hatzq68

I have an '03 TL-S. Within the last few weeks I've been noticing that when on the highway the tranny seems to be slipping when I'm driving maybe 30 MPH and at about 1500 RPMs. It's like it disengages for a second or two. I think it's probably not the torque converter because it's always on straight roads and I have not noticed it happening before recently. The car has about 8,400 miles on it and it has been serviced by Acura every 3,000 miles. I also noticed that when the car is cold and I put it into reverse I got a big bang when it goes into reverse. Not sure if this is normal or not. I had it at the dealer the other day to replace a cracked heat shield and I asked them to check it out and they said that they could not replicate my problems on a test drive. They also said that if there was a tranny problem, that codes would come up or that my TCS or check engine light would go on. Is this true? They also said that the problems with the tranny do not affect the 2003 TL. Is this true or has it been proven wrong. My VIN was in the pool that got the extended warranty and I got a letter from Acura regarding this. Again, I tried doing a search but was not really able to find any definitive answers to my concerns. Thanks in advance for your help.

Donny

Alexxx

What dealer are you taking your car to? From reading other posts, it seems that your transmission might be going soon. If you are taking your car to Plaza Automall they don't know about anything. All they care about is sales. And yes the 2003 TL had some transmission problems.

My suggestion, if the problem still occurs take it to Park Avenue

hatzq68

I've been taking my car to Rallye Acura in long island. My car originally came from Feders Acura upstate, but Rallye is close to me so I've been using them. I would go to Park Avenue, but it's kind of hard to get there because of work.

Donny

DivinDude

Don't believe them about the codes .. my 2nd tranny suffered the typical tranny failure (slipping .. clunky reverse) without any lights or error codes. The acura rep is eating lots of 'crow' over this one because when I complained about obvious failure symptoms prior to its ulitmate failure .. .he preached to me about how their systems are designed to trap 580(+) error conditions on the drive train .. guess they missed MANY.

-Andy

Ajay_RENAMED

Just because you got one of those extended warranty letters does it mean that your transmission is defective. There was a cutoff point on the transmissions affected in 2003, I think someone said that it was pre June 2002 production dates.

I notice that sometimes when im cruising around 40mph that the revs will drop about 500rpm for a second and then come back up. I have a 2003 TLS built 7/2002 with 7,000 miles on it. Some other users noted this exact problem. I aslo get the bang while putting the car in reverse when its cold.

I had a 2002 that suffered from 2 transmission failures. In each case the transmission slipped from 2nd to 3rd and no where else.

Hope this information helps.

hatzq68

Ajay,
Are you saying you think this is normal for the tranny or you think my tranny is failing? Sorry to seem naive, but I wasn't sure.
Thanks.

Donny

randomwalk101

don't worry about it..just drive the f*ck out of it and blow up that POS tranny and get a replacement. It'll happen to all of us..eventually. Acura tranny sucks!!!

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Everything you described sounds normal to me. 500 RPM drop is the torque convertor.

Bang when putting it in reverse has happened on every Acura I've been in since 1998.

hatzq68 - if you're really experiencing slipping (the VSA lights up, etc.) then you're screwed. The disengagement you're describing sounds exactly like the torque convertor. The fact that it happens on straight flat roads is fine... I think you're mixing up the TC with the Grade Logic that the Acura's have.

Check out my post towards the end of page 3 of the following topic for a description of common signs of failure: http://www.acura-tl.com/forum/showth...0&pagenumber=3

Alexxx

Hmm...I never experience this. The only time I might hear a little bang when switching out of park when the car is parked on a hill or on a driveway (mine) with a slope. Which is why I always put the the handbrake on when I park on a hill to stop the car from moving an inch or so in either way.

Ajay_RENAMED

Yes, I think its normal - besides the Acura dealer wont do anything for you until your Tranny shows signs of failing (like slipping and such)

Ruski

Ahh, that hickup? That's normal Or so some people say

this is me

Not to be a smarta$$.
You have a handbrake on ur TL?
I have a footbrake!

Ruski

BTW, one time I was able to reproduce the hickup a few times in a row - I happened to drive on a stretch of a road where left side wheels had to go into very shallow puddles and right wheels stayed on the dry pavement. Every time the left side traversed a puddle, my TL-S had a hickup with RPMs dropping ~500rpm (feels like the engine just died for a split second)

I too think that this phenomenon has something to do with TC and/or grade logic in the tranny.

Alexxx

Oh you mean the pedal? Well I press that thing with my hand, smarta$$

this is me

So u steer with ur feet and step on the pedal with ur hand?
:worship: :worship: :worship:

copland007

None of my 3 failures produced any error codes or flashing lights so don't believe them completely on that.

My first tranny very loudly would 'bang' into reverse, it was replaced very shortly after my violent downshift at 80mph to 2nd gear.

The 30-40 mph range with this car is very hyper tranny active. It tries like hell to shift into as high of a gear as possible and lock the torque converter at every possible chance. So you will notice a lot of ~500rpm changes and shifts which are completely normal.

You could put the car into D4 when traveling around town to prevent some of this hyper tranny shifting.