So my car finally threw the P0740 code a couple days ago, and all the lights on my dash lit up. My car has a clean title and only 83k on it. The last time I was at a dealership they said the warranty for the 02's expire September '09

I haven't had a chance to go to the dealership about this yet, but im afraid they'll turn me down. I know I gotta speak to the service manager and be nice, but im not really in the position to even accept an offer for a discount.

Anybody have experience getting a free tranny for their 02 TL recently?

I was getting ready to sell the car in a week and this happened....

Does anybody know of a temp solution to fix the problem atleast for a short amount of time until I could sell the car?

When I got the code read at autozone the guy told me the code meant i have low tranny fluid. What happens if I add a qt of fluid in there? Or should I do a flush and fill instead?

 

your warranty expires 7 years 9 months or 109K (whichever comes first) from the IN SERVICE DATE of your car. A typical acura invoice will list this for you.

P0740- TCC Circuit Malfunction < means your trans is pretty much toast.

 

so any way you look at it, we're in July '10 and 7 years 9 months from whatever date is already up for an 02 TL....

so im fucked?

 

milage on car? do you have a good relationship with local acura dealer? they might pay for some or all of it.......

 

you have no idea when the car was sold off the lot- that starts the clock
call acura care 1-800-382-2238 x5 with your VIN
ask for that in service date
limits are made to be broken~

 

I wouln't add trans fluid, much less a full qt., unless it is low- did you check the fluid level? (see o/m for correct method).

 

Only way to know is to GO to the dealer. Be nice, see what they have to say, see if they will work with you on a replacement or partial replacement.

 

So I just called Acura Corp and spoke with a nice guy who was very helpful and opened up a case number, he told me to go to the nearest dealership and speak with the srrvce manager and give him the case number

However, he did say I was 11 months out of warranty and my in service date was November '01

I'm going to the dealer this weekend so wish me luck

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo
ONLY go when the real SERVICE MANAGER is there to speak in person with you
State your case to him of financial needs, acurazine membership and your overall love for the product and brand
That person, on MONDAY thru FRIDAY when normal people are working- calls the local acura corp rep

You went backwards- needs diagnosis first, then manager tries for you, if not happy with that result then you call corp to look into it

11 months..eff limits=== low miles at only 83....

 

saturday probably doesnt even have a real transmission diagnoser tech on duty~
service writer will say to change the fluid for 100 dollars,
you do that and 3 days later your trans dies

 

Summer 2007, my 00TL tran died with 179,000 km (112,000 miles).

Acura Canada had an "unpublished" extended trans warranty to 175K km. I did not know about the extended warranty & could have got a free tranny repair. I called Acura Canada & pleaded with them, they would not give me a dime for my repair. Acura dealer charged $5000 for the rebuild.

Sadly at the time I was looking to buy a new 07TL. With a 5K repair bill, I will drive my 00TL till it dies.

I however won't buy another Acura because of the bad experience with Acura Canada. I wished at the time they offered me a few hundred dollars credit for my tranny repair to keep me with Acura. I told them I am a long time Honda owner - Civic, Accord & now TL, I love my cars & don't want to leave this brand. The Customer Relation Manager told me: my card 4000 km (2,500 miles) over so sorry, no coverage, it's my choice if I want to stay with Acura !!

AcuraKidd I wish you luck !

 

BIG UPDATE

So I went to Paragon Acura yesterday, arrived at 8 am, drove the car there in second gear as it wouldn't shift anymore. Came upto the service manager to speak with him, he assured me that one of the advisors was gonna take care of me. So they brought that car in, an he tells me "we'll get back to you this afternoon"

I asked if they had a loaner available, to which he replied right away "we're out till late september"

So I waited in their waiting area for a few hours, around 1 pm the advisor comes back to me and says its gonna cost around $4,500 PLUS tax to repair the tranny. I right away told him I already knew that and need to speak with service manager.

Mike, the service manager was very polite to me and seemed nice, looked like he sincerely wanted to help me. I told him everything I learned from you guys, he said he's well aware of the situation with the warranty, so he made the call to Acura Corp. Spoke with a few different guys, who told him that the max they can cover is 25 % of the cost.

He then goes on to tell me that I don't have a strong case because I never get any work done there, to which I replied that I have all my service records available from the shop I get all the work done at.

Plus to me its inconvenient to do any work at a dealership because I have to make an appoit, wait many hours, not get any loaner car, plus pay triple the price....and basically kill a whole day of work.

