It might help your case to note that many other "non-covered VIN number" Tls did revceive goodwill coverage. Spend some time reviewing this threadf and you could tally up a decent number of such cases. I'd present that information to the national Customer Care group.

Good luck.

 

I, too, am new here and happen to find this site BECAUSE my tranny went out on my 2003 (bought in July 2002) yesterday! It has 74,700 miles. My hubby and 2 yr old daughter were driving on the freeway about 70 mph when he accelerated quickly to pass someone and the car suddenly shifted from 5th to 2nd! The car lurched terribly causing cars around him to swerve out of the way. I think they thought he was drunk or something! He had noticed some jerky shifting earlier on the drive (he was on the road an hour) but nothing like this! All the lights that you all were talking about came on but the "5" light that was supposed to be in the dash wasn't there. He tried to over ride using the sport shift and he said that it practically shot him through the window! He pulled off the road and took the lllooonnggg back roads home! He loves driving a bit aggressively and THIS scared him. Probably because our daughter was in the car with him.

I called the Pleasanton, CA dealer this morning and spoke with the Service Manager and he was terrific. He said to have the car towed in and they would pay for the tow and fix the car no problem. Reading through this thread (yes, I read EVERY page!) helped give me some knowledge and was able to speak to the guy with confidence. I had gone to the Acura site and regisered my VIN and it said I was covered, which I figured I was since I had done the recall. What a joke THAT is. Anyway, the service people were wonderful to deal with and readily admitted that Acura knew of the problem and were more than willing to take care of the problem. I mentioned what you said here about the Feb. 05 fix and he said that there have been improvements since then and that they feel (after MANY errors) that they have fixed the problem. He said that they are replacing so many trannys that the one they are putting in my car was probably made only a few months ago. That was interesting! He also said that before they finally fixed the problem, they were putting in trannys that were no better than the ones they were taking out. I thought that was pretty honest and I was a little surprised that he would admit that. I really emphasized the danger my daughter was put in and that I chose this brand of car BECAUSE of it's safety record and reliability. They were more than eager to make me happy. I told them I had been interested in the 2008 TL and could I have that for a loaner. He said that they didn't have those as loaners, but gave me a 2007 with only 700 miles on it. SWEET! My hubby tried for the Type S but they laughed and said Acura won't give them the Type S' as loaners. LOL It was worth a try! So, since it is so close to the Labor day weekend, they won't get to my car until next week. So, I get to have a brand new car for about a week. They are smart people though, just driving that thing home makes me want a new car! ha ha

After reading this thread I feel pretty lucky that I haven't had any problems until now. I must say that I'm a bit afraid to keep the car long term now. They assured me that the problem with the tranny has finally been fixed. But, hell, how do they know until these cars build up some miles on them. UGH! Anyway, just wanted to share my scary story and the good outcome with you. Of course, I don't have the car back with a zero $ invoice yet. LOL

 

I bought my 00 TL with 53k miles in 2004. I read several posts about the issues with the tranny and made sure I ALWAYS serviced the tranny at the dealership. I went in at 164k for another tranny service and the dealership said that the tranny was is great shape (5 months ago). The tranny went out today and the dealer told me that because the car had 182K, Acura will not help me out with anything, not even paying for part of the tranny cost.

This car never had any of the problems decribed by other Acura owners up until today. Now the dealer wants $2750 for new tranny. I complained but they weren't listening.

It appears to me that this tranny was bound to go out, sooner or later. I know 182K is a lot of miles, but I would have been better off trying to blow the tranny before 100k rather than waiting until now and having to pay $2750 out of my own pocket.

Do I have any recourse with Acura?

By the way, I refused to let Acura work on my tranny. Just on principle, I took the car to another import service station and they are replacing my tranny for $2550 (with 3/36 warranty). I was not giving the dealership another dime!

I know that by getting another service place to work on it may prevent me from getting anything from Acura, but the dealer said Acura will not do anything.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

One benefit of having the transmission replaced by Acura is that you'd get the latest design changes, including those made in February of 2005. Those changes may have resolved the major reliability problems. The case design has also been changed.

 

I got my TL back on Saturday. It took Park Acura 3 and 1/2 days to fix the problem, but to their credit they offered a loaner TL if I would have waited until Tuesday to take mine in. I chose not to wait. The car runs great and I am hoping that the February 2005 fixes will make this one last for the rest of the car's life, which will be destined for my kids to drive in another 5 years and an additional 50K. After they get a hold of it, I think the tranny will be the least of my concerns.

