Yo peeps I'm new here.

I have been a Honda/ Acura owner since 1997. My two previous cars were:

1991 Honda Accord
1991 Acura Legend LS


Ok, I just sold my Acura LS about 1 month ago and I bought a 2000 Acura 3.5RL (As-Is...w/No Warranty). My credit union is financing it for me at a great rate.

Now, I have had this RL for about 2.5 months when last friday night, I go over a friends crib for a few and then I leave about 10:30pm. I start my RL and I notice that the "D" on the dashboard is blinking and now the car is stuck in Park. I cannot move to any gear!!

After sveral attempts...I call AAA to tow my RL to the dealer which is like 5 miles away.

Next Morning is a Saturday. I get up and am at the dealer when they open. The dealer tells me that it may be a number of things, but, no one will be able to look at the car on the weekend....and they show me how to get it out of PARK and ask me to bring it in on Monday.

I drive my RL home, but the Tranny is slipping badly. Now, I have looked at some threads and I see that this is an issue with TL's and RL's (My Legend , never ever had this issue nor did my Accord)..

Fearing the worst (since I have no warranty...) How much is a new or used Acury Tranny gonna run me? Should I let Acura do this or should I take it to AAMCO?

Holla

 

if u want to get it fixed, u should leave it for acura to fix it...at least u can blame them if they are not doing a gd job on it~

 

Really? I saw in some other threads that AAmco was the shiznit? and they have a lifetime warrenty that Acura does nop have?
Holla

 

how many miles are on your RL? I know that it has not exceeded its time limitation (5yr). I am not sure whether the RL was covered under the same 100k warranty by Acura. If so, then it is a no-brainer to have them do it under warranty. If you cannot convnece them that they have to fix it for free, then I would go to AAMCO. They do a great job (from what I have heard) and they will stand behind the work once it is done.
If you have to pay, you may be lookin at 4k once all is said and done.

Ah, the joys of used car ownership

 

axeman, I have about 90k on it. Carfax showed tht it was a leased car before i bought it...so thats were all the miles came from?

I called Acura Customer Relations this morning and was told that if the car has over 50k miles, I cannot buy an Acura Extended Warrantee...so I'm S.O.L.?

The guy at Acura Customer Relations said..."Yeah you will have to pay the entire bill.

I just got off the line with AAMCO, and they said that my issue sounds like the car is in Fail-Safe-Mode? The blinking "D" is an issue that the computer puts that car in 3rd gear until you have Acura check it...so he said that my trannt might not be blown?, but i mught have a computer issue.

Now, my car is at the Dealer and I'm waiting for a call from them with their version of whats wrong. I',m now driving a Ford Focus rental

 

I don't understand what you mean by "as-is". It's a 2000 model. It should still be under the factory warranty. The only way for a void factory warranty is if the car has a salvage title.

But I guess that also depends on the mileage.

axeman --

I was under the impression that a tranny job costs about 2-3 grand for our cars?

 

If he has 90K miles on the car, then he is out of warranty by mileage. Unless you buy an extended warranty while you are in warranty, all Acuras come standard with only with a 4 Year/50K Mile Warranty. (of course, the CL/TLs have a tranny warranty extension to 7 Year/100K Miles)

I have a 96 RL with 125K Miles and I have transmission problems too. I also know of at least 2 other RL owners who have the same problem. Fortunately, my transmission isn't DEAD; it's just kind of rough when I accelerate and makes a clunking sound going from 1st to 2nd if I accelerate hard.

I asked about getting it fixed at a dealer, and they said it would cost $5K to replace the tranny. The new (probably refurb) tranny would then have a 3 Year/36K Mile warranty on it.

I would love to hear if anyone has actually had their trannys fixed by AAMCO. I always fear whether 3rd parties know how to fix newer trannys that have things like Grade Logic in them.

As much as I love Honda products, I have to say that I think their trannys are the weakest components on their cars. If they could build an auto tranny that lasts, Hondas would run forever!