Bottom line, he said he's still waiting on a phone call from some manager in the corp office. He basically didn't keep me waiting and said I could go, and then calls me within 30 mins and says that basically acura corp isn't offering more than 25% off.

I politely told him that I'll be considering my other options. About an hour later I called Acura Corp myself, and expressed my frustration about the entire situation and how I feel this should be covered 100%. He put me on hold and came back like 10 mins later and said that I'll need to fax in all my invoices that are related to my tranny while I was within the warranty period, and said that a manager of some sort was gonna review them and call me back on monday.

I already faxed in the documents and now just anxiously waiting for the phone call, any advice guys?

 

I replaced tranny on my 2002 about 7 months ago. Same deal: Acura asked for $4,500 + tax. Upon negotiations, they came down to about $2,400 + tax. Eventually, I cost me under $1,500 (tax included) as my tranny did not need valve stock replacement.
Your options are:
1. Sell the car as is – you will get barely $1.5K to $2.0K, as our cars now trade in for about $5K - $6K.
2. Go to any transmission shop and get it “fixed” for about $1,500 to $1,700 with warranty 12 months/12K miles. In reality, nobody can fix this tranny.
3. Go to Acura and negotiate. Acura offers 36 moths/36K miles warranty on replacement tranny. Talk to service manager, be nice, plead your case. Acura Customer Care will not assist any more, as your warranty is over.
Good luck.

 

What is "valve stock replacement"?

 

You all may have seen my posts in other threads here,but I thought I'd bring it up anyway.I just got my transmission(original one btw)changed out last week.I was well out of the extended transmission warranty on my 02 TL.Dealership quoted me 4K for a new transmission,but said they would contact Acura about my car since I only had about 50K miles on mine.Called me later that day and said Acura would pay 75% of the cost.I did not have a long history with the dealership as far as maintenance and repairs were concerned.I had mainly brought it in for recalls and a rear brake job.That's going to change now.Anyway,I paid $1,380 including tax for the transmission,ecu,and an engine mount that they had found cracked.Hard to beat a deal like that,especially with a 3 yr/36K mile warranty.There's only 1 Acura dealership in Tulsa and they took great care of me.If there are other dealerships in the area,you might try taking it to them and see if they give you the same answer as to what Acura is willing to pay,just to be sure the first dealership is being honest with you.

 

I feel that there's not much thats upto the dealership, they depend on the final word from acura corp, because thats where the money comes from to fix the tranny under warranty.

At this time I feel its a waste of my time dealing with the dealer to get this resolved, I'm just gonna deal with the guys in the corp office as they have the final say in this and allocate the funds to the dealership to fix my tranny.

One thing I'm 100% certain of however is that my relationship with Acura & Honda depend on how they handle this situation. I think they should take into consideration that for their company to grow, great service after making a sale is just as important as the initial sale. The way you treat a customer is a very big factor in a company's future.

Also, my entire family is backing me up on this, my mom drives an 04 TSX, dad drives 03 Accord, and uncle drives 03 MDX. We all agreed that if Acura doesn't make the right decision and cover 100% of the cost of repair, we're all selling our cars and moving on to other companies who actually care about the customer after making a sale!

 

thats the kind of info that needs to go to corp in a written letter thru the post office
Amazing results occur when you write them

corp has the final say, the goodwill request starts with the service MANAGER who may or may not step up for you, or just get the standard 25% first offer for you.
Its up to you to go above,, to the people who appreciate brand loyalty in a family and will make a larger effort to keep you happy

Mentioning thread on acurazine doesnt hurt either:
A happy customer tells 2 friends
An Unhappy customer goes online... and tells thousands to millions!

 

So I got a call back from a Regional Case Manager today who pretty much couldn't help me. He said the offer of good will still stands at 25% off

I got really upset and told him everything about everything, lol

He basically said that he'll bring my case to a Regional Service and Parts Manager who will have the final call on whats gonna happen.

At one point in our conversation I mentioned that I was gonna take legal action if this doesn't get resolved properly, and he told me that we shouldn't be having a conversation and I shouldn't be threatening him because thats not gonna help me.

I really feel like I'm being screwed over by Acura at this point, and what I'm planning on doing is writing a letter to their corp office, so they could take that into their final consideration.

Any suggestions you guys might have?

 

all i can say is keep fighting with them, its going to be very tough to get in on this warranty since it over now basically. i had mine replaced for 1200 bucks last year, after lots of arguments. your prob not going to get any lower than that, 1/2 price might be at best.

 

I just want to know if these case managers with their fancy names actually play an important role in the company, or are just a bunch of guys with fancy titles at a customer service center.

