Hey guys i have a Acura tl 99 with 137k miles i bought it a couple months ago and have noticed that when i start it up in the cold morning the shift nob is sticky even when going into ss now after maybe 10 mins of driving its back to being smooth. Now today it was really cold outside and when i started the car the shift knob was even more sticky but when i drove for 10-20 mins it went away btw i would switch to ss but the light wouldnt come on till later so if you can help me with this i would really appreciate it!

 

what do you mean sticky--the shift lever or how it feels as it engages a gear?

any traces of spilt soda on the shifter or cup holder? that drips down into the control circuits- can affect the SS light operation

 

Yup exactly that the shift knob lever was sticky when moving thur the gears p1 p2 p3 p4 n r p and also in SS when shifting up or down but once it warmed up after 10 mins of driving it goes back to being smooth ...

and about the SS light i meant that during the time when it was sticky and i moved it over to the SS the light didn't come on at all only after it got smooth again but this only happened today usually even if its sticky it still lights up .... just hoping when winter hits i'm not using serious arm strength to get into reverse, drive and park

 

I had the exact same problem. Remove your shift knob, and pop off the plastic pieces covering all the shifting mechanisms. Great thing about our TL's is that almost everything in the interior will pop off unless you see screws. Now grab a can of WD-40, aim at where it looks like plastic gears, and spray away. Pull the shifter through all the gears a few times with the car off to loosen everything up, and you should notice an immediate improvement. If it looks like mine did, you will see brown sticky crap where your "friend" managed to spill a whole soda down into the delicate inner workings of the shifter. Getting sticky stuff off plastic is one thing that WR-40 excels at. You will possibly see some of the original lubricant down there, the spray will probably remove that as well, but its better than not being able to shift in the early morning when the old and sticky soda hasn't warmed up enough to allow free movement.

 

Thanks! I will give this a shot after a run to Autozone for the WD-40 hope it works

 

get it at walmart, its cheaper.. haha