All Acura dealers install remanufactured transmissions. Please note, re manufactured is not the same thing as rebuild, supposedly it is re-manufactured by Honda (or by company contracted by Honda), the process involves replacing ALL soft parts, and examining all hard parts and making sure they are up to Honda specs. Its essentially just an old case with all new parts inside. But when you go outside Acura, the shops usually only replace parts that are broken.

 

my trans jus went out on me.... ive went to a couple of places to look for rebuilt ones... i was at a jdm place and they said they have a used 1 from japan soo i was wondering does any1 know if the ones over in Japan or w/e have the same issues as the ones in North America???

 

Original transmissions (the ones that have problem) were all made in Japan, at least for 2001 models. I would never buy a used transmission, especially if its original. BTW, Japan or US has nothing to do with the problem, its a shi*tty design

 

yea i dont like the idea of buying a used tranny either... but if its cheaper and theres no problems with the tranny over there and possibly cheaper than a rebuild 1 then why not but....if its all the same design then i cant relay on that then....

 

considering all the labor costs involved, used transmission is a bad investment, especially if its the original transmission. Speaking of design, Honda made number of improvements, so you definitely want the latest and rebuilt by honda or shop that uses all latest updated/improved parts in the rebuilt. My suspicion that most re-builders will not know about latest Honda updates.

 

FUCK. my tranny just went out today !!

I think had the longest running originally transmission of a 2003TL-p (150,300 miles).

Now i gotta find a way to come up w/ $4500k, when my car i sonly worth about 5k. grrr

 

Well that's always bad news. But congratulations on getting so many miles out of the original transmission.

Before you pay the full $4500 you might want to check with your dealer's Service Manager to see if he or she might be able to give you some amount of goodwill coverage. It might be a longshot with 150,000 miles but it won't hurt to ask.

 

You can part your car out or if you kept very good care of your engine and just overall suspension is still in good care then I and many others might recommend getting an Acura CL-S 6speed tranny, they are reliable and it'll make your TL run, instead of jog. Might be a better choice then getting the same one.

About the longest lasting, maybe for the 03' BUT I think someone on here is at over 176k on original tranny, if I'm not mistaken that's Rockstar with his 99' FPR TL.

 

Just had my 03 TL (89k miles) checked out at the dealership last night. I haven't had any major problems but I've noticed hesitation more frequently so just wanted to get it looked at. They are telling me it's the transmission and i have about 6 months before it completely dies out. They also said it was out of the extended warranty. So this morning i called Acura customer service and opened a case file requesting goodwill assistance. She said she would talk with the regional service manager at the dealership and see if they could help me out.
Crossing my fingers that they can cover most of the repairs!!

 

I wouldn't do jack shiot, in till it completely dies out, Stealerships can tell you a hunk of crap a lot of times to get you to fix your stuff with them, even when it's not very bad. I'd say wait it out, then ask for goodwill assistance, or you'll crah your acura into the stealership and "burn that bitch" haha no I'm kidding, though!

 

So I don't have to spend 6 hours re-reading the 3000 posts in this thread, what's the goodwill transmission again? I'm about to call local dealership & ask 'em about my problem. I hope they don't try & force me to tow it there & get "diganostics" run on it, when it's obvious my tranny is shot.

Anyway, how should I word it when asking them for it, and is it remanufactured or rebuilt trannys<-which will not last long anyway?

 

Acura has covered a portion of the replacement costs for many out-of-warranty TL transmissions. The best strategy is to talk to the dealership's Service Manager since he or she has more authority than, say, a service advisor.

You can also call Acura's 1-800 "Customer Care" number to ask if they can help out. They will typically assign you a case number and then get back to you.

Again, you may be totally out of luck since your TL has so many miles on it but it won't hurt to ask.

For more details, read the last 10 or 20 pages of this thread and pay particular attention to the posts by 01tl4tl. Yeah, that's a lot of reading but if it saves you a couple of thousand dollars on the repair, it will be worth it.

Is your 03 TL in the VIN group that was covered by the extended warranty on the transmission? If so, that might help with getting goodwill coverage.

The replacement transmissions appear to be much more reliable because of some design and materials changes made in February of 2005.

 

The 1999 TL uses a 4-speed automatic which has proven to be more reliable than the 5-speed installed in the 00-03 TLs. The transmission in my 1999 TL made it to about 173,000 miles and I think another one was reported to make it past 200,000 miles.

