Hi all I am new here,

I got my 2002 Acura 3.2 TL a week ago, and I love the car. It rides smooth, handles great, has good interior and exterior design, quite, ..................and, well everything is soo cool~!. But I have to say that the build quality is not as good as German and Toyota cars. The front and rear doors, if you check carefully, are not lined up perfectly if you use silver plates on the windows to meaure. The seat belts and brakes make a squeaky noise on the road. My car and the one I test drove at the dealer are all like this. Any comments?
By the way, this is most important part:

I believe most doors should close tight with a light push. The ones that don't are cheaply build. Like my old Chyrsler. But for some season, my driver's door never close correctly. Every time I push it, it closes half way. I have to open it again and close again. And some times I have to do this five times. It's true that I don't push the door hard enough, but on most luxury cars you shouldn't have to. The doors should snap close easily. What's the problem. This has been bothering me, cause this is an Acura. Doors problems like this shouldn't be happening. Can some people help me out? Anything I can do to solve this problem? Should I take the car to the dealer?

SORRY FOR MY BAD ENGLISH. I AM NOT GOOD AT EXPLAINING THINGS.

 

Yes, take it to the dealer. I believe someone else here had a similar problem & the dealer took care of it....

 

If any of your doors are not aligned properly, then take the car back to the dealer so that they can be adjusted.

Judging a car's build quality by how easily the door closes is a pretty antiquated practice. It's akin to kicking the tires. There's a lot of weatherstripping and rubber insulation on a doorframe which makes the seal very tight when it's closed. This could be part of the reason your door is hard to close (the aforementioned misalignment doesn't help things, either).

I'll be the first to admit that the TL has it's share of minor annoyances and build quality issues, but they are minor and easily corrected, though it is a shame they exist at all.

Bottom line: Take the car back to the dealer and have them check it out.

 

Ya, I think I'll take it back to the dealer. But still, a new car already going back for repair

 

Almost every new car will have little things that need to be adjusted. It is not just Acura. The door problem is easily fixed. What they do is make a slight adjustment on the door strike and all is well.

 

i know what you mean, being a new car and all it should be perfect for at least a few weeks. maybe just give it a little time for things to settle, or adjust as the car is really new. if it still does that then take it to the dealer, just give the car a chance.

 

No car is perfect!

 

Well, we all think that after we spend $30K+ on a vehicle and it suppose to be problem free. I wonder did all the QC in Acura mean anything. I mean I can understand first year model can have problems. For a door alignment problem, is it easier to spot than a mechanical problem?

 

hankw, the car is built in America! Yeah, the car is put together pretty poorly. Had I known that the car was built in America I would have inspected the car more closely. My first year Legend (1986) was by far better built, and that was 13 years earlier!

 

OMG, I just found out new probs. Man~! I hate to say this, but MADE IN USA cars really ain't that good. Even if it's an American Build Japanese Car. I remember last year Car and Driver gave the TL a 9 out of 10 on build quality. I have no idea how they came up with that score. My car is poorly built, but I think I picked the best one at the dealer. Hack, my brother's Accord has better fit and finish than this new car.
I would like to share my new discoverys~! Thats see...........
There are rubbers and for some reason white strings are sticking out where the right side mirror joints the door. Glove Box doesn't close tight. And the door..............it pissed me off even more this morning. Oh ~ Well ~ !

 

Same goes to the arm-rest storage. Am I being too picky~!?

 

i personally think the quality is above average... its not bad!!

for example, open ur trunk and see the rubber that contacts the body of the car when the trunk is closed...on the body of the car, it has a little plastic rubberish sticker to prevent ware and tear...and im sure it prevents some rattles too!...

there are few rattles around the car but,... its not too bad...
its definately better then my last car (88 ford tempo!!!)

the audio could use a lil more sh!t... i think my infiniti acoustic 10 system in my town and country(minivan) is better then this paper cone bose sh!t...

 

IMO we are suppose to expect a lot more in a $35K car, if TL can't even match accord's build quality.... That is not right.

