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?

 

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

 

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.

 

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..

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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...

 

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,

 

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.

 

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

 

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...

 

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.

 

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?