Well, I got around to taking my car into the dealership today. As expected, the transmission needs to be replaced. The good news is that they will have one Wednesday. The bad news is that I'm driving a Chevy Malibu until then....

While I was there, I met their shop foreman. He's a nice guy, and was the one that took the car of a test drive with me to experience the problem first-hand. He was also the one who worked on my car.

He said that there is an electronic valve assembly called an "A to B" solenoid on the top of the transmission that actuates the shifts. All you can see from the outside of it is two wire connectors attaching to the top of the transmission. It appears that the black stuff in my transmission fluid was clutch material. That clutch material built up to a point where it completely clogged one of the hydraulic runners in my valve assembly. This explains the jerky shifts and revving/slipping/engaging that I (and other people people with failures) are experiencing. Apparently, the clutch (I presume it was the lock-up clutch) deteriorated so badly, that the material clogs up the rest of the transmission.

My advice is to check the color of the fluid; in my case it was a sure symptom of what was going on. If you have a 2001 or 2002 TL and the color is very dark, be aware of changes in your transmissions shifting (jerky shifting, gears engaging and disengaging, etc).

If you tranny fluid is nice and pink/red with 10,000 plus miles.... You should rejoice - you're apparently not affected!

 

By the way - I had just over 9000 miles on it.....

 

Which dealership?

I've noticed no problems with my trans, so far (8500 miles).

 

It's at Fountain Acura.

 

When did you buy the car? What build date?

 

I posted that here:
http://www.acura-tl.com/forum/showth...threadid=30872

But here it is again:

Last six VIN = 018639
Mileage = about 9500
Manufacture date = 5/2001
Failure date = 2/25/2002

I bought it last June.