I have a 05TL Automatic purchased at the end of Dec 04. It currently has 6K miles and suddenly the SRS warning light came on. I dropped it off at the dealer on Monday with that problem and a list of annoyances. Well, apparantly, both of the front airbag crash sensors (in the front bumper) are bad and the parts are on NATIONAL back order as this is a major problem right now across the country. The best part is that there is NO release date and they may need to keep my car for weeks or months on end (luckily I have a loaner, but it is 'only' a TSX and I am NOT impressed). Have any of you had this problem?

Also, here is the list of my annoyances -

1 - Gas tank - it is a 17 gallon tank and the 'empty' light comes on with 4 gallons remaining (so I feel like I am constantly driving with the light on)

2 - Windshield wiper 'swipe' mode is programmed at the FAST speed for the wipers. I don't even use it since is seems like the car is going to throw the wipers off. To swipe, I now click them on and then off again... I have never owned a car that had such a fast swipe setting.

3 - AC manual OFF button. I like to have the AC off most of the time, and I feel that I am constantly pushing the button. When you get in the car and hit auto it comes on, so I hit it off, then I push defrost and it comes on again, so I turn it off, then I hit auto to turn the defrost off and it comes on again, so I turn it off - very annoying. If that button has been depressed, the ONLY way the AC should come back on again is if it is MANUALLY depressed again.

4 - Trunk - it seems to be hard to close and I noticed that it doesn't seem to line up correctly from the factory - I think this is a quick fix

5 - Drivers door - it too doesn't seem to close easily (and no, it is not the fact that the cabin is tight) so I think this should be an easy fix too

6 - Cold startup - seems like there is a belt slipping a little on cold startup (less than 25 degrees outside). Again, hopefully a quick fix.

7 - Minor vibration - I have read here that people do experience some driveline vibration and I believe that is what I have, but I checked out the wheels and the drivers front has over 12 weights on it (it is a strip about 10 inches long). I have never seen a wheel with so many weights on it! At what point should they be finding a different wheel?

8 - Rear passenger seat belt - something doesn't feel right with the mechanism - hopefully a quick fix

9 - CD changer - I do not have navigation and there seems to be no way to have the system to a 'random' that shuffles through the disks. You can random on one disk, but that is it - for such a great system, this stinks.

Anyway, I do like the car, but am kind of suprised by some of these things that seem to be engineering issues. I have owned Acuras in the past and loved them, so I hope my experience there turns out to be the same in the end.

 

Welcome to the forum ...

Some of the things you list are characteristics of the car (albeit annoying) but others seem to be probs specific to your vehicle ...

1 - Gas Reserve - I agree .. God help me when I drive a car that doesn't have a 2 1/2 gallon reserve cause I'm gonna push it once too many times.....

2 - Windshield Wiper speed - I agree here as well .. there's probably a reason for it but it escapes me

3 - AC comes on - I don't have this issue. The settings seem to be memorized, for me AC is off and Recirculate is off, they stay off when I go to auto as well as when I go to defrost.

4 - My trunk lines up just fine. Closing it is extremely easy. (Now I just need to convince my wife that she doesn't have to slam the damn thing)

5 - Drivers side door - Again it closes extremely easily and with only the lightest touch. (Linda if your reading this .. I'm begging you please stop slamming the doors)

6 - Belt slip - Sometime's I'll get a fan noise that's a bit louder than I would like but no belt slip.

7 - Vibrations - I experience two different vibrations .. some minor flat spotting when its cold for aboput the first mile, the other is a harmonic at 55 mph which also seems more pronounced early in the ride.

8 - Rear passenger seat belt - Never sat in the back seat so I couldn't tell you

9 - CD Changer - I rarely use the CD / DVD as I'm usually on FM or XM so shuffle isn't that big a deal for me.


Good luck with your car, get those issues addressed and enjoy the ride!!!

 

Welcome to the forum. I’ll just try and address a couple of your problems.

1. This will explain the way the fuel tank lights and warnings work.

This info is excerpted from a very long thread I started about fuel tank capacities, etc. and is based on actual and precise testing

a. When the low fuel warning light comes on, if you are getting 25 mpg you can go 94 miles, but if you are only getting 20 mpg, you can only go 74 miles. Of course, other miles per gallon figures will result in different results. This means you have approximately 3.7 gallons remaining.

b. When miles to empty reads zero, that is time to fill up, but you can still go 57 miles at 25mpg, but only 45 miles at 20mpg. This means you have approximately 2.3 gallons remaining.

c. When filling the tank, if you stop at the first shutoff, you will have about 17 gallons in the tank.

d. The tank will actually hold about 19 gallons, but it is not recommended to fill the tank to capacity, so stop at the first shutoff.

