Want to race and see the result? . Slow could cause by several factors such as listed above or you get used to drive the car for a long time (if you had drove a car that was slower than your TL) and its time now to moving on to thing that has more power such as IS-F, M3 or even the mustang new 5.0.

 

Yes, OP, sell car buy racecar.

 

first off:

any 0-60 times you see in a mag are corrected for rollout and ambient conditions

second:

They brake torque the auto (hold the brake and bring the RPMS up to stall speed) or lauch the manual at a specific RPM. You do NOT want to do this every time as it will eventually

A. KILL YOUR AUTO (from the heat buildup)
B. TOAST YOUR CLUTCH
C. TEAR UP YOUR MOUNTS AND AXLES from the repeated abuse.

Paperboy 42190,

The TL-S is heaver than the base by a few lbs but has 28 more HP sond more torque. This is why it feels faster but really isn't that much faster.

 

TL base
Horsepower 258 @ 6200 RPM
Torque (lb-ft) 233 @ 5000 RPM
curb auto 3623 (add 10lbs for Navigation)

TLS auto
Horsepower 286 @ 6200 RPM
Torque (lb-ft) 256 @ 5000 RPM
curb auto 3674 (Navigation is standard)

TL-S 6spd
Curb Weight - Manual (lb.) 3559

The Manual is about 110lbs lighter

 

I say change the car intake back to stock and see what happens? You could also get the car dyno'd and see how much HP is being made.

The one question I have is: How are you getting your 0-60 time? There's a lot of error if you're using a stop watch. I hope you're using Dynolicious or better yet a track measuring device. You could have .5-1 second of error easily if you're relying on your phone's stop watch.

 

Hah! The TL is not a race car.

 

soo much wrong info in here

Problems with TL are low power and heavy weight....the minute you do mods intake/exhaust, you will be fine or if you reduce the weight, you will be fine....or both, you will be happy....

problems like heat soak coupled with weight really make the car sluggish, make sure you are monitoring the intake temps....if you relocate the IAT sensor, make sure you monitor knock....

also look into some weight loss...will help you get off the line a tad bit quicker...

 

Hahahahaha this, pulled tires, and -4 camber should make you way faster! LOL

Sorry to say but if you wanted a fast car the TL should not be even close to making the list, not even the Type S.

 

Buy more parts

 

I am surprised that none of you mentioned this, but what is your elevation? I am sure there is nothing wrong with your TL.

When I lived in Tucson and raced at the track there, the elevation was 3075ft. Most often the Density Altitude would range from 4200ft(winter) to over 6800ft(summer). You would be making a high of 88% of your engines power and a low of 81%. At that point instead of having a vehicle running mid 6's to 60, you would be running 1 to 2 seconds slower to 60 depending on the day. At sea level I was running 14.6 and at SIR in the winter I would run a 15.4 at best. The summer, I wouldn't go, wasn't worth it!

 

Looks like these numbers have been brought up already, but for those interested here is the TL info directly out if my 2008 Acura TL brochure.

EPA:
TL - 18/26
TLS MT - 18/27
TLS AT - 17/26

Curb weight:
TL w/o nav - 3623
TL w nav - 3636
TLS MT - 3559
TLS AT - 3674

Weight distribution:
TL w/o nav - 62/38
TL w nav - 61/39
TLS MT - 60/40
TLS AT - 61/39

 

That 3623 lbs on the base must be for an '07-08. The 5AT was in the upper 3500 range on the '04-06 and the 6MT base was only 3482 without navigation. I guess the turn signal mirrors, fog lights etc added some weight.

 

He stated: "Looks like these numbers have been brought up already, but for those interested here is the TL info directly out if my 2008 Acura TL brochure."

 

YeuEmMaiMai didn't state that, JTS97Z28 did, about a half hour before I posted. I'd quoted Yeu, then got busy doing something else before hitting submit.

 

lol at the TL being low power, you kinda funny there.. 33-3600 is pretty average for sedans and so is the power ratings for that size motor. the awd TL makes only a few HP more and adds about 700 lbs due to size and awd..

 

this is what am saying:

For simplicity, lets take HP @ crank and forget transmission losses...and lower lbs/HP is better

3G TL Base:
Power: 258 HP
Weight: 3600lbs
Lbs/HP: 13.95
Cost:~34K

3G TL Type S:
Power: 286 HP
Weight: 3600lbs
Lbs/HP: 12.58
Cost:~38K

2007-ish 335i
Power: 300 HP
Weight: 3600lbs
Lbs/HP: 12
Cost: ~43K

2007-ish 330i
Power: 230 HP
Weight: 3300lbs
Lbs/HP: 14.34
Cost: ~30K

2007-ish G35 sedan
Power: 260/280/298 HP
Weight: 3400lbs
Lbs/HP: 13.07/12.14/11.40
Cost: ~35K

clearly, the only similarly priced car which is lower powered than the TL is the BMW 328i....I didnot consider Audi since the quattro and all comes into the factor....

 

Redline Racing ATF = racecar

 

i def mentioned that lol

 

I'd look into a few things if it were my car and I wanted it to go "fast":

1. Maintenance - How long has it been since you've done a good tune up? Spark plugs, air filter (or clean if it's reusable on the CAI), Fluids (oil, ATF, PS, coolant). Always the first things to do IMO.

2. Heat soak - get rid of all that Tupperware in the engine bay to start with. Yuck.



That's better....



Clear up some of the restriction in the grill. Remove the 'mesh' behind the cross panel. I even dremeled the back of the plastic on the emblem.



Or you could even go all "shark mouth" like Tim did (I've thought about it....)



Ultimate cooling mod - Highly recommended (not my car - just a better picture than I have). Not for everyone, but it will keep the temps down.



3 - Weight. Get that TL's fat ass on a treadmill. Seriously.

Lightweight Battery


XLR8 Crank Pulley


Get rid of that front (and rear) 5mph bumper. You don't really need them. Well, unless you get in a wreck or value your radiator. But hey, live on the edge.


Ah, what a sweet trunk on our cars. Really quite nice.



Oh hell no. That's like, nearly 100 lbs. with the spare tire, trim, jack and panels. Sorry, not the best picture. And yes, I have a 12 lb. sub and amp (combined). Tunes vs. weight. Priorities.




And didn't the UA6 come with such nice wheels? Nope. Not at 25lbs. each it didn't.



Lighten it up a bit. Several lighter options to choose from. Enkei RPF01's are a start. 14 lbs. instead.




Don't have Nav? Don't worry about it. It's 12 lbs less you've got to lug around



Enough about weight. But lose 400+ lbs and it will be a complete different car. I've dropped over 500 lbs. now and I'll NEVER go back. It's too damn much fun to drive now. See this thread for more info:

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-performance-parts-modifications-112/m-010-putting-tl-diet-update-links-post-1-a-610974/

4. Mod it up. Especially the exhaust. Seems to me Honda engineers were more concerned about luxury and noise more than they were performance.

J-Pipe (RV6, ALTP or XLR8)



Catback - Ultra crappy picture (Tanabe Medallion shown - ALTP, RV6 and XLR8 all offer options).



Pre-Cat deletes or High Flow Pre-Cats (RV6)



Anyway, that just a start. The TL isn't bred to be a race car but with a little work, it can be pretty peppy.

 

I wanted to go to the weight loss topic but since many said "tl is not a race car", i didnt wanna push it LOL

 

Those guys have no idea about what modding is then.

Steven once said the best answer for it. "Because it's not a racecar, people try to make it a racecar"

 

Losiglow,
Holy shit dude, you took that weight loss thing very seriously haha :-). Are you serious though that everything you did added up to 500lbs? I mean, most of everything you mentioned weights literally nothing. All of those engine bay covers probably weight 3 lbs combined. It just seems to me that to attain weight loss like that you would have to do extreme stuff like remove all seats, door panels and center console...basically everything, and then at that point would just be pointless unless it was a track only car. I respect what your doing because let's face it, removing anything can only reduce weight, but 500lbs is pretty serious weight loss!!!

 

You'd be surprised man. Those engine panels are actually like 6 pounds or so if I recall - Inaccurate weighed every part he removed and documented it in the TL Diet thread. It's legit.

I did a bunch of the weight reduction mentioned here but I went a bit further. I removed rear seats, rear seatbelts, stripped the trunk, removed kick panels from the front seats, engine panels, 18 lb wheels, and a couple other small things and my car was weighed with over half a tank of gas at just over 3300 pounds. That's static weight loss. Lighter wheels, UR crankshaft pulley - i haven't factored in dynamic weight loss.

There's a 5 pound battery that I'm looking to pick up as well, so that's 35 more pounds. I still drive the car so I'd never go to the extremes of like 500 pounds but my goal is to be at about 3200 pounds of static weight reduction.

As for other people who say "LOL NOT A RACECAR". Well....yeah that's true but neither is a 335, or a G37, or basically anything else that people lump into the category of "cars you should buy instead of a TL if you want a racecar". They are all family sedans or middle of the road sports coupes. Easier to make power on a 335? Sure because it's boosted from the factory. No argument there. I mean shit a new Accord 6mt can run high 13's, lol.

I think people don't understand what "Fast" is. Competitors that run in the 13's are not "Fast". Decently quick cars, yes, but 10-11 or even low 12 second cars, they are not. I don't mod my TL to be "Fast" because it never will run better than high 12's when I'm done with it, but I know that. But having a 3200 pound TL with 330-350 whp and a shitload of suspension work is unique and way fun to drive, and still looks better than 95% of the cars on the road while doing it.

 

^^^ not bad at all. I drove around once with my rear seats not installed while installing lowering springs and never again lol. Sounded like a truck inside because of all the extra noise. You guys are pretty hardcore to be doing that lol

 

Are you running 93 octane ? Is it from one gas station? Maybe try switching up where you refill. Whenever I run BP in my car (07 TL-S), it runs like crap. Exxon performs well as does Shell. If it is across the board consider getting a fuel pump change and maybe an injector cleaning done.

 

dude, lol, picture with me if you will non-resonated atlp, j-pipe and pcd's, with completely stripped trunk and back seat area. I drove it with all those mods prior to putting the car on a diet, too - relatively speaking it is an immense difference in volume lol. Cabin is stupid loud.

I do not recommend it for more than the .001% of the population of TL drivers that are as nuts as I am.

 

O.P...Its an Auto, and heavy as shit..../thread

 

 

^^^

James, check my progress thread out....I have taken ~650lbs off the car and I do this in my fully bolted on 2005 5AT TL now....

its amazing a car that can do this:



can also do this 40-80mph in 3.7 seconds :

 

Well, the engine bay covers were more for the cooling effect. You'll notice that's under item #2 - Cooling. But no, I've removed very little from the cabin to try to maintain the 'luxury' aspect of the car. If I wanted a 'race car' I would have purchased one. I drove my father-in-laws Camaro SS around town for about a week, though I was actually quite happy to get back in my nimble TL after driving around a 4000lb. car with most of its weight on the front end. But I have a family to pile in the back seat, coworkers and clients to take to lunch and gas is pushing $4 a gallon. Therefore, I drive a glorified Honda

But yes, I've been somewhat extreme with the rest of the car. If you look at the list on Tim's thread, I've removed about half of what he has plus about 50lbs. of things he doesn't have mentioned:

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=610974

In addition, the manual is a good 100lbs. lighter or so which I haven't factored into my total weight loss but would be 100lbs. less if compared to his exact vehicle value. I've factored in dynamic weight for the wheels only, at a 1:3 ratio (ie. - 10lbs. per corner = 30lbs. per corner due to rotating mass). While it's cheating a bit when figuring weight loss at a stop, the science behind rotational parasitic loss is very real. Keeping something heavy moving quickly, even in a circle, takes a lot more energy than simply moving something heavy in a straight line.

Weight loss is just one piece of the puzzle obviously. Power gains should come with. And going extreme doesn't work if you plan on reselling the car. I've made very permanent modifications that would be quite expensive to reverse if I decided to sell the car. I don't however. It's a $10K car, if that, at this point. I'm driving it into the ground then either pawning it off to my son or spending the $$$ to keep it going. I could see myself doing bit of a restore 10 years out - new paint, stuff like that. I'd like to hope that an automaker will come up with something better at that point. But in my eyes, there are three desirable traits to a vehicle - speed, agility and a good price. It's hard to win in all three categories, especially adding luxury, reliability and looks into the package. Acura kind of dropped the ball on the new TL, especially with looks. Speed didn't get any better - still gnawing away at the old J-design. It was a great design - 17 years ago when it was introduced. And while they added AWD, they also added weight which isn't going to do any favors to handling or mileage. The TSX is a great looking car but no V6 and manual together. Infinity doesn't have any sedans that I find attractive. I've owned too many Nissan's in the past. I'm done with them. Lexus is ok but overpriced IMO - might as well go for a BMW. But then I'm scared to own a German vehicle because of reliability. I don't like dealers enough to be in their office several times a year. Domestics are powerful but huge. Subaru is my next choice if Acura doesn't pony up. The only thing keeping me from heading that direction is going back to a 4-banger, even if it's with FI. I like the sound and smoothness of a higher cylinder engine. The higher frequency of power strokes in a 6 or 8 cylinder engine is very nice compared to that of a 4-cylinder. I really don't want to go back.

And that, my friends, is why I still drive a 3rd gen TL and will probably only trade up to a Type-S when I get rid of this one While I have high hopes for the future of Acura, such as the "TLX", I have