Ok, I've had my 2002 Dark Emerald Pearl TL Type - S w/ Parchment interior and Navi for about two years now. When I got it I was overjoyed with it. I chose it over a 330i, Audi A4, etc.

I felt the one place it was lacking was in ride control; spring rates, body roll, you know what I mean. So I immediately dropped it with some Comptech AntiSways, and Springs. Two years later, I still love the feel of this setup. I have had the occasional problem with sway bar bushing lubrication and squeaking. But, black duck tape (as a 1 layer wrap around the bar) and silicon grease between the duck tape wrap and the bushing have really solved that problem.

However, about one year after buying the car, I got hit with the tranny-wammy and had to replace the transmission twice. Once AFTER my first scheduled service where the dealership flushed the transmission fluid and then I took a 1000 mile round trip to Washington, D.C. and back. The second time, despite being very leery about driving the car long distance (hence driving very non-aggressively), the second tranny broke down on a 200 mile round trip to Tarrytown, NY. Funny enough, both times the car brought my girlfriend and I back home before giving up the ghost. Both times I watched my car get towed to the dealership from the front of my home... go figure.

As you can imagine I was pretty pissed off. Mind you, even though I racked my brain for over a year looking for what I felt was the perfect car, here I was planning legal action if the damn thing broke a third, lemon-izing, time!

This all happened about 18000 miles ago. I'm on my third tranny. And guess what? No problems, none what so ever. I'm starting to love my car again.

Well, the thing is, I bought this car on lease as a try before I buy type of thing. I have about a year left to go. I'm starting to ask myself, do I keep it or do I move on to some thing else? I don't really care about the $700 on suspension parts I got my money's worth with every grin on my face while cruising down the highway... at speed .

I figure, if the tranny doesn't break again I'll probably keep it. Not to mention, that Acura extended my warranty to 7 years or 100,000 miles on the drive train. I mean $16,000 buy out surely beats paying another $45,000 on a 330i (with goodies) any day of the weak. The bimmers have just as much if not more problems. I know I'm rationalizing. What do you think?

I know if I keep it, I'm probably going to put some Koni Yellows and some cool rims maybe ADR-M sport 18s on it. I know my girlfriend still loves the car.

I'm looking for opinions out there. Have there been other problems lurking that I have not experienced yet? Have there been 3rd, 4th and 5th tranny replacements or has Acura finally got their act together on this? Let me know...

 

There have been people who have had their tranny replaced more than 3 times. However, I believe some of these people may have been purposely beating on their cars to MAKE the tranny fail so they could lemon the car. (I'm not saying all, but I think there were at least some).

The problem really comes with the 2->3 shift and the 3->2 shift. So if you'd like your car to fail, just repeatedly beat on the car by performing up and down shifts from 3rd gear and your 3rd gear clutch pack will disintegrate in no time.

However, if your new tranny has all of the mods put in it (built or rebuilt after February 2003), then you shouldnt experience any problems with normal driving. Again, if you want to beat on the car, even a tranny with all of the mods will experience the 3rd gear clutch pack disintegration.

If you want more info on the tranny problem, goto acura-cl.com and checkout EricL's thread on Acura's findings of the tranny problem. Its in the transmission problem forum.

 

if your tranny holds up, definitely keep the car..i'm jealous, i wanted that color sooooooo bad, but when it came time to buying the car, there was no more dark emerald pearl, only the ugly ass noble green pearl...you have the nicest color acura TLS, keep it as long as it is mechanically perfect..BTW, i settled for White diamond pearl with ebony, so i'm not too upset.