My 2003 Acura is at 34K and the acceleration doesn't feel like it used to. I do a lot of driving (30 city stop & go miles plus 40 highway miles a day) and generally drive in D4.

When I press the gas pedal though (at any speed), the movement feels "grainy" and a little rough. It is especially noticable at a stoplight though.

I use only 91 or 93 fuel. Is this normal?

(I am throwing another question in also )..Also, when I am driving ~5-35 miles, and press my grainy gas pedal, the RPM jumps up to about 500-700 more RPM more then when it settles to when I release the gas. The RPM just seems to be a little jumpy at low mileage.

I have been reading the transmission recall info and this doesn't seem to fit in to that problem, I think.

Any ideas about the acceleration or RPM? Sorry if these are novice questions. Thanks in advance...

 

The slightly higher rpms at start (500-700) is normal. That's the torque converter unlocking as you accelarate and locking up as you reach cruising speed. I'm not sure what you mean by "grainy". Do you mean hesitation or engine stutering/stumbling??? I would run a bottle of good quality fuel enjection cleaner through with 93 octaine gas and see if that helps. Keep us posted on what you try and what works to resolve.

 

Thanks for the reply. Well that's a relief about the RPM then.

To answer your question, when I press the gas pedal, the feeling under my foot as I press the gas down isn't smooth. It's a little rough (i.e., the grainy feeling) and there is a mild hesitation. Once I am cruising, I can accelerate quickly, but any pressure on the gas pedal still feels a little rough. Hope this describes it in a little more detail.

 

Soundgarden, by the way great band!! The hesitation should only be moderate, if it is pronounced then you may need new air filter, fuel injector cleaner should help a little bit and also give your spark plug wires a quick look, if they look black and feel dry and crunchy then new wires will greatly improve acceleration and improve responsiveness. Hope that helps.

 

That grainy feel to the pedal might mead that your throttle cable needs a little lubrication. They make a special tool that clamps around the end of the cable and is used to squirt grease up into the cable.

Maybe a little grease might smooth things out? (don't use light oil on the cable)

 

Thanks again for the help. Grainy wasn't the most descriptive word, sorry - the gas pedal just doesn't feel smooth under my foot when I accelerate. I will definitely try the fuel injector cleaner and check the spark plugs and ask someone else to do the throttle cable check - thanks!

 

As a cheap test/fix you could try spraying the outside of the throttle body with carb cleaner. The linkage could be gumming up.

 

THere are no spark plug wires in the TL. :sqnteek:

 

Always use D5 on the highway; otherwise you're doing nothing more than making your engine work harder and use more gas.

 

Do you suggest using D5 on the higway and shifiting down to D4 in the city? Is there a good time to use D3?

I drove a MT for 6 years, but I am still not comfortable driving in the SS mode (I have had my Acura for 6 weeks) so I am sticking to just the D3-D5 gears.

Thanks...

 

You can use D5 all of the time. D3 would be useful if you were towing a trailer at lower-than-highway speeds.

 

Can I infer that D2 is for towing a school bus then? :sqnteek:

 

You have gone in for your 30k tune up? Used fuel cleaner like Techron? Had the throttle body checked? Other than that I have no clue why your car feels slow.

 

Yes, I bought the car at 31K (the 30K tune up had just been done). I haven't done the other two but will definitely try the fuel cleaner. Thank you.

 

Fuel cleaner should help. Also if you practice shifting to SS and '-' down to 3 or 2 that is how i do it when I need to pass. Very often, the slack is due to the fact that, on automatic, you are on D5 mode. When you accelerate, it takes a while for the engine to try to speed up on D5 before it realise it needed to shift to D4 or D3, hence the hesitation.

 

D5 usually doesn't/won't engage in SS mode till ~45mph minimum. It may be the same shift point for rpm/speed in full auto mode too so leaving it in D5 souldn't hurt in the city.

 

Ok another novice question. Suppose that I am stopped at a two-lane stoplight. (That's when I started to notice my acceleration problem because a late 90's Grand AM schooled me). What is the best way to overtake someone in the other lane? Starting off in D4 or using the SS? Or something else entirely? Thanks....

 

SS or Auto but you will need to floor it once you get moving. It will shift near redline.

Late 90's Grand Am is pretty punchy I hear. You should be able to beat him out.

 

I had a similar problem, where the pedal would stick making the acceleration feel like it was hesitating. I brought the car to the dealer and it turned out that the throttle body was damaged and needed to be replaced. I had it fixed just this past Mar'04 with 44k miles and Acura replaced it under warranty.

 

Thanks for the heads up. If it persists, I am definitely taking it to the dealer to get checked out. Thanks!

 

try changing your tranny fluid...it helped me alot when mine was hesitating

 

get tranny check also sound like it might be the problem. Keep us updated

 

umm well, I'm new to the TL too... but wondering.. is that true? no wires? no plugs? or are you just shitten around? I just got mine like 2 weeks ago and hardly drive it cuz the loan hasn't gone through yet. Aside from that, I'm used to Honda's 4bangers.

 

It's got spark plugs but no wires. There is a coil mounted on the valve cover over each spark plug. It held on with a torx head bolt.

 

It's a coil-on-plug setup like a lot of other higher tech engines. There is no distributor or traditional high tension spark plug wires to replace. It's all low voltage until it gets to the plug.

Luckily that's still enough electricity to set off inductive RPM sensors (like on a dyno or timing light,etc.)