k warranty extension or the 7 years.
Acura should have the same 100k warranty apply to the replacement tranny. Why should the first tranny have 100k coverage but not the second or third or forth etc??? If they are saying that the original transmission should provide 100k of miles, is there something different about the replacement that makes it less likely to give the same 100k of mileage?? If so then why are they putting them into our cars?

 

Why don't the ADMINS of this site try to communicate with Acura Client Services and tell them that they have X amount of members who are complaining about the transmission issue? And that the resolution they provided isn't working. The ADMINS could easily get information from us to prove this. You could also use the argument that these same people may not buy from Acura again because of this issue.


ADMINS.... I think coming from you guys is much more convincing as you have the numbers to show.

 

because it wouldnt do any good. the nhtsa already looked into this and found it to not be a big enough issue, and a petition has already been signed. the fact that honda bumped the warranty to 100k when they didnt have to is amazing

 

Amazing what.... You have low end vehicle manufacturers given 100K warranty. Who cares. I would rather them build me a good transmission then give me a tranny with 100K warranty that's damned to break down. Honda/Acura is very well known to have some of the best, long lasting engine and transmissions. I mean what happens after 100K. Now it's a general assumption that if you've driven over 100K it's normal for your tranny to go, so we're not covering it. NOOO way. I've owned honda/acuras for over 100K all the time. In fact people still pay big bucks to buy these cars (Legends, preludes. accords, RLs) )OVER 100K. No one will be buying our TLs.

NHTSA is only good for safety issues. I'm trying to get ADMINS to win this for us based on number of physical complaints that can be proven in an instance. Acura can and had lost many customers because of this issue. Let's not let them lose even more.

So it's worth a try if the ADMINS are willing. What's to lose

 

whats not amazing that they EXTENDED the warranty???????? name another manufacturer that has? mopar has the worst trannies in the world, they fail 100x more often than ours and yet they have done nothing to improve or extend the warranty.
As fr as the nhtsa.. they are only for saftey issues??? is this not a SAFTEY issue if it decides to die on you on the HWY????

If you dO a search this Tranny issue has been BEAT to death, and MANY things have been tried. YOU arent the first to come up with some idea to try to get this solved. this issue has been going on since 2001. A Large petition was even started . Nothing has helped.

 

Manufacturers everywhere are giving 100K warranties like crazy... Open a new car magazine and u'll see them... Chrysler vehicles ALWAYS had transmission problems. People buying those cars at least had history to look into before they bought those vehicles. We bought our Acuras based on their history and their history says something different. And please don't compare Chrysler with Acura...

Acurazine site is very big. I spoke to Acura Client Services once and they are familiar with this site as well. I don't ever remember anyone coming up with this idea. Signing a petition may not be as organized as one or 2 people (admins) going to Acura and telling them about our complaints. It's not far fetched.

 

apparently i misunderstood then. i thought they weren't having the same problems. but i agree that it's got to be because of the horsepower gains. although the thing i want to stress to people is that for $400 you could probably have an upgraded set of clutchpacks installed on your own and never have to worry about this again. there are options other than just taking it up the tailpipe every time from acura.

well i agree, but i think the problem here is that once you start talking about the collective power of a group like us you have to realize that we are only 60,000 strong on the acura-tl board. not everyone has a 2nd gen, and not everyone has tranny problems, so for shits and giggles let's just say 45,000 of us fit the category. while 45,000 may sound like alot it would still take alot of organization and some high powered lawyers to make a wave big enough for acura/honda to hear.

in the end i don't think that there are too many public groups that can put pressure on them about this. the DOT and NHTSC would need to be involved to see some real results. sadly, this may never happen.

SSTS

 

so they are supposed to listen and take teh word of 2 people as opposed to the thousands of people who signed the petition??? ive dealt with Acura Client services twice and have brought up the thousands of known failures that i know of. thats about teh same as what a admin would be doing

 

and they have been involved already and didnt find it something that needed to be done forcefully IE recall

 

What I don't get is, if it is so simple to just upgrade the cluthpacks, why didn't honda do that already in the replacement tranny's. Wouldn't that be cheaper than continuing to install replacements upto 100k.