 

So, I just talked to a mechanic that I trust. He's Honda certified and all that, and he's done many rebuilds on trannys. He pretty much quoted me around $2,450 to do RRR (Remove, Rebuild, Reinstall) he'll flush/fill etc coolant or somin like that, may have misunderstood that part, as well (dunno what that has to do w/ the tranny).
I hear he's VERY thorough and very good/clean with what he does. Even a couple family members have had great success with him fixing their transmissions, given they don't have Acura's though. Anyway, he knows I have an expensive transmission and said "depending on the damage and all, it'll be around $2500 mark and that's ballparked with me not checking it out completely"
Of course he needs to make a little money off it. He even stated that to me. He's really good friends with my father. So I don't think he'd really fuck me that hard, so to speak.

Think this would be something I should pursue?

 

I would at least run down a potential goodwill option through Acura first.

If you do go with the Honda mechanic, you should try to confirm that all of the replacement parts will include the latest and greatest improved parts. Note that the case design itself was changed to improve oil flow.

One plus about going through an Acura dealer is that the odds are pretty good that you'll get the updated parts.

 

Thanks Bob_F

 

yes, many local rebuild shops do a good job rebuilding it back to the original specs without knowing that original specifications is the problem in the first place.

 

Yeah that makes sense. I'm starting to see that now.

I'm just really up a creek w/o a paddle at this point b/c of this stupid useless piece of unstable shitty fucking transmission. I hate Acura's now. I will tell everyone I know & spread all kinds of rumors to everyone I know about how they should never choose Acura's. They have completely put me in a really bad spot. This couldn't have happened at a worse time, which is why I'm so angry. It's pointless to put in $4-5k when my car is only worth $5k. I can't take on another car payment at the moment...so what to do, ya know.
I'm going to be driving cars from relatives & in-laws for the time being, thank God. So at least I can go to work still.

(my new temp car)
^This is more reliable than my $20k Acura.
/ends rant :smitler:

 

well, you got 150K miles out of your transmission, that is pretty good. you are more fortunate than others, for most it fails every 50-70K miles. If you look at other brands, you will find that 150K for transmission is not that bad, but obviously not the world record. why dont you call acura 800 number, if they can give you 25% discount, then for $3000 you can have a better transmission with 3 years / 36K miles warranty, will probably last you enough before you dump this car, your car is old anyway.

 

ya. i'm going to have to get it towed to Acura...get pointless diagnostics done before going that route..then get it towed back to where i currently have it. just a lengthy process + $$.
i only have little time off work to deal with this. that's life i suppose, tough shit right? oh well..wish me luck

 

Does anyone know of a reliable auto tranny that can easily swap into a 2001 CL type S? Like a 2005 TL, or Accord?

 

i got 178000 mi on my orig 99 tl trans...BUT she is on the way out....i can't locate any transmissions in my area at the moment...if anyone has a hook up please let me know...

 

If you're looking for a used transmission, car-part.com is a great resource:

http://car-part.com/

But you might be better off having your existing transmission rebuilt.

 

i understand your frustration and know it sucks, but keep in mind that my 94 camry transmission lasted only 117k miles. the car was bought new, maintained properly and driven gently, with no design defects that i know of. 150k isn't THAT bad...

 

That's bs if you ask me. If I'm going to pay that much $$ for a car, like I did with this Acura in 2004, I'd expect a little more out of it.

I called customer care & they told me to go fuck myself, basically. The lady was like that's extremely good you go tthat much out of it. I shoulda said "oh I'm sorry it didn't go out on me 3 times during my warranty period"
Grrrrr
I guess I'm going to try and get a rebuilt one & hopefully last me a little longer.

 

so i got off the phone w/ dealership just now too (sorry didn't get the edit button in time)

i was surprised at the quote they gave me
------
-$2299.98 for reman'd 03TL tranny (charge xtra $1300 if you just get the tranny & bring it somewhere else(hah))
-$108 freight
-&60-$70 fluid
-$865 labor to put it in

i was like so what other costs are there.. he's like "oh we rarely find anything else wrong w /the car but if we do, we'll let you know" .. i said "i'm sure you will ::cough:: engine mount "
so anyway.. lookin at around $3200. i wish i had that much to spend on this

 

Does that include new ECU, my guess it does not. My original quote was $3500 without ECU. There is an updated ECU which is like another $1000. It might be your call to get it or not. Supposedly its been reprogrammed to make shifts less destructed for your transmission, not sure if its worth extra $1000.

 

crap. i bet it doesn't. i KNEW IT WAS too good to be true!
my car isn't worth that much $$ anymore. really is a bummer.

thx for the heads up russianDude.

