DerrickW

Welps, I’ve had my 07 Type-S, 6-speed for about one year now & the love affair is still strong. Totally love the car & am glad I bought it every day I get in & twist the key. No buyer’s remorse whatsoever. Mechanically the car has been very sound. I'm at about 119k - had to replace clutch master-cylinder & that’s about it. But. As with any machine like this of course there are a few things I’m slightly less than enamored by. Here’s my short list of knits and picks:


Bizarre fuel capacity/distance to empty info
This I know has been addressed here ad nauseam -- until figuring it out, going by wholly unscientific, seat-of-the-pants experience leads one to the conclusion that either our gas tanks have a capacity of about 4 ½ cups, or, the fuel gauge & idiot warning light are about as pessimistic as the Captain of the Titanic. Car says I’m getting about a 24mpg combined city/highway average, which is probably pretty accurate, but getting used to that lying gas gauge takes some adjusting.

Woefully under-powered stereo
For a stock stereo of 9-years ago vintage the sound quality is decent, but the sound quantity is pathetic. If driving with the roof open & windows down (as I like to), the thing can barely be heard above 30mph. Its already blowing one of the rear speakers and, believe me, I’m not the volume-cranking type. That thing is about 40 watts beneath what it should’ve been.

Finicky Bluetooth
Sometimes the car’s Bluetooth automatically finds my Android, sometimes it doesn’t. More irritating is that when connected & I make outbound calls the car will not pickup the audio until the party I’m calling answers the phone, i.e., the connection is made. It doesn’t pickup while ringing. Which sux as I have to keep an eye on the phone then once I see they’ve answered, manually switch to Bluetooth on the Droid.

Cheap pleather seats
As all do, my seats have developed spider web cracks. Nothing too serious yet but still, shouldn’t be happening on this caliber of automobile this quickly.

That’s pretty much it & none are particularly serious knit picks.

Still basically stock. The only things I’ve done are painted calipers black & re-badged to “BREMBO” instead of the stock “ACURA” decals; removed that ridiculous mid-muffler + yanked the even more ridiculous intake resonator & went with the poor man’s CAI. All were good moves. The caliper look is much better, imho. The intake/exhaust change def. put a little more pep in the car’s step + drastically improved its sound. It now has much more of that low, rumble we all seek w/o being ricey obnoxious.

I’m probably done mod’ing this car with the possible exception of adding a j-pipe. I'm a little I’m leery of what adding an aftermarket j-pipe may do to my exhaust note & volume now that I’ve pulled the intake res & mid-muff. If anyone has experience with this or would care to comment I’d be VERY interested in reading your thoughts.

God speed, all.

nist7

Agreed on the pleather and the stereo. I'm coming from a base 06 TL for what its worth. The fuel gauge seems fairly accurate in my experience (getting about 26mpg here, and I'm all bone stock).

The lady owner prior to mine had to have the front seats re-leathered at a nice $700 for both seats so I'm doing all I can to keep mine conditioned as much as possible to delay/minimize cracking.

Another interesting tidbit is I always wonder if Denver/Denver area drivers feels jibbed that they are 5280ft above sea level...which means quite a high HP loss. IIRC the rough estimate is for every 1000ft you lost about 3% HP (after some forum/internet reading briefly). So about 15% less hp from many cars in the Denver area? (someone more technical/knowledgeable would no doubt shed more light on this than me....just thought it was an interesting thing to ponder for Denver area drivers...of course turbo motors will likely lose less)

I will be moving to Denver in a year or so and I am not looking forward to the loss in hp...but I guess it comes with the territory. An online calculator puts a loss of almost 41hp for my base 06 TL with 258hp....ugh... (http://www.wallaceracing.com/braking-hp.php)

DerrickW

Well, no I don't notice it b/c its the only place I live and drive my car - so that's the baseline & there's nothing to compare/contrast it with. Feel me? And I live in Colorado Springs which is up even higher than Denver. Our house is at about 6800 ft, Denver's at a paltry 5300. Yes the forced-induction engines do better with the less dense air, in fact I think turbos actually benefit a little from it. Modern cars with computerized engine management systems do better than cars of yesteryear - especially carburetor'd engines. Like your body, given time the ecu begins to figure out the air/fuel/timing mixture and milks as much power from the mill as possible. But again, you've nothing else to compare it to so what you've got becomes what you've got.

Please accept a premature welcome to the Rockies!

MarcDavidoff

I'd agree with all your noted nitpicks. The stereo does have very good sound quality but I agree that it doesn't seem all too powerful. My legend's 22 year old Bose 200 watt stock system honestly has more power and depth. And the FM reception isn't the best either.

screaminz28

iTrader: (1)

I wonder if the capacitors in your stereo's amp are going bad? I don't have any complaints on the loudness of the stereo - I'm on my second TL and both have been great.