All-in-all this has been a great car and that's probably why I have kept it this long (I used to lease all of my cars and 4 years was the longest I've owned a vehicle prior to this one). I didn't want to take the TL loaner for fear that I would buy one, so I drove my Mother-in-law's 2000 Chevy Malibu (with less mileage than my TL) while she was on vacation, and I have got to say that was the best move. After three days with the Sh*ty Malibu, I absolutely love my car. Boy you don't know what you've got until it's gone. Not that I am not grateful to my Mother-in-law for letting me drive her car while she was on vacation, but man my TL is a huge step up from that thing!

After I picked up my car I noticed that the mirror is now two-tone. It appears that there is a fluid behind the glass, probably what makes the auto-dim feature work, and that fluid looks like it leaking. Anyone know what would have caused this or which page to visit on this site that might point me in the right direction? I am sure this wasn't like this when I dropped it off, but now I'm afraid that Acura will say too bad you didn't tell us when you picked it up.

Bubba

 

Your mirror is failing and the fluid inside it can actually leak and damage both the leather seats and plastic interior parts.

Magna Donnelly, the manufacturer of the mirrors, has been sending out free replacements for well over a year.

See the "Rear View Mirror Exploded!" thread:

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78061

Everything you need to know about requesting a replacement mirror is in that thread. Since the thread is so massive, start at the end and work your way backwards. There are also instructions for removing and replacing the mirror that include photos. I received a replacement mirror within days of emailing them.

In the meantime, you might want to consider removing the mirror altogether to eliminate any chance that the mirror will leak while you're waiting for a replacement.

 

Just copied and pasted it from the thread I posted earlier. Mods can delete it now so clear up the clutter, thanks for keeping it up:

What's up guys. I'm new to the forums, and new to the TL in general. I've only had my friend's car for a few days (to check for a problem he's been having) and the transmission issue aside, I'm in love. I'm thinking of selling my car and getting one. It's been a lo-o-o-ng time since I've owned something comfortable.

Well, with all that aside, I have a fairly simple question. I searched the forums already, but didn't find an answer for exactly this question. He had is transmission replaced a while back (1.5 years-2 years) because of the defect (he got it to the point where the car wouldn't move) at his local Acura dealer. Now, the problem is definitely back, and after reading the symptoms in the sticky, it's definitely the same problem all over again. I'm sure he's traveled beyond the 12,000 mile warranty at this point, but the point is, he's still having the same problem. Replacing 2 transmissions on a car with less than 130,000 miles? He hasn't gotten 40,000 miles out of the replacement, and it's definitely the same problem all over again. I feel like if we go to the dealer with this, they'll reject the claim, and then we'll have to deal with Acura/Honda of America.

My point is, I'm not sure what we're supposed to do, and as you guys all know, there's no better group of people than those on forums to ask about stuff like this. Soo...help up out pleeaasee

Edit: It's a 2001 TL with a little under 130,000 miles now. Tranny was replaced at 95,000-ish miles.

 

I posted about 2 weeks ago that my tranny went out on my 2002 TL type S that I purchased in October of 2004 with 52k miles. It went out at 137k miles. I had originally taken it to Aamco transmissions to have them fix it, but after reading the numerous threads about this issue, I decided to have my vehicle towed to the nearest Acura dealer to have them service the car in hope of some gratutious replacement gift. I was referred to Acura Client Services and conversed with them for about a week, only to find out yesterday that they will not help me with the cost of replacement due to the fact that the car is over the mileage for the recall and that I only flushed the transmission once since I had it and that I wasn't the original owner (I bought it "certified used" fron an Acura dealer in Wilmington, NC). Needless to say, I was very disappointed to hear that news! On top of that, I'm stuck with a bill of 3,700 dollars that includes the cost of the new tranny, 2 new engine mounts, and the towing bill (220.00). I wish I could trade it in for another car, but it would be hard to trade a car with a bad tranny, huh? Since I don't have 3.7k laying around anywhere, I have to wait until the money accumilates in the account. In the meantime, I'm paying for the rental I'm driving on a weekly basis until my car gets repaired (no assistance on that either!). Thwy won't even start my repair until I give them at least 1.5k down on the repair. I have no feasible options at this point. What would you guys do in my situation? I still owe 10k in financing costs for my TL.....is it worth keeping?

 

i would continue talking with client services on this. Be polite but inform them of your situation and that you are very disappointed in this, that you bought the car due to acura/honda reliability. Inform them that you are a member of the largest acura forum and are very well aware of the huge issue this trans has and of the very common failure rate.

