alright guys, i need some help/advice with my 03 tl, sorry, it's a little long
-here's the deal; i finished my summer term and went home for two weeks and left my car at UF. when i got back, the car was hard to accelerate slowly, i had to push the accelerator pretty hard to make it move anywhere, bt eventually, it went back to normal. so i drove it to my house (it was parked at a friend's apartment parking lot) and when i parked it, the engine started reving up and and down by itself and then the malfunction light popped up. i read the manual, and took of the gas cap and put it back on and then left it alone until the next day. the next day, i turned it back on to see how it was doing; the light was still on, but i let the car warm up until i did anything, when the temp was in the middle, i gased it a little to see how it'd work and it was fine, but then, it started reving by itself again, so now, i don't know what to do. my dad came, and i asked for his advice, he drove it around, and said i should take it to the dealer.
now, i'm going to take it when i have time, i'm still settlin' into my house, but i want to be prepared. has this happened to any of you before, or do you know anything about this. any response would definetly be appreciated
thanks
-david

 

Your tranny is going. Take it to the dealer before you get stranded on the side of the road........

 

i dont think its the tranny. how many miles do you have? and have you ever put any fuel system treatment in the tank? I think carbon build up is your problem, It seems our cars are really suseptable to build up of carbon. Use a can of Tecron or greesed lightning, I bet it will go away mine did and i had a simular prob after my car sat at the airport for 4days.ie sticky throttle,rough idle,hessitation.

 

thanks for the advice, guys. i hope it's not my tranny; that would really suck. i only have around 16,500 miles on the car, so i'll definetly try what you said, yield2S, and get the tecron; i hope that's what it is---when you had your problem though, your light came on too?
thanks for everything
-david

 

The self acceleration could be something in the cruise control or maybe an idle speed control sensor. Just a thought. Won't explain the hard acceleration though.

 

Hey rockshow,
I'm go to school at UF too. I haven't seen your car around town. Well, goodluck with the tranny, Gatorland acura unfortunately, isn't the best dealership as far as service, but hopefully they will take care of the issue.

 

whoa! sweet deal that's there another TL up here; have you noticed the grand amount of CL's though? i've seen a few TL's around; we should totally have a meet. you probably haven't seen mine cause i live off campus and walk to class. and hopefully, gatorland isn't as bad they say
-david

 

If the car isn't running right and the check engine light came on, take it to the dealer. It's an 03...use the warranty that you paid for. Let them worry about the car instead of you worrying about it.

 

I am having the same exact problem with my '03 TL right now. I put a bottle of SeaFoam gas treatment in it, but it had no effect - except for making the engine malfunction light come on. There also seems to be an audible "clicking" in the engine bay associated with the surging of the engine. Does anyone have any ideas what to look for?

 

how did you seafoam it?- describe method and times- warm up drive,,after drive ?

when did the CEL come on-
if seafoam dislodged crud got stuck on the O2 sensor- (it happens) just drive and it will self clean and clear the light all by itself in a day or 2

you may have stuck IACV- seafoam 1 can in 8 gallons gas (just under half tank)
or remove iacv and clean- its on the bottem of TB

 

where is this clicking--firewall, fender, driver or pass side
there are several things to make noises there

is your AC on or off when it surges--does it change when on off?

 

congrats on finding a thread-but this one is from 2003 and much has been learned since then

have a look in the main thread list and the special section- `problems and fixes`
you may find your problem there,,, with a current fix

 

Go to any chain auto parts store and get the check engine light code checked. They will hook your car up to a scanner and let you know what code is being transmitted. Write it down and do a search.

 

F.I.T.! F.I.T.! F.I.T.! well, i was F.I.T. but now im somewhere in wisconsin where it sucks ass big time. It sounds like it could be iacv. Back when i still had a 95 accord, it was reving up and down non stop and found it the iacv to be the culprit. Like 01tl4tl said, its right by your tb. Easy fix if its it. You should definitely check the iacv out before taking it to the dealership.

 

its on the bottem of the TB assembly

 

Thanks for the replies. The clicking is definitely coming from the drivers side...I guess it could be the throttle body itself, but it seems to be a little bit closer to the firewall than that - I guess I can't really tell with all the engine noise. The AC makes no difference. As a matter of fact, if I start the engine cold, it runs normally for a few minutes if the AC is off and I don't touch the accelerator, and I don't put it in gear. As soon as I do one of those three things, it starts surging.
Seafoam: I dumped a half bottle into a half a tank of gas. I have driven a few miles on it. the CEL and TCS lights came on about 1 mile into the drive. The TCS light has since gone out.
I will dump the rest of the seafoam in, clean the IACV (I guess just with carb spray cleaner) and see how it goes.
Thanks again. The car has been great for 7 years and 110K besides this.

 

The ticking may be unrelated to your surging problem. The ticking may be your evap surge solenoid based on where you say the sound is coming from.

 

agree on the purge unit- see DIY section if it really bothers you

seafoam is 1 can to half tank- thats 2 oz per gal- seafoams `Cleaning Strength` dose

no relation of gas/ seafoam to any ck engine or other lights
It only occurs during or after vac port method and excess amount added at once, or not enough after drive and O2 sensor gets clogged

hows it shift from N to D5? any change in that or other shifts recently
How does the trans fluid look and smell?
when do you change it?

spark plugs? when? ngk iridium or ngk platinum? not some other funky 2 buck plug!

also try swapping the fuel injection relay as suggested before- thats its power source- with another unit --many of the relays are same part so you can swap them- look for color match

 

order a new TB to manifold gasket at parts store,
use carb cleaner on iacv parts

carb clean ok to use on air plate inside TB throat- get both sides and edges clean as you can

 

begwi: whats the backstory on this problem--was the car parked a month or more without a gas stabilzer added to tank?

or it just started running funky without warning,,
or after you did some other work on it?

 

The car was parked for a month and run a few times while I was gone. No fuel stabilizer. I guess I'll never do that again.
The transmission has been fine. I do the 3 quart change every other oil change. No bad smells from the tranny. It shifts and drives fine actually.

 

The clicking is definitely related to the surging of the idle. Every time I hear the click, it starts to idle high for a few seconds, then another click brings it back down to normal idle, etc. Does a dirty IACV make noise when it trips?

 

I also brought it to a reputable place for the 105K service...new plugs, belts, pump, etc. It was Accurate Auto in Annapolis, MD. They said everything was fine.

 

but WHAT plugs did they use?
ngk or denso are the approved brands
ngk platinum was stock- most of us go with the gen3 plug NGK Iridium

if they used anything else,, problems will show up
ck the invoice or remove a spark plug and inspect
You never know what a shop has really done

 

They used Ngk.

the Seafoam seems to have worked....I drove more this weekend, and eventually the idling problem went away. It is idling normally now. I haven't been able to find a TB to manifold gasket in stock anywhere, but I'll clean the IACV when I do. Everything seems to be working normally now...except the CEL is still on.
thanks for the help 01tl4tl.

 

you wont find that gasket in stock- thats why I said ORDER a gasket~

reset the ECU by pulling the CLOCK fuse on passenger end of dash for a minute, then reinsert
that will force a relearn and self test of all the systems,,if the light comes back get the codes read

It can take a few tanks and few hundred miles for seafoam in tank to work problems thru
glad it helped,,wish I had stock in this stuff!!