Bluetooth - I agre it has issues - maybe yours is on the fritz too and needs to be fixed?

Seats - Remember these cars are at least 8 years old. I'd say the leather isn't that bad for a car of this vintage. I've seen some TERRIBLE looking TL seats after just 4 years, and mine look REALLY good for 12 years and 235K. I think environment plays a role in leather condition as well.

Jayfizzl3

I have my 08 tls for 5 months now with 53k mile's now, and the front dash just started to crack. Boo

llllBULLSEYE

iTrader: (1)

I love the TL sound system.
The Bluetooth is def annoying at times
The leather are a piece of junk mine started ripping at 94k
my DD 04 TSX has 227k and the pleather is mint

DeathMetal

iTrader: (2)

(1) At $1.70 for premium, who cares about MPG accuracy right now
(2) The Speakers are the issue. Replace the fronts, tweets, and center. Trust me.
(3) Yes. Just cycle your BT on your device, it picks it back up.
(4) Duh

...but dude, this is well known stuff in these parts. Your nitpicks are the result of poor research.

GKinColo08TL

I don't think I'd agree with the 14% loss in HP. I live in Colorado Springs, higher than Denver and drove my TL to low altitude/sea level on several occasions and I didn't really see a significant difference in performance. With my current bimmer I drove it to Cali last summer and didn't notice a significant difference. The puters in these cars now will adjust the air/fuel mixture to accommodate the lower oxygen levels so I don't think you'll notice a difference at your butt. Now if the air/fuel mixture wasn't adjusted than yes, you'd notice a difference.

When the Rocky Mtn Nationals are held in Denver every year there is a drop in times and top speeds but it's not anywhere near that 14%.

Pilmo

Do you have a sound clip of your exhaust right now???

DerrickW

"Duh"-?
Poor research?

None of the nitpicks are deal killers nor constituted a reason for not purchasing the car or being remorseful that I did. Thought I made that reasonably clear. "Duh"? Is this really necessary? I did a brief write up for my fellow owners and enthusiasts. Didn't have to. Chose to b/c I thought it may be of interest to some. If not of interest to you, fine, ignore and move on. Seems to me this is a forum wherein discussion, inputs, observations and yes nitpicks about our TLs would be welcomed.

Of course these have been previously discussed and are well known issues. We're all owners of these cars and they're neighborhood of a decade old. Common/recurring issues with them are bound to have been previously discussed. Does that therefore mean never post anything about any "well known stuff" in these parts? This is a discussion board.

DerrickW

I'd always been told --no idea if its 100% accurate-- that it takes ECU's a little while to figure everything out and make the necessary engine management adjustments. In other words, if we were to drive down to sea level you wouldn't notice a difference for a while. Maybe as long as a week or more.

DerrickW

No, but I'll work on it!

Pilmo

Ok cool!! cant wait

GKinColo08TL

I've been told that once you turn the car off and turn it back on the ECU, in newer cars, adjusts immediately, oxygen sensor does it's job, sending that info to the ECU and voila, adjustment. I was at or near sea level for nearly 2 weeks with the bimmer and like I said, I didn't notice any difference.

FamilyGuy

For me it's not having rear folding seats pain in the ass sometimes

Having a cassette player is the funniest to laugh at people always ask about it

b15

I agree with all your nitpicks, especially the cheap pleather. Regardless this car is still decent despite its age, I'm happy with mine as well!

nist7

^^^Thanks for the additional info.

That is good to know. Makes sense that modern ECUs would adjust quickly and make up the power...though would be interesting to see actual dyno comparisons.

I was reading some corvetteforum threads and people were pretty adamant (at least they sound intelligent) about the 3% per 1000ft rule.

So very good to know that the loss won't be nearly as much.

DeathMetal

iTrader: (2)

You do understand this is an intrinsically contradictory counterargument you've provided, no?

Let's view this from a different lens, shall we? Your 'nitpicks' and this thread are comprised of negative aspects of ownership and add to a relatively small body of threads narrating dissatisfaction of ownership. What you're viewing as being as "beneficial" comes off as pure complaint for issues that have been well known and understood for some time. I suspect this was not your intention, but it was the outcome.

Enthusiasts don't nitpick. Enthusiasts also find solutions.

This forum welcomes you and the freedom to commiserate on the noted issues, but let's not patronize the masses and try to disguise this thread as something it's not.

DerrickW

Wow, that's a lotta big words!

BEGAN the thread thusly, "...the love affair is still strong. Totally love the car & am glad I bought it every day I get in & twist the key. No buyer’s remorse whatsoever."

