Cuddy Bang

piggylover1985-"If it cost you $2,500 for everything the lifetime warranty will cost $750 on top, so it will cost $3,250. For some might not need it, but for our "super reliable" transmission, it's nice to have if you are keeping the car for sometime."

Wow $3250 is alot of cash to drop on a rebuild for a 2000 TL, aamco didnt mention that part to me. I might as well put in a 6mt if im gonna have to spend that much $. It sounds like they're charging me for the rebuild and the warranty seperately if what you say is true in the california aamco's. I'll double check with them tomorrow but if that's the case i should just go with J&K if the lifetime warranty agreement looks good. Dang i really hope that's not the case, i was expecting to pay around $2800 at aamco after taxes and fees. I'll report back on what aamco tells me about the final price and which place i choose to rebuild my transmission for me . Thx for the heads up piggylover.

01tl4tl

its ALL about the fine print
Extended (or lifetime) warranty is often extra charge, thats how they get you!
Then you have to perform service with them every year or whatnot

remember aam is a chain store- with corp to answer to on jobs and additional repairs and warranties,, all expected to be sold up and up and up

tlzib

Im thinking of going with a honda oddy tranny but curious as what you guys do with the junked one?

01tl4tl

give it to a trans shop for parts or junkyard it and let it become scrap metal

piggylover1985

If you dicide to go to aamco(all Acura must come out) you might want to talk to the owner if possible, he owns the shop, he can give you a break. Don't just talk to the CSM as he gets commission out of the paying job, the more money job the bigger his paycheck, more than likely he will not give you good break at all. The best deal is (keep this between us) to ask for a complete price. A complete price is an average price without open up your tranny. Don't think that your tranny is very clean, it should be cheaper than the complete price. They will throw in something to jack up the price, trust me. But with the complete price they can't jack it up.

DaveG

Well I think I am soon to join the third tranny club. I have a 2002 Type S that I purchased used in Jan. 2004. It had 77k km on it (I'm in Canada) and had the original tranny replaced sometime in 2003 under warranty at 56,000 km. I had the oil jet recall done when I got the letter.

Since then I have only noticed some minor slippage a year or two ago and had to replace the 4th clutch pressure switch 2 years ago for a CEL but otherwise no tranny problems. I was trying to change the trans fluid every 24k km but the last time on record was 216k km and now I have just over 290k. I had the fluid drained and filled 2 weeks ago at my mechanic (not the dealer). Somehow I have the feeling this was the start of the problem.

All was well until this past weekend, when it started to jerk into second gear from first and into reverse. Also when at highway speed, the VSA warning lights and CEL came on with code P0740. The next day it started to slip in all gear changes and to jerk and bang in and out of gear when driving around town. It has also gone into limp mode stuck in 2nd or 3rd gear. This happens only when warmed up. It is okay when cold. Took it to the mechanic and he replaced the torque converter clutch solenoid valve. He said he test drove it and everything was fine. But apparently not long enough to warm it up as it started up again immediately when I drove it home.

I'm taking it back to the mechanic tomorrow with fingers crossed so he can do more testing. But I'm afraid it is new tranny time. I got a ballpark price of $2500-3000 from a local rebuilder who comes highly recommended and told me he does a lot of upgrades to resolve the problems with this tranny such as replacing the torque converter, new clutch packs and other things. I didn't even call the dealer as I'm sure with my mileage they would do nothing and I haven't been there for service since it hit 225k km. But I guess I can't complain getting almost 240k km (150k miles) out of this tranny.

Just wanted to tell my story and get opinions on if there is any chance it's not a tranny failure. I'll update on what happens tomorrow.

piggylover1985

Replacing just the lockup control solenoid valve wouldn't help if your torque converter failed to function properly, that's what sound's like. When the torque converter failed, the transmission is containminate with clutch material so it is pretty much need a rebuild.

