oblio98

Well, you know how you always say "It will never happen to me?" Well, it happened to me.

Yesterday, I noticed that the car stayed in 3rd gear longer than it should, in fact, I had to slow down to get it to shift. No big deal, I thought, 'cause it was fine after that. However, deep in my demented brain I remembered seeing all of the posts from TL-S owners who had to have their tranny replaced.

Well, today, as I left a car wash, I looked down and saw the following:


CHECK ENGINE LIGHT ON
VSA LIGHT ON
P5 LED FLASHING ON AND OFF
/!\ FULLY ILLUMINATED.


Oh-Oh. I headed for the dealer (10 miles away). The car was OK, but as I stopped at a few lights, I noticed it seemed to be stuck in a high gear, as acceleration was nil. (Not that I was pushing it, as I pretty much figured it was shot)

As soon as the service manager saw the "light display", he ordered me a loaner car. I asked him, "WTF?" ????

He said there is a seal in the tranny that is actually too small, and that when it fails, the entire tranny must be replaced. Oh, by the way, they are ON BACKORDER!!!!

Great design by Acura. Hey, I love my car and wouldn't want anthing else right now, but COMON!!! You would think they would get a stupid seal right!

At least he did not blame my Comptech stuff.........yet.

To add to my misery, I got a Chevy Cavalier (with 30,000 miles on it) as a loaner!!!

BUMMER!

OK, now how many TL-S owners have had their tranny replaced??

:-jon

bioyuki

Ouch...hope your tranny gets here fast. Some people on the CL board have had to wait over two weeks

NSXNEXT

iTrader: (2)

Wow, sorry to hear that Jon. Well look on the bright side....winter is fast approaching. I'd rather get sand and salt all over my loaner than my baby.

Hope your car comes back good as new.

Neil

Mr Hyde

Damn!!!!!!! Just changed my ATF today hoping to prevent any problems.

Hope I dont ever have to undergo the same. Thats the first I have heard of the seal problem; wonder how true it is. Seems like everyone who has taken their tranny in has come back with a different story. How many miles on the tranny Jon??

Ruski

Hey I just drove a Chrysler 300M for 3 years and drove it hard. Never had a problem with the transmission despite all the statistcs about failing Chrysler trannies.

Now I got a TL-S that is supposed to have better transmission and everything else, and what's up with this?

rmarin2

That sucks. How many miles did you have on the car?

vandy786

Then again I know several people with tranny problems in their 300M's. You must be very lucky and the people with bad trannies in their TLS must be really unlucky.

OBLIO: Do you drive the car hard? Do you drive it a lot? I am starting to get worried.

CarFreak

Damn Jon! I can't believe I know someone who's tranny died. I'm knocking on wood that my tranny will hold up. I ho[e everything works out just fine. Good luck!

paultl

hey jon,

how many miles do you have on your car and do you drive you car hard? (alot of SS use)??

Smelly

Sorry to hear about your problems. I feel your pain as I am still waiting for my transmission. I just called the service department back up and and although they did not say that it was on back order, it has not arrived yet.

BTW, can't your dealer get you a better loaner? Makes me almost happy about my Integra loaner.

One more thing, did your service guy say whether or not the new transmission fixed the original problem with the seal?

Crzy Acura

**** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****!!!!! THATS ALL, and im sorry.

oblio98

I have 22,000 miles on the car. No, I don't really drive it "hard", although I do accellerate onto the highway "briskly" at times. I never have "raced" it, or driven over 100mph.

I rarely use SS. I really should use it more, but I grew used to the automatic when I had my 99TL.


Don't know if the "seal" story is just a story, but the service manager did not seem suprised that he had "another" bad transmission to deal with.

:-jon

BlackShadow

Really sorry to hear about your tranny dying Jon. I hope they get you a new one asap! Like Neil said, winter is coming so just take out your frustration on the POS cavalier.

I guess it's true what people say. That to wait for the second year of any car so that they will have a chance to fix all the bug and glitches in the first year. Obviously I didn't listen since I bought my TL when it first came out with the new design.

But so far I am lucky. I have a 99 TL with 57000 miles on it and my tranny is just fine. And I race my TL every chance I get.

Good luck Jon and keep us updated!

NighthawkBlack

Wow I didn't think the Tl-S had documented cases of tranny failure. I thought it was just the 99 base TLs. Now that Level Ten seems to be a big scam according to many posts, I have lost hope of getting a solid tranny for my TL after it gets supercharged.

NBP TL

All this tranny stuff worries me. But hey what am i going to do? So, i'll drive my car, be happy and if the tranny fails it fails.

Indyjenks

....have to agree with NBP...I mean....what are the alternatives? Im just glad I have the 7 year, 75K mile extended warranty!

