gagetrol

Lately my 03 SSM TL-S with a build date of Dec 2002 with 35,000 miles has been surging and hesitating and hunting for gears. I planned on taking it in to a dealership. Then I check the Acura owners link and found that my car falls under the transmission recall. :angry: I dropped the car off at the dealership and later they called me and said that I will need another transmission. All this after I thought my car was out of the transmision problematic VIN range. My coworker at work is having problems with his MDX transmission as well. What is going on with Honda and this massive transmission recall?

indoMFP

Sad to hear... but hopefully you get a new tranny and no problems.... check in on the sticky tranny fail thread...

gagetrol

indoMFP, the service advisor said that I will be getting a "refurbished transmission" and not a new one. Yeah I checked the sticky tranny fail thread.... It's a shame for a 30k car to have such a major powertrain problem and shame for Acura for not fixing it right...for four years!! and this "band-aid fix" will not really fix the tranny problem...Guess we all paid for a $30k lemon.....

MADCAT

Too bad to hear that. My 99 TL is great. I lugged around alot of camping gear in it and had no problems....I wonder these later TL have so much problems?

gagetrol

Madcat,

I think that the majority of the transmission problems are with 2000, 2001,2002, and 2003 models.

http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/re...rc=VIP&tab=4**

indoMFP

I have noticed that the folks that have their trannies fail are doing the majority of their driving in city and ot highway... someone care to clarify this point???

mrsteve

iTrader: (1)

Most of my driving is highway... about 25 miles highway, 5 miles city in my commute and my transmission went at 47k.

Although your theory makes sense. Highway driving is usually in 4th and 5th gear; the transmission problems lie in the 2nd and 3rd gears. City driving would use 2nd and 3rd much more often than highway driving... good luck trying to prove this hypothesis though.

gagetrol

90% of all the miles on my 03 TLS is highway driving yet it still died. Plus the VIN on my car was outside of the problematic tranny VIN range. what gives?

mdavisii

Yeah, I thought it was only the later TL models with the transmission issues. I too have a 99 TL, tranny died on 7/9/04 at 101,500 miles. To this day the car remains in the hospital.

VTEC11

Is Acura still paying for your transmission atleast?

mdavisii

Fortunate for me, they are indeed paying for the tranny. They even left me with a TSX, which I have had for about 10 days now.

gagetrol

mdavisii,

At least they gave you a TSX. The dealership gave me a 03 TL loaner for one day and then they sent me to Enterprise Rental car. All they had at the time was a Lancer, a Neon and a Chevy Silverado pickup. I rented the pickup and have had it since this past weekend. Dealership said that it will take about five days for them to install a refurbished transmission. Great job Honda.. I am really looking forward to buying another product from you guys...... :sqntfawk:

Xpditor

Madcat:

We have not had any members reporting patterns of tranny problems with 2004 3rd Gen TLs in our forum. We have heard of very few.

However, Acura just recalled 5AT trannies on early build models for inspection. The build numbers are 0-14000. Those would have been the first 2-3 months of production last fall. The problem is a lack of lubrication on one of the gear sets that can cause failure after a lot of miles are put on the car. If the car isn't failing and is low mileage, the fix is to add a kit to deliver lube to the troubled gear.

If the car is high mileage and a visual inspection of the gear shows a color change (the dealers have a color chart), they replace the tranny with a Re-built tranny. That's not as bad as it sounds because all the wear parts in the re-builds are new. And, in all reality, the tranny being replaced is not new either.

Also, the few problems that have been reported have come from people with heavy loads and high miles such as pulling a trailer or driving in hill country in 5th gear which creats a burden on the tranny.

The o4 TL is not approved for towing anyhow, anyway. I haven't even seen a hitch offered in the after market. If you do tow and you start having tranny problems: LOSE THE HITCH before going into service. This may be different for 1st and 2nd Gen TLs. I'm not as familiar with them.

XP

shawn744

Ive heard that the build date for OK trannys are i think on (and) including 2/03.....lemme know if anyone else has heard this.

LiQiCE

There are no "safe" trannies in the 00-03 CL/TL 5AT models, it seems more prevalent in the Type S models though. Read up over on Acura-CL.com to find out more about the transmission problems.

The problem like mrsteve said is in 3rd gear. The car's biggest problem is when driving in heavy bumper to bumper traffic, if you leave the car in D5 it will automatically upshift into 3rd gear as you're going for short distances. Then you come to a complete stop and you start it over again ... the repeated shifts into 3rd are what kill the 3rd gear clutch pack. This could be in city driving or highway driving, so you can't say that one type of driving is whats causing the problem. I believe that you can help to prevent the death of your transmission by driving in SS mode and limiting your shifts up into and down to 3rd gear. This doesn't guarentee anything however, the Honda 5AT transmissions just have a design flaw and most likely they will not last forever.

However, this recall has nothing to do with that particular transmission problem. It has to do with insufficient lubrication in 2nd gear. From what I understand, the 2nd gear problem does not occur nearly as often. I don't think this recall will help anyone who has a problem with the 3rd gear clutch pack.

mrsteve

iTrader: (1)

I believe the problem is in the 2nd and 3rd gear clutch packs and not only the 3rd.

