luminous-TL

Hi, just want to introduce myself first as I'm new here and a soon-to-be-TL-owner. I'm from Toronto (Canada)

I'm about to get a 2004 TL AT w/ Nav. It has 180,000 km but overall its very clean and I'm trading my G35C (6spd w/ Brembo) for it.

I needed something more practical and slightly better on gas. TL is one of the few sedans I liked.

Anyhow, I would like to know what are some common issues I should inspect on the TL when I go check it out. I've briefly read over some threads and notice the Auto-tranny can be bad on some early 04s. Is there a way for me to check the production date of the car? Like a sticker on it? Or is there a set of VINs I should avoid since I know VIN can indicate their production date on some models.

Another thing I notice is the bushing on the LCA which goes bad easily and would lead to the replacement of the LCA as well.

Any other issues I should look into?

Last but not least, where can I get mods for the TL?
I think my first few mods would be adding:

Yellow fogs, lip kit.

If budget still allows me, I will get TL-S taillights, smoked rear side-markers, and front grilles.

Thank you guys!

SouthernBoy

Congrats, but man.. going from a manual to an automatic is going to be tough. Do you think you'll miss rowing your own gears?

There is a build plate on the inside of the driver's door frame which give pertinent info and the month and year when the car was built is there, too. My '04 is a manual and my '05 is an automatic, neither of which has ever had any tranny problems at all. Both have Nav which has also been flawless and does a lot more than show pretty little road map pictures.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

I'm starting to wish I had been able to get NAV. Ha ha...congrats on your purchase!

With the auto transmission, I would say first thing would be a transmission fluid change...
Other than that...if you google acurazine and issues/problems with 3G TL, you'll find most of the gripes most have had with theirs.

Have a professional mechanic check it out before signing for it and drive it VERY critically!

CdTriX

hey luminous,

since you are trading in, you're obviously doing it at an acura dealership right?

with the 04 (i have an 05 non-navi)

we canadians don't get much support on this site due to the large american base.

we do not have fog lights. acura decided to shaft us and make our supposidly built in fog lights, DRLs.

i live in oakville and i cant see the road when it rains. there are posts out there that say 03-05 accord sedan fogs will sorta fit with a lot of modifcation in our bumper. I want fogs and that might be the only way around to it.

lips, i've been lurking on the site for a while and i think we have 3 options..

front lips:
base lip ( i've seen 1 picture, cannot confirm)
type s lip
aspec lip

for some reason it's hard to find info on front lips unless it's the ronjon bumper which EVERYONE has. i want to get one too (front lip) but there's just no info on it.

the one problem i have with teh azine tl forum is the elitest attitude... i asked about rotas and got flamed by typical haters... everyone rolls around on 19s with ridiculous tire sizes and etc... i just want a decent 17 inch rim replacement so i can have summer and winter rims.. but got flamed for wanting 17s...

luminous-TL

SouthernBoy: Thanks for the response to where I can find the built date and stuff. Yeah, my largest concern is, would I be able to go back to auto after driven manual all my life (6ish years), even when I rent a car, I opt for a manual. However, having navi will be a big PLUS since it makes the car more high-end and looks nicer.

Rockstar143: Yeah, I will have it inspect by my mechanic first to be on the safe side. But what do you mean by driving it "very critically"? To be honest, I've never own a sedan in my life and never driven a mid-size sedan in my life other than a 4-door accord (which is comparable to the TSX instead). My current car is a 03 G35C and my previous car was an S2000, so you can imagine my driving habit (I don't drive recklessly like zooming in/out of lanes or speed 20 over, but I do take-off hard sometimes and make fast turns). So the TL cannot handle anything close to those driving habit?

CdTriX: So I have to get the Ranjon bumper in order to have wider choice of Lips? The fogs will make the front look more complete, without the fogs, it looks odd to me. I've seen many TLs in GTA with fogs though, are they later years of TL or aftermarket bumper and fogs?