catscash

Bought a 2003 Acura TL at the end of March this year. At approximately 2000-2500 miles on the car it started "sticking, hesitating" both at lower speeds (45 mph) and at speeds of 55-80. It just feels awful. Had it to the dealer the 1st time--of course "nothing wrong with the car". The second time they kept the car 1 week (we did get a loaner.) Head mechanic said it was the transmission after he got the car to do the hesitating thing at 55-80 mph. Acura had a list of things for them to try. Nothing has worked. They are "hesitating" on replacing the transmission because they don't feel this is the problem. They say our TL is not within the VIN numbers they know had tranny problems! Yeah! We are still waiting for Acura to DO SOMETHING to fix this problem. Anyone else have problems of this nature with TLs bought this year? Would really be interested in knowing. It's now the 3rd week of June and this car was originally taken in in April!!!! What's up with taking so long? I'm a Honda person for sure have had an 81 prelude, 90 accord and 99 Odyssey (still have) Have never had any problems before. My husband buys this nice acura and now is threatening never to own another Honda in his life!!!!! Help!

Mr Zipps

I had a 03 TLS that I bought in the beginning of August. Had the tranny replaced at 12.5k. I told them I felt hesitation from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd. They called me back a hr later telling me that my tranny had to be replaced. The tranny was replaced within 5 days....

They order a new tranny and ECU...

EmuMessenger

Mine was replaced pretty quickly too. Perhaps you should try another dealer. It seems silly, but it may work.

limitedTLS

damn 03 models still have tranny issues.. i thought this problem would be over with by now

2007AcuraRL

They (Acura) started using a different 3rd party contractor to do all the tranny rebuilds around October 2002. Before then it was taking up to 4 weeks to get a tranny. Now the dealers can get them within 3 days. The new vendor turns them around faster and i guess there are more defective trannys nowadays for them to refurbish and get loaded onto a pallet for the next repair. :p

mibrahim

I purchased my 2003 TL Type S in May of 2002. Since I bought the car I've complained to the dealer about the tranny sticking between gears and hesitating between shifts. The dealer keeps tellimg me to reproduce the problem. It's very intermittent. Some good days some very bad days. They think I can drive to the dealer every single time I have aproblem with the tranny when they know good damn well there is a problem with the tranny. I even called Acura and the dude seemed to get aggrevated like I was wasting his time. Don't know what to do besides deal with a defective 30K dollar car until the tranny finally gives out!

SilverUA5

that's strange, i've had my tl for 14 months and i drive stop and go everyday, but i (knock on wood) don't seem have these problems.

catscash

Well, we got the head mechanic at our dealership to duplicate the problem, and even before he did, the day I took it over there and described the problem/feeling of the car, he looked right at me and said " it's not the engine, it's the transmission, but I have to reproduce it to request a new one from Acura." I told him to keep the car until he did, they kept it a week! He got the hesitating on the second day of driving it, spent the rest of that week back and forth with Acura trying this and that--they swear it's not the transmission--what is a consumer to do? Another week has gone by with no response from Acura--I'm sure they think we'll just give up and go away--oh--that's what they think!!!!! We may end up the same route and have to get rid of the car sooner than we had ever anticipated, and that will insure that we'll NEVER own another Acura--possibly even another Honda! And everyone we know will be told of our difficulties, so hopefully THEY will never buy an Acura! Does anyone at Acura care?????

VTEC Animal

Sounds to me like a dealer problem.... Like maybe they're too busy with other stuff to deal with you and have pretty much sidelined you. Are you atleast driving around another TL? I'd get on the horn to Acura Client Services.....

catscash

well, we have thought about going to another dealer, not one too close by though. Johnson City isn't that big, and this dealer isn't that big, they should be able to handle this problem. The Service Manager there seems to indicate that he can't get response from Acura--but we're not sure how hard he's rattling their chains.

We are still driving OUR TL around sticky tranny and all, (they gave the car back to us and told us it's "driveable")--it's driving my husband crazy--he drives about 60 miles round trip to work each day, and he should get home happy about his nice new car---but he's usually very angry, grumpy after his ride home, because it hasn't been pleasant!!! After reading some of the posts about tranny problems and wrecks that have occurred, I'm really nervous about how safe he is driving this car each day. We're looking into tennessee's lemon law, which is unfortunately one of the weaker ones of all the states.

catscash

just spoke with the service manager at the dealership. The regional service tech will be in next Wednesday--yet another week goes by. they want the car in for him to look at. I guess they don't trust their mechanics at their dealerships! or they just don't want to admit they still have problems with these transmissions.

so, I guess I'll lose another day fooling around with them next week. Uhhhhhhhh

chris03tl

Check the door jamb on the drivers side...........what month was your car built in?