Us the buyers are working for Acura...... as QA. Why should we find problems and bring it back? I bring my car back to dealer for problems so far, at lease once a month. I guess lucky me.

 

hmmm....maybe im the only one who has no quality complaints about the TL....
no problems for me so far...

 

I was the guy who had the door alignment problem. The service manager at Superior Acura fixed that problem in about 5 minutes. What you do is loosen the screws on the door striker (that silver loop on the door jamb) and bonk it inwards a little with a rubber mallet. That's it! That stopped my door from squeaking as well.

Seat belt squeaks are also easy to fix: Spray some WD-40 onto the hinge of the belt buckle (which is located behind the rubber flaps). That oughta fix it.

I agree that these minor problems crop up way too often for a supposedly luxury car. The design of the car seems to be sound, but its assembly isn't very good.

Ah well, I'd still prefer to keep my $10k and take the car to the dealer once in a while to fix all the bugs in it. As I said, the engineering is very sound.

 

I drove a lexus ls400 for a while. It had double rubber seals on the doors. The seal was so air tight that you really had to slam the door to make it shut. Of course if another door was open or a window open then it shut right away. My 2001 TL has almost 9K miles on it and it has been pretty much trouble free. It is pretty tough (read expensive) to drive out all problems with a car. This is my 2nd acura and I think that they are above the curve. You should see posts from the GM cars, mercedes or VW.




steve

 

Man, I know how you feel....... My 2000 TL got tons of problems... totoally pisses me off...

Hopefullly your dealer treat you with respect though... Cuz they don't at my area...

 

I have no quality complaints on my TL either.

 

on our 2001 TL i've notice the truck didnt align right. the corner of the truck closest to the glass doesnt match with the rear fenders. anyone else have this problem?

 

I do... my trunk lid curls up a little higher on the driver's side compared to the passenger's side. It's virtually unnoticeable though.

 

Keep in mind we all paid a few grand less than the closest competitors price. I think it is a great car. I am sure if you dyno matted the doors, you would get that studier feel in the panels that you were hinting at in Toyota and german cars. Plus Acura's are easy to mod compared to German cars and thats good for some of us.

 

Wow, lots of replies~!

Hmm, the door close shut right~a way if the passenger door is open and/or my(driver's) door window is down. Why is that? I don't get what difference does it make, but it does ^^;

 

It shows you how tight the seals are on your car. When the window or other door is open there is no pressure build up in the car when you shut the door so it will close easily. But when no other windows or doors are open and you close your door, it will increase the air pressure inside your car and prevent it from closing as easily. This is like when someone closes a door while you're inside; it puts pressure on your ears.

 

bah maybe someone said this (im not reading all the other posts and i just started on this one lol)
anyhow
my doors close super easy... Im yelling at people constantly already about slamming them all the time, my TBird needed a good hearty slam, these are like sucked shut

 

I agree with TommyBoi, I always tell my friends not to slam the doors. I happen to like doors that shut with a bit of effort and close with an authoritative "Ka-shump".

 

Same here, all my friends used to their cars always slam my doors and trunk so hard it hurts me.

 

The only problem with my TL was the squeeky sunroof, Other than this I am very happy with about 8000 miles on it.

Also, my kids are the worst for slamming the damn doors. Also, with my Accord the spoiler is rather heavy and you can let it drop from a few inches from the frame and it will lock. Every once in a while my wife will forget and slam it with her full stregth and it feels like the lid is going through the frame. If you mention it to her you get a response like "you're so perfect, you never make a mistake". So you learn to keep your mouth shut, NOT.

 

GOOD FOR YOU ^_^. I hope I get mine door problem fixed soon~! BTW, I never slam doors. Until.......................

 

Agreed with a few statments, The TL 3.2 was rated best in its class by Car & Driver... You wont get any better... It just gets worse if you buy others

 

Hankw,

My doors on the 00 TL close by themselves!!!! Yes, my driveway is inclined. I get out out of the car by opening the door enuf to let me out, and leave. Door always drop back by itself and closes tight without fail, no slams, no second effortsl...:-)

 

LUCKY~!