Because I work in customer service field myself and there only soo much a cs rep could do for you before your case gets escalated to a higher dept. What I'll probably do is write a hand written letter over to Honda and Acura Corp offices to the president of both companies. Maybe I'll get some results that way...

 

the first person you talk to at 800 is a phone answerer- thats all
they can make a report and open a case file

Then a real manager who works for acura looks it over, calls the dealer involved to see what the story is, calls you to get your side, and what will it take to make you happy?
Thats important-- as many people bitch- but few specify `what will it take to make them a happy acura customer/owner again`
A regional warranty rep may be involved too
If that person cant help get what you want or says its beyond what they can do- you can go to corp with a letter

a Happy Customer tells 2 friends!
an UNhappy customer goes online pissed off... and tells thousands
In the old days you warned 11 people of a lousy movie or restaurant or auto shop--
now the internet spreads bad news fast...everywhere~
Add Twitter to that and imagine how fast news travels!

 

just reading thru thread again-
you threatened legal action to your rep?!--bad move
no kidding the guy cant talk to you after that--once you mention lawyers- they kick it to legal branch- retract any offer of partial coverage and say- `try it sonny boy- you wont win squat`
they are 100% in the right to to nothing at all for you, if they choose
Warranty limit is limit- goodwill is goodwill- what have you done for them to deserve it?
Court agrees with them on limits are limits= you lose

go read gen3 and their trans limit of 4/50!! with plenty of failures!!

How much you spent at the dealership service- any acura dealer- counts towards goodwill

receipts from a non dealer shop may show you kept up on oil changes (what else is required-not much)
but unless you have proof of trans fluid change every 30k and some documented visits to the dealer in warranty period-- complaining of trans prob which they could not locate --so what!

the parts manager is involved because they take the $1000+ hit in profit off the trans,
but corp has final word

loaner cars are limited to age minimums same as rental car rules for your state.
loaners go to people with big services, already diagnosed cars staying for a few days (trans cars) and recall fixes
Getting one before a trans diagnoses can be tough--once they know its not fit to drive--soonest avail loaner is yours
It best to make arrangements ahead- not show up at 8am with everyone else and think you are getting one of the few loaners

now you have a view from both sides of the story~

 

BAD NEWS

So I got a final call back from a case manager who spoke with a regional parts and service manager for some good will assistance.

They declined to offer any further assistance beyond the initial 25% off

So now I'm screwed and dont know what to do...I asked for their mailing address to their corp office, which he gave me, so now I'm getting ready to write a letter and hope something good will come out of it.

 

So I wrote a letter to the corp office and mailed it out, in the meantime the tranny is completely gone and the car is just sitting in the garage.

anybody know the turnaround time for somebody from the corp office to respond to my letter?

if i wanna sell the car as-is, how much would be a fair asking price?

 

I wonder how much owner age plays into corp decision??

If the 20somes are, as Futurama's Bender R Rodriguez says: We're boned!!

while older owners are treated with more respect~ and latitude.
perhaps beeing seen as greater potential for `buying a new acura or 3 type customers'

face it- when you are young- your negotiationg skills and overall presence are not as strong as someone with 20 more years experience in sales and dealing with people

I realize you kids know it all now and dont need any old friks advice..thats fine,,
someone needs to know everything!

I used to, now brain full and dumping files

Send corp your dmv proof of ownership on other family acuras, any service work done at dealer, thats showing brand loyalty~~,,,that helps at the corp level

It wont hurt to write corp with copy of acura threads on tranny failure subject- include this thread highlighting cases with better coverage
talk about your low relative miles for failure...
its important to TELL corp what it will take to make you happy
$500-1000-1500, free?
they can work from there but left on their own will say 25'

Did you ever take the car in for trans issues while in warranty but they could not duplicate? that really helps you if receipt says PNF when it was under warranty

 

I followed all of your advice, and I did take my car to a dealer back in 2008 while the car was still under warranty, and my receipt said that the tranny shifting fine, basically they couldn't find any problems with it, but the also wrote i had worn out engine and trans mounts, so a month later i got all the mounts replaced at a local repair shop, and got a receipt from them, which i also mailed in with my corp letter.

when i showed the receipt of repairs to my dealer at paragon acura, they acted like it was a piece of garbage they could wipe their ass with, because i didn't do the work at a acura dealership

this kind of service makes me really unhappy with acura as a company, guess they dont care about their customers at this point, i think the only reason they were replacing tranny's earlier while people were under warranty was because they HAD to do it by law, in other words they were forced. They never wanted to do it from the very beginning, and now that the warranty has expired, in their opinion there's no way in hell their giving anybody else good will

I'm gonna give it about another week to see what kind of response I'll get, if any....

