hey guys.. i have a big question..
since i am so scared about these tranny problems occuring so frequently in the TLS and now in the G35.. i want to know.. would it help if i got a manual transmission instead??? say.. CL6speed, g35 6speed.. would those eliminate the blown tranny problems???????? please respond.. thanks.

 

A manual transmission is less complicated and therefore less prone to break. Doesn't mean it won't, just less of a chance.

 

Could buy a Lexus, no tranny problems here

Well, I've had a manual tranny go on me before but I drove the snot outta it.

Seems the TLs and G 35 problem is a cost cutting flaw more than anything else.

 

If you reasearch into every car manufacturer you'll find tranny failures. They are the weakest link in any automatic car. I only saw 1 post regarding a G35 tranny failure, so now you are afraid of the car?? Thats unwarranted. Someone I know with a new Camry lost their tranny only a few months, does that mean they are all like that? That they are cost cutting?? (an astute observation; based on what exactly who knows.....yeah its much cheaper to design and replace a bad tranny than it is to build it right in the first place )

Yup some TL's are loosing their trannies, but that number is in the small minority. it really does suck if you are in that minority, but lets face it. With all thats being said on these boards you'd think that almost half of the hundred thousand + TL's sold so far are all dumping their trannies. The dealers arent overloaded with TL's with blown trannies. This car leads its class in sales, and if the problem was as far widespread as this board makes it seem, it would be well known, not just amongs us board members/enthusiasts. On boards like these you will not hear about how the vast majority have no tranny problems, you'll only see posts about those with problems, and that tends to slant your perspective. ie. 30 people with problems is a large number. out of 100 thats 30%, but out of 1000 its 3%, etc, etc. You get the picture.

People here instead of enjoying their cars are worrying and acting like the tranny dying on them is a matter of when it will occur instead of if. Potential buyers are being scared off as well, which is truely a shame because it is a great car which I just love to drive whenever I can. Over 15k on the clock driving on the highway and in NYC traffic, with mods such as headers, etc which give me more hp and torque; driven hard with no problems of nay kind.

Sign me
One very pleased and satisfied owner.

 

I'm getting a new car soon, probably a TL-S. I've done some research, talked to a couple of Acura service techs who were reassuring if not unbiased. But if these problems were truly widespread, why would Consumer Reports reliability ratings for the TL be so high? For the last two model years, the TL made the highest possble reliability scores in every area (including, tranny, of course) except body integrity (squeaks and rattles), where it rated very good. Plus it got picked as one of the top used cars to buy. Plus, there's a warranty with free loaners so I'm not worried. And I think the G35 story is a hoax.

 

Very well said, Hyde. As someone on his 3rd tranny, I agree with you completely.

 

Me too! (2nd tranny)

:-jon

 

As everyone has mentioned, yes TLS tranny problems are a small fraction of the actual amount to TL trannies out on the roads. And the G35, who knows but there is a verified case of a tranny failure which sucks for a car that is still a newborn, but dont let the posts on this site deter you from buying a TLS..It's a great car with so much to offer that you can't even imagine, and all at a price that no other car company can touch..And to 1SICKLEX, why dont you open up any car magazine and check out the negative remarks about the auto tranny in the IS300, it's by far the car's worst asset. Car and Driver said that the tranny was very jumpy and seemed to not know what gear to be in, so dont praise lexus for having good trannies..The lesson here is to understand that any high performance sports sedan with auto tranny does have a chance of having a problem, but should that chance be the decision maker, NO, decide on the car you like and chances are the you'll be fine and will enjoy your ride.

 

This tranny issue comes up every week on this board. The people who have had problems such as Oblio98 and Redlined are pissed, and rightfully so, and guys like myself and Mr. Hyde have not had any problems and love their cars as they have been reliable incuding the tranny. Even the guys with tranny problems still love their cars. My point is, as is Mr. Hydes, that only a small percentage of TLs are having their trannys die. Now I will continue on with this position unless my tranny dies. Then I will join the small lists of malcontents. As you all know, the people with problems post more often about there problems, than happy owners.

 

Hey! I'm not "pissed" (anymore). I am mostly disappointed. I hope it does not go bad again.

The only thing I will say is this:

If you are going to say "30 TL-Ss on this board went bad, and that is a small percentage of cars compared to all the TL-S's sold", you are in error.

The real equation would be "30 TL-Ss on this board went bad, and that is a small (but larger) percentage of all the TL-S's on this board!

Remember, there are many TL-Ss that have had bad trannys that do not even know this board exists!

So, yes, it is a small percentage, but it is not as small as some may think. As I have said before, what other real (non-squeak) problems have board members reported?? NONE....

That said, if I had a TL-S that never had a tranny failure, I would keep that filed in my head, but would not let it interfere with my enjoyment of the car. Don't stay up nights worrying about it. If it happens, it happens.

Redlined and I (and most of the others) still love our cars, we are merely DISAPPOINTED with a little frustration thrown in...

:-jon

 

I certainly hope that the two of you and all other TLS owners that have had tranny problems get a permanent fix. You certainly deserve some relief from this disappointment.

 

I agree with Jon. I'm not pissed. Very, very disappointed. I had been waiting for this car to come out for a couple of years and went it finally did, I jumped on it. I absolutely love the car but it's reliability has been tremendously disappointing.

If my tranny goes bad AGAIN, then I'll be pissed and just push the POS off a cliff.