 

I've had my TL for a little over two years, and I am very pleased with the build quality overall. It's head and shoulders over that of my Maxima (which I thought was a pretty rockin' car before I drove my TL ).

My only issue is with the damn squeak that happens whenever I play a song with a thumpin' bass line. It drives me crazy! It seems to come from the back seat. Other posters have suggested that it is actually the sunroof, but I dunno. It sure sounds like it's from the back seat. Could this be a ventriloquist squeak?

Does anybody else have this problem? What works to fix it?

 

Yup, that's why if you change your windshield, you have to leave your windows creaked about an inch or two so that when you shut your doors, the pressure doesn't just force the newly sealed windshield up.

 

speaking of toyota quality...i was just behind a new avalon yesterday.

from about 5-6 feet away, i could tell the trunk was off...the seam on the right side was about half as big as the seam on the left.

but then again, it was driven by an old lady and she probably never noticed it.

 

I went to the dealer today about my door problem. Some technican said something about my car being nicely sealed, and my car has no problem at all. I insisted on making the doors easier to shut. But he said if I do that, he has to loosen something and adjust the door. By doing so, the doors won't be aligned anymore, and this might cause some rattles. I rememver someone telling me that. I still kind of not get it. Sorry, if you don't mind, can you explain this air pressure thing in a bit more detail. I am pretty stupid.

BTW.....Of course I didn't want to jack up my new car, so I said nevermind and came home. But I am stil unhappy. My friend's TL door shuts so well, it feels like it's getting sucked in. Argggggggggggh~!

 

Oh ya, the technican also said something about the driver's door being heavy, so it's harder to shut it...........~?~?!!!!!!

I kind of agree with him on this one, cause he showed me like 5 other cars. And they were all just like mine. The driver's door require some major slamming to close it.

 

the cabin holds a certain volume of air. when you close a door with all the other doors/windows closed, at the moment the door seals, part of the door intrudes INTO the cabin space (the part of the door inside the car) and therefore DECREASES the physical space of the cabin. Now the same amount of air that was there when the door was open is still in the cabin after the door is closed (it has nowhere to go because the seals are tight), except now it's in a cabin with slightly less space, so the pressure slightly increases and it's going to give some resistance and therefore "cushion" the door the moment before it closes. Eventually the air escapes (the cabin isn't air-tight, but it's tight enough that a sudden decrease in volume/increase in pressure will be felt). This happens like the exact moment the door seals on the closing door contacts the mating surface, so for our purposes we can assume it's close to instantaneous.

if another door or window is open, the increase in pressure never happens because the air in the cabin just flows out the open window/door when the physical space of the cabin decreases.

 

Well, all I can say is that they got POOR QUALITY CONTROL... It's true, and yes our car got $hitty quality. It's still worth the money and all, but... I dunno...... If you feel that your car is really different form your friend, then... That means the build quality is different between the two cars...

I don't know how hard is it to close your door. But if you are door isn't scrwed on the frame right... like there's more then two hinges to hold the door to the frame, and if one of the is lose or something then it will create pressure on another one, thought it's harder for you to close the door and stuff......

 

I am going to change my edit on this post,,,,some of the postings to this topic, I think have been getting a little out of line.

Anyway, I am waiting a little more time to see if Acura addresses the problems with my car, so far, things do look "very"positive. I had a meeting with them (dealer management) the first of this week and was very pleased so far, and I should have some answers within two weeks and I will post the results here.

 

Thx for all the replys. But I still can't believe everyone has problems on this car. I mean come on, it's an Acura. It's not justified for them to make the car ****ty just because it is priced good.

One other thing I found out today. When I had my Accord, the gas paddle was responsive. When you step on gas for just a little, power come right a~way. But on my TL, no power comes at all. I have to step on the gas paddle half way to get the car moving. And this car has ****ty brakes. I mean ****TY~****TY.

OR IS IT BECAUSE THE CAR IS MADE IN AMERICA.


P.S. American cars do use ****ty interior plastic and other stuff, but my Chysler doesn't have as much badly build parts than my car. **** MAN...........I SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT SOMETHING ELSE.