If you want to read the whole thread, go here http://www.acura-tl.com/forums/showt...threadid=71425

2. I think this is programmed like this because of the speeds which the TL is capable of attaining. When you are going fast, it is a good thing that the wiper swipes really fast because you might need that fraction of a second to help you see what to miss in front of you.

3. Admitted that for people who like the A/C off sometimes it is a little unwieldy, but this is really for Brewmaster. When you push Auto, The A/C is ON, it just doesn’t show the icon on the screen. The recirculate may be on or off depending on the conditions at the time. Both of these are automatically programmed when the Auto button is pressed.

4. The trunk adjustment should be easy.

5. Most people complain that their doors close too easily, so this may jusy be another adjustment.

9. The CD changer may be programmed this way to save wear and tear on the changing mechanism.

 

Now that made me laugh.

JZ

 

Welcome to the forum

Wish your trip to the Acura dealer would come out with the good results...

 

Ron A - Just an FYI - Not sure when they made this change, but my 04 said "Miles to empty" but the O5s now say "Range". Otherwise, it still shows a range of 0 a little early in my opinion....

sftroy

 

I thought the wiper speed adjusted depending on the speed?

 

Has anyone driven with the rear windows down? When you do, do you have low beating sound that is ANNOYING! So much so in fact that I don't even roll down my rear windows.

I didn't have that issue with my '02TL. I'm guessing it has to do with the design of the rear doors.

 

Yep, I had the same issue with my Saab. Try cracking the sunroof a bit...the drumming sound should be subdued.

 

This issue has been quite common for lots of new vehicles. Due to its design, when you drive fast, those windows are supposed to UP instead of DOWN...

There are many threads discussing this topic... FYI.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I changed my file copy of this, so it will be correct next time, but if I go back and change my post here your reply will look odd, so I will just leave it as is.

 

45mph is not that fast

 

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

1 - Gas tank - Have not had problems with that but maybe you drive more than I do or you do more city driving where you get only about 19 MPG in city driving.

2 - Windshield wiper - agree it's too fast. So fast that it doesn't get all the water off the windshield some times.

3 - AC - not warm enough in NJ to try AC yet.

4 - Trunk - no problems with trunk.

5 - Drivers door - for me it IS because the cabin is to air tight. I have to give it a much harder pull when the window is fully up instead when it's open a crack.

6 - Cold startup - no problems

7 - Minor vibration - no problems

8 - Rear passenger seat belt - have not used it but other friends who have made no complaints.

9 - CD changer - I prefer not to randomly shuffle disks as that puts too much wear and tear on the movable parts that doing all the shuffling. I've had CD players break because of it and it was a pain to disassemble them to get it unstuck on other cars. Believe me, try to do without it. I don't even shuffle on one CD. The laser just does too much moving around from track to track. I've had problems because of this too where the laser would get misaligned and caused skipping or repeating. Again, just too many problems in the past but they were not high end players which may be part of the problem.

 

Ron - as usual you rock!!!

I went to auto, turned off the AC and low and behold the air seemed to be less stale and the light mildew smell went away...

Thank you sir!!

 

Well, I got the car back and here is what they found:
1 - Gas Tank - they say it is normal
2 - Windshield wiper - it is normal. I still definitely think this is a BAD design - it usually doesn't clean the dried on salt film off... it just goes wayyyy to fast.
3 - AC normal
4 - Trunk - they said it was out of alignment, but they seem to have made it worse. The thing will not close unless you push in the center of the trunk and do it very firmly.
5 - Door normal
6 - Cold startup normal
7 - Vibration - they rebalanced everything and it is fine. I have also noticed that these wheels are VERY sensitive to any dirt buildup on them.
8 - Rear seatbelt - they said to keep an eye on it
9 - CD changer - normal

Obviously, they fixed the sensor problem and I am happy to have the car back. I was also given a TSX (with an Auto) as a loaner... I cannot believe how bad that car feels compared to the TL. It felt like a cheap car with NO power and a lawn mower engine that sounded bad. I was VERY unimpressed by it and would't even pay half of what the TL costs for that. Having read how the mag's rave about it I thought it would be nice, but nooooo. It did handle nicely when pushed, but that did not outweight the rest...