 

its not just replacing the clutchpacks. and its not as simple as to just throw them in. the whole tranny has to be dissassembled to do it. its a design problem. the 1 thing from what ive read and heard that the plates that teh packs ride on have the wrong surface (and have supposidly been redesigned) supposed to be a polished/or smooth surface and they (the problem ones) arent. Hopefully a resolution can be made or is with redesigned parts soon

 

Where is the $400 upgrade ?...I thought the V/R tranneys were a few grand ?

Edit: nm...batman answered my ?

 

the few grand comes from a complete rebuild. they arent cheep. even at the chain rebuilders. Finding a good replacement clutchpack is the Key

 

well there are a couple of factors here (not that i claim to know the reasons why they don't do it), the first being as fsttyms1 said, they have to disassemble the whole tranny to do it. it's not an easy/quick job compared to a complete swap. also there may be limitations with their suppliers for all the internal parts for their trannies. i know they have their own assembly plants, but they most likely have outside suppliers, also they do not know exactly how many they will need as time goes on, so why bother redesigning the existing 2nd gen tranny to accept a new clutchpack when you may have to order 10,000 or more sets of clutchpacks and accumulator springs and valvebodies, whatever, never knowing how many you will actually use.

in the end i would say that this is a more cost effective measure. otherwise i'm sure they would have redesigned it all.


well 'level 10' racing sells clutchpack kits, and i know there has been some back and forth talk about them on here but from everything i have heard from other speedshops and performance enthusiasts they are top notch and their products are well designed. so this is an option.

if i had to choose i would probably prefer a complete VR tranny and just have someone do a swap.

SSTS

 

Hey FSTTYMS1, I love you pal, you've been a good guy to read posts from and exchange ideas with for the several years I've been on these boards, but I must take issue with your rather euphoric praise of Acura here.

You've been through 4 trannys in about 175k miles (and I know youv'e got that spare one lined up for when its time for #5!), yet you sound like you see nothing wrong with that. One tranny failing after 100k miles --- maybe; 2 tranny failures --- getting ridiculous; 3 or more --- totally out of the realm of reasonable reliability!! And I think its safe to say not one of the people who bought a TL expected to have this kind of repeat failure from a Japanese nameplate.

you can be certain Honda Motor Company extended the warranty after very careful consideration of the potential liability to the company from lawsuits and the fallout from poor press if they did nothing. The extension of the warranty bought a cheaper fix than other solutions, like a redesign of a part for a car already out of production.

The notion that they could not actually fix the problem for good is what rattles me. If your repeat tranny failures were an isolated incident, we could just chalk it up as an abberation. But you are far from alone. Could it be said that your driving style or environment and climate contributed to the multiple failures? I don't think so. I remember when the first people started reporting thier failures on this board, most of the TL's around here were spring chickens with no miles. Many of the rest blasted those that dared to speak up about their problems with the tranny. (There were so many haters around here and the mood so glum that defections from this site helped spawn a c ur a w o r l d.com). People blamed it on an individual's driving habits. People reached false conclusions that the extra 35 hp of the type S was more than the tranny design called for. None of that turns out to be so. As you can testify to, you did not beat on your TLP or abuse the tranny in any way. Most all my mileage on my TLP is on the highway, not the city, so my car sees less 3rd gear shifts than alot of other TLs out there.

While there are plenty of TLs that have not failed YET, I think its more a factor of how many miles the car has been driven. At the end of the lifetime of the 2nd gen TL, when all the cars eventually get up there in mileage, the true percentage of failure rate will be way beyond Acura's claimed 2% and WAY BEYOND what could be considered "reasonable" and "expected" for the overall model.

That sobering thought does not earn Honda praise for extending the warranty to 100k.

 

Yeah, I think I'd do the complete upgrade rather than pieces. Thx for clarifying.