But you are correct in saying the current recall has nothing to do with the clutch pack problem. It helps prevent the 2nd gear teeth from breaking/wearing down. The 2nd most common type of failure on the 5AT.

indoMFP

I thought I was on to something.... but the theory made sense but it has been disproven, folk's trannies have failed even out of the 3rd gear....

I thought I had a reason to speed... I mean imagine a cop pulling you over and I just tell him, sir I have to speed because the Honda engineers suck major ass and could not fix the 2nd and 3rd gears on this tranny and therefore if I do not speed my tranny will fail and therefore causing traffic jams which cause people to be late and if people are late they work less, thus making less money and therefore they lose there jobs and can't pay taxes which pay your salary.... So can't you see I am speeding to assist you in feeding your family.... We both win....








I would be immediately arrested and taken to jail, I know.........

subtledreamer

hahhahha, hilarious!

and back to topic, sorry to hear that gagetrol

broly_retired

where is the list of blacklisted tls

I need al ink ive been looking all over

LiQiCE

Here's the list of blacklists TL-S's : All of them

Like I said above, every TL-S has the potential to fail. None are safe. Even with Honda/Acura's changes to the tranny, there is still a problem.

indoMFP

Originally posted by Phoenix over .com:

03-002 3rd Gear Clutch Pack is Worn

VEHICLES AFFECTED:

2000–02 3.2TL: All

2003 3.2TL (except Type S):
From VIN 19UUA5...3A000001
thru 19UUA5...3A019556

2003 3.2TL Type S:
From VIN 19UUA5...3A000001
thru 19UUA5...3A019061

2001–02 3.2CL: All

2003 3.2CL (all models):
From VIN 19UYA42..3A000001
thru 19UYA42..3A005203
SYMPTOM

The symptoms of a worn 3rd gear clutch pack include,
but are not limited to
• No upshifts or downshifts
• Slippage or flaring on upshifts or downshifts
(primarily in 3rd gear)
• Erratic or excessively harsh shifts
• Slow or delayed gear engagement
• The MIL is on and/or the D5 indicator is flashing

PROBABLE CAUSE

The 3rd gear clutch pack in the automatic transmission
is worn.

CORRECTIVE ACTION

If diagnostics confirm an internal problem with the
automatic transmission, replace the transmission and
the PCM.

NOTE: Certain 2000 3.2TLs and 2001 3.2CLs will also
need a new fuel pressure regulator, whether or not the
regulator was previously replaced because of Service
Bulletin 01-001, Hard Start After “Hot Soak.”

dhsieh

When I bought my 2000 TL new, I compalined to the Acura district Manager about the loud meta engaging noise when shifting. He told me that was normal with the design. I did not believe and told him that with that kind of noise, the transmission is due to early failure. After 3 years, Acura finally recall the transmission on most 2000-2003 TL models. I took mine back to the dealer and never fully know what they have done to fix the porblem since the nosie continue even after the recall.

Last year, my TL also suffered from the "hot soak" problem and it took 2 different dealers and roughly 6 months for them to figure out the cause. Eventually, they referred to an Acura service bulliten and applied the fix. However, the hot soak problem never really disappears completely. Occasional, the engine is still sluggish when start hot.

This is my 2nd Acura. The last one I had was a '89 Legend coup and we loved every bit of it until we sold for $7k after 100k miles. That was the best car I have ever owned comapring to Lexus, Bimmer & Mercedes that I had.

Given the unpleasant experience we have with the TL, we'll never own another Honda or Acura in the future.

03CoupeV6

Welcome to a year and a half ago.

I wasn't paying attention to dates until I saw Mdavis's post about his TL's transmission failing on 7/9/04 and the car still being at the shop. I was thinking "Damn" then noticed the dates.

fsttyms1

Well not to make matters worse, But "IF I" continued to have a problem after it was "fixed" i would have brought it back to them or a different dealer to SOLVE the problem. The problem isnt so much with Honda or Acura as it is the owner of the car not bringing it to get fixed.

vtecgod

you know we all complain about the transmission thing lol .. but I no for a fact that I would enver give my car up even if it had 29 transmissions go.

we get treated like gold at the deaelrship and get 50000 dollar loaner cars. Whats better then that ?! Plus our cars rock out

Phesto

they gave you a RL????

03CoupeV6

I have also had an 05 RL loaner for 2 weeks.

fsttyms1

i had a RL and a MDX for my loaners. (the 2 trannies that were covered) I asked for them and they were happy to give them to me

Phesto

cool

flatliner

Well I'm up to 107,000 miles on my 2000TL and I'm beginning to notice some torque converter lockup when going up hills and some delay in shifting upon accelerating from a stop. Is it too late now for Acura to fix or replace my tranny at their expense?

fsttyms1

your close enough where they may with out question. Id recomend bringing it in before too much more time goes by.