omniphile

Hey Acura friends. It's my first post here because I've only owned my 2003 TL for two weeks. I bought the car for a cheap $700 from a friend at work whose son dented the drivers side panels. When I bought it, I noticed that it's a little jumpy going from the starting line into gear, but the engine runs perfectly smoothly with 225,000kms (140,000mi) on it.

My wife and I left today on the first day of a ten day, 2300 km (1400 mi), trip here in Western Canada and a few hours in, the TCS and engine lights came on simultaneously. I looked it up on these forums and found that it can signify a number of things (EGR, PCV, O2, tranny). Not having access to a reliable mechanic, we decided to carry on and hope for the best. We were passing through a town called Hope after all.

A couple of hours later with the warning lights still on, we lost 5th gear. If I keep it in D4 it drives fine, but once it tries to go into fifth gear, the tach redlines. It was made all the better since we were simultaneously driving in a thunder and lightning storm.

Now we're stuck in a motel room hundreds of miles from home and to make matters worse, it's a holiday weekend in Canada and no mechanics will be open until Tuesday.

So my question is, is there any remedy you can suggest? We have few options: either continue on our vacation in fourth gear, or hobble back to the city in fourth gear? Does our vehicle have any chance of making it another 1200 miles without losing another gear?

frankjnjr

IMO: If it were me, in your situation, and I didn't want to delay my trip, and I had the means, I would leave the car where it is, rent a car, and continue on. If you have an alternate car back home, return home now, and switch cars. If you don't have an alternate car, or, if your not interested in renting a car for the continuation of your trip, turn around, and attempt to make it back home, in fourth gear. If the transmission fails completely, on the way back home, (UNLESS), you want to keep, and repair it, leave it where it fails, and sell it, for salvage. $700.00, less maybe $200.00 for salvage, would not represent a terrible loss, when compared to the $1600.00, to $3200.00 cost to replace the transmission. There is a very small chance, your car (COULD) make it another 1200 miles, but it's very unlikely!!

omniphile

Well this is interesting. I cleared the codes by touching the battery terminals together and head back out on the highway going home. However I have my fifth gear back and it's driving like normal. Any explanations, Acura gurus?

frankjnjr

That's one for the books. FYI: Much easier way to clear the codes, just remove the 7.5 clock fuse for a few seconds. It's located in the passenger side fuse panel, to the right of the glove box. The passenger door must be open, in order to access the panel. Woulf have been good, if you could have had the codes read, first. Code P0740, is usually not a good sign. Why you lost fifth gear, is odd. Normally, when a 2G transmission goes, the symptoms begin with a "SHUDDER" shifting into third, or fourth. Than third usually goes out completely. Third, is the weak link, in these transmissions. Your experience is unusual to me. I'll be anxious to hear of any further symptoms or problems. My apology, for jumping the gun, and assuming the transmission was ready to die!

Arkady

I once experienced the flashing D3 light in my dashboard and the PO740 code after some water got into my shifter panel (it was completely open because I was painting the plastic cover, while also working on the radio cluster to add a USB charger port). After it dried up, the code didn't come back and the flashing lights stopped. This was back in March of this year, and the car's been driving absolutely swell since.
Not much help with this post, but just a note that sometimes the Acura gods smile down upon us :P

frankjnjr

( " because I was painting the plastic cover, " ) Thought I was the only person on the planet that did that! Happy to hear there is another OCD owner out there.

Arkady

Haha, I'll post a picture of it later for you guys. Got mine done in a nice gold with a glossy coat. So not stock like how you probably painted yours.