 

Some of you know me from the brake and shock threads, and may recall I joined last year when the just purchased 01TL 68k miles, had trans problem and armed with azine knowledge, I got a replacement no hassles, well some hassles-- that started at 900$ bs estimate and ended at $140 motor mount.

Recently she has been acting funny, and not funny haha funny
Slow response shifting into Drive- takes a few seconds or longer to hook up
Checked acura.com symptoms list- whoops- its on the bad side of the list
Called the Service Manager who had said call me direct if you ever have a prob
He was promoted recently, (riiiiight) so the writer was now manager and looked up my file.
I dont know what notes it contained but suddenly it was-
"that will only take a few minutes to check- can you come thursday morning?"

I said, I will bring donuts if you get me a nice loaner

current miles 78k

Maybe it will be ok, at least it has its own warranty still, plus the overall warranty

Always treated the trans with respect and dignity- havent even track day'd this one~ just a little fun on the way to Yosemite

 

UPDATE on my 182K tranny issues.

After taking my Acura to another shop, I called the service manager at the Acura dealership and left a long VM about my frustration with Acura and told them that I would not be bringing my 00TL or 04 TL back to their dealership becuase of my problems. I told him that since most of my miles are highway miles, I feel this put less strain on the tranny and resulted in it lasting longer than most other ones. It's obvious to me that this tranny was due to fail, it was just a matter of when.

This potential loss of business got the service manager to go to bat for me with his regional manager.

The end result was that Acura will pay for the tranny and any other associated parts and I pay for the labor ($900). It still sucks that I have to pay anything, but I feel that $900 for a total tranny replacement is pretty reasonable for a car with 182K miles.

I guess the old sanging: "The squeaky wheel get the oil" really applies to Acura Dealers!

 

That's great news! $900 for a new transmission at 182,000 miles is a bargain in my book. And the new transmission may last a very long time if Acura did, in fact, correct the major reliability issues.

I'd write a nice letter of thanks to both the service manager and the regional manager. Be sure to mention how you will definitely consider Acura for your future car purchases.

 

I have a 00TL with 79k, I havent had any issues but this thread is scary enough to make me wonder. I know they installed that jet kit thing, should I just take it to the dealer and have them look at it, prevenative maitenance??? Or do they only take action after the problem?

 

unless they find something wrong there is nothing that can be done as preventative other than just your normal trans fluid changes (which really arent preventative)

 

Just failed at 73K...free replacement since I had the jet kit done. Remanufactured of course, but hopefully it lasts quite a while. Funny thing is that I was just talking with a dealer about a month ago and he asked me if I ever had anything go wrong or funny with the tranny, b/c he knew of the problems, and I told him all was good. Next thing I know it starts stuttering out of second...

 

Hey Guys,

My tranny just failed at 75K, I have an 03' TL-S that is not covered in the extended warranty, so it expired at 50K. I took it to the dealer to have it checked out; in the meantime I called up Acura Customer Care, as it was suggested in this thread. I didn't get anywhere with the Customer Care because at that time the car hadn't been diagnosed yet by the dealer, and asked me to call back once they did. Well a day and half later and multiple calls into the dealer with no status I finally get a call from the service manager. He said we will replace the tranny for free as a "good will gesture". He apologized for the long delay in getting back to me on the status of the car but he said they were trying to get Acura to get my transmission covered under warranty. Mentioned that it's a case by case situation and sometimes they replace it and sometimes they don't. I should have the car back by this Friday or Saturday (provided a TSX loaner) and hopefully the car will be good as new.

For anyone who lives in Northern Va/DC Area, I went to Radley Acura in Falls Church. I never once mentioned the extended warranty, customer care, etc to the service manager, just dropped the car off and left. They went out on there own and got my tranny replaced for free. I do take my car there for service time to time and they always have good customer service.

Good luck to anyone else with the tranny issue.

 

just adding my $0.02.

I had the jet kit installed back when they sent out the notice, and the tranny subsequently failed at 73K. All was good until June this year, when it failed on the highway, blowing smoke all over the place, at 129,800. I called Roadside assistance, even though I was well out of warranty, because of the known issue - I wanted it documented right away. Had it towed to the closest dealer - Sutton Acura in Macon, Ga. This was on a Saturday, right before they closed. They gave me a ride to the airport to get a rental. Monday they called to say it was a complete tranny failure, and he was waiting for a call back on whether Acura would cover it. He called later to say they would, but not the tow or rental. At first I was ok with that, since the big dollars would be covered, but then I called back and told him that I felt Acura should reimburse me for the tow/rental as well, since they were acknowledging their responsibility for the problem by covering it out of warranty - at least give me half. He called back to say they would cover it all. I picked it up Wednesday, all done, zero invoice.
The next issue will be guessing how long it's going to last now. From what I'm reading, I should have the 'latest/greatest' updated version from Feb '05, so hopefully I'm ok for a while.....

