So to keep a long story short, I've had the infamous steering column rattle in my 07 TL-S. The car has less than 7,000 miles, and I feel it is completely unacceptable. I've had the car in twice already. They did the typical EPT-everywhere treatment. I thought for a second it was resolved. Then this weekend my wife and I took a trip to Pittsburgh, it started to rattle on relatively smooth parts of the Turnpike. On the return trip it was nearly constant for 4 hours!! It seems now that it rattles more from small bumps on smooth pavement than it does on pot-hole filled back roads.

Anyway, (this is what is really making me mad) I wrote an email to the service manager at Montgomeryville Acura describing the situation and what has already been done to try to rectify it. I have yet to receive even an acknowledgement of the complaint. The email for the service manager was listed on their company website, so I'm assuming he checks his email regularly.

What should my next step be? Forward the same email to the general manager?

 

Call acura client services see if the will help you.1-800-382-2238.

 

Thanks for the number, I'm hoping I don't have to use it. I'm going to try to follow the chain of command within the dealership to see if I can get a response. If not...I'll be calling Acura.

 

Are there any other dealers in your area you can try? The car is still under warranty so any Acura should be able to help you without any problems.

 

Not really. The next cloesest dealer is either in Langhorn (45 minutes) or Allentown (1 hour). Plus, my intention is to develop a relationship with this dealer since it it so close to my house. I guess that's why I'm not being too aggressive. Although I want the issue fixed, I don't want to aggrevate them to the point where they start giving me a hard time down the road when I want to put a CAI or whatnot on the car.

 

They are closest to me as well and I've heard good things about them in comparison to other local Acura dealers. I would have a little more patience but also let them know that it's running thin because you've been back so many times already.

 

Piazza Acura, possibly Metro...there are a few more in the Philly metro that should be closer to you than the ones you listed [depending on where you live].

I'm sorry to hear about your issues and hope you get them resolved soon! I too have heard good things about M-ville Acura vs. some of the others, so I think you would be better off w/ a phone call first before you start escalating. Maybe he has a sick family member, is out of the office and hasn't been able to check his emails regularly? Maybe he wants to get all of the info on his end before he contacts you back? You never know the situation and it is best to get all of the facts first before moving upward.

 

Well said...I'm going to give it a few days. It does calm me down a bit to have someone to vent to. Thanks guys. All in all we're talking about a steering column rattle....it could be worse, but nonetheless I'm hoping it gets resolved. Like most "car guys" rattles drive me nuts and are unacceptable in a nearly $40K automobile.

 

Rattles can be one of the hardest things to diagnose and resolve. You should be thankful they tried to help you at all, they didn't have to because rattles are usually considered a result of normal wear on a car (yes, even on a car with "only" 7000 miles).

 

If you think that's acceptable at 7000 miles, then so be it. I however purchased an Acura off of a recommendation of a friend who owns a TL-S and MDX, both of which are rattle free at over 40,000 miles.

If I thought rattles were acceptable, I would have settled for a lesser vehicle. I'm sorry, but Acura has to know that it's customers are going to expect a higher level of quality.

If they are going to accept rattles as wear and tear at 7000 miles, then we're going to be talking about Acura/Honda rescue packages in 10 years (think back to a GM vehicle from the late 80s-90s)......

 

Unfortunately you will probably just have to accept the unacceptable.

Rattles are something that plague every single make and model (at least all the ones built on an assembly line).

You can buy two brand new cars of the same year, make, and model and one might develop rattling at an early mileage and one may never rattle even after 20 years. If there was a way to make cars never develop rattling the automakers would've done it by now. Unfortunately there is no way to accurately predict when or where a rattle will develop. If you were a CS guy I'd tell you it's an NP-complete problem. At least they tried to fix it (they didn't have to).

 

Again, I have to respectfully disagree with you. There are several members on this board that have had the same problem addressed successfully by their dealers. Before getting back into sales, I managed a $5mil/year business. If a customer had any kind of problem with the product(s) I sold them, I did my best to rectify the situation. If I could not fix the problem within my realm of power, the customer would call my boss and eventually get what they want. This is the concept of customer service.

In an era when automobile sales are of 30-40%, I would expect manufacturers are instructing their dealers to treat their customers like gold. In the U.S. the car market is shrinking (in terms of citizens that don't have a car). The future market is going to consist mainly of replacement vehicles, and I expect that the competition is going to be pretty tough.

