Today when driving to work (the car was already warmed up). I was coasting up to a red light with the tranny in D5. I pressed the gas and the damn thing didn't do anything! I was doing about 10 - 15 mph and it felt as if the car had stalled (it had not though, the rpms were about 1100 - 1200). I think the reason that the car went no where when I pressed the gas pedal is because the DAMN tranny did not downshift out of 4th gear and it was powerless in 4th gear going 10 - 15 mph. Then someone behind me honks their horn becaue they think I am daydreaming! This car is turning out to be a piece of ****!

The other day too when I was backing into a parking spot while out eating lunch, I came to a complete stop, placed the tranny in reverse and then I hear a 'bang'! The whole car shook as the tranny shifted into reverse!

If this dosn't get fixed ASAP or the dealer comes back and says that they didn't find anything, I will DEMAND that they take the car back and eat the loss. This car is two months old, and has 2700 miles on it. It has not yet had the first oil change, I have babied it and I NEVER use SS. THIS IS BS. Is they 'mess' with me, I will call Tom Martino, picket their dealership and go to every new owner function and tell all the other new owners about my problems.

If things keep going south and having problems and they can't find anything wrong, then what are the chances that I can turn this piece of crap back into the dealer? Is anyone else at this point I am at?

 

Join the club, i have a 99 that went through one tranny and now the new one is giving me some problems.

 

2 months, 3000 miles and my CLS engine was rebuilt.

I got an engine rebuilt and and 6yrs/100K warrantee and $1000 check.

No "real" tranny problems for me.

 

My brother-in-law works for Acura and he told me that he sees a lot of blown engines on the TL's and very few blown Trannys

 

Similar thing happened to me last night...

Moved shifter from D5 to D4 (not SS) to merge onto Interstate and accelerated to 80 MPH.

Once at speed, I moved shifter back to D5 (from D4). Tranny shuddered and car bucked for about 10 seconds. I mashed the gas and then things settled down. Although I had a bumpy ride the rest of the way.

Knowing about the tranny issues, I shifted from D5 to SS to see what would happen. To my surprise, the LED gear indicator displayed '4'; not '5'. Keep in mind I'm cruising at 80 MPH and was in D5 when I shifted into SS. I.e. the display should have read '5'.

Tried this a bunch more times with the same result. I'm thinking "Oh, oh"!!:wow: Needless to say, I am worried.

So know, I am on the deathwatch ...I'll have to keep my eyes and ears open to see if my tranny is starting the downward spiral.

FYI - Car was bought on 12/28/01 and has 3500 miles.

 

Get to your dealer asap before it dies on you leaving you stranded waiting for a tow truck!

-copland007

 

copland007...

Really?? You think so? It just sort of went away so I thought it may be a fluke. Like maybe the computer reset or something when I started my car this morning. I seemed to recall somewhere that our trannys are computer controlled somehow. (I could be wrong).

Truth be told; I'm nervous about taking it in and having some hack look at it and making it worse. Plus, could you imagine trying to explain the problem to a bored, uninterested service advisor that could care less if my tranny was about to go BOOM!!

I know the flip side is waiting until the thing tanks and I'm stuck somewhere. This is really a PITA situation!!

 

I had a similar situation with my tranny before it went. It happened several thousand miles before it finally kicked the bucket. I wouldn't overreact to that situation. If your tranny is failing is will definitely exhibit repeatable problems.

Even when my tranny was REALLY going, it was driveable - as long as I didn't push the gas down too much. I'd wait and watch.

 

I would still bring it in to get checked out. The service dept. can hook up their diag and see if any error codes have been flagged. I would think it would nice to catch the problem sooner than later.

 

i think the tls tranny goes out on most of the cars built because the tranny in the tls now is off the original tl. the original tl tranny, i believe, can't support the torque and the horsepower in the tls, thus causing the tranny to fail. that's my theory, maybe someone can research that.

 

Dude,

So whats new man. The tranny on the acura tl has a 50% failure rate.

 

I just read your post again and realized I didn't read that paragraph :o

Don't worry about dealership hacking away at your transmission, acura doesn't allow them, they have to ship the whole unit back to get re-manufactured, and they send a new ( urr, re-manufactured ) transmission which they pop into your car.

If your service advisor is not interested in taking care of you either escalate the issue by talking to his boss, etc... Or find another dealership

At any rate, no harm can come by asking them to hookup their computer and see if any errors are present. They may say nothing is wrong, they may see errors regarding a solenoid and flush your tranny fluid one of more times.