 

Glad to hear you got your car back. It seems you had the repairs done much faster than you were led to believe. This is what happens when you have their loaner !

I'd have the dealer compare your car door to one on the showroom floor. I have to agree with others saying the doors close too easily and slam with no effort. You should be able to close it with one finger easily. Also a quick test is hold the door handle out and close and open the door repetitively and see if it is lined up properly and that it seats fully into the rubber gaskets. There should be no heavy metal on metal banging, just the catches engaging. You should not have to lift up or press down or press in to get proper engagement.

You didn't happen to have the door ripped open by the wind did you ? If this happened there may be some damage to the posts where the hinges are secured. This might explain a poor closing if the door wasn't going into the frame far enough without being forced in.

Agree on the gas tank sensor. Feels like I am always driving on empty.

As for the wipers...well you can't please everyone seems to apply. I live in BC where it rains alot. Wipers in general are a pain in the a__ . I love the fast swipe just for clearing any accumulated water. If you need to clear salt residue you might try misting, which does it at a slower speed in 3 passes and will help remove residue without damaging the blades and windscreen. I thought they struck a good balance on this with the fast pulse, slow mist.

Adding to whats been said about CD shuffle it would take many seconds between songs if it had to shuffle between disks every time a track ends.

Good luck with your car. Glad to have you onboard.

 

I find it hard to believe that people do not know much about gas tanks and wipers... lol

get gassed up every 300 miles or so and stop seeing the light. Mine does not come on till over 350 miles. Oh and fill it up do not put 10 bucks in each time....

As for the wipers, that's funny are they too fast etc... A lot has to do with the quality of the blade how dry the windshield is... I think if you went to the dealer for that they would laugh over coffee each morning...

 

Hondas approach to some of these issues is interesting. My previous car, a Saab 9-5, was able to be programmed on how one wanted the A/C compressor to operate. Also the fuel gauge could be calibrated to the drivers wants. Even the outside temperature reading could be adjusted/calibrated up or down. And all of this on a car that was released to the European market in 1997. However, Hondas approach may also be why their electrical systems are more reliable.

Bob
PS Our 1992 Accord "swipe" speed is also fast, so this is nothing unusual for a Honda product.

 

My brother waited till the low fuel light came on in his honda product once and he lasted 5 more miles before the car ran out of gas... The dealer claimed they could recalibrate this so it would not happen again.

I think these are the issues that are nonissues. I will live with a fast swipe speed if they attack the power train and rattle issues...

 

I would agree that these are 'non-issues'... that is why my original post called them annoyances to begin with and not issues.

The annoyance with the low fuel light has nothing to do with me fearing that I am running out of gas (as someone mentioned above) but that the light is on more than it needs to be. The car is designed to go much further before that light needs to come on. I don't want a car that has a 40 gallon tank but the low fuel light comes on after using 10 gallons... that is an annoyance.

The fast wiper thing is another annoyance. I currently own two other honda products as well as my family owning 2 other Acura products (all of which are less than 2 years old). Every single one of them has a slow swipe (as does every car that I ever owned and currently own). To me (again, this is an annoyance to me) this is a pain as, for me, it does not do a good job of cleaning the dirt/grime off of my windshield. It does great if there is nice clean water on the windsheld, but if it is covered in salt/grime, then it doesn't work.

Anyway I do like the car overall and think it is a great bang for the buck.

 

lol non issues... Sounds like sloppy assembly.. You could have gotten the monday am hangover chevy there...

9 annoyances in 6 thousand miles... sounds like an annoying car to drive...

 

The stale/mildew smell is a common problem on a lot of cars. I had the same problem with my BMW BTL (Before TL). The air con creates condensation in some vent areas and the water sits after you stop your car. Then the mildew builds as the stagnant water sits in the vents. BMW cleaned them for me and then told me to turn my air off and run the fan about 10 minutes before arriving at my destination every time I had the air con on. RIGHT. This would dry up the condensation. Well needless to say why would I have air if I am going to turn it off while I am in the car for 10 minutes? So the smell went away for a month or so but then came back because I didn't follow instructions well. I don't know if this is the same problem with the TL but it wouldn't be a total shock if it was the cause.

 

You should have seen the list on my TL, makes this look like a walk in the park.

 

I have the same trunk problem and took it in yesterday. the technician claimed it was normal.... i dont get it