I have an 05 TL - AT. The dealership has replaced the transmission twice before for whine. The first time the Tech drove it and heard that sound, he clearly said, "I have never heard that sound before in my life." Now this transmission has a bad whine, and the Service Director as well as Acura Client Services is saying, "Transmission (gear) whine is a normal characteristic of the TL."

At the end of my conversation with ACS, the case manager said, "I'm going to call you after you pick up your car to follow up, and make sure that the car is operating as it was designed to." So I asked, "Was it designed to have a transmission whine?" He said "No. and that he wasn't going to discuss this issue any further."

What's everyone's opinion on this? Thanks for your input!

 

well after replacing it twice I can see why they are a bit concerned to change it again.

if I were a bettin man I would say that its your A/C compressor or alternator.

does it whine just sitting there at idle, or when you rev the gas in neutral?

sounds to me like they have their head up their ass and need to troubleshoot this further

 

It whines in the first 3 gears, the pitch of the whine goes along with engine speed. It doesn't whine when i rev in neutral, or at least I don't think it does. They replaced the tranny at 9k and 32k, and now I'm at 50k.

AND I agree... they have their head way too far up there.

 

It'd be funny if it were just a belt...I would hope they aren't THAT clueless though

 

first thing I hope they gave you a warranty for each time they replaced that tranny... secondly they really must have trannys laying around to just replaced them twice without actually looking into other areas... thirdly have they asked you if you'd like the trade the car in for something else....? cuz by that point I would insist on a bang up deal to get a type s heavily discounted

 

What are the odds of 1 car getting 3 bad transmissions, with the SAME SYMPTOM, in a row (Factory, 9k, 32k)?


I'm guessing between slim and none.

 

first thing I hope they gave you a warranty for each time they replaced that tranny...

-Nope... He said that once my factory warranty is up, nothing is covered anymore.


What are the odds of 1 car getting 3 bad transmissions, with the SAME SYMPTOM, in a row (Factory, 9k, 32k)?

-Oh, and one time when they replaced the transmission, I went away for a week and came back, drove the car and the tranny was slipping going from 2nd to 3rd. So make that 4 Transmissions!!

 

just eat it and get rid of the car...end of story...its an 05 so you should get a decent trade in price...

 

Would make me wonder if they even replaced the transmission at all. If it is the transmission thats crapping the bed, that is, the odds of having 3-4 new transmissions do the same exact problem are as slim as winning the lottery. Like trancemission said, it sounds like an alternator problem to me. And if it isn't, I would ask to see some of the install of the new tranny to make sure they're not just sitting around in your car playing with buttons.

 

lemon law?

 

Like trancemission said, I would suspect the whine was from something else, and I would ditch that dealer service department and try another one.

Heck, I'd run to a Honda dealership if there is not another Acura dealership in some reasonable distance.

 

shot in the dark...the whine is definitely not coming from the speakers?

once in a while, when i'm talking on BT HFL, i get feedback through the speakers that sounds like a whine and matches engine revs...

 

if in this case, then the mechanics at that acura must be idiots not to figure this out.

 

Its not your tranny... Seems as though its an alternator whine.

Even when your in neutral there is not strain put on your alternator, but once your in drive, then thats when stress hits the alternator too.

 

Why not take it to another dealership for a second or third opinion?

 

It's been to 4 dealerships for this issue. 2 of them say its transmission, 2 of them say it's normal.


Here's the sequence...
Dealership 1: replaced the tranny.
Went back to them after 8k miles because the whine came back, they said we recommend you go to a diff dealership to have it looked at.

Dealership 2: "Nope, that's a normal characteristic of the car."

tried to live with it for a while, until it really got annoying, so went to dealership 3

Dealership 3: "I have never heard that noise before on a car," Shop Foreman. Replaced the transmission. I picked up the car, drove it home, seemed ok, no problems. I went away for a week and came back, started driving the car and it was slipping between 2nd and 3rd gear. went back to dealership 3, they replaced that transmission. There were some other issues that were addressed then, and the service rep at that dealership was a B****. She just didn't want to put any effort into her job at all. Never returned phone calls/messages.

A couple of months later, whine came back!

Took it to dealership 4: "That's a normal sound." -Shop Foreman
"It's normal, but drive it around for a little while longer. If the whine
gets worse or changes, come back and we'll take a look at it
again." -Service Director

8-10k miles later I returned to them, they gave me the same answer "The transmission "Gear" whine is a normal characteristic of the TL. It's just something that you're going to have to deal with. All of the TL's do it." -Service Director, as well as ACS Case Manager

At the end of my conversation with the case manager he said, "I will call you back after you pick up your car to follow up and make sure that it is performing like it was designed to." I replied, "Was it designed to have a transmission whine?"

His answer was "No, but did it have that whine when you first drove the car?"

I said, "no, but that doesn't matter, because it wasn't designed to have a transmission whine, so it shouldn't have it, wether it's at 5 miles or 25k miles."

He said, "well it's a normal characteristic of the TL, most of the TLs have it, and it's just something that your going to have to live with."

 

Like somebody else mentioned, check to see if its coming from your speakers.

Do you have an after market stereo system installed? You'll get a whine from the alternator that matches engine revs through your speakers if your amplifier (even the one in your factory head unit) has a bad ground.

 

maybe you have a supercharger and just dont know about it lol

 

ok so my 03 tls sounds like it whinds up like it has a supercharger as well. bad tranny? im not sure if it was ever replaced

 

my 06 Automatic started to develop some sort of a whine in the two months before I traded it. I only noticed it on deceleration though, and I could feel the vibrations of it through the shifter if I happened to be holding onto it. It was slight, but enough that I noticed it.....though I am extremely aware of driveline noises after growing up working in the familys transmission buisness. I never investigated it further....it could have been a wheel bearing, it seemed to have that pitch.