If its nothing good, then I'm listing the car up for sale as-is, hopefully its still worth something with a failed tranny.

 

I think you went wrong when threatening legal action--the red flag that sent up the corp spine ended all hope of real assistance under Goodwill...how is a lawsuit threat being good natured on your part? (look from their position)

repairs made at non acura dealer - they dont care- they didnt make money off you--that is a key in the process

yes its very true- acura was forced in a 2004 court case to extend the warranty to 7 years 100kmiles-later extended to 7 years 9 months/109kmiles

back in 00-03, the trans were dropping at 51 and acura denied coverage!! someone smart got people together,,a case was made, and to settle... the infamous `Out of Vin range` was born

gen3 got the same old 4/50 warranty and no goodwill for most of them--with plenty of failures in 04-05 same as ours,,just after 50-80 and trans dies
until they got the new trans case design in 06, like gen2 warranty units have since sometime in 2005

If any car maker could get away with 12/12 on a new car they would!!!
but what do other companies use as a sales tool? 100k bumper to bumper!!

with the down economy hitting every level, acura is cutting back on the freebies-- helping those who have helped acura in the past~
more than joe average who turned down needed work, then went to a cheap shop down the street--that really pisses them off..and part of why diagnosis fee gets charged

sorry yours turned out poorly

you can spend the 2500 to get it done at a shop or sell as is for a few grand?

 

UPDATE

So I got a final call back from the regional case manager that I've been dealing with at the corp office. This is after the fact that I wrote a long letter and mailed it off to them.

The case manager had a regional parts and service manager get involved in my case. Prior to my letter, they only offered to cover 25% off the total cost of repair. After this other big shot reviewed my case, this guy called me back and said the best offer acura will make me is that I pay $2380 for the repair of the tranny, and they take care of the rest.

On top of all that, the case manager gave me a week to make up my mind, either to accept or decline the offer. If I decline then they close my case and I'd be stuck paying full price for a new tranny. So I now have about 5 days left, and decided to sell the car as is for $8k and let someone else worry about paying $2380 to get the tranny fixed.

I'm never buying an acura or honda again, when I have some more time on my hands, i'll make sure to make my story public and slander their rep, the way they treated me is horrendous, my god i was only a few months out of warranty, whats the big fucking deal, the problem existed in my car for atleast the last 2 years

screw acura and screw honda!!!!

 

I'm going to say that this will not end well......for you. Be very careful what you do. Honda is a rather large company with lots of lawyers who would love to battle you and empty your wallet.

IIRC you had never had any service done at the dealer and, in my personal opinion, they owe you nothing.

Take your lumps, don't buy another Honda and be on your way.

 

Are you sure you can sell the car for 8k man? Your car is only worth about 8k and change for a car with no problems. I see a lot of TL's with tranny problems go for around 4k and less on craigslist. If you really like the TL I would take the $2380 deal. Its not bad for a tranny at a dealer. You are out of warranty and never really had any work done at the dealer so 50% off is actually not bad. Or you can get it fixed for cheap at like AAMCO or something and then sell it. You might not take that big of a loss. I'm sorry for your situation.

 

Hey acurakidd, exact same story is unfolding on me. I am in Austin and few days ago, my tranny got shot after they replaced the tranny fluid. Needless to say mine was blue 02tl-s with chrome and tint.
Sounds like you and I am screwed big time roughly same time. I will try the same steps as yours, but once this thing is finally over, let me know if you wanna work together to spread the words of bad reputability. it is kinda of faked up feeling reading your story and my situation rite now.

 

Ah I got my tranny replaced for $300 when they were doing recalls...

 

oh, it will be fair that acura should keep replacing the tranny for free for lifetime till problem no longer occurs. we aint pay premium to get into a shit like this.
so my bottim line is they owe us a bunch.

 

Exactly my point, there shouldn't really be a time limit on the warranty extension, maybe just a mileage limit would be fair.

So far they offered some assistance in cost and reduced my price down to $2380 + tax

I'm still debating on if I should take the offer or not, but if I do take the offer its only because I cant sell the car as-is right now, it'll be much easier to sell later down the line.

But once I have some free time on my hands, I'll definitely starting writing an article and make sure it falls into the proper hands.

