Igor911

Just went to drop off my car at the dealer today for the TSB and was sent back home because apparently the parts are on a National Backorder

itsryanftw

iTrader: (2)

Yup, I dropped off my car on April 25th, and they won't have all the necessary parts at the dealership until May 13-14.

raven37

I also just dropped off my car this morning for the TSB. I have no clue when it will be ready, but they gave me an RDX as a loaner. I shall make use of this time and do all of my home depot and IKEA trips while I have the SUV. Good luck to everyone doing the TSB. Fingers crossed.

Juiced_Acura_Kidd

Just got a call from my service rep...they fixed the 3rd gear and all the gears flow smoothly but guess what....they can't get it into reverse!!! WTF!!! The funny thing is that I warned them about this and told them other dealerships had messed up on this. Now they have to take the whole thing apart again. They have had my car for 10 days now.

Igor911

Maybe Acura just says to the public that the parts are on "backorder" because they cannot seem to figure out the reverse issue w/ the new parts???

Manual Transmission

HMMmmmmm........ maybe I've better not buy an new '08 TL Type-S. My '06 TL 6MT lease will expire this Oct. I don't want to go through 3rd gear mess again. I expect no headache me as a customer. Aren't the '08 model have this issue already take care of from the factory??????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????

Manual Transmission

I expect no more bull sh#t.......

evanj5

Going into reverse is messed up for me too. WTF. Anyways it seems to have gotten better with more usage.... strange.

The first week on cold starts getting into reverse was very difficult, now i dont really have a problem getting into reverse at all.

mbarb17

No reverse after TSB strikes again...I dropped my '05 off Tuesday to have the TSB done and was supposed to get it back today. I called this morning to check the status and they said they were putting it back together and I should be all set to pick it up later in the day. I asked them to check reverse because I had read about problems with it after the transmission is taken apart. Got a call back this afternoon saying that 1 - 6 work great BUT it only goes into Reverse less then half of the time. They have a call in to Acura about it and are supposed to get back to me early next week. Loaner for the weekend it is...Glad I have my motorcycle for fun driving...: )

lowendz

Well, i just went in last monday to get my car done for the B1 service, i had mentioned about the 3rd gear issue briefly. When i got the car back, they had replace the MT fluid and the car shifts flawlessly! it took about 100km to notice the difference, no more 3rd gear issue since!

evanj5

that fix only lasts about a month

Igor911

True, I've had it done 3 times already

paliknight

so any Type S owners with this problem? and i dont understand how acura can mass produce a vehicle with a defective transmission? i would have expected this problem to occur in a hyundai maybe, not an acura.

Mike 06 TL

IMHO you guys are freakin crazy for letting the dealer rip into your tranny to fix this when GM fluid does the trick. Case in point, how many stories are we hearing about them screwing up reverse. Any time you crack open a gearbox you have a chance to create another problem.

I wouldn't do this TSB if they paid me. I'm 45K+ miles on the GM fix.

The Dougler

iTrader: (1)

+1 I have a friend that works for Honda and he said that so far this "fix" has returned nothing but problems. GM FTW.

Igor911

I have a 07 TL-S

ezshift5

........45,000 miles with the GM goo says it all.

....ez....

Mike 06 TL

...and actually that's on the same GM fluid for those miles. I've been meaning to change it out for the past few months but haven't had time. Still shifts smooth like butter.

mike03a3

Same here - upshifts only. At least until I switched to the GMSFM fluid. Now it shifts like it should all the time. Hopefully, it'll stay that way since I'm not all that excited about having the local wrenches taking my car that far apart. They have enough problems fixing simple issues.

junktionfet

Weeeee! Sounds like fun! My car is going in for surgery soon, so we'll see how it turns out.

powerflow

I swapped to the GM SM fluid recently. Slight, very intermittent 3rd gear issue completely gone. Overall shifting movements noticeably smoothed out a little. Just at comparing the price and performance seems like the OE MTF-II is not much of a quality fluid.

BTW, the GM SM bottle clearly states it is approved on over 1500 transmissions.

Excelon

That could be the issue with some of these people who get nothing from the dealer about this TSB. I had problems shifting from any gear I tried, 2/3 4/3 6/3.. it didn't matter, I could reproduce it.

On a side note, I have had virtually no probs since getting my 3rd gear set replaced. Shifts are much better, and reverse works. I will be changing my fluid for the hell of it.

Juiced_Acura_Kidd

Just got my car back today after 2 weeks in the dealership. The reason it did not go into reverse is bc they put the reverse washer in upside down. What a stupid and costly mistake. They had to take out the entire transmission to fix this which literally prob took 2 seconds. And the funny thing, I told them to be careful and watch out for the reverse gear. Oh well. Car feels like its brand new again. No problems.

ezshift5

........which fluid will you plan on using?

ez....

mbarb17

Just got mine back from the dealer...They have fixed reverse (which they had told me Friday was giving them problems) and 3rd gear seems to be working like all the other gears now. What they said would take two days took them a week, but they made sure everything was right before giving it back so I am happy. I'll post an update after I've driven it some more but initial signs say 3rd Gear TSB worked.

Excelon

Going to go with the Amsoil fluid.

Igor911

any updates on those whom had the TSB performed?

