I have always liked the looks and power of the 99-03 TL and now I can finally afford one. But after doing some research I am considerably worried about transmission failure. I know the 99 has the 4 speed instead of the 5, so do the 4 speed trannys have a lower failure rate than the 5? Please help as I am anxious to know if this silver 99 I am looking at will be sitting in my driveway by this coming weekend. Thanks for the help.

 

From everything I have heard including talking to the dealer there are not as many problems with the 4 speeds. On the bright side they stand behind their product and will relace it up to 107,000. Sometimes they will replace it even longer than that.

 

I'm pretty sure the 99's are no longer warranted for tranny. No probs with mine though....so far

 

yea its 7 years of 109,000 miles but 7 years is obvisously up. i had mine replaced @88k and im now at 107k. if you get one make sure it has the updated tranny because acura "suposedly" fixed the problem. tho i think there was just a thread where someone with a 99, his tranny just dies at 200k so its luck o the draw i guess

 

There are still some 1999 TLs, purchased in late 1999, that are covered by the extended transmisssion warranty. That's because of the additional 9 months added in the class action lawsuit settlement. But the warranties on those cars will expire in the next few months.

 

wait so they added 9 months to the warenty? so 7yrs 9 months? becuase i had to pay for mine even tho i was 3 weeks out of warrenty. but that was before the lawsuit! so under current warenty i would have been covered....im gonna go bitch and see if i can get my money back worth a try i guess

 

It's absolutely worth a try.

I'd work with your dealer first and then, if that doesn't work out, call Acura's national Customer Care group. If they won't provide full coverage see if they might provide partial coverage.

Good Luck!

 

Yeah apparently now they have given people there moeny back who paided for it but then fell into the new extention I diffenently say look into it sooner rather then later.

 

My 99 w/ 87,000 hasn't had any tranny problems. The local dealer here said the 99's are pretty bullet proof. Hopefully they're right.

 

The 4-speed transmissions are definitely more reliable than the 5-speed transmissions used in the 2000-2003 TLs.

But the 4-speed transmissions still have "worse than average" reliability according to Consumer Reports' owner surveys. (The 2000-2003 transmissions were given a "much worse than average".)

FWIW, the original transmission in my 1999 TL made it to 173,000 miles.

Bob

 

wow i defintly hijact this threafd sorrry. have you heard of people actualy getting there money back? cause i could use a few grand right about now

 

Any idea what the vin numbers are for the 99's with the "supposedly updated" trannys?

 

Thanks for the replies everyone. I am still in the hunt and think I will stick with a 99 since the tranny is more reliable. I just can't seem to find a car that has the total package as sweet as the TL.

 

The "updated" transmission comments are in reference to the 5-speed transmisions used in the 2000-2003 TLs. Acura made some changes/improvements in February of 2005 that may have corrected the major reliability problems.

As far as I'm aware, there was not a similar revision to the 4-speed transmission used in the 1999 TL. So there's no need to search for a particular VIN number range.

Bob

 

STAY AWAY FROM THE TL... I LOVE MY TL, but its just not worth the headache, or at least look at the VIN number, and make sure its not part of the batch that had ignition switch replacement, tranny problems. etc.

BTW i have a 99 3.2 TL, so this is just a warning.

you can buy mine.. lol... how much you looking to spend