01tl4tl

did the oil change place use acura atf or dextron 3 like many other cars take, but its death to gen2 trans--
as noted in the owner book- if ANY dex3 is added `in an emergency top off` it MUST be flushed out with the 3x3 method-
thats the only time the gen2 book calls for the 3x3

if a shop put the wrong fluid in a TL- they owe you a trans

DaveG

Thanks piggylover, that's logical. I'll see what they say today.

They did use Honda atf fluid and I have had the fluid changed there before with no issues, so I have no reason to doubt it was done properly.

DaveG

Well it's now in the tranny shop for a rebuild. They had another TL on the hoist already... Fingers crossed for a good one.

piggylover1985

And i also have 2 TL in the shop Aamco (all Acura must come out) lol

Cuddy Bang

Sorry it has taken me so long to let you guys know what happened with my lifetime warranty situation but piggylover1985 and russian dude were right about aamco charging extra for the lifetime warranty, over the phone they gave me a rough estimate of about $2500 and i asked the manager if that includes the lifetime warranty and he said yes, i even went in the next day before i brought my car in just to make sure i understood what he said about the lifetime warranty being $2500 and the manager told me the same thing "$2500 for a complete rebuild and that will include the life time warranty, bring in the car as soon as you can so we can check it out". That same day i called my AAA and got my car towed there. I get a call the next day from aamco saying the same thing acura and another shop already told me which was " the fluid is very dark and smells burnt and it will need a complete rebuild for sure, come on in when you have time so we can talk prices", i go in right away and spoke to the same guy i has been dealing with, he showed me a paper with my 3 options on it, the first was to get a rebuild w/ a basic 1yr/12k warranty for $2100, second option was a rebuild with a 3yr/36k warranty for around $3500 and the last option was the rebuild with the lifetime warranty for $5300 . I was pissed because he could of just told me that over the phone instead of having me waste my time and waste 2 of my 4 AAA tows i get every year. I got my keys from that idiot and called my tow truck (again) and got the f**k outa there.


I towed my 00TL to J&K in daly city and they told me the turn around time will be anywere from a week to a week and a half. J&K called me a week later telling me that my car was ready, i pick up my tl and and piad they guy. I get on the freeway back to S.F. and everything felt fine up until i get off of the freeway and get to a red light. Everytime the car shifts from first to second gear it shudders for a sec or two then finally shifts into 2nd gear kinda hard. The harder i accelerate in first gear the harder it will shift into second gear. I go home and park my car in my garage waiting for the next day to take it back to j&k, the next day i get in my car and back it out of my garage, i seen a small puddle of fresh tranny fluid on my garage floor. I checked my fluid level and it was overfilled by almost an inch. I took the car back to them right away and the boss over at j&k took the tl for a test drive and told me "yes there sure is a problem from 1st to 2nd gear and were gonna have to take the tranny out of the vehicle and see wuts wrong on the inside, don't worry about a thing your covered with the lifetime warranty". He said there gonna need another week with the car, It's been almost 3 weeks total and they keep telling me things like "1 more day, 3 more days, blah blah blah". I don't know why its taking them so long, i called them yesterday again to see whats really going on and he told me something about im gonna need a whole new core because there is too much play after they put in the driveshaft and that 1 out of 10 tranny's will get that problem. It's friday today and they promised i'll have my car back by monday. I hope i get my car back from them on monday im tired of waiting. I'll report back once i get my car, wish me luck because with my car i really can use it.

DaveG

Sorry to hear of your bad luck Cuddy Bang. I hope mine goes better. It's at Top Quality Transmission in Hamilton, ON in case anyone's close by. Warranty is 1year/20k km on the rebuild. They said three days turnaround and will provide a rental car next week.

russianDude

that sucks, many shops have no idea what they are doing, they rebuild transmissions for so many different car and models, that they simply have no experience dealing with specific transmissions.
3500 from Aamco with 3/36K is outrageous, I got quoted with 3400 from my acura dealer (without ECU, same would be from Acura).