 

Thanks for clearing that up...Megatron

 

Yep, I think that 2-3k is a little low for the tranny repair. I have always heard it to be closer to the 4k that I mentioned in my post.
The replacement is defintely a refurbished model. I doubt seriously that they would still be making new trannys for a 5+ year old car :-)

I feel for you and think how fortunate I am that mine is still holding up. Once it goes though, that will be it for this car as I wont spend that kind of cash for a repair of a car with >100k miles on it.

Best of luck with you in getting this resolved.

Axe

 

My one expierience with AAMCO was about 22 years ago and it was NOT the most pleasent thing to behold.

My best friend and I went there with his 67' Buick Skylark. I forget the problem but the whole conversation between the "mechanic" and the service writer was so previously rehersed it was sick, and bad acting at that.

I would let them work on my 30 year-old skateboards.

 

Well, here's my update.
====================
After 3 days I was charged for a loose wire to my Computer. Seems that they could not find any issues with the RL...so they replaced the computer with another one from that same model RL they had on the lot. My car acted the same with the replaced computer.

They put mine back and tested all leads from the fuse box to the computer and this is when they found the issue. Acura tells me that there was a dead connection/wire to the fuse box that caused my RL to go into "Fail Safe Mode"

Fail-safe mode was described to me as the tranny locking up and if the car can move under its own power...you will only be able to get 3rd gear and reverse?

Wow, I had a Ford Focus for 3 days (they comped that rental cost $0 to me)...for a loose/dead wire?

Well, the bill was like $444.00 and much of that was labor in finding and locating the issue. They also told me that they had to call Acura due to them never seen this issue before..

I'm happy now that I have my RL back..

 

hey megatron...i've seen that problem on a bunch of rl's...and its very easy to repair...what it is is a build up on second gear. what you have to do is this...put the vehicle in first gear, then accelerate(foot to the floorboard)...just as it reaches redline shift it up to second(if done right the tires'll squeal a little)...then as soon as the vehicle shifts put it back down into first....let the vehicle decelerate down back into first and hit it again...repeat this as many times as it takes to get rid of the noise(usually about 15 to 20 times)...then flush the trans... the noise and harshness will be gone

 

Beefstew... Are you SERIOUS? (or just being sarcastic...) :wow:

I'd be afraid of killing my tranny once and for all with that technique!

Are you sure this is safe to do? Has it always worked for you 100%? Can someone else chime in on what they think about this as well?

I appreciate the tip Beefstew... but I'm just scared to do that!

 

$5500 for the tranny replacement from Acura. Just had one done on the 2003 RL company car with 60K miles.

 

yeah i'm serious...when the rl's first came out we had a bunch of them do that...we replaced trannys for a while, then we figured out how to get rid of the problem...if it makes you feel any better my parents have a rl with the same problem and i did it to theirs. i've also done it with customers in the car and they are amazede at how the problem just vanishes...never had any problem out of doing this to ANY of them..HTH

 

mvs you should talk to your district acura rep...you shouldn't have had to pay for that

 

Can't he get some sort of a "goodwill" since the trannies have some issues? Maybe there is a TSB of some sort. RLs are Japan made, supposed to be even better than the TL. Fit and Finsih on this car is awesome. And 90k is supposed to be nothing on this car. Stress the fact that you are a LOYAL Honda/ Acura owner. And this situation makes you think of switching brands. They usually respond to that.

 

beefstew
i have a automatic tranny...

 

uh yeah....you can still MANUALLY put you AUTOMATIC in d3...d2 etc...thanks for lettin me know though

 

Hey beefstew... I tried what you said a few times and have a question.

When I get to redline in 1st and then shift to 2nd.. and then back to 1st, I noticed that the car doesn't just blindly go back into 1st. It stays in 2nd until the revs go back down to like 3.5K or so and then it shifts back to 1st. Is this normal?

Also, once back in 1st... do I wait until it slows all the way back down to idle before hitting it again?

 

hey megatron....yeah it does take a few seconds to shift back into first....let it decelerate into first then hit the gas again right as it shifts into first....you just want the engine rpms high as it shifts back into second. good luck

 

Sorry to hear about your problem. I would post some other RL sites to check out but this site seems to clear out the links.