I bet they didnt fix the problem when they think they did, and Acura wants to look at it to see whats up.

FWIW, we picked up a '03 TL at the end of April and the build month was Jan '03.

4 of the 5 "fixes" were implemented by Jan '03, the 5th being added in Feb '03. If your car is Jan '03 or later, I bet Honda *still* hasnt resolved the issue.

-Chris

bassplayer

Chris,
Where did you find out the info regarding the fixes and dates? I have a 03 TL that was built in April.
Thanks,
eric

catscash

Chris:

Thanks for the info. Our door sticker is March '03. Acura has said that based on our VIN number, we are not among the known transmission problems, in other words that our build should be beyond on the fixes. Well, I have a news flash for them--they aren't all fixed! So, next Wednesday, 6-25-03, the regional service rep will be taking a look at and a drive in our 2003 TL. Let's see what they come up with then! My feeling is they still have some fixin' to do!!!

Rover Hater

Now I am worried. Mine was built 03-03. Mentioned it to dealer when I had my first oil change they acted like there has not been problems. So that mean there will be major problems dealing with them if I have to.

CoasterG

There are going to be lingering tranny issues when you modify the existing design and don't redesign.

I have a build date 8/02 2003 TL Type S (guess it sat on the lot FOREVER since I bought it last month) so only 1 or 2 of the fixes are in.

<crosses fingers>

George

Chet03TL-S

Nooooo, crap bought mine last month but the build date was March 2003. Hope you aren't have tranny issues cause then I could develop them too. My car is already in the shop for a week one another matter. Don't want to go through that again for a tranny.

MikeS

I feel your pain, I have been dealing with this for two years and client services is treating me the same way. I was going to buy an MDX, but saved 8 grand and bought an Explorer with a 100K - 7 year warranty. The guard is chenging over there Honda/Acura and my next car will be an Infinity G35 Coupe...

catscash

Ok, help me out here, Wed. 6-25, I have an appointment with the Regional Service Tech for Acura regarding the Sticky Tranny on our 03 TL. Hubby is travelling, so it's up to me to convince this guy they still have issues.

I drove the car some today and sometimes it just feels like it's fighting you back. You have a feeling of going forward and the car is feeling like it's pulling backwards. It really is a bum ride. Would that be a good description of the sensation it gives you. Then when it is really bad, it just plain hesitates--in your face. There's no missing that feeling.

I'm thinking of printing out posts from this thread with your inputs and taking them to this guy and suggesting that Honda/Acura monitor this site. They will be able to see both sides--those that love their acuras and those that are not so in love with their acuras because of these tranny problems. We just want our nice cars to have a nice ride to go with them!

Let me hear from you, please! Thanks in advance.

For those of you that are in Oz, I'm Glinda the Good Witch!!!!!!

Just follow the Yellow Brick Road...follow the yellow brick road....follow the....

chris03tl

You've pretty much just described how my 2000 Accord coupe feels now. At certain times, it feels like someone is sitting on the hood weighing the car down.

Oddly enough, Im having a lot of trouble getting my dealer to see the problem, so the only thing I can do is wish you luck. if it really is the tranny, you can pretty much bet that the end result will be the same, it might just take some time to get there (Im waiting for my tranny to fall out from under me any day now).

-Chris

catscash

Interesting Reading -- Just Found!

Acura TL owners with tranny problems go read the PDF documents at www.nhtsa.org Click through and find the Defect Investigation Tab on the left , Search Defect Investigations and put in 2003 Acura 3.2 TL and you will get page that tells about the investigation into the Power Train-Automatic Transmissions (which was closed 3-5-03!!!) Click on Document search tab and it will bring up a list of 3 pdf files of documents--check out #2! over 1000 pages --page through the first bunch--some very interesting reading, you will eventually come to a response from Honda that tells of the "Fixes" that have been made and why!!!!

Also note: interesting that on June 9th a NJ law firm filed a lawsuit against American Honda over this transmission issue--see a post at www.**********.com

Let me know if you need any more help in getting to the NHTSA files.

catscash

that would be "**********" in the above website!

Type S Lady

O3 TLS purchased at the end of Feb. 03, mine sticks and hesitates going from 2nd to 3rd but only after I've hammered it relentlessly. I chalked it up to the ECU having to catch up with the SS but I guess not. I won't bother to take it to the dealer until it happens very often, I can't stand the call backs "we can't duplicate the problem" Lets all keep each other "posted"

lakies

I bought my 03 TL in June 02. I put my VIN number in on the Acura website and the message said my TL was not in the recall tranny group.