 

Call your dealer and ask them to check if your car needs updated ECU, you have 2003, maybe you don't needed it. I have 2001, and from what I found out all 2001 need new ECU with transmission, I would be surprised if 2003 does not need. Its your call, you dont really need new ECU, but if you want to believe Acura claims....... some people say its BS.

 

On the other hand it sucks to pay 3Gs knowing you only getting half ass job

 

Just dropped off my 03 - TL-S at Acura dealership for tranny replacement, few weeks ago i started noticing some very light jerk/stuttering around 2000 -2300rpm, like it was skipping. They called today and notified me that yes there is a tranny problem and will be replacing it, it just has 59k miles on it.

I thought after acura's settlement the warranty was extended to 7yr9months/109,000 instead of 7yr/100,000. But the service told me that i had certified warranty ending in oct 30 2009.
So let see how the next transmission will be, hope it last longs.

 

Same just happened to my mom. I thought we might have gotten one of the good ones since we were at 60k.

Sportshift was used rarely (maybe 6 times) by my dad, I gate shifted maybe 3 times
Car was always parked on steep incline driveway without brake (makes me cringe!)

Started skipping in the problematic 2-3 shift so we took it in but it wasn’t under warranty.. fixed anyways. While it was in they said they replaced the front end motor mount and now the engine doesn’t idle like crap like it did for a year. Turns out the mount was leaking and it was a common problem as I found out here.

She’s good as new for a while hopefully.. love the J32

 

yeah after reading through here, 59k did surprise me, bought the car 3.5 years ago at 32k miles.

Good luck , hope the replacement tranny is better.

i might have driven autostick like maybe 8 times...thats about it.

 

What was the car's original in-service date? The extended warranty should run 7 years and 9 months from that date. A 2003 TL purchased in, say, October of 2002 should be under warranty until July of 2010. (That is, of course, assuming that your car was in the 2003 VIN group that was covered by the extended warranty. Not all 2003 TLs are covered.)

 

Yeah-they said all they could do is 25% goodwill assistance. That's still a lot of money out of pocket that i don't have. I guess for now I"m gonna keep driving it until it dies on me.

 

Bob_F

See that is what i thought also, but after talking to service rep they said Oct 2009 where i know inservice date was OCT 2002, and i have asked them about the vin and they have said that my 03 TLS was in the recall vin.

That is what surprised me because i thought i had it until June because of the Acura settlement of extension on the warranty, i guess i will straighten out things once i pick it up either Friday/Saturday.

 

out of curiosity.. for all of you with the 2nd/3rd/+ replaced trannys.. how are you guys driving your cars? i have a white 03 TL-S and i rarely accelerate hard but am beginning to notice a bit of a jerk when going from 1st>2nd and 2nd>3rd. should i be worried? the car has 60k on it (im the 2nd owner).. and i havent had to replace the tranny yet. is there something on the tranny that would indicate if its been replaced before?

also.. is the 109k tranny warranty only for the 1st owner? or is it for the life of the car?

 

The general consensus is that how you drive has little effect on how long the transmission lasts. There have been many sub-100K failures reported for people that absolutely babied the transmissions

And the extended warranty follows the car, not the owner. So you can be the 10th owner and the car is still covered.

Note also that most 2nd gen TLs have already reached the 7 year 9 month limit on the warranty. The warranty is a "whichever occurs first" type.

Finally, Acura can tell you if the transmission has been replaced yet. Just give them the VIN number.

 

I think its time to get it changed, because i felt very minor jerk not every time, sometimes i would drive and wont happen and other times once or twice.

Just got the car back today from acura dealer, let see how the transmission is, to me the car sounds tiny bit louder but then it could just be me.

So acura service manager told me that since this was replaced under warranty i get 1yr/12k miles(the replacment was no cost to me), but if i were to pay any % then i get 3yr/36k miles, i would have think that it would be same regardless of if it was no cost or cost to me.

 

Does it seem to slip at times when shifting between 2nd and 3rd sometimes? (watch the tach while it's shifting, you'll see the needle spike a little between the shift) If it does, take it in and have them look at it. That's how mine started. They'll tell you up front about a $100 diagnostic fee when you take it in but most usually waive it if it's related to the transmission issue. It will definitely be waived if they determine the transmission is bad.

With your low mileage, you should have no trouble getting covered. Unless of course your VIN falls outside of the cutoff they implemented. Then it's possible that you'll be in for a battle trying to get your car covered. The extended warranty is for any owner. You could be the 10th to own it and it would still be covered. As long as it's not a salvage/rebuilt title, you should be good.