piggylover1985

I'm sorry to hear that man. It shoudn't cost you that much for the extended warranty, usually less than $3,500 for lifetime. They're on crack or something. Both of the TL in my shop got pick up already. Hope that they will last them a long while. J&K doesn't sound to good there either. I been rebuilt for at least a couple hundreds of Honda/Acura 5sp auto. I screwed up a few of them when i first started years ago,but never take me more than 1 week to fix the problem. It will take me about 1 day for everything,completely tear it down 1-1/2 hr. Call the customer for pricing except if it's a complete price job. When the customer agreed to authorize the job. Then we will order parts.Dirty parts will go through hot parts washer machine 1hr. Building time about 4hrs. Took the floor tech about 2hrs to pull the tranny, and about 3-4hr max to install it. So about 2 days for a complete job if the shop isn't too busy. But normally the customer will have their car back in about 3 days. But never 3 weeks unless the customer have no money to pay for the job. Then they can pay "overtime" for it. We keep the car until the job is paid in full amount.

piggylover1985

What do they mean by "too much play after they put in the drive shaft" ? I assumed it means the axle has too much play maybe ? If it is than more than likely the differential bearings were damaged, or the splines of the spider gears in the differential was worn out( less likely). They should have it check from the 1st time they open it up. They can buy a complete diff separate. If they need a core that mean they screwed up something big and your original tranny they they just rebuilt was FUBAR (F* up beyond all repair)
For them to overfilled that much causing the fluid came out the breather after just 1st trip is not right. Somebody should test drive the car after rebuilt, making sure that the complain is fixed, clear codes, check for leaks and fluid level. Wipe out all the finger print the they put on the car before they give it to the customer.

01tl4tl

CB did you verify they had experience with a currently employed there tech- doing Gen2 trans rebuilds?

easy to eff up first time doing a simple trans let alone one of these
Sounds like they tried to shortcut somewhere- not replace parts that needed it, then the overfill didnt help, now they are screwed, the tech is out sick or just hates these jobs...put it together again and broke down on test drive for them,,rebuild it again..

lifetime warranty- hahahahahaha-as long as the company is under same ownership its valid
want to know how many shops get sold and keep the biz name and customer base in the deal

01tl4tl

there is a big differance between slight overfill with 5 qts in the engine oil
but the trans holds 7.3 iirc (piggy?) and if the shop kid gets handed 8 qts- thats what he puts in

wipe the fingerprints off!!- where do you find a shop that still does that- besides owner on site and does the test drives type place

01tl4tl

did they use Honda ATF??

dudeinaTL

iTrader: (1)

When I got my TL rebuilt, turnaround was about 2 1/2 days. Dropped it off early Monday morning, picked it up Wednesday afternoon. The guy doing the rebuild said they get a lot of Accords that have the same problem and that he could do a rebuild with his eyes closed - consoled me in a way.

But the tranny was still overfilled when I was checking fluid condition weeks later.

piggylover1985

If he can rebuild a transmission with his eyes closed then he's too good. Got me beat.

TL3.2000

I bought a used 2000 TL with 109k miles on it and found out the transmission was replaced last year in 2009. I did not know anything about the transmission problems when I bought the car but knowing it was replaced made me feel better about it but I see that many of you replace the transmission multiple times and it scares me. I saw on Wikipedia (all reliability issues of credibility aside) it said that transmissions replaced after 2005 have remedied the situation...is this in fact true? I have noticed around 30-35 mph it will kind of hesitate a little bit, and when I put it in reverse it will go forward a bit if the gas isn't pressed immediately which I have never dealt with before with other cars. Should I start to worry?

p.diddy

iTrader: (3)

hell no.