Also for NSXNEXT, don't forget how the whole warranty extension started, Acura/Honda didn't just come outright and decided to offer a warranty extension out of their good hearts, they were FORCED to by COURT, and that was all brought up by a group of guys that were put in situations like me, guyenacurazine, among many other members

Maybe if we could get enough support we could get another case going to settle this once and for all, and make a damm RECALL like it should have been in the first place

 

Lol guys. I have a Blue 00 TL, and unfortunately i have a feeling that il be joining the club soon... still keeping my fingers crossed though. I still haven't contacted the dealer but i will, and most likely ill ask my dad to talk to them. As one of u said, age means a lot when dealing with customer service. We'l c what they say. Like AcuraKidd i havent done any maintenance and work at the dealer, my TL has 290 kilometers and frankly i think they owe me nothing... Its a great car, a great, comfortable ride and these things happen. I think their extended warranty was quite reasonable, so i don't see anything to cry about.

Believe me, im just as f*&^ed as u are... noooo money to do the fix. If i were u i would sell the rims, lip kit and anything else thats not a necessity and pay the bill. I think thats what im gonna do, and regain everything again over a few months.

 

yeah man look around here and there for other victims, and notify them, may be we can form a facebook acura victim group so we can get in touch easily and do some organized action, who knows we could succeed down the line. my fb Id is guyen000@gmail.com

 

well dont think they owe you nothing. tranny is big and expensive part and they ought to design it rite not to make it so that it breaks every couple of years. u re looking at spending major money on your car due to their faulty design and think they owe nothing that is quite pathetic no offense. instead i think they owe a big time.

 

Faulty design, yes, definitely!!!! The extended warranty covered that, IMHO it should have been a bit longer but it's good that there was one, and many ppl did not have to pay the bill. And yes, i agree with u guys that its kinda gay that they extended it only after legal action, bad business ethics on their part. As for u seeking legal action, no offence, but thats pathetic, u should damn well understand that u will not get anything out of it other than a headache. But if you are determined enough and have spare time and money, do it as an experiment, but like i said, it doesn't seem like its worth it. Just my opinion.

 

I have a 2000 TL and replaced the tranny back in 06' with 150,000 miles on it. It was slipping and took it in and they said it was shot. Well last week it started slipping again between 2nd and 3rd. It now has 215,000 miles on it. I starting reading post on the web all over about having it flushed. Some mechanics don't like flushing the tranny at all. I ended up replacing the fluid myself. Raise the front end so the tires are off the ground. Drain plug is round with a 3/8 square pocket in it. Use a 3/8 allen wrench and grind off two opposite hex points so it fits. It drains out around 3 qts. I added two quarts of Dexron III and started the car and followed this procedure I found.

1. Set the parking brake, and raise the vehicle on a lift.
2. Drain the trans, and refill it with Dexron III.
3. Start the engine, shift into Drive, and release the parking brake.
4. Push down on the accelerator pedal to raise the vehicle speed to 2,500 rpm.
• If the trans shifts past 2nd gear, go to step 5.
• If the trans won’t shift past 2nd gear, keep the engine speed at 2,500 rpm and shift from Drive to
Neutral and back to Drive. Then go to step 5.
5. Make sure that the trans shifts through all the forward gears and goes into torque converter lockup.
6. Let off the accelerator pedal, and press the brake pedal to drop the vehicle speed to zero. Shift into
Reverse and then into Neutral.
7. Shift into Drive, and repeat steps 4 thru 6 four more times.
8. Set the parking brake, and repeat steps 2 thru 6 two more times.
9. Drain the trans, and reinstall the drain plug with a new sealing washer.
10. Refill the A/T with ATF-Z1.

I never used the ATF-Z1. I used 6 qts. of Dexron III. I drove the car for about 100 miles and it never slipped once. The following day I repeated the process but this time I used Redline D-4 synthetic. I drained it added 2 qts. of Redline and ran it on stands just like before. Drained it and topped it off with 3 qts. of Redline and took it out for a ride. OMG what a difference. With the Dexron III no slipping but it was shifting hard from 1st to 2nd. With the Redline it was so smooth I couldn't believe it. I thought for sure I was going to have to get a new tranny or have it rebuit. I know Amsoil makes a synthetic also so its user preference. I'm not saying this will work for everone but for under $100 total it was well worth it for me. From know on every 15,000-20,000 mile I will drain and add 3 new qts. of Redline.

Jack

 

Let's see how long it takes 01tl4tl to get to this thread.

Also, JWD, how many miles have you racked up since you've done the procedure?