Danuary

Just a random note.... At approx. 8500 miles, the transmission in my 2002 TLS started getting wonky. Would shift into neutral in the middle of acceleration... I took it to the dealer, and it completely failed (wouldn't come back out of neutral) as I pulled it into their driveway. They looked at a couple things and concluded that the transmission needed to be replaced.

They replaced it, had a _wonderful_ (hah) time in a Ford Escort as a loaner, returned it to me. I drove about 20 miles and discovered that it was making HORRID noises (the kinds old beaters make that you can hear from blocks away). Took it back to them; they had bent a plate behind the right front brake rotor such that it was contacting the rotor and making noises at low speeds.

Now all seems to be fine, but I'm not overly impressed with Honda/Acura's legendary reliability or service....

dp

bricot

I'd be a little p/o'd with that kind of service. One area that Acura could stand to improve if they want repeat customers is their service. By and large it sounds like most Acura dealers/service departments are pretty lame.

There are a few exceptions, some of which are members of this site, that understand what good service is and what it will do for business.

Hopefully thats the last of your problems!

tgif

What? 8500 Miles and need a new transmission.

oracion

Did you floor it or have high rev all the time?

thephantom

Uh oh, I floor mine all the time and redline often... I think I will try to take it easy from now on.

TL4Mo

Sorry to hear about your tranny problems. I recall someone else having their tranny replaced at about the same mileage...who was that?

And to Phantom, I don't think you should not be able to have "fun" with your car w/o having the tranny go. I mean, the whole lure of this car is that it should be fun to drive. WTH is up if you have to baby the car in order to ensure your tranny won't fail?

CH-TLS

I think it was "redlined" that replaced his tranny after less than 10K miles. There are other instances as well - do a search.

Check over on the CL board, too (if it's currently up) - there have been sporadic tranny troubles with the CL-S as well

RedLined

I WOULD BE THAT LUCKY SOMEONE ELSE!!! Mine also went "wonky" at 8500 miles and was ultimately replaced at 9000 miles. The problems I had were exactly as described by Danuary.

I like to drive my car in a "sporting" fashion but I haven't driven it any differently than any other car I've owned (my last car was a 98 Accord EX V6, sold it with 115000 miles on it) and never had any tranny problems with any of those. There has been some debate on what constitutes driving your car too hard. I look at it this way: Most (about 80%) of the mileage I put on my car is highway mileage. If the tranny goes bad that quickly when most of the mileage is from cruising at 2000 rpms, than the tranny sucks anyway. Also, I almost always average about 25-26 mpg w/ a mix of city/highway driving and I've gotten as high as 33 mpg on the hwy and as low as 22 mpg in the city. From what I've read on this board, that's about what most people get and much better than some. That kind of gas mileage seems to be another indication that I didn't and don't drive my car excessively hard.

Anyway, I now have over 19,000 miles on my TLS and so far I've had no more problems (knock on wood). I think I was the first to have tranny trouble, but I don't think I or Danuary will be the last. There was one other person (can't remember his name but I do know he was in CA) who also had his tranny replaced at 10000 miles. When he had his serviced, the trannies were on back-order, possibly an indication of a somewhat widespread problem.

Danuary

I -don't- floor it, keep it redlined, etc. Probably 80% of the time I drive it in Auto, not sportshift; when I'm in sportshift it's more for control in rain -- I miss my stick shift!

I've been really good to the car -- I think I've redlined it -once- and that was to get out of a situation where I was about to get hit by a truck.

That's really the worst part -- I've taken really good care of this car, driven it in a pretty laid back fashion... And the tranny still had an issue.

John Weidenbenner

Would those who've had transmission problems, or other major problems note the car's serial number?

It would be good to know if failures cluster around serial numbers.

Serial # 10XX, built February. 9800 miles and so far so good.

c32bvtec

yah..a lot of cl or tl owners have the transmission problems too..they are kind of frustrate and upset..but warranty will fix that for free..i have 13500 miles on my cls and everything is fine so far...i suggest acura do a transmission recall so every tl or cl can have a diagnoise ....

RedLined

What portion of the serial number is 10XX and how do you know when it was built?

John Weidenbenner

The last 6 digits of the VIN is the serial number.

The build date is mm/yy on the upper right corner of the sticker on the driver's door jamb as is the VIN.

John Weidenbenner

The last 6 digits of the VIN is the serial number.

The build date is mm/yy on the upper right corner of the sticker on the driver's door jamb as is the VIN.

Road Rage

Where are all of you "Japanese QC is great" folks? The trannies need replacing, but the engines (made in USA by Neanderthal Union guys) are bulletproof?

Where is the fairness?

RedLined

That's a very good point. But the solution seems quite simple. They must be sneaking in some Japanese workers to build the engines while those "Neanderthal Union guys" are asleep at the controls.

