IMO, the defining piece that makes the car "A-Spec" is the presence of the suspension. The wheels are secondary and every thing else is cosmetic.

 

here is my concern... i have a co-worker who has a regular TL and the height difference and wheel have have a noticeable difference. The other issue that i'm having is the placement of the "A-Spec" badge. It seems awfully low in comparison to all of the other A-Specs that i've seen.



I'll try to post pics of the steering wheel as well as the door jam later today.

 

cant fully understand your first sentence, so there is or is not a difference in height/gap? from that pic you look like you have the aspec suspension, but the pic also makes your tires looked stretched which will change the appearance. what are you tire size specs? i know for my car i have like 2.5 finger gap between the front tire and the fender and 1.5 finger gap in the rear...and my fingers are not that big. and yes, the badge is a little low.

 

let me clarify, my co-worker has a tl and when i park next to him his car is higher than mine. The wheel gap is different, my car sits lower. I'm questioning this based on another thread in the photograph gallery where i've posted the pictures and people seem to think that this is not a real A-spec. The placement of the badge seems quite off. Also, since the a-spec package is a dealer option what effect would that have with the sticker in the door jam? I would like to get to the bottom of this, but i like the car either way.

 

As I mentioned above, IMO, if it doesn't have the A-Spec suspension it isn't an A-Spec. Your suspecion on the badge is correct. Looks like someone just bought a badge and slapped it on. The "official" placement is is dictated by directions which the dealer has on hand and it looks like this:

 

Word. I may have the aspec body kit, but I'm not going to put on that aspec badge even though I have brakes and suspension that I consider better than aspec, and even though most people wouldnt even know otherwise.

 

Wow! Don't know where my writing skills went there for a bit. Here's what that post should have said:

"As I mentioned above, IMO, if it doesn't have the A-Spec suspension it isn't an A-Spec. Your suspicion on the badge is correct. Looks like someone just bought a badge and slapped it on. The "official" placement is dictated by directions which the dealer has on hand and it looks like this:"

 

The badge can be slapped on anywhere. I'm not sure if these cars come from acura as aspec or are converted to aspec by the dealer (in which case badge placement is up to the tech). Where did you buy your car from? The fact that it has an aspec steering wheel leads me to believe it really is aspec (the aspec wheel is several hundred dollars) but if you're really concerned, take it in and get the suspension inspected. The fact that ur car was lower than a base is a pretty good indication of aspec. Chances are they either didnt put the aspec wheels on, traded them out with another vehicle, or the previous owner sold them/had them stolen. Perhaps the aspec badge was stolen as well, in which case the previous owner could have ordered and slapped a new one on.

 

^ it can be slapped on anywhere, but there are instructions to the "correct" location to install it. i am pretty sure its in the Garage section somewhere... i am pretty sure its all done at the dealership, but it is all suppose to be done to an Acura "spec" and registered as so in order to be a complete aspec vehicle.

 

gotcha. well the sticker means that at one time the car had the 18" apec wheels, and either the owner asked for the base wheels, they were stolen, he kept the apsecs or sold them and swapped the base wheels when he sold it to you or back to the dealer...or some other variety of situations. your tire pressure should be 32F/32R, not 39F/36R. i had this discussion with my dealership recently becuase they kept messing up my pressure. stock wheels/suspension have the same pressure front to rear, while the aspec wheel/suspension has a higher pressure and the fronts are a few psi higher than the rears. i asked the tech why this was (why the same 32/32 pressure in the base but different 39/36 pressure in the aspec) and he just gave me a dumb stare.

 

I got a 6spd Type-S just to be safe

 

Yea those A-Spec rims are def. not lightweight! I weighed my chrome-looked A-spec's before i sold them and got an average of 27.3lbs without tires. pretty dam heavy.

 

Bottom line:

If yours is not an A spec from the factory...

Then it is NOT an A spec.

Put yours back to original - sell the parts - you are better off.

If anything, you have devalued the car IMHO.

 

What are you talking about? There were no "Factory" A-Spec TL's. The entire thing is a dealer add-on.

 

DOH!

I was thinking Type S... my mind was on something else - too many cars, options I have... (9 of em...)

 

Ahhhhhh....okay. That makes a little more sense. The OP is about A-Spec's, not trying to turn your base TL into a Type-S.

 

lol