to make a long story short someone drove my car in manual without shifting for about a half hour.... the car stalled out 2wice and overheated... is there permanent damage?

 

who the hell did that? If they continued to drive after it overheated, probably.

 

What does "drove my car in manual" mean? Do you have an automatic or a manual transmission?

It's really hard to imagine this, or any new car, overheating except in extraordinary cases. If this be the case, perhaps the person was overreving the engine the entire time (which I would infer from your text).

Who is this someone, what were they doing driving your car, and did you know this was going on?

 

OK, now your sounding like his dad..... My guess that is not the support he is looking for right now,,, nor will that info help answer his question...

--So what the hell was going on....?!

 

Wow, that was describing much. If I had to answer your question from just the information that you provided, I would say, YES!!!

 

dont worry about why..... Its automatci, but they drove it in manual mode on the same gear the whole trip now wat

 

Take it back to the dealer, let them look at it...and please tell us why so we can understand your friend's stupidity...

 

To KJSmitty;

Nope.. not his dad and I fail to see where I'm sounding like such. Was I of a mind to chastice the gent for his venture? Hell no.. it's his car and he is certainly free to do as he pleases.. as is anyone else. As for the initial question, he never stated what type of transmission the car has.. so I assumed an automatic. What I was getting at is this: is the person who did this going to be expected to pay for any damage because there is the possibility that Acura may turn a warranty claim down for this. And finally, the last thing he needs or wants is support I would venture. I would bet he wants information.


To ChRis_nyc;

Get the car in as quickly as you can for a thorough inspection of the engine and transmission. One thing you can do now is check your oil and transmission fluid. When an engine seriously overheads, these fluids can turn to a foam-like substance. Get a dentist mirror (you know, the small round ones on a probe) and inspect the valve train area under the oil fill cap. And pull the dipsticks for both engine oil and transmission fluid to check for unusual characteristics.

If you see foam or something like foam in these fluids, DO NOT START THE ENGINE OR DRIVE THE CAR.

Good luck.

 

Whats your current miles on car?

How fast was that MOFO driving? RTM and see what is the max speed for the 2nd gear.

How do you know if it over heated?

Car stalled? prob. the car shut it self off because of the over heating.

Check your engine oil. See if it's burnt. See the water level.

If I were you, send the oil samples to the lab to see if your engine is ok. Do search on this site.

Have that person pay for the fix if its damaged.

 

Do you know what gear they had it in? I hope it wasnt 1st, if so it probably did damage it. Thats why NOBODY drives mine.

 

Quoting "my" father from many, many years back - he was revving the pi$$ out of our car due to it running poorly and I asked:

Dad, is that going to hurt the car? (due to it sounding terrible...)

At this point I believe his response applies to your TL....

Dad responds:

"I don't know, but it probably didn't do it a damn bit of good...."


I have never forgot about that day. We still laugh about it.

--Chris, from your short description of the event it's hard to say what damage occurred. Does your car still run, does it run rough, does it have less power, smell like antifreeze?? Many times with severe over-heating you end up with warped heads and possible internal engine damage. Best just take it to the shop and have them check it out thoroughly.

 

I thought the Steptronic tranny upped the gear if you went into a dangerous rev leve, i.e. about redline...

 

It wasn't first, car automatically goes to second even in manual mode(Right?).

Also, I could both understand and not understand this mistake, first, my dad was testing it and kept putting it in manual not drive(we havent bought it yet). We didnt bring it this high but you must be able to here it at 62-6800 RPM and look down at the tach. If i were borrowing a friends luxery car id be so fricken careful(depending on the friend). If it sounded like it was running high i would pull over and call em. Also, they must have contacted you the first time it overheated. If so, why didnt you make em call Acura road side assistance, otherwise woop there butt. If you have navi and they didnt call acura service beat em, they only had to say it. and the second time it overheated didnt they realize the same thing would be happening. Didnt they think about slowing down for the continuem or taking stops. URG, beat em up. If they got a nice car, fry it. Some ppl shouldnt have a frickin licence!!! If the acura shut itself off to let itself cool down there is probably minimal or no damage.

 

This thread makes me want to cry.

 

I'm surprised it overheated. I think it might have hit fuel cut-off and stalled perhaps. Although if it was bouncing of the rev-limiter for HALF AN HOUR, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised. I second SouthernBoy's & jhan's suggestions.

 

In my understanding, the tiptronic will only upshift automatically from 1st to 2nd gear. After that, you must upshift on your own. Also when you brake to a stop in tiptronic mode, it will automatically downshift into 1st for you as well.

 

leave the poor guy alone, his TL is prolly slightly if not moderately damaged....

the other person who did it does not need to be revealed. that wouldnt change anything as of right now.... its not gona help him right???

on a side note... i dont let my wife drive my TL... i love her like crazy.... but that doesnt mean she needs to drive the car

 

No i am pretty sure it shift up in any gear if u hit the redline, therefore there is probably minimal damage 2 ur car OP. Good luck!!!