Juiced_Acura_Kidd

Yea...look at my post. What else do you want to know??

steetbach

I would like to use my first post to thank all the people who have posted valuable information on this and other threads about the 3rd gear issue. What I've learned here made me more knowledgeable about transmissions and gear sets then I would have had I not discovered this site. I had the 3rd gear TSB done. It took 8 days for my dealership to complete the job. They replaced the 3rd gear set, then the car would not go into reverse then the transmission just didn't feel right to them... and so on it went. As much as I was ready to criticize Acura ,I really can't .In that 8 day period, my dealership gave me a brand new TL loaner,called me every day as to the status of the car,apologized profusely that it was taking so long and didn't charge me for the oil change and wheel alignment that I also asked them to do. Shifting is as smooth as silk on my 07 TL-S now. In my case,Acura stood behind their product as I would expect them to. Hopefully the 3rd gear issue is closed for me.

mbarb17

I haven't driven my TL much since having the TSB done due to nice weather and a shiny red motorcycle in my garage. Its supposed to be rainy here all week though, so I am guessing I will put more miles on the TL this week. As of now though, this is my assessment.

I have not had any problems with any of the gears since I had the TSB done...I still feel a slight "notch" about halfway into 3rd, but it slides right past the notch. I'm not sure how to describe it other then it still feels like there is a slight hesitation. It used to be that I had to push through the hesitation to get it in gear, now it slides right in, but I still feel something.

My assessment at this point is the TSB was definitely worth doing.

Igor911

Mine is at the dealer now waiting for this to be performed.

waffles

I had the TSB performed about 4 weeks ago and have driven the car essentially daily. They had the car for 2 days, just as they said they would. They also replaced the transmission fluid with the newer Honda stuff. Obvious third gear issues for me were very intermittent, happening only once or twice weekly. However, that being said I had been driving thr car differently the past few months being very gentle with 2/3 shift, limiting enjoyment of driving the car. I still find myself consciously thinking about 2/3 shift but I have not had any problems since the TSB, and I have been slowly getting back to more agressive shifting/driving. Maybe three times over the past month I noted a slight notchiness when 2/3 shift, but no problems engaging 3rd. I'll let you know how things progress. Of course maybe things are better after TSB because they also changed the fluid so we'll have to see if problems come back. No problems whatosever with the service. I guess if you can't trust your dealership to capably take apart and reassemble a trasnmission on a car they sell, then you should look elsewhere.

Mike 06 TL

My problem with that is your average local Acura dealer typically doesn't have techs experienced in Acura specific MT teardown. How many MT cars do they actually see in a year? We know MT TL's make up a small percentage of overall sales. Maybe boosted somewhat in 2007 with the addition of the TL-S but still not huge. I'm afraid these guys simply do not know what they're doing.

I would say your average Honda dealer has more qualified techs because they see more MT civics, etc.

Excelon

The MT from honda/acura are virtually the same. If the dealer doesn't know their product then you definately are in trouble. At any rate, if they mess it up they still have to fix it or replace it. What is there really to lose? If it shifts poorly now and does not make you happy, not much of a win keeping it broken for fear of dealer work.

My car still functions perfectly since getting my 3rd gear set changed. Shifts are what they should be, no engagment problems at all. It was definately worth the fix.

For those having dealership issues, take a copy of the TSB with you. I did and didn't even get questioned about it. The person I dealt with at the counter didn't know it existed until i showed it to him. Of course his manager confirmed this once I showed the proof. I had sent a friend to the same dealer, he has an 06 TL with the same prob, and got the brush off until he showed them the TSB I had printed for him. His car is now being fixed for the new 3rd gear set. Take the Acura proof with you.

Igor911

UPDATE:

Just got a call from the dealer....

They claim that they cannot put the car into reverse

itsryanftw

iTrader: (2)

I just got my car back today, and I'm very happy!!! The issue with the 3rd gear is no longer there, and my reverse works fine as well. According to the tech, my dealership has done a ton of these TSBs for the RSX, so the TL was no new thing for them. I've put my car through all the gears, and it feels like it should.

Now I can't wait for my ATLP quads to come so I can drive this thing more aggressively without the fear of a 3rd gear pop out.

Zed's TL

I have NEVER had this problem. It sometimes gets well below zero degrees here in Toronto and I have never had a problem with my 3rd gear. I am very gentle on my car. Has anyone noticed any correlation between 3rd gear failures and how hard they drive their car or the build date? My car was built in July 2004 for delivery to Canada. Are there any Canadians with this problem. Given our climate, we should have a high rate of these failures. Will Honda/Acura Canada honour this TSB?

SouthernBoy

My '04 TL was also built in July 2004 and purchased by me on July 17, two days after it had arrived on the lot.

And like you, I have never had one bit of problem with my manual transmission or the clutch assembly. Everything works as one would expect it to work, which is to say.. flawless.

pokypig

I have called three dealerships in the SD area. Two of them hadn't even heard about the TSB and the other one said they have not worked on a single 3rd gen. MT. I'm still looking for a dealership that has done this before, or I'll wait until one nearby me has done a few.

I refuse to go to a dealership that will guess and check to fix the problem. Sure they "have" to fix it, but do you really want to deal with that crap? I have them telling me the rattle in my steering wheel is normal operation. What am I to do if they tell me some side effect of them "fixing" my third gear is "normal" operation? I have to file a complaint and waste my time and sanity getting it fixed.

Personally I will wait another 4-6 months, or long enough that the/a dealership near me has done it several times. I do agree that fear of the dealership screwing it up is no reason to not get it done, but not at the risk of being their first.

The Dougler

iTrader: (1)

I had this problem on my 05, It was really annoying when the weather got below 0c. I don't drive my car hard at all, in town I pretty much always shift at 3k rpm, never launch it. Only time it gets revv'ed up is the occasional WOT getting onto the highway. I choose to replace my MTF with GMSFM and it cleared it up instantly. The day after I did it, it was -26c the car sat over night and there was no notice of the problem in the morning. I consider it fixed now.

FWIW my brother has a 07 TL-S and he reports the same 3rd gear issues. I think you just got lucky with your car.