 

i posted in anohter thread but lack of responses, so lets try here!!

I've been searching all over the internet and I cannot find anyone that has experience with ACURA transmission and AAMCO.

I just purchased my 2003 TL type-S the first weeks of august because I needed a better car to commute to school. My transmission failed as i was going up there towards the end of august. I called ACURA and they said they woudlnt do anything because it was a "junkyard transmissoin" and it wasn't their original transmissoin (I wouldn't have known), i wasn't the original owner, and it was out of warranty. I called, I argued, I didn't win with ACURA. however my dad got a third party insurnace company, Mercury Insurance Group, a week or two after we purchased our car. THe deal wiht them was we couldnt claim anything for 30days and 1,000 miles and they'll handle most mechanical issues after that. So my question to you is, does anyone have any experience wiht AAMCO b/c when i was talking to the service rep he was like, ACURA transmissions have many problems, but AAMCO has updates to recorrect those TRANNY issues, etc.. and secondly does anyone hav any experience wiht MERCURY INSURANCE GROUP?

Thanks any reply posts would be appreciated.

 

I posted to your thread-
wait the 30 days- aamco has good warranty- ask that shop how many TL trans they have done, if none- find another shop!

 

yeah i saw, i'm not worried about the warranty too much- well its obvs a factor, but like do their transmission last, or rebuilt transmission last? and do they have the jan 05 updates?

 

Any rebuild is only as good as the tech doing the job

They most likely get some parts from Acura and others from name brand supplier
Acura wont tell us exactly what changes were made then- the best guess is the improved oil passages were 2/05- but with an old case that wont matter to you
The units since 2/05 have good reliabilty from acura

I spoke with a tech who rebuilds these for his own cars, the clutch pack remains to be the weak point, needing more disc than currently installed and designed with

 

You could try educating yourself by visiting the local cottman, aamco and some other private trans rebuilders in your town
ASK the same things of each=do they know about updates, personal experience with these units, any tricks they have found, customers with TL you can call etc

Sometimes your ECU is bad too- hope your warranty covers electronic brains

 

I'm thinking about purchasing a 2002 TL Type-S with 82k miles. I just became aware of the tranny problems and wanted to get suggestions on whether I should bother purchasing this car. Should I avoid this car altogether, or is there a way I can make sure the tranny is ok?
Thanks.

 

02s are covered to 7 years 109k miles, so they are good choices
the 03s on the other hand- can require some coaxing to get warranty coverage

The trans are fine right up to the day the give some drastic warning sign and then you call the dealer for a tow truck- no prob

Smelling the fluid is about all you can do- and look for obvious signs when test driving

You can look under the car- if the bolts for the trans have blue heads- its a replacement unit
Also call acura with the VIN number of any car you like and ask for history before purchase- they can tell any warranty work done or outstanding recall or extended warranty for you
Watch for "salvage/rebuilt title" car- no warranty at all from acura on those
Acura Care 1-800-382-2238 x5 6am-5pm pacific time

 

I have a 99 TL and I guess it's just my day today or something, but the transmission starts crapping out all of a sudden. I get low reving kicks and when I come to a complete stop, the transmission makes a clunking sound. Putting the transmission into R from D3, I can hear a HUGE crack, snapple and pop sound.

I get home and call Honda and they tell me that the current transmission failure settlement doesn't apply to me no more, since the car has been in operations for 96 months as compared to their 93 months agreement. The car has a 109K + a few hundred miles. I called my local Acura dealership and they told me to leave a message and we'll call you back. Is it me or is it that regardless of the 109K settlement, ALL of us TL owners are still on the short end of the stick?

I've heard people having luck getting their transmission replaced beyond the terms and will go hit up the Acura dealer and negotiate with them. Anyone knows how much the Acura rapership is charging for a transmission replacement nowadays? At this point a Kia or Hyundai seems to be more appealing in the long run compared to Acura's "luxury" cars.

 

You can ask the Servce MANAGER to talk with the District Rep- they can do anything from labor only to $1000 increments up to 3000-
total is about 4gs installed for an acura rebuilt unit in a new case with the improved oil flow passageways
Includes 1 year warranty with unit and 1 year per 1000 paid by you up to 3 years

Go in person bearing donuts and speak directly and ONLY with Service MANAGER
not the commission based WRITERS

The courst decision that our odometers read 5% fast (some models) means you can argue that 109 actual is 114.4 indicated, and 3 months over, cmon help a guy out here!