Of course this is my theory, we'll see what happens. Despite the fact that I love my TL,if this issue is not resolved it will be burned in my brain and result in my family not purchasing a Acura/Honda product again.

What if this were a more serious issue? A tranny problem or something major...should I "expect" to have to take the car back 2 and 3 times to get it right? Again, it's not the rattle that I'm upset about. It's the fact that I told the dealer exactly how to duplicate it, I printed several threads from this forum, gave them three shots to do it, and did not get a response (yet) from the service manager.

 

Maybe you need a road force balance also could be a motor mount or a few other things.

 

what exactly is this rattle you talk about and what does it sound like? video?

 

If it's the one I think it is (Steering Wheel at the Air Bag) it's a GD annoying, non-stop rattle - practically a buzz. And it's loud as hell.

You gotta take the air bag off the steering wheel, tighten everything down and it *should* be gone. Most dealers don't want to mess with the air bag.

It's well known - Search - tons of threads and/or fixes.

 

if you really want to piss them off, go there in the morning where the whole staff is getting their breakfast, and wolf down all the donuts.

my brother and i did that at keyes acura and they finished my 2 hour work in 30 minutes.

 

Gotcha. Like others have said, I would give them a few days to get their act together and respond to you but just be prepared to go see another dealer if things don't go your way. I understand you wanting to have a good relationship with them since they are close. I have an Acura dealer less than 2 miles from my house and I won't let them touch my car ever since they lied to me on my first service visit. It is inconvenient as hell but that's the way it has to be especially with all the other horror stories I've heard about them.

A car will less that 10k on the odo should be sound free and no rattles. If they have to remove the airbag to fix it, so be it. The car is still under warranty and you should not have to beg them to do something about it.

 

Yup that's the one....I diagnosed it through several searches on this forum. The dealer acknowledged that is coming from (or around) the airbag module. According to the tech that worked on the car last, he EPTd the airbag module, but did mention if he actually removed it or not.

I even went as far as bringing him several threads from this board to help him along in the process, but I don't think he even ever looked at them...........

 

FINALLY someone else who feels the way I do. Since the day I purchased my car there have been random rattles all over the damn thing - dashboard, driver door, passenger seat, rear deck, rear speakers. NOT ONE has been fixed yet. I have taken my car in twice and they give me the same frigin bullshit everytime. I'm sorry, but like the OP said, IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE FOR A $40K CAR TO HAVE THESE CONSTANT RATTLES. I have had and driven in many cars and to be perfectly honest, this is probably the worst one i've had/been in; AND it is the most expensive. I'm at 10K miles on this car right now and i'm ready to get rid of it.

 

i had the same rattle, it was an airbag spring or something like that, the only rattle i have now is one coming from the passenger side mirror

 

Get it fixed, I had the same problem and they fixed it really quick. 15k miles after the fix and im still rattle free.

 

Give it time, i've never heard anything bad about that dealer.I used to work at Davis(langhorne) and they're not too bad. Also, sussman has done some stuff for me in the past and were pretty good. Good Luck.

 

UPDATE:

I received a call from the tech that has been working on my steering column rattle. He seems very committed to fixing the problem. He is pretty confident that the rattle is coming from the airbag module. I have an appointment on Monday, if he can't fix it any other way, he said he will go as far as replacing the airbag module.

This is the kind of reason I bought an Acura, a higher level of service. Even though it's a little bit of a pain to keep taking th vehicle back, at least I have a tech and dealership now committed to fixing the problem!!

 

Yeah, I think my next Oil Change, I'll take it to the dealer and have them do the change and see if they can put this rattle to rest.

I thought it might be the connectors for the Horn and Airbag harnesses, but I taped and wire-tired those with no improvement.

GL with your fix.

 

Glad it worked out for you. Now put more miles on that TL!!!

 

^^ there is also sussman acura in jenkintown on old your road. my dad bought his tl and we have had good service experiences.

 

Within few days from the purchasing of 2008TL last month, I had the similar noise from around the steering column. It was more like a buzzing noise rather than rattling. I took the car in and they fixed it quickly. The paper says that they removed some loose zip tie and installed new one. Hope this helps.

 

just turn the radio up and relax wat untill ur engine light comes on due to "bad gas" its not bad gas just winter blend the tl-s is sensitive to something in it