You should try and locate someone that has chassis earmuffs. You put a pickup on say the transmission or close to the wheel bearing and take it for a test drive, it will tell you where the noise is coming from

 

I have the exact problem on a 04 tl navi. First 3 gears you can hear it 4th and 5th its either not there or very light. It is worse in 3rd than in 1st or 2nd and the acura dealership gave me the same excuse saying "sir this is a normal characteristic of the tl and is considered a normal noise" and of course it has continued ever since. I have considered it being the audio system but I have had the volume all the way down before and still had the same problem (although I know it could come through anyways). If it is the alternator I would really like to know one way or another because it is always there and not something a car of this class should ever have, hell my 94 mustang with 160000 miles had terrible transmission issues and never even makes this noise to date. I have learned to deal with any rattles but this is not something I accept from them and saying everything is a normal noise is a way of saying we don't give a f**k. What use to drive me nuts is when the guy who would say he cant find any rattles would take me for a drive in the car he would always wear this watch and it would rattle like hell always blaming anything on the watch. Anyways aside from that the car is a dream.

 

i dunno man ive had 4 racks changed in my car doesnt seem too odd to me....honda had a problem not too long ago with corroded parts being shipped as new or refurbs for the warranty work. maybe the tranny is somewhere in there with their bad batches.

 

Just because something is considered a normal characteristic doesn't mean its ok. If our cars blowing up spontanelously was a normal characteristic would it mean its ok for them to do that?

D

 

spontaneous wouldnt be normal now would it?

 

Umm wouldn't it? The transmissions seem to spontaneously trash themselves. What about the OP's tranny that spontaneously started to whine? Anyways. I really think you are over analyzing what I am saying. Thanks for playing come again.

So yea spontaneity can be normal. Maybe thats a lil deep for you but I think if you really think about it it will make sense. Think outside the box.

D

 

Well,
Whenever a car manufacturer starts using the words "Normal Characteristic of the Vehicle," you can be darn sure they are covering their ass for either BBB or lemon law litigation. Those words are near always their get-out-of-jail-free card, especially for BBB cases (hit and miss with LL) - been there done both...

Basically tells me that Acura is having a crap load of consumers complaining about whining transmissions etc..

Heres my ironic note: A month ago I stated all was well with my 04TL tranny, yet just in the last week or so it has "whined" on several occasions. And it's definitely transmission or something drive-train wise. Strange however is the fact its "only" in 5th gear at about 50-55 under a slight load ("currently" nothing in 1st-4th). I can slightly remove gas pedal pressure and it will go away - and it's only a small mph window that it comes and goes from.... Hmmmmm

Anyone else with 5th gear whine? All other aspects of the trans appear normal at this time...

 

If every instance of the/an event were spontaneous, then yes it could be a normal characteristic. :-)

 

interseting. I'm beginning to notice a low humming coming from the engine. I thought nothing of it but now might need to get this checked out asap.

 

So that's simple to test; pick any 5 TLs on his lot (preferably not brand new) and take them for a test drive. If three or more have the same sound, then he's probably not snowing you.

On the other hand, if none of them do, have someone who understands statistics explain the situation to him.

 

This may be completely incorrect, but I had a "whine" issue which turned out to be the plastic driveshaft cover or some piece of plastic or another? If all else fails, let me know and I'll figure out exactly what they fixed.

 

haha thats what i was gonna say

 

thanks for playing come again...lol the trannys are abused my good man nothing breaks without abuse (except maybe those few bad batches which is acceptable)....sorry dude ive had an auto tl and if ur gonna tell me these cars break because u dont drive them hard then ur lying....and so is everyone else on the forum.....they break because we all have lead foots and love plowing these cars harder than honda intended. spontaneous....no.....predictable.....yes...becaus e u know ur abusing it and sooner or later it will break.


thanks KJ on
"If every instance of the/an event were spontaneous, then yes it could be a normal characteristic. :-)" so yea....."thank u bery much please come again my good friend."

 

over analyze no....just reading and "comprehending" that spontaneous was a bad word to use in that sentence....maybe thats too deep for u. maybe u just need to think outside the box to figure that one out.... then again im not ur english teacher.

 

you knwo i have this noise too..it sounds low pitch. you can only hear it if the music is completely off. this 'whine' noise occurs each time i step on the gas....when it idle its completely silent...hopefully they can find out what causes ur noise and u can tell us here so i can go get it check out.

 

In my case I have owned this car for 8000 miles so excessive bad driving habits would have nothing to do with ware on the transmission , at least not on my part. Furthermore I would agree that with abuse comes premature issues and people do tend to drive fast. I know I only push my care rarely and I do not weave in and out of traffic or race to each stop as so many adolescent drivers do who kill themselves. It is a fairly fast car but if you take pride in it and respect it you wouldn't want to destroy it quickly.

All of that aside I love speed no matter what I'm driving or riding but flooring it everywhere is a bit excessive and does nothing for you. Floor it when you need it, and when you love it, but don't take it for granted.

 

I would be looking into other components in the drive train

 

My MDX has a slight whine to it also. I took it to the dealer, had them check everything with the tranny and they said it was fine. Then, the tech got under the hood and found out it was the P/S pump. He said it was common on the V6 P/S pumps when the fluid hasn't been changed for awhile. So, I had them flush it and put in new fluid. Problem solved!

 

I think someone needs a hug. Do you want a hug? Come here I'll give you a hug?

D

 

awwwwww ur the best!

 

"It's a NORMAL characteristic of the TL" is what I got back from Acura Customer Service for the various rattles that I have in my car.