Black TL

Another problem to add to my car. ALL day today, my car was pinging at 1300-2000 rpm's. Its been happening for a while now and I have tried plenty of different gas stations and companies but it just doesn't go away. How did I get stuck with such a POS? 42k miles, damn shame for a Honda... And that damn transmission is a POS TOO!!!! #@$(*%$&#(&)!!!!!! It makes driving my car so frustrating.

Turboara

what does the dealer say?

try some some Chevron fuel system & Injector cleaner, maybe its a clogged injector.

AcuraTL

It was probably something else. Usually, your car will ping under extreme load with bad gas. It won't ping if you are driving it normally. Were you flooring your TL up a steep hill with 4 other people in your car? I am guessing it is something else.

Mario

I notice my TL-S pings under acceleration (not full load) when I'm coming out of a corner. I always pump Mobil 91, which is decent gas right? I'll pay a visit to my Acura dealer to see what's up.

Black TL

I don't have many people in my car at all. Usually, just myself but I have noticed most of the time, it pings when I am in 3rd gear and am going about 3-5mph. Thats my tranny not downshifting. When I accelerate, unless I floor it, it will not downshift so I just let it accelerate as it does. And yes, it does feel like there is a HUGE load at this speed in this gear. What should I do to fix this?

BTW, thanks to all.

AcuraTL

That's not pinging. If you are in 3rd hear and was only going 3-5 mph, of course your car will feel like it has a huge load. Don't want to jinx you but it might be your tranny.

TUFF GONG

Whoa, 3-5mph in 3rd? Unfortunatley it sounds like the tranny to me also.
That scenario would be a very heavy load on the engine, it's lugging it. There could be a chance it's also pinging considering if the tranny was malfunctioning, it could cause the engine to be in a situation(load) with way too high a gear at too slow a speed putting lots of strain(lugging) on the motor causing it to knock/ping. After all, the engines ECU isn't meant to handle that kind of load and that engine/tranny shouldn't be in that combo at that speed with the throttle applied( I would think?) it's not meant to be in that situation

Does it take forever to accelerate? Is it downshifting and starting from 1st when you come to a stop? Does it downshift to the proper gear when you slow down and accelerate again? Does it happen when you slow down and start to go again, as opposed to starting out when you first start and put the car in gear? If the tranny isn't working right, it will run like crap for sure.

I'm no expert the best thing to do is to have it looked at a dealer/mechanic.

Good luck.

Black TL

Here's how my tranny acts:

When I accelerate, it usually shifts at 2-2300 rpms from first to second gear. Sometimes its ok becuase of the amount of acceleration I want. Sometimes, when I want to take it to 3000, it shifts at 2300 rpms and there is a jerk, like the engine wanted to go but it was forced (by tranny not to). This jerk is very noticable.

Also, when I driving in traffic, it always upshifts very quickly. i.e. If I am going 10mph, it will shift into third even when I am slowing down. When it eventually shifts from 3rd to 1st when I stop, the car pulls forward, backward, and forward again. Its a pretty big jerk and is extremely annoying when you are in a jam. Lets say I am going 4-5 mph, it is still in third and won't downshift unless I really push it. At this point, there is too much acceleration because it is back in first. Then, it upshifts to third and repeats the cycle.

Thirdly, I have noticed, when it upshifts to third and fourth, it takes a while. That is, it will hang around high rpm's for a second before it shifts.

Fourthly, When I am slowing down in fourth, it will not downshift into third until I get to 20 mph which really blows because we all know that accelerating at 20-30 in fourth is not good.

There are many other weird things happening with my tranny which I cannot describe. You would have to drive the car to notice them. At first, I thought it was just me being paranoid until ALL of my friends said the same thing.


Tuff Gong, to answer your questions, I have noticed that my car is usually the slowest from 0-40 with normal acceleration. Our corrolla is a lot faster than the TL. It does downshift into first when I am at a complete stop. I described my stop and go acceleration above.

I apologize in advance if I am unclear on what I wrote. I have finals tomorrow so I am writing this in a rush.

Thanks again to all who replied.

Rosh

AcuraTL

When you described your problems above, were you in SS mode or just regular auto mode?

Black TL

I have tried both. In SS mode, it tells you what gear you are in, and in auto, from 4-3, you can see the rpm's rise a little, and 3-2-1, you can just tell.

AcuraTL

You might want to take your car back to the dealer for them to check because all the symptoms you had mentioned do not sound right.

TUFF GONG

I don't know Rosh, unfortunately it sounds like your tranny is going caput I don't know if you still have a warranty or not but it doesn't sound good. Have a reputable shop (preferably a Acura service(but $$$'s)) have a look at it. Maybe the sooner the better to prevent more damages(I'm not sure?)

Good luck

Black TL

So guess what happened to me today? I was driving on the Northern State Parkway and there was traffic. As soon as it started clearing up, I was in the right lane and I was going at a constant speed of 55 mph on cruise control enjoying the ride for about five minutes. All of the sudden, my rpm's shot up to 5500 rpm's and went back to 2000 rpms and there was a jerk. I am guessing that it either downshifted into third, or neutral, and then shifted back to fourth. I don't think it went to third because it felt like the car wasn't accelerating. I just can't take this anymore. Its getting so annoying. Do you think my cruise control could have caused this or is it my tranny?

Thanks,
Rosh

AcuraTL

If I have to guess, I'd say it is the PCM. You should definitely take your car back to the dealer and have them check it out.