 

uh nope! it stays in second buddy

 

damn dude that sucks... seeing as it will shift up from 1st to 2nd that means they were probably running around in second all day... id be worried. we need more info though... does the car start, have you checked the condition of the fluids, the level of the fluids? what does it sound like?

if you dont want to deal with it take it to acura and hope for the best... good luck

 

What RPM does it upshift from first - second. 62 or is it lower.

 

i dont know if there is a specific rpm, as throttle angle, rpm, load and other factors can change it.... but it will shift up at about 6600-6800 at the worst.... and yes second gear will take you all the way up to 63 mph but thats at redline.... even at 50 mph the car is turning 5400 rpm.... at 45 its turning about 4800.... this is way to fast for any extended period of time, especially since there is less air coming into the radiator at those speeds...

 

it is possible the car wasnt in manual, what other factors will cause the car to overheat? The antifreeze level was low almost empty which was probably a result of the overheating but everything else checked out (motor oil, tranny fluid,)

car starts - drives

 

You were THAT LOW on fluid? The overheating wouldn't cause that fluid to go from full to almost gone in 30 mins... (the lack of fluid is WHY it overheated to begin with!!!) Are you sure there isn't a leak? Hoses look good? No holes in radiator? Is there white-ish, sweet smelling smoke coming from the exhaust? I'm not sure how a head gasket could be bad on a 3G already....

Hmmm... Where's Mulder and Scully when you need them..... This one is strange!

 

Overheating will not result in low coolant level, it's the other way around. if the antifreeze is low, there is probably a leak somewhere.

Actually, I need to modify that statement. I have seen cases where an overheating engine will push coolant out of the radiator & into the recovery tank, and onto the road if the recovery bottle overflows.

Either way, get the car to a dealer ASAP.

 

they didnt have it in manual after all- turns out there was a "loose antifreeze hose"

 

Isnt there some sort of sensor for the antifreeze level?

 

i belive there is a sensor in the overflow tank to let you know if you are out. but all it does is trigger a dummy light inside the car... if your not looking for it you might miss it

 

keep a constant eye on the coolant level over the next few weeks... normally if you overheat a car real bad you can warp the heads or blow a head gasket...

if that has happened you will see the car either slowly, or in case of a bad leak quickly drain the overflow tank.

if this starts to happen take the car to the dealership imeadiatly and have then fix it.

 

Have your transmission oil flushed and replace with fresh fluid. Get the oil analysed by Blackstone Laboratory, and pay $10 extra to have T. Dawson do a personal analysis and let him know the conditions that caused your concern. He will read the lab results and let you know if any permanent damage was done to your engine. Also, call them and ask if they do transmission oil analysis and get that done if possible. Oil analysis is the best way to find damage inside the engine that won't possible show up for years so you definately want to have it done to avoid future problems.

 

Hopefully, they checked the coolant for hydrocarbon buildup. Snap-On makes a tester that changes color when hydrocarbons are present in coolant.

 

Uh, nope! The car will shift to protect itself but only at an elevated rpm. In SS the car could have shifted into almost any gear depending on the speed. If the driver was going say 60 the car would have stayed in 2nd because it hadn't reached redline. Prolonged driving like that could cause overheating.
As the coolant heats it will expand in volume, that's why there's hot and cold level markings on most expansion tanks. If continued overheating exists the fluid will overfill the overflow tank and reduce the coolant level.
At a minimum I would change all the fluids; oil, tranny, and coolant.
I feel your pain. Good luck.

 

The only way the overheating could have caused the low antifreeze is if the radiator got so hot and the pressure got so high that it activated the cap
s overflow feature where the fluid would have steam out of the top. I dont know why such a new car would be low for any other reason.

 

Unless I am lacking the reading comprehension this morning you are incorrect. The transmission will not shift automatically except from 1st to 2nd gear. After that it's all up to you. It will protect you from downshifting into a lower/wrong gear but it doesn't shift from 2nd to 3rd to 4th to 5th automatically when in SS mode.

 

i would have to agree.... although i do not own an auto, from what i read, the car will make the shift from first to second... from there you can bounce it off the rev limiter if you would like..... and at owners out there wanna "test" this out?

 

car was in drive not m, dealer fixed it yesterday but i gotta get a new overflow tray or somthing in the near future

 

I have hit the rev limiter a couple times and lets just say it should have shifted before that if it were going to shift for you at all. I drive the auto and it is so much nicer in traffic than a manual.

 

yeah you must have an '04 and need the Tranny jet kit added.

 

If the car is driving fine now, I'd bring it to a dealer at your earliest convenience and have them change your: oil and oil filter, flush the cooling system, and flush the change the filter on the transmission.

See if you can't talk to the tech that did the work on your car, (not the service writer) and ask if he noticed anything unusual about the fluid that came out of the car.

Then just continue to drive the TL as you would normally. No need to raise any red flags if the car runs fine at this point in time.

 

OK, good to hear the dealer got it checked out, nevermind what i said then...

Did they do an oil change for you, might be good since the oil may have 'cooked.'

At least we know the tranny is fine for sure.