Bob C.

I bought a gently used 2005 TL a few months ago. It had less than 13,000 kms. After driving it for about a month i came to the conclusion that I was travelling faster than the speedometer showed. I paced my car with 3 different other cars and it showed my speedometer was posting my speed at approximately 18 kms less than I was actually travelling.

My question is how common is this in TL models and is there an easy fix?

01tl4tl

thats a lot more than average error --5% high would be a lot!
Does it have stock size tires?

Pacing other cars means nothing-
its actual measure distance that counts!!
If you can use mapquest to plot a route from your house-to somewhere 30kms away, then drive it- mapquest gives the exact distance of trip- compare to your odometer.

Call acura customer service and ask if this is common- make a complaint file and a real acura manager calls you back in a day or 2.
There may be a TSB - tech bulleting or even a recall or secret recall!
See your local acura dealer and talk with the service manager about the problem.

Perhaps try a local speedometer shop- these things are electronic with wheel speed sensors giving the info.

Its far enough off to throw the warranty off--in USA there was a court case awarding gen2 cars 5% more warranty miles because some had a 3% over reading odometers

Bob C.

Thanks, I will follow up as suggested. The previous owner replaced the stock tire with a wider tread and a 40 sidewall instead of the standard 45. I spoke with a local tire dealer and he said the variance in speed would be very minor with that change.

trancemission

There is a warranty extension because of that. Its only like 5K miles or something.

My service guy was telling me that the other day..

01tl4tl

he is a gen3---are they still having same prob-
I know for sure gen2s (most of them) got a 5% increase in trans warranty from 109 to 114,5 to because of the odometer error- it was a court case

01tl4tl

a minor change in tire size like that would not account for the error
you can check any combos of rim-tire for speed change on tirerack.com or 1040tire.com


Its likely a speed sensor type issue- I bet the dealer has heard of it before, if not call acura care about it

trancemission

they must be, he looked up my VIN and that came up

01tl4tl

the things I dont know---about a car I dont drive...
much past my 01 I really cant be certain of

csmeance

The 04-06 TL had a lawsuit on this, and it was found that it shows a faster speed than what you are going, at 80 this can be upto a 4 MPH error. I got a new guage cluster since my lights went out and the new one acutally reads spot on...

vinsito

csmeance, do you know if this is affects all '04-'06 TL's? I noticed my speedo is about 3 MPH off anywhere from 40 - 80 mph. I asked the dealer at my last oil change and they said this is normal.
I'd like to find some more info on the lawsuit.
Thanks,

Bearcat94

Find someone with a Portable GPS Navi. One with the instant speed read out.

Take it on the highway, flat and level as possible, and set the cruise control.

After a few moments to stabilize, check the speedo to the navi. That'll give you a better indication of speed error than anyhting else you can easliy do on your own.


BTW - 18 kph is HUGE.

YeuEmMaiMai

I paced my CL-S with a Garmin GPS and the speedo was spot on until 40mph

40-50 off by 1 mph
50-80 off by 2 mph
80+ off by 3

after trans replacement

<50 spot on
50-80 off by 1
80+ off by 2

csmeance

I believe it was fixed mid 05, not 100% sure though. My suggestion is to get a portable GPS with speed display, or to find a S.M.A.R.T (the things that tell you how fas you are going on the side of the road) and go by that a few times...

TLTrance

Here's the final settlement details on the class action lawsuit against Honda, which was finalized on Dec 29, 2007: http://www.hondaodometerclassaction.com/

See this too (this one is more useful): http://www.odosettlementinfo.com/

Any MY 2002-2006 Honda or Acura vehicle purchased or leased vehicle 4/13/2002 through 11/7/2006 is covered by the class action lawsuit, including the 2007 Honda Fit.

Thus my 7yr/100k mi warranty is now 7yr/105k.

vinsito

I did try this on a straight flat road for many miles in Florida with the GPS running on my blackberry. I also have those side of the road radar signs new in my development and this is how i noticed it was off by 2-3 mph. As well the blackberry gps was saying i was going 2-3 less than actual speedo.
My wifes Jeep is spot on with both test methods as well. Being an Acura i would think they would be spot on as well, don't we pay more for a premium car?
How should i tackle this with the dealer if they tell me this is normal/acceptable?