-copland007

 

Actually, if the replacement trannies are truly "remanufactured" this would be preferred over a new replacement. Why? Well in the auto parts business there are four different categories of parts:

1. New - Straight from the factory, both OEM and aftermarket
2. Used - Self-explanatory, taken from a vehicle previously in service
3. Rebuilt - Part comes in worn or dead. Those pieces needing repair or replacement are exchanged out and the part is rebuilt to the original manufacturer's specs.
4. Remanufactured - Part comes in worn or dead. Those pieces needing repair or replacement are exchanged out. The piece is then examined for design faults (what made it fail or wear prematurely) and then those pieces involved in the failure are re-designed or re-engineered to avoid this kind of failure in the future. The rest of the part is restored to the original manufacturer's specs.

So if there really is a problem with the tranny, getting a new, used or rebuilt replacement one isn't necessarily going to solve the problem because the replacement is of the exact same design and spec as the original. It is just as likely to fail as the original one. However, if they are really putting in *remanufactured* trannys, then it's quite possible they have isolated a faulty component and have redesigned that component for better longevity. Remanufactured parts are almost always the preferred replacement choice for parts that fail.

 

.... you may have a real point.

I had one of the original 1985 Saab 900 turbos. That model year received the newest turbo engine with far more hp and torque than previous years' engines. The 1985 was the only Saab 900 turbo over the subsequent few year period to have significant tranny failure rates and this was attributed to the mismatch of the old trans to the new more powerful engine. Once recognized and a matched tranny was added to subsequent model years, the failures I believe stopped.

Of course, I was lucky enough to have had that model and learned first hand.

As I've just posted, it appears my tranny failed today.

 

The way things are computer controlled these days, I wonder how often the tranny gets latched up?

If it's anything like my netscape browser, it would need to be rebooted twice a day... I have read that the Engine is controlled by a 16bit processor, and the Tranny is also controlled by another 16bit processor. That's a lot of data to process and keep track of. Probably does wonderful efficient things when it is working, but what happens when the computer hangs??? I'm sure that this can explain some of the flukes. It probably doesn't explain the loud metallic clunks, or metal shavings in the fluid, etc.

But say the computer does get confused and latched up and doesn't know which gear is which??? Does it reboot when the key is removed and restarted, or would one need to remove the battery cable to establish a complete reboot? If I start getting fluke type problems, that continue, I might try disconnecting the battery just to see if anything changes... I, too have little faith in dealer mechanics. They are NOT software engineers. They are good ole wrench mechanics that have gone to a couple of classes that teach them how to hook up a piece of diagnostic test gear, and if it doesn't tell them to replace part "A", then they are lost. Cannot duplicate... or esle they start tearing everything apart going on a wild goose chase. I witnessed it in my engine fiasco, and I am soured by the whole process.

I love the car and I love the info on this board, but I don't know what to make of the statistics. How many people are members of this board? and how many of those people have had tranny problems, or a combination of unacceptable problems? It's scary. What does that say about the general public that just drives the car without a second thought? We are the ones who are supposed to know how to take extra good care of our precious TLS, and yet it seems that more of us have problems than reliability... Sure human nature says that people are bound to complain... but this is an enthusiasts board, so I am convinced that people will praise their machines on this forum as well. The 50/50 ratio of complaining to complimenting is really a poor statistic. We should all be bragging about our ride, and only an occasional lemon story should surface... WTF!

I spent way too much money on this box to worry about it letting me down... it's beginning to sound more and more like a GM POS. So far I'm on my second TLS, and it has ventilation problems. The first one had severe engine noise that even Acura support couldn't diagnose after 6 trys, so I was actually lucky enough to have the dealer give me another new car, but now I'm wondering if I should have gotten my money back instead? (of course that would have never happened)

I just wanna go up to Maine for my Clam Chowder lunch, without a care in the world while enjoying my TLS bliss swishing around traffic and curves. I don't know how we can say that we are isolated cases. Why are there so many of us "knowledgeable car people" with big problems? All I can say is that the general public must really be getting screwed. Flushing a tranny shouldn't be the fix. I have driven other cars over 100,000 miles where I'm ashamed to admit that I never changed the tranny fluid at all, but it never died, nonetheless. Does our tranny fluid run too hot? Is there anyway to increase the transmission cooling? I was concerned about the small radiator in this high output engine from the beginning...