01tl4tl

in 05 there was a change made internally to the trans case-
moved the external oil jet kit that was installed under recall to inside the case now

allegedly has improved oil passages for better cooling of the clutch packs
BUT
it still doesnt have enough cooling flow to those areas-or the trans wouldnt have the same failure~
doesnt matter if you add an oil cooler or anything else

keep the fluid changed if its a rebuilt and enjoy

not every trans will fail- if they did it would have been a recall not a court ordered extended warranty
Its best not to come on azine and say how great your trans is with 100xxxxx miles and never a prob...thats the death curse for the trans

01tl4tl

2 seconds delay from N till Drive engages at idle is perfectly normal for the TL
Keep your foot on the brake so the car is not going in the opposite direction of gear selected
Sometimes a slight blip of throttle will speed engagement

ck the motor mounts- front and rear are fluid filled and some years vacuum boosted! if that fails it causes an engine miss and other problems which may seem to be transmission

TL3.2000

thanks 01tl4tl. how often should I change the tranny fluid? bout as often as the motor oil?

I'm gonna call the previous owners to see under what condition they changed the transmission (like if it failed or they did it just to do it)

01tl4tl

99 percent chance it failed and was covered under the special warranty
No one replaces a trans just for fun~
other 1 percent got screwed and went to aamcoooooooooooooooo

once a year/15kmiles is good to do a 3 qt change--takes 3.2~ so buy 4 qts and refill carefully

01tl4tl

register with acura as owner 1-800-382-2238x5
they can tell you if it was a warranty job on the trans

there are a few recalls so ask if those apply to your car
need VIN

TL3.2000

the previous owners were "well off" to say the least, my guess on why they changed it was because they knew of the recall and did it along with the timing belt and water pump before they got rid of it but i'm gonna find out today the whole story.

DaveG

Well I went by the shop today and it seems to be progressing well. All the pieces were laid out on the workbench. Wow,what a mess of parts. The owner said it was in bad shape and will be closer to the $3000 with all the new parts. I asked what the weak point is and he said the torque converter. He puts in a stronger aftermarket unit not from Honda so hope that will help. The rebuild should be done tomorrow and back in the car Wed.

To those worried about minor slips and stuff don't worry. You will know when it's really done, it won't be drivable. Just keep driving as long as you can. Mine lasted a long time for a second tranny replaced in 2003 or so.

Cuddy Bang

01tl4tl"CB did you verify they had experience with a currently employed there tech- doing Gen2 trans rebuilds?"

No i didn't ask them but i should of but it didn't really matter because of the lifetime warranty, if it breaks they have to fix it over and over until they get it right.

01tl4tl"did they use Honda ATF??"

Yeah they did use honda atf, i asked them before i took my car in what kind of fluid do they use for my car and he told me Honda ATF only for 2nd gen TL.

DaveG"Well I went by the shop today and it seems to be progressing well. All the pieces were laid out on the workbench. Wow,what a mess of parts. The owner said it was in bad shape and will be closer to the $3000 with all the new parts. I asked what the weak point is and he said the torque converter. He puts in a stronger aftermarket unit not from Honda so hope that will help. The rebuild should be done tomorrow and back in the car Wed".

When i was shopping around for a shop to rebuild my tranny at least 2 or 3 shops told me the same thing about the torque converter being the weak link in the chain. One shop even told me the after market one that they use is a 3 piece torque convertor not a one piece (or vice versa), not really sure if that's true or not im just restating what they had told me. Are the stock torque convertors garbage ??

