2003 TL-S. This afternoon the tranny didn't shift at all, it's always in D4, judging from the 2000rpm @ 50mph. I have the VSA and engine lights on, and the green D5 is blinking. SportShift doesn't work, but interestingly enough, using the gate shift I can put it in 1 and 2 without any problem. In D3,D4,D5 it's always in 4th gear. Do you think my tranny is gone? But then how come I can manually shift it to lower gear, but the auto is stuck at 4? Anyway, I'm calling the dealership early morning tomorrow.

 

Sounds like the tranny is ready to go. Kiss It Good-Bye

Do you know what is the build date on your car and post how many miles on this tranny. I am curious. Thanks

 

8100 miles, bought it in September, last digits of VIN: 084731. I'm not sure where to find the build date.

 

I have a quality insepction date here 7-8-2003 in the Maintenance Journal.

 

so the 2003 TL-s are also having problems? I did not see any folks with problems with the 2003 with problems... I am approaching 8000 and have yet to report any significant problems....

Sorry to hear about your tranny... How do you find the build date?

 

Its possible its the tranny but it sounds like it might be something else thats related to the tranny itself. Could be the ECU, or I know someone on the A-CL.com forums had problems that sounded like the tranny but it was actually the Counter Shaft Speed Sensor ...

In any case, definitely bring it to the dealer and see what they find is wrong. Your problem while it could be a tranny problem doesn't sound typical of the normal tranny problems.

Oh, and 2003 CL/TLs definitely could have the tranny problem. Even with all of the fixes that Acura is putting on the trannies there still are problems with them. Problems shouldn't occur nearly as often with the newer trannies because Acura has been able to prevent the problems from occuring as frequently as they were on some of the 2001 CL-S's and 2002 TL-S's but the problems havent been eliminated.

 

BTW- You can find the built date of your car on the sticker inside your driver's side door. Should be there ... My car's build date was 6/02.

 

I managed to drive it to the dealer this morning, switching between 2 (to take off from a traffic light) and D3. Such a shift was very bumpy, but I only had to do it 3 times to get there, because it was mostly freeway drive. The 4th gear is not that bad because it makes it possible to drive pretty slowly and relatively fast as well. Had it stuck in any other gear, I would have needed a tow. Also, every shift was loud, such as from Park to Reverse, it sounded like metal.

They ordered me a new transmission, I should get back my car on Wednesday. Until then, I have to drive around in an Enterprise rental. I can now sign up for the broken tranny's club.

I gotta have to request an extended warranty for the new tranny, although I doubt they'll actually give me one. They should cover the 2003 trannies with an extended warranty as well. I'll check the manufacturing date when I get my car back.

 

Last week Acura told me that they would have to order a new transmission to me, but today they called me and said that it was something completely different. Some wires got damaged, a rodent was chewing on my wiring harness. A month ago when I took my car to the dealer there was a woman there with the same problem. Is that something common? What can I do to prevent this from happening again? Is there some kind of a pesticide that keeps rodents, worms, termites, whatever out of my car? I'm very surprised. Now it's going to cost $360 to fix. But at least it's clear that the transmission is fine.

 

in some areas this is common. there is a type of salt compound in the plastic wire coatings that animals like for some god awful reason. so it's not *un*common, just rare. but thankfully its not your tranny, but yet if it was you wouldn't have had to pay.....kind of a crappy dilemma.

SSTS

 

WTH!!!....Rodents eating into wiring...not that uncommon.... Maybe in the attic of your house, NOT on your TL...say it isn't really so! Did you leave your car parked for a couple of weeks in a field or something???

 

Bah, they only had your car for a couple of days to do the tranny. I have had my car at Acura for 1 1/2 weeks already. I'm starting to miss her, but that stinks that they gave you an enterprise. My loaner is a '04 TSX, makes the wait not quite a bad. Thought I must say "worst stereo ever" award def goes to that car. Terrible dosen't do it justice.

 

as long as it gets fixed thats all that counts

 

we all know that tranny won't be the same...sounds metal grinding?? hmmm.

 

It's fine now, like it was before. Don't forget that sensors were knocked out, and I had to switch from gear 1 or 2 up to 4 without RPM matching. Fortunately I only did it 3 times.

It's not quite true that it's OK as long as it gets fixed. There are two possible scenarios:
1. It is true that a rodent was chewing on it. In that case it could happen again anytime, and warranty never covers that. It's very expensive, almost like a monthly payment.
2. Scam? Maybe a sensor went wrong, and they made the whole chewing story up, because this way I paid, otherwise warranty would have covered it.

How odd, when I did the oil change, there was a woman there who had the same problem. They told her that a rodent was chewing on the wiring harness, the exact same problem. She paid over $400, I overheard the conversation.

 

Here's the invoice they gave me:
350 found roadant damage to shift solioid harness, repaired harness and reset codes
852 client requests rental vehicle during repairs

Now it looks like they have a code for every type of repair, stored in a database, and the number is the ID field in the table, used to look up the records, like we do in every database. Alright, if it was really in a central Acura database, it wouldn't be misspelled. Come on, how come somebody misspells two words per line (rodent -> roadant, solenoid -> solioid) in an official Acura database? It could be that they have added a fake symptom to the invoice, and it was not coming from the central database, and was misspelled by the local service people. It's very annoying, I'm not sure I might not be taking my car back there.

 

who really believes that a rodent chewed up your wires? thats really ridiculous. where do you live in SoCal?

also, why didn't you ask to see the wires that were so-called "chewed" ? i just don't believe the story that the dealer is telling you.

advice for the future, whenever a part is replaced, fixed or repaired, always ask for the part and never settle for "well, the technician threw it away," tell them to retrieve it!

 

Simi Valley, at the border of Ventura County and LA County.

I told them that I wanted to have the damaged part, and they said nothing was replaced, the wires were just soldered. I should have gone there to see it with my own eyes first.

 

im tellin you man, it's totally possible. there was even something about it on the animal planet channel. i got an even better one. back in 1986 my grandmothers cat crawled into the engine bay of my aunts car because it was warm. she started it up and the fan sliced the friggin thing to pieces. i still remember the screams. goes to show: animals are dumb.

SSTS

 

Animals are dumb sometimes.. but that rodent sure liked TL's! Call Animal Planet and do a story! lol

 

2 weeks ago this woman had a similar problem with an MDX. I'm just wondering if the rat is actually living in the dealership.

 

i've heard of animals crawling into the engine bay for warmth..esp in the winter time.
a rodent chewing on the wires, that's a first for me...i was reluctant to believe the story as its author was the dealer!!

and, for you to overhear the dealer telling someone else the same thing.....
must be alot of rodents out there...lol. or, poor built quality that the dealer did not want to fix and couldn't get reimbursement for....

anyways, just looking out for your best interests...

oh, maybe it was a bunny hiding away from the coyotes...jk.

 

hahahaha. something worth looking into i guess.

 

The only rat living at the dealership is the Acura service technician/manager that fed you this rodent crock so that you would have to pay......