Wasn't aware of this. Until this moment in time I'd no idea that Mustang or Corvette or TL or (fill in this blank) auto enthusiasts never complained or nitpicked about their automobiles. I've been on many enthusiast forums over the years where I've observed the behavior countless times. Only now am I being informed those were not truly enthusiast forums. Apparently I have been misled on this topic.

Your loquaciousness is nothing short of astounding and even in learned circles would certainly be considered formidable if not altogether consternating. Your command of vocabulary, ability to intricately interject as well as extrapolate subtle meaning via the written word in indeed impressively presented.

Its nice of you to speak on behalf of the forum and for that I thank you for personally welcoming my participation here. Didn't realized I needed it, but am glad to have it. However I was not patronizing anyone nor attempting to disguise anything. There is no need to. Your accusations of such does not make so. Why would I need to waste my time patronizing a bunch of strangers on a web forum? I've better ways to invest my quite valuable time.

As previously mentioned, this is very simple. If you do not like nor appreciate the content of this (or any other) thread, fine, just ignore it, move on and participate in those that you do. Its really not that difficult nor worthy of the time, effort and energy you've already placed into your attempts to illustrate me as some sort of patronizing fraud.

truonghthe

This is my experience with the TL after 4 years of ownership.

FamilyGuy

My stock stereo is plenty loud even with Windows open on the highway

DerrickW

This in incredibly helpful. Thank you.

DerrickW

But in the mean time - this is the ultimate "trust me", brother. Just do it. Have that incredibly stupid "mid-muffler" removed. Any shop in town will cut it out for probably thirty bucks. It serves no purpose other than to make your car sound like a Singer sewing machine. Getting rid of that thing makes the car sound much more aggressive w/o being much louder ...if that makes sense. Just a deeper growl that's most noticeable from off-idle to about 3,000rpm, so right in the 'around town' sweet spot. Its the best cheap mod imaginable. Trust me. Its worth every nickel.

GKinColo08TL

Yep, several threads on here about he HFL...had to replace mine in my 08, bluetooth wasn't working and it was draining the battery.

DeathMetal

iTrader: (2)

That's debatable.

Have fun.

DerrickW

No, actually its not debatable. I'm an entrepreneur who's started and runs a company, a nonprofit 501c3 organization plus a foundation, sit on multiple Boards of Directors as well as occupying a statewide elected office. I've written 3 books, am currently working on 4 & 5 in addition to being a columnist who's published weekly by multiple national syndicates, contributing pundit on multiple radio shows, split time between my home city, state capital and Washington D.C. all on top of being husband and father of 3 (the oldest of which is currently a cadet in the United States Air Force Academy.) My time is very limited, very valuable. Which is one of the reasons I only have 112 total posts on this board. If my time were less valuable I'd have, oh, I don't know...more like 2,940 or something.

tristann616

Completely agree about the leather and Bluetooth! I'm completely satisfied with the car's audio, though. Plenty of power in my opinion, if I want to crank it up, there's plenty of rumbling. However, usually at Volume "5", it's pretty decent for typical driving. Even at "1" I can still enjoy my music.

screaminz28

iTrader: (1)

I think it's funny to say that enthusiasts never nitpick. I think it's the exact OPPOSITE. Nothing is more fun/sad? than commiserating with other owners of all the same issues.

"Does your HFL mess up too?" "No way, so does mine."

"Your toe bolts are rusted solid? Wow, so are mine."

"Man, that dash crack is terrible." "It sure is."

I've owned TONS of vehicles, and while finding solutions to many of the common issues are among the things handled by enthusiasts, if no one ever commented on them - no one would know they are all having similar issues!

With my Corvette, everyone mentioned the steering wheel lock issue - so there is a bypass.

With my Fox body Mustang - everyone complained about the plastic door handles breaking - they make replacements in metal - and there is a way to "finesse" the door handle open instead of just grabbing like a sasquatch.

Being nitpicky is a SIGN of an enthusiast, not the other way around.

DerrickW

Johnny, tell the man what he's won!!

Burtch07

iTrader: (1)

My knit picks with my 07TL are the friggin weak doors, hate how they always come back and the door locks not automatically unlocking when i'm in park or turned the car off

042

I really enjoy the window chattering as it rolls down.

sockr1

iTrader: (5)

there's a setting to change when the doors unlock haha.

there's also a thread that justnspace put together that shows how to put another car's part on our door to keep it from closing back so easily, just search for it

anx1300c

iTrader: (2)

There's certainly a difference in performance from sea level to a mile high. Check out how slow the cars run at Bandimere Raceway, at a little over 5,000' elevation. It's profound. Computers can adjust all they want, but they're not magic. If there's physically no oxygen rich air available, there's only so much adjusting A/F is going to accomplish. It's just like our bodies. No one is going to be able to run a mile as quickly at those kinds of elevations as they could at sea level. I will say though, F/I cars are less affected than N/A ones.