 

Jon/Redlined...I understand perfectly how you feel...I would challenge those who think the problems are a small percentage of total TL owners to consider this: This board claims to have approx 3697 members. We also know that all of the members are not TL-S owners...some are TL-P owners, some are CL owners, and some own some other type of car. With this in mind, we also know that about that 30 people here have had tranny failure(s). That is nearly 10%. That is a high number for a car of this class with a known history of quality and reliability. Any time polls are taken, just a sample of the representative population is selected for the poll...so the accuracy is usually plus or minus 5 percentage points. These numbers seem to be consistent with the number of failures being reported on the CL-S board....just something to think about.

 

garylee55, if we roughly determine the percentage of failures to owners based on the number of members in this forum, wouldn't that be less than 1% and not 10% ? I don't know how else we could possibly do this since we don't have any way to determine how many of the 3697 members are TLS/TLP owners not to mention how many may not own either one and are just researching, interested, or are trolls. I don't bring this up to diminish your point because I too feel that the number of failures reported in this forum seems to be more than just isolated cases which has me quite concerned. At the same time though, it does no good to make the problem appear much worse than it may actually be. Just my .02.

 

oh...my bad...I was so quickly blinded by my disappointment I can no longer do basic math. You are correct. And, it would be interesting to find out how many members are actually TL-S owners...then we could have a real random sampple. It would be cool if it were a registration variable...but, then I would no longer be part of that since I no longer have the TL-S, but experienced 2 tranny failures.

 

Back in May (in the "Happy Times", I was keeping track of TL-S purchases and their color choice, in the post at

http://www.acura-tl.com/forum/showth...threadid=11947

At that time, we had 140 TL-S members who responded.
Given that the car was just introduced, that was a large number over the first 2 months, probably inspired by the ads and the newness of the car.

If we exptrapolate that over the next 10 months, at 70 members per month, that would make our membership about 840 TL-S's strong. More than likely, the number started to taper DOWN as the car was no longer getting press, and other cars were coming out and getting headlines, but let's just say 70 per month.

So, in this unscientific speculation, that would be 30 out of 840.
It is still a small percentage (3.5%) of failures.

This is probably a fair estimation of the failure rate.

:-jon

 

Dont forget the lurkers as well. People who browse the board, but never join unless they have a major problem or question which has not been adressed. Some of those tranny failure members joined just to be added to that list which they stated in their posts. If they like the many many other lurkers hadnt had a problem they would have never joined. Boards like these have tons of people/owners who read the boards without becoming members. Throw them into the equation which is pretty much impossible to do, and that percenage drops even further. In the real world I suspect the percentage of tranny failures to be far less than 1%. 30 out of 3000 is 1% not 10%. If 10% of all trannies were dying, that would be major news which woudl get big publicity. Also if trany failure numbers were so high, I'd assume the the service bays of Acura dealers would be full of cars waiting for trannies. Thats just not the case.

True their are TLs with tranny problems not known on this board, but that works both ways. Given the stats, there are far far more not known to this board with perfectly fine trannies as well.

As was stated this car is still given good reliability ratings across the board. If this problem was as large as this board may inadvertently portray it to be, I believe it would be more well known to more than just board readers.

 

Every service guy I talked to at my dealership say it is a well known problem to them...

 

Right someone joined there in November, made over 100 posts and now the clever poser has his hard work pay off, he posts that the tranny in his pretend g35 died.

 

 

I believe we definately have a pretend TLS owner in this thread who consistently demonstrates their insecurity and frustration by constantly dissing the TLS. Can anyone guess who that might be???

 

I am amazed by the negative responses from people who do not have tranny problems against those of us who have had them. I know when I bought my TL-S in May of '01 I found this site when shopping for accessories. As people posted tranny problems, I just prayed that it would not happen to be. I used every rationalization from 'they are probably beating the hell out of their cars', to 'all of the mods must be causing problems'. Then, It happened to me...Mr Conservative driver who had never even used the SS.

I hope everyone who has had a failure does report it to the NHTSA at least.

For those of you who have not have problems and those of you who just bought your TL, or are looking to buy the TL, I wish you the best of luck. I thought my TL was great and hated to have to get rid of it, but the 'value' of the original purchase was lost in the tranny failure, and then in the failure of the replaced tranny within only 400 miles. I hope you all can understand that.

 

Wow watch any good episodes of the X-files lately?? Let me guess, Elvis lives right?



You see gary, people who haven't had the tranny problem yet fail to acknowledge that there is a problem with the tls. Many tls owners believe that if they don't believe that there is a problem then it won't happen to them. Its sorta like taboo.

The Mods will hate you if you say that you have a tranny problem:p

So if you do have a tranny please keep it to yourself or you will be hated and flamed [/QUOTE]

No we reserve the hate for trolls like you. I sympathize with those that have had a dead tranny, and I acknowledge the fact that there is a problem with some of them, but why should I assume it will happen to me?

It works both ways; I feel like those that have had a dead tranny are posting that all others will almost definitely follow as well, and I feel that that is just not the case. I dont think that makes me negative towards people who have had their tranny die on them.

On the other thread a member who has 21k on the clock and whos tranny fluid is dirty was putting of the fluid change until his tranny died. He had no signs of a bad tranny at all. Is that a reasonable thing to do? Having read the posts here he assumes his tranny death is an eventuality instead of a small probability, and Im apparantly the only one who thinks that thats wrong.