OK. I've found my biggest complaint. The doors sound great when the windows are up - a nice "thunk" that says "solid".

But when the windows are open, the door rattles and sounds thin and cheap! Do all Acura's have this characteristic? Do the MDX and TSX do this?

Acura makes a big deal about the sound of the doors - see the virtual showroom with sound samples. It's hard to believe they let this go by.

 

Just noticed another thread on this topic with several comments on how silly it was to be concerned with the sound of the doors. Well, to be honest, I probably wouldn't have even considered it unless it was a quality pointed out to me by both the Acura virtual showroom and some Acura sales people that showed me the car. I've never concerned myself with the sound of doors before - it does seem silly. But when the point is made by those selling you the car, you take it away with a feeling that this is indeed a cool thing. It's too bad that you later find out that it may be a bit of smoke and mirrors. If the doors were indeed of that high a quality, they would never sound cheap. If they rattle, then don't point it out as a selling point!

 

This is pretty characteristic of the door sounds on Acuras and Hondas alike, at least in my experiences. I have owned both types of cars, and have always noticed that the doors have rattling issues. In fact, the window rattle is one of the only problems I had in my '01 CL Type S

 

I just went out and did some investigating. The rattle does not occur at all in the rear doors. It occurs in both front doors with the driver side being the worst. The rattle disappears if the window is up even an inch. I wonder if the windows are set to retract too low and the panels hit together to cause the rattle.

VTEC=Happines, did you ever get your CL rattles resolved?

Again, this probably wouldn't be an issue with me if it hadn't been a selling point. As it is, I'll be talking this over with my dealer.

 

yeah i started a thread and then the flamers showed up

if you look at the inside of the door as the window opens completely, you can see the panel moving!...

 

The issues with the CL never got resloved. It spent many cold lonely nights with the dealer, and they never got it quite right. In fact, by disassembing the door panels and taking the windows off the tracks to try and fix the problem, it was actually made a bit worse.

I wish I had better news.

 

My wife and I recently stopped by the dealership to check out the MDX to replace her Accord and while there I got my first look at the '04 TL. I wanted to see how it compared to my '03 G35 sedan. The driver's side window just happened to be down in the car in the showroom so when I shut the door I was suprised to hear a rattle. I opend and shut the several times just to be sure it wasn't a fluke. Sure enough, the rattle was still there. I asked the salesman that was assisting us about it and he said that it didn't sound right and said the door may need some adjusting. When he asked another salesman about it, the other salesman said it was normal. Huh? $35000 for a car and the door rattles when the window is down? I found this hard to believe so I tried it in the MDX and damn! the same sound was heard. I couldn't believe it. I then had to try it out on my car. Guess what? It didn't rattle. Hmmm. I wonder why Acura can't get this right?

 

You found the secret Acura doesn't want ppl to know about...

Some of 04TLs do have lots of rattles, I ever heard one of ppl complaining about this, IMO, it could be rare issue.

I ever saw some dealers still having their early VIN, early-built, 04TLs in their showroom, this could be a factor. Plus, thousands of visitors have opened/shut doors times, any careless dealer will make this case even worse if they don't do well maintenance.

 

Nah, it's not a rare issue. Our 99 Honda Accord does this, and my 21XXX VIN 04 TL does it too.

 

this is ridiculous. go to a mercedes dealership or lexus or bmw and do the same thing. the acura sounds as good or better than all of them when you shut it with the windows up. how often will you shut the door with the windows down using the same force? personally I cannot see a reason why I will and even if I do I dont care what it sounds like. I did it with a tl in the showroom of the dealer I purchased from and the difference is significant but no rattle. I figured out why the window up sound was more solid. but to me its pointless.

 

Try pushing up and down on the trunk lid when its open, with your hand on either end. The you`ll see flimsy!:wow: