I Bought a '02 TL a couple months ago and love the car. It only has 74K on it and has not had the trans. replaced. I notice a little strangeness from the transmission- nothing major, just seems like it slips sometimes when shifting and the shift sometimes seems abnormally long. Also, it sometimes downshifts responsively like I want it to, other times it has to be "encouraged" by pushing down the throttle much further than normal. with these symtoms and knowing the problems with this transmission, I think it is on a slow death spiral.

The extended warranty expires in a couple months (I had the dealership look it up) I need to either :

1) find a way to prevent the transmission from truly failing (replace fluid and filter, make sure the brain has been reprogrammed- anything else?)

2) find a way to get the dealer to replace it while it is still under warranty.

I think if I drive the hell out of aggressively it in D3 that will force a lot of demanding 2-3 shifts and maybe break it before the warranty expires. On the other hand, if it doesn't break it in time, I have beaten the hell out of a transmission which might have lasted a good long time if I hadn't stressed it but now it will fail out of warranty and if I am lucky I will get a 50% contribution on a maybe $5K repair.....

I'm going in to the dealership tomorrow afternoon for first oil change and checkup mostly to establish myslef as a customer. I plan to tell them about the strange shifting in order to get them thinking about the transmission going out so they can offer any advice they have, and maybe tell me what would qualify for a warranty replacement- just how bad does it have to be? Total failure? Just not working like it should? Coming in several times complaining and following their suggestions and still not being satisfied and starting to ask for a new trans, noting that the warranty is expiring soon?

Any ideas?

-CP308

 

Since you are at dealership, just mention it to them so they have a record in case it fails after warranty period. To me you will have to go with option 1. Option 2 is really up to you. Know that the cost to replace the tranny is roughly between 3-5k if dealer does not honor to fix the known problem under warranty. So, think twice what works best for you.

 

Good news (I think). Took TL in today to dealer to get oil change and inspection, told them about thinking something might be wrong with the trans. They told me that the tech did think something was not right, and they want to keep it over the weekend and get back to me Monday. Even gave me a 08 TL loaner! The 08 is excellent, by the way! but too much $ for me right now.

So it will be interesting to see what they have to say on Monday. In any case, it is now documented that I think there may be a problem, and now one of their techs believes there is something not right as well. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for a warranty replacement and about 100K more miles of driving this excellent car!

-cp308

 

Well, Acura replaced the transmission totally under warranty! I was amazed! I really expected the runaround or at least to have to bring it in several more times for them to do anything. And then I expected to have to argue over if it should be covered under warranty, since by then the warranty would have expired.

I'm really impressed with Acura, and I'm telling lots of people how they took care of me on a used car which was almost 7 years old. Yes, it _was_ a design defect- but to cover it after all this time is still excellent customer service. I plan to remain an Acura customer and recommend them whenever I get the chance.

 

Thanks for the update and congratulations on the free tranny replacement!

 

yeah man..mine is an 2002 TL too..just replaced the tranny under warranty about a month or so ago...with the new redesigned tranny, I'm hoping to go another 100K.

 

99 here, replaced tranny in feb, hoping it lasts me to 200k

congratulations on your new transmission! did you have them check the engine mounts while they had your car?