FireNation23

I have a 2001 TL. I recently changed my transmission fluid. About 2 weeks later I'm having problems with the tranny shifting gears. It started with 3rd gear slipping big time, then it got worse and has trouble going into drive or reverse. I had my cousin come over to find out the codes, and they all came out to the same problems that acura had a recall on in 2004. Its 2008 and my car has just hit the 100,000 miles.

Has anyone had the same problem? Can anyone help me please. I just got it towed to Acura. I'm still waiting for their call.

chewi

sorry to hear that. i hope they will cover it under warranty.

that is why i'm scared to bring my car in to change the tranny fluid. i'm at 90,000KMS and haven't changed the fluid yet.

03aspec

your still on your original tranny? mine got replaced at about 77,000kms... i just recently hit 90,000 .

01tl4tl

the 2004 recall was to install an oil jet kit externally for cooling to 2nd gear shaft
Your car should have had that done
What you have experienced now is the dreaded~ fluid changed caused failure-~ it didnt CAUSE it really, but you helped it a bit
Luckily- assuming NOT salvage title car- you are covered by the 7year+9 month or 109k miles `whichever first` court ordered warranty extension
Covers the trans failure you described- the clutch pack failure- very common among ziners
and about 5% of the general population
Do not be surprised if it needs a front and possibly passenger side motor mount- they break and you wont know it- visable from under the car when on the lift, and easily changed while trans is out- 30 bucks labor instead of 300
part is 120 front mount about 30 side mount and .5 labor on the side mount iirc
You are also closing in on the 105 service- its a grand, so plan ahead and do some parts of it at home- the spark plugs and air filters type stuff

Edward'TLS

There is no valid evident to support the claim that replacing tranny fluid will cause the tranny to fail. People don't all come in and report that their trannies are alive and well after changing the tranny fluid.

CAB NY

i heard the changing it does cause a problem but can somebody prove its true

ftLauTL

Well I changed my fluid for the first time at about 95,000 miles. 2 weeks later the tranny died



so there that is

CAB NY

i wanted to know if anyboody else had that problem because my friends nissan tranny died right after he changed his

01tl4tl

If you wait till 90k miles there may be a problem
If you keep up the changes every year or two- it is less likely to be an issue
Grunge buildup may be creating enough clutch plate friction to keep the trans working~
Get rid of that and whats it supposed to do?

There is no PROOF that coming on azine and saying your trans is perfect with suchandsuch miles will actualy cause its demise---
BUT it seems like that movie- 7 to 11 days later after you say that, your transmission suddenly dies!!! ask phee
The azine curse we call it

FireNation23

guys thanks for all the replies. Acura will cover the entire Transmission job (WHEW!!!) but to all TL owners, I believe you have to flush out the entire tranny when you change the fluid. I suggest you take it to a professional. My cousin is a mechanic and he says that the TL holds 15 quarts of tranny fluid. I did change the fluid myself before but that was 3 yrs ago. I think I waited too long in between changes. thanks for all the help

01tl4tl

you cuz is not a TL mechanic!!!!!!!!! that is for certain- Flush is a nasty word meaning machine powered- we do a manual method because the TL has a blocking plate onthe inside- no hose can get past it!
trans holds 7.3 us quarts total!!!!!

we do whats called 3x3, the trans only gives up 3 qts at a time- no machine will work to suck it out, its all by hand and gravity
you drain 3 qts and refill- drive 5 minutes running it up and down thru ALL the gears to push old fluid towards the drain- drain 3 replace 3 drive 5 drain refill done
It gets out the majority of the old stuff and is good as we can get~
you can do an extra set for 12 qts total if you really want to
Start doing this early like 30k miles and continue like that is good.
Waiting until 90k has stuff built up in the trans and its holding the clutch plates together for you- Change the fluid and bingo trans goes away- on acura TL that is- other cars I dont know.

vinovelo

I also changed fluid and had a failure right after. This was in the summer of 05.
Did a triple flush drain method. The "theory" as I understand it is that changing
the fluid introduces a nice healthey batch of cleansing agents that may cause
sludge particles to free up. In the case of the TL tranny failure the particles are
the pieces of shredded clutch pack materials (3rd gear pack). This then clogs
up various parts resulting in failure.

It may be coincidence on my part since it occured at 49,995 miles and that
appears to be the top of the bell curve for failures but it sure is amazing
that within 1 - 2 weeks after a fluid change this massive failure occured.

My "belief" is that if it's going to fail, it's going to fail regardless of the fluid
change but it is probabaly helping it along.

I have heard of this happening on non-TL failures in the past as well.

She's at 80K now and the tranny so far appears fine. The number of failures
reported on this board seems to have died down in the past few years. I
only hope the Feb 05 fix will really hold up.

/Steve

01tl4tl

most of the post 05 replacements are good- some of us got a bad one- bad part- bad labor- whatevr- but acura replaces it too-
I thank them for saving me the trouble of changing the fluid- they replace the entire trans every few years instead!