TL4Mo

Redlined,

I'm at almost 5k miles, so I guess we will expect to have tranny problems in about 5 months or so. Hope not, but want to be prepared

Thanks for the input!

Mr Hyde

Hmmmm and this tranny was supposedly beefed up to handle the extra power over the TL-P. I for one will not baby my tranny, if it is going to go Id rather it go sooner than later under warranty, and if it does, maybe I can finesse a Level 10 replacement torque converter instead of the stock one.

P.S. Roadrage I love pointing out that fact to the people who say my tranny failed, US QC for the TL/Accord sux. Bottom line the weakest link on ANY A/T car is the tranny itself. For all the debate over synthetic vs regular oils, etc. I personally know of no one who's car engine itself died and needed a rebuild, while the A/T's themselves is an entirely differemnt story; regardless of make.

Indyjenks

Im with Mr. Hyde on this one.... I've owned numerous high performance cars. If the transmissions cannot handle the power output, the company should pick up the tab to make sure that they do. Im not going to baby my car to try and make sure the tranny doesnt go south...... If it does..like Mr. Hyde, maybe a level 10 torque converter could be wrangled in the process.....

moomaster_99

I drive mine like an animal....and yet, I have had no problems with it...35K in less than a year will tell you what kind of abuse it had gone through. Just figure that all the guys who have had bad trannys are not due to hp/tq issues...it is more due to bad trannys. A lot of people who have had their trannys go out drive them like grandmas...so, who is to say that the power to the tranny is the problem and not just certain trannys that weren't built correctly!?!
I think we should start referring to them as Friday Trannys

Smelly

I hate to bring this topic back up, but mine looks like it just died. It has the exact same symptom: While I'm accelerating it would just drop out of gear and go into neutral. After I let off and the rpms drop, it would catch again. Sometimes, it would drop down a gear, rev high, and momentarily would not upshift. This happened to me while going into work this morning, and during the drive, it seemed to be getting worse. When I finally made it to my parking garage at work, I had problems getting in gear. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it out of the garage to take it to the dealer. On a side note, beside the aforementioned symptoms, I also noticed a high whinning noise coming from the engine or transmission. My car is at 17.3k miles.

I'll let you know how it goes at the dealer.

TL4Mo

Smelly:

What year is your TL?

Sorry to hear about your woes....hope the dealer takes care of it immediately!

RedLined

Damn, that sucks. Good luck.

systek

this isnt what i wanted to hear about this car....the reason i got out of my 97 3.0 CL was because we were having tooo many problems w/the tranny and it was no longer under warranty. I really hope that my 2002 TLS doesnt have this problem, but the more i read, the more i worry...

Smelly

Just to update you guys on my tranny situation, I tried to drive my car to the dealer last night after work, and after 1 mile, it completely died. Check engine and VSA lights came on, and it could not engage any of the gears. So I call up Roadside Assistance, and it took 2 hours for a tow truck to come. I guess I can't really be upset at how long it took considering it was during rush hour in the DC area and AAA and other roadside assistance takes just as long.

I talked to the dealer, and they had to order a new transmission. So I'm stuck with the poopy Integra loaner for at least a week or two. I'm amazed that even though the loaner is a 2001 model with only 7k miles, it was so loud and old feeling. Makes me appreciate my TLS more.

BTW, it is a black TLS, VIN is 3667, 17.2k miles, pretty conservative driving with 50/50 city/highway, no racing, no mods. I don't usually SS, and maybe once a week take it close to redline.

Even with the transmission problem, I'm still pretty happy about the car. Love the performance and value. Things like this sometimes just happen.

TL4Mo

Unfortunately, it seems to be happening numerous times accross the board.

RedLined

Unfortunately, I don't think driving style has anything to do with these faulty trannies. I haven't driven my TLS any differently than any other car I've owned and this is the first time I've had tranny problems. I'm surprised yours made it so long. Most on this board, mine included, went out in the 8k to 10k range.

Like you, even with this tranny problem and the many other problems I've had (minor compared to the tranny), I still love my TLS. I've been driving my Tahoe for the last week and although I love that too, I couldn't wait to get back into my TLS.

hankw

To people who are having tranny problems. Do they have the 99, 00, 01, or the new 02 TL? Cause I have been doing some research and the TL QC is getting cheaper year after year.

Oh, Mr. Hyde. You are Japanese huh? Cause isn't Hyde the vocal for the Japanese band L'Arc en Ciel?

RedLined

Mine is a TLS as are all the others I have read about. That's not to say other models and years aren't having problems. But I only read the Type S forum so this is the only place I have seen tranny problems. So far, I think there have been about 6 or so on this board with tranny failures on the TLS.

oblio98

Wow, This is getting scary!

:-jon