Got my car back FINALLY monday afternoon, everything is super smooth now and the car has most of it's original kick back in it like when it had the original ecu and tranny (after 2nd ecu and tranny were put in by the dealership the car didn't have the same power anymore). They told me they had to put in a new core/casing because my original had a hair line crack in it or something. A few things were different like the sound that my car makes when it starts, it use to sound like every other TL i have came across when you start it but now after the rebuild it sounds like it has a different starter in it and has a different and quiter sound to it, i don't really care about that anyways because it does sound kinda cool, I can't really describe the sound with words sorry. When i first picked the car up from J&K Professional Auto Repair a few weeks ago everytime i shifted the car from D to N the car would jerk a lil and can be felt through out the car, kinda like one of the mounts wasn't tightened or something, well thats been fixed this time around and i didn't even mention anything about that to them, and the last thing thats different is first and second gear dont feel sluggish anymore like they did the first time i picked the car up from them. Everything is smooth, powerful, and very responsive like it should be . I can feel all the power through all the gears now and don't have to give the car alot of gas to get it to go fast. I checked the fluid level and it is slightly over filled by 1/4 inch, i'll have them take some out at my next oil change interval, they detailed my whole car and even used touch up paint on all the little chips and scratches (im guessing because they had my car for 3 weeks and knew that was a long time to have someones car). When i shift it from P to R or N to D the gear engages really fast, no longer than a second or two and the best part is the piece of mind i have now about tranny problems with my car, i don't have to worry about that anymore thanx to the lifetime warranty. As long as that shop stays in business i'll have my lifetime warranty by my side, so to anybody that lives in the San Francisco bay area/central California and owns a 2nd gen TL and are tired of rebuilding your tranny over and over just go to J&K for a lifetime warranty $2800 out the door just be patient because it might take them up to a few weeks to get the job done but when they do get it done it will drive like new and you will never have to stress about your tranny again, just get the fluid changed every 15k and save your receipt from the shop that changes the fluid for you so you don't void your warranty, also make sure the shop states on the receipt that they used GENUINE HONDA ATF-Z1 FLUID. I'm really just hella happy to finally be behind the wheel of my own car again after so long, it's a good feeling , thanx for helping me out and giving me opinions everybody i really appreciate it and i hope this lifetime warranty i found helps people that own 2nd gen TL's. . Don't go to scAAMCO because they charge $5300 for a rebuild with a life time warranty :thumbsdow.

01tl4tl

ck the fluid after a 15 minute freeway cruise- get off freeway and quickly park in safe level spot off the road
put trans in park
turn engine OFF- this is opposite most cars
remove trans dipstick- wipe clean with rag- insert fully- remove and read
anywhere BETWEEN the dots is cool
halfway being about right after 15 minutes
Level indicated will change with temp
cking after in town stop and go will cause it to read high

DO NOT WAIT- ck the level and if wrong, go back today-too much fluid is bad- warranty covered or not~
its easy for them to open the drain plug for a few seconds to correct the level

DaveG

Congrats on getting your car back Cuddy Bang! Good to hear it finally worked out for you.

The aftermarket torque converter this shop uses looks thicker and uses kevlar clutch plates that should not break down like the regular one. He said a major cause of failure is the clutch plate breaking up and the pieces filling up all the screens leading to a general mess. Not sure how true all this is, just repeating what the shop owner told me. My failure was sudden so it makes sense that something just suddenly went.

Severin

The family friend who rebuilt mine said the same thing about the stock torque converter and installed a beefier aftermarket one as well.

piggylover1985

Good to hear that you got the car back and happy with the result CB.

DaveG

Yay, got my TL back today and everything is smooth and like new. Hopefully it will hold up, I'm starting a 1,000km trip this Sunday for holidays.

piggylover1985

How many miles/kilometers does your your have ?

DaveG

It's approaching 291,000 km (~181,000 miles) now so getting up there. I'll probably keep it for another 100k km if it lasts that long and get rid of it. Like I put in my sig the first tranny was replaced at 56k by the first owner before I bought it.

LTRinENC

I have a 99 TL with 130K miles. Several nights ago the dreaded combination of the check engine and TCS lights came on. When I got home I did a quick search of the 2nd gen forum and saw the bad news. Just to make sure, I went to my mechanic who confirmed that it is a transmission failure - code 740.

I've done a bit of shopping and found that I have 2 options. A rebuilt transmission, which was quoted in the $1,500 to $3,000 range with a 2 year warranty. Or a refurbished transmission, which was quoted @ $3,800 with a 3 year warranty. Are there any strong feelings regarding a rebuilt tranny vs. a refurbished tranny?

Lastly, I live in the greater San Diego area and would appreciate any referrals re a good shop to do the work.

Thanks!

01tl4tl

what the shops are doing on each???- get a written list so you can compare

shops will quote low price,, then get the trans apart and add 700