If you have any service history with that dealer or bought the car there- bought other cars there in your family etc- goodwill goes both ways

If thats out- name brand rebuilder $2500 3 year warranty

 

Man I would be happy with this. Auto trannies don't last forever. I just got a 2000 as well and reading some of these threads has me panicking. My car runs great. I'm curious how hard everyone is running these? I mean Auto trannies are not designed to be race cars.. If I drove my TL like my GSR I would not expect it to last either.

182k miles is a ton, in fact most manual trannies will not last that long.

 

While abusive driving is never a good thing for transmissions, many of the failure reports are for transmissions that were not driven hard.

How many miles are on your 2000 TL? If it has less than 109,000 miles, it will be within the extended warranty for the transmission.

Also, find out the original in-service date for your TL. The 7 year + 9 month limit on the warranty starts with the original in-service date. As you get closer to that expiration date you might want to bring the car in Acura to have the transmission checked out.

All of the 2000 TL extended warranties will be expiring over the next year as the cars exceed the 7 year + 9 month limit. I think pretty much every 1999 TL has already hit this limit, regardless of the mileage. (The warranty is a "whichever occurs first" type.)

 

it has 89k on it now. Everything works good from what I can tell.

how do I find the original in service date? Will acura have that info?

I love this car, I'm hoping I don't have any problems..

 

Yes, Acura will have the original in-service date for the car. Just call with your VIN number.

 

Auto trannies CAN be designed to be race cars. Some examples are NSX, Mercedes SL, Porsche, etc. They all offer auto trannies in their true sports cars.

If Acura puts in SportShift into the auto tranny, the TL is designed to offer sporty driving, or else they're looking for troubles and you are paying premium for a cheap Honda Accord. I too agree that trannies (not just auto ones) don't last forever, but the problem is that too many 2nd gen CL's and TL's (especially Type-S) have the auto box failed prematurely. The tranny design is simply flawed.

If you have been on this forum as long as I do, you would have known that some early builds 2nd gen cars failed only after driven for < 10K miles, and late replacement trannies have much less repeated failure rate than the earlier replacement ones.

 

I bought 00 TL 2 weeks ago with 94k km. An oil jet kit will be installed this Friday, but as far as I know it only helps partially. The warranty on the tranny will expire this December. I only hope that it'd last for at least several more years. All I can do is change fluid more often and not drive it too hard (less fun)!

 

Just bought an 02 TLS last week. Tranny seemed fine when I picked it up...but it only lasted about 100 miles. It's in the shop getting replaced as I type. Should I try to get rid of the car now or keep it? Seems like the latest replacements still don't last that long.

 

What gives you that impression? There have been very few failure reports with the post-2005 transmissions.

Also, do you think the previous owner may have decided to sell the car because the transmission was starting to fail?

 

My 99 TL' tranny was having problems. I knew that the tranny was going out ASAP. I brought it to the dealer and from my understanding from what I've been reading on this forum, the decision lies with the service writers and the service manager. Luckily the service writer who helped me out, did some due diligence and talked to the service manager. Instead of paying close to $3K, we ended up paying $500 for another tranny. The car I have, was just slightly out of the settlement agreement. If you try calling Honda/Acura corporate, they won't do a thing and just refer you to see the service managers at the dealers.

 

That hasn't been the case for everyone. There have been many reports in this forum where no coverage was offered until the corporate Customer Car group got involved.

 

Thats not true at all. Many have had help.

 

The dealer response seems to vary quite a bit. My second tranny went out at 165K and they called corporate and split the cost with me - really better as they only charged me $1250. They did the first replacement at about 80K and I did have them do the timing belt and a couple of small items at 105K. I was plesantly suprised when I got a replacement for $1250 at 165K and they also said it had a 3/36 warranty.
I would definitly buy Acura again, but I hear Honda is putting a diesel in the '09 Accord and I am a diesel nut. Who knows, a used gen4 with 6 speed would be more fun

 

hi, 99 TL, 87,000mi, tranny slipping like crazy. 2 questions:
Acura ownerlink says trans warranty still open. that means acura will cover it?

also, warranty says if tranny hasn't been maintained it voids the warranty. i bought the car about 3 months ago, no idea if its been maintained well. will it matter that i just bought it? will they check if its been maintained?

otherwise i love love my TL ~~

 

welcome to the forum. The open should mean that its still covered.