I'm loving my TL-S but am concerned I may have then beginnings of transmission troubles.

A few times, while cruising between 45-65 on the highway, the transmission does something really strange, like a downshift, pause, upshift. It feels like a quick lurch.

Any thoughts? I'll certainly bring it into the dealer but just wanted to get some ideas first.

thanks,

jeff

 

i have had a similar experience. when going down hill at 55 -60 then letting off the gas then pressing the gas the tranny seems to down shift then upshift with a lurch. i cannot duplicate , but this has happened twice in the same downhill spot coming home. maybe it is the grade logic control. seems sometimes the tranny shifts weirdly in certain circumstances. is your car shifting slowly and smoothly thru the gears and dowm shifting quickly ? mine seems ok , but with all the problem tranny posts who knows?

 

How often does it do this? Is it just once, maybe not long after you've started the car in the morning?

Mine has always done something like that. Every day, if I don't let my car warm up before driving off, about 1.5 miles from my house I get a similar response from my car -- a quick hesitation or something. It only does it once and then not again until I let the car get completely cold and then head out again.

 

It's actually fully warmed up when this happens...

But that reminds me. DOes the car do 2 ABS tests or something soon after starting up? I always here this 2-3 second buzzing sound after starting up in the morning.

thanks,

jeff

 

This is the same problem I had (and am having again). I took it to the dealer who said they are familiar with the transmission failures in the TL. The first thing they do to try and fix the problem is flush out the tranny and replace the fluid. That worked for about a thousand miles, and now it is happening again. I called the dealer service department who says they will replace the tranny now. They are not sure, will know on Monday, but it takes about 30 days to get a replacement transmission. This is my last Honda product.

 

Yes, there are two separate tests. The first is the ABS self test, then the second is the VSA/TCS self test. Since VSA and TCS (TLs get TCS and TL-Ss get VSA) use the ABS system to work, that is why you get the second ABS test.

 

i do get a small hesitation just after starting in the morning and it is most noticable in ss in second but after that no problems. seems like the 2002 tls is a cold starter given all the computer functions. has acura formally said anything about the tranny failures ? recalls ???

 

Mine used to do that pretty often, but now I drive in D4 except when I expect to be consistently over 80 mph for an extended time. So I doubt it is fixed, but I recommend leaving it in D4 for anything under 55 mph.

One weird thing that happened about 3 months ago though, I hit the gas really hard around a tight right hand turn (while in D4) and it shifted funny into 2nd and wouldn't come out of 2nd gear. I tried switching it to SS, D5, manually into 1, 2, and D3, but nothing worked, until I stopped the car, then it went back to first and I have never had the problem since.