Are the rst of you saying there are 03 tranny issues clearly outside the group theyn have admitted to?

Red03TLinTex

I have one that was built in December 2002, and the transmission in it already seems to be a little 'flakey'. Fortunately, there's no major slippage or ultra-harsh downshifts, but it's not exactly smooth, and it seems to shift less 'confidently' as I put more miles on it (currently 1200). Maybe I'm paranoid, and maybe I got a bad tranny. Either way, I'm just glad the focker is covered by the warranty or I'd be 5h|tting bricks right now.

Funny thing is, I had NO idea that there were this many problems with the car until THE DAY AFTER I bought it. And I did LOTS of research. Every frickin' industry survey/study says Acura is one of the top makes, so I felt pretty good about the deal until it was too late. If I'd known better, I would have held onto my money a little longer to get something else, but such is life. Oh well...at least I got a good deal... *shrugs*

Type S Lady

Redo3tllintex, we still made a good purchase in my opinion, atleast Acura is handling their business thus far.

Red03TLinTex

Despite the problems others have reported, I do think the car is a lot of bang for the buck (provided the tranny doesn't end up catapulting me over a freeway guardrail). As far as Honda/Acura handling their business...I guess that remains to be seen. I think if they REALLY wanted to get this problem fixed right the first time, then at the first sign of design problems, they should have hired an engineer from any of the myriad makes whose trannies AREN'T designed to implode with normal use and let THEM take a crack at it.

catscash

thanks guys for the replies. I hear all of you. Especially RED03TL inTX comment about doing all the research and then only finding out after the fact that these problems exist and have existed for 4 years! I'm thinking Acura has "paid" for these glowing surveys. BTW, when we bought our TL, the sales rep NEVER mentioned the extended warranty on the Power Train 7 years/1-00k that they are now offering through the 2003s. (I think it's through the 2003s.) That would have been our red flag as to why the sudden shift in the warranty. Even the finance guy who went over everything, of course, never mentioned this.

My meeting with Acura rep is at 1:30 tomorrow (6-25) Wish me luck. Keep anything that will help me with them comin' y'all!!! This forum is really helpful, if nothing else to give me a place to release most of my frustrations!!!!!!

gregtomash

This is the way I see it... It's not unheard of that product some company is selling has an issue or two. In this case, the only thing company has to do, is to tell the customer why it happened, and what company is planning to do to fix it. I work for hi-tech electronic company and that's exactly what we are doing when customer comes back with the problem (of course, replacing defective parts with no questions asked): Look at the design, find the problem, fix it, run "bit a hell out of it" live test to make sure that problem is fixed and inform the customer what's been done so he will continue to buy our product. That's what Honda isn't doing! Once the problem was identified they should've sent a letter (could've been the same letter that extends the warranty) with the explanation of the problem and what they are doing to fix it. And transmission problem is HUGE! I don't have enough data, but it seems that it affects at least 1% of Acura owners. Honda represents itself as WORLD CLASS MANUFACTURE - and that kind of company supposed to have failure rate (for major components at least) in ppm (parts per million), not 10 000 time more!
I've gone through two transmission replacements - and the last one looks OK (knock on the wood!). I love the car, but I don't like company's attitude towards customers.

catscash

Talked with our Acura Client Services Rep yesterday, and it seems that Acura's biggest hangup on fixing our sticky/hesitating car is that there are no indicators flashing/beeping/or whatever. They just can't believe that a car can have a problem without some computer generated indicator telling them so. OK, what has happened to good ole auto mechanics--the feel of things, I guess we can't do anything anymore without a computer telling us to, I work in computers, but this is a scary thought that nothing can be wrong with it, unless it specifically tells me, guess that's what I'll start telling clients that have these sneaky little intermittent issues, I can't fix it because it isn't beeping/flashing, etc. no more testing each part, or replacing each thing one by one until it's fixed!!!!!

chris03tl

I hear ya!!! My car is feeling worse by the day, that good old "sluggish like someone is pulling backwards on it" feeling is beginning to tick me off..........best part about it? No flashy lights or loud beeps or computer codes. So I guess everything is fine.

Great...........did HAL start flashing lights right away? I dont think so.

Anyway, at the same time Im also noticing that my A/C seems a LOT louder than normal. Now Im sorta wondering if the A/C bearings are loading up the engine as they die. Its a longshot, but I guess ya never know.

Good luck!!!
-Chris