BTW Jon.....my condolences! Especially since you and I have nearly identical twins.....

oblio98

Thanks IndyJenks,

We've both been at this since last spring. Hopefully, yours will be fine.

It was just so matter-of-fact from the service manager. He did not act suprised, or shocked, or bleed any fake sympathy, he instantly went into "dead transmission mode", called Enterprise and told me the trannys' were on back order without even batting an eye. As if this happened every day.

He did not ask me how I drove, what I did to the car, how it happened, what were the early symptoms, nothing.....

It's almost like he knew it was going to happen.

It would be interesting to hear from Wayne or Jens from Park Ave Acura to see what their thoughts are on the transmission "problem" are.

How many have they done, what do they know about the cause, is it a "seal" defect? There must be something noted somewhere, to have so many 2002 TL-S cars have a major failure so early is not a good sign.

:-jon

thephantom

Hey Jon, sorry to hear about your tranny, that sux!! Look at it this way, you will save a couple thousand miles on you TL-S.

TL4Mo

John,

Since you may have a loaner for more than a few days.....see if a Service Mgr. can be of assistance. If not, call Acura Client Care (or whatever it's called). Explain to them that you are having to endure this crap because of Acura's bad design and are very UNSATISFIED.....and to add insult to injury you recieved a crappy loaner......see if Acura can't provide any pull over the dealership. For goodness sakes, I took my car to get the hood replaced & painted (GM of dealership agreed to that...long story) and when I got there the GM had the Sales Mgr. give up his CL-S....I had that gem for 3 weeks! Now that's service. Can you imagine if I take my car in for a tranny replacement? I'll be sure to ask for the Sales Mgr's RL or MDX!

Best wishes on this problem!

thejavagod

That sucks! I thought TLC promises an Acura loaner if you're out of commission for more than 2 days!

Davidas

Guys, last night I pushed the gas to the floor. As the car hit 65mph in 2e gear, I let off the gas pedal. Guess what happened?

The transmission stayed in 2e gear for about 3 seconds before shifting automatically inf 5th gear, so there was a 3 seconds compression time.

BTW, I was in automatic mode.

It really scared me, thought that it happened to me....

oblio98

Oh No!!!
That is EXACTLY how my problem started. I thought I was doing something wrong, or I was losing my mind, but the thing stayed in a low gear, even if I accelerated. I acted like it was stuck in gear. Then, it would come back to normal after I let off on the gas.

Just be careful, and if you get that light display as I indicated in my first message, get to the dealer fast.

UGH!

:-jon

hooked2TL

If there is a problem with some seal, shouldnt Acura start a damn recall already or they waiting for all trannies to die first??

This transmission thing is just the pits, can't believe this on an acura...

AKRY

Yap, I agree with Sam.. why the hell can't Acura just send out a recall?? Besides, if they said the seal was not properly design(too small, whatever).... what's gonna happen with the replacement?? I assume they are the same?? If they are not the same, does that mean that newer TL/TLS have the correct seals now???

Andy Kuo

Smelly

I called my service manager yesterday to see if my replacement transmission had arrived, and of course it did not. He could not tell me if it was on backorder, or if there was an estimate on when he can expect the part to arrive. 11 days and no word on when it will arrive.

On the bright side, I guess I'm saving mileage on the car.

TL4Mo

I guess with some dealerships (unlike Gunn Acura), promises are only kept when you are a jerk about it.

janda_janda

very distressing!!!!!!! Sorry Jon!

AKRY

I heard a noise again... it's not actually gear griding sound... but more like something is loose underneath... and the sound appears ONLY when the car is in drive... when put in "N" or "P", the sound is gone.....

Andy Kuo

Sleeperz6

My tranny died last week, same scenario and same response from the service guy. Acura of Pasadena has been pretty courteous about it though. They got me a Sebring convertible with 2000 miles on it as a loaner. I think I want to trade for a 2002 Beetle (curious to see how it drives), since I will be having the car for another 2 weeks. Sucks but what can you do?

oblio98

Holy Crap, that make 11 of us!

(TypeS, Redlined, Evan Eaton, ginelewicz, Danuary, oblio98, smelly, rmarin2, Nate579, FVFFC, Sleeperz6)

Maybe Tim should start stocking trannys!

I hope this does not turn into another "roll call" post.

:-jon

Thai.95LCoupe

W/ any car its best to wait until the next year edition comes out so the can fix all the problems with the last years version. That's why I got a 95 Legend.. The last year they produced it....Good luck.. (but not to sink your ship but my 95 has a hell of a lot of problems too)

NOLACLS

Hey just to let yall know...today is the fourth week with out a car. My tranny died in my cl and it has now been a month waiting on it. I call the dealer today and they said that some have been sent out so we will see if there is one for me. I would expect to wait atleast 3-4 weeks for a new one. Sorry to see this happen.