I use to drive a 3.2 TL-P, but now mainly my mom drives it. When i drove it i drove it fairly hard, by that i mean it saw 6500 rpm now and then, no neutral drops ever or anything like that. But recently i drove it and i noticed that the tranny seems hesitent, my mother noticed this also. Also, when im at a dead stop, then start to accelerate, while the tranny shifts from 1-2 and 2-3 it seems to jerk once ther higher gear is enganged. Just not a smooth engagment of the 1-2, 2-3 gears as it once had. Anyone have similar expiriences? Im guessin a tranny rebuild of some sort. Im assuming the dealer would cover this under warrenty(they better ) Any Insight appreciated. Thanks.

 

actually i went to the dealer this morning to get some rattles out, and some lady came in for a new tranny!!
i'm really gettin scared now.:yack:

 

i've also been having that same problem.
the dealer is going to do a tranny flush.
i too was not experiencing the smmothest transition between gears, but most people here have assured me that a little jerk is normal when in SS mode.

 

This is in regular mode though that the trany is being sloppy. IM taking it to the dealer tomarrow. It looks liek its reasonable to say that other TL owners have had similar problems.

 

It is very common. Many of us have had our tranny replaced. I had mine replaced at 39k...Didn't pay a dime. It took 1 day and they gave me a loaner car.

Good Luck!

 

I too felt the hesitation. Also had some what of a slight bumpy idle.

had the transmission flushed. btw my mileage is at 31500 for a 00 TL.

Runs smoother now. haven't really tested the gear changes to see if I get the same bite as when the car was new.

keep you informed.

 

While you should certainly be aware that there are transmission concerns with the TL/CL line, I still wouldn't label it as "common." Granted, transmission failures are occurring at a rate *far greater* than I think anyone here would have expected from a reputable Japanese automaker such as Acura/Honda, but the numbers just don't justify it as being labelled a common occurance.

Look at these numbers: We have 4,250 current members on this board. Jon (oblio98) has been faithfully tallying the number of tranny failures on this board (since he was a victim himself). At last count, we were at 40. That would make 1% of our members having tranny failures. Assuming that *half* (and this is a BIG assumption on the side of caution) of our registered members are either (a) lurkers who don't post, or (b) don't visit anymore, then that means 40 failures out of 2,125 members, or 2%. 2% of anything is not very common. And remember, A-TL.com is a small percentage of actual TL/CL owners, since many owners never go online to talk about their cars. Sure, they have failures too, but if they experience failure rates simliar to us in number, then the percentage of failures-to-owners would still be the same. Same holds true on the A-CL.com site.

Therefore, IMHO it is not a common problem, but certainly a concern for all owners, since we've even had members with multiple transmission failures. I'm concerned myself because I plan on keeping this car for 10 years and even with my 6 yr/100,000 mile extended warranty (yes, the tranny issue was a major reason I got it), a good portion of my vehicle ownership will be out-of-warranty. And I don't want to be paying to replace a tranny. But until Acura/Honda officially says there's a problem and can define what is the cause, we're just guessing with the rest of them.

Remember, Acura is a business and businesses need to make money to survive (unless you're Enron ). Some people have gotten estimates in the $2000-$3000 range and up for a tranny replacement. Acura is going to do whatever is cheaper to keep the cars going. If Acura deems the problem significant enough (i.e., they're paying too much money to individually replace each tranny that fails), they will pay the $$$ to research the problem, find the cause, and come up with a financially responsible solution. This is why there hasn't been a recall on the trannys yet. They may be working on the problem, and they may not. But think about this--out of about 2,000 cars owned by people on this board (again--just a rough estimate so I can put this in perspective), Acura has replaced 40 or so trannys. Let's say $2000 for each (for easy math)--that means they've paid out $80,000 to fix isolated problems. If they recalled the trannys now (without an identifiable cause of failure), they would have to replace the tranny for every car showing up for the recall. If half of our 2,000 cars showed up (again, just an estimate--if there was a recall for the tranny problem I imagine everyone on this board would *run* to the nearest dealership to be first in line for a replacement), that means 1,000 cars at $2,000 each = $2,000,000. And who knows how many of those trannys would have *never* failed (i.e. Acura is replacing perfectly good trannys for no reason).

While I type this, I'm knocking on wood--because I don't want to be added to Jon's list. I don't drive any differently as a result of this issue. And if I were considering buying a new CL/TL tomorrow, I would not hesitate to buy one even knowing what I know now--especially if I wasn't planning on keeping the car past the warranty period, as in a lease.

The tranny issue is a definite concern, but is neither common nor inevitable.

 

Matt,

Your post is probably THE BEST tranny post posted to date.

GOOD JOB!!


Our TL-S members should not let 47 or so trannys ruin the enjoyment of their cars. They should just file this info in the back of their heads just in case.

Remember, if the tranny is going to fail, you WANT it to fail while it isunder warranty.

:-jon

 

>>The tranny issue is a definite concern, but is neither common nor inevitable.

i totally agree
i might get flamed for this, but i think many people just push the car too hard (this includes not letting their cars properly warm up or modding the cars) most people who are serious about modding cars know that when you upgrade the engine, you should beef up the drivetrain and the brakes or not mod the engine at all, and since auto transmissions are hard to beef up, most enthusiasts do not mod their auto cars
and some people say that they bady their transmissions after having replaced them, they still break, the reason can be, most transmissions aren't replaced, rather, they are rebuilt, and rebuilt transmission usually aren't as good as new and may have problems invisible due to the earlier breakdown.


if you talk with other specific car gropups, you will find they have their share of mechanical problems and rattles and squeaks and so on, and this is nothing to be getting screwed over about
many problem ARE due to owners abusing their cars and not understanding how to take care of their cars

 

Ok, the dealer says that they need to do a full scheduled "maintenance" on it. They said the tranny fluid is black. Are they just trying to get around replacing my transmission? If all thats needed is new tranny fluid, i can do that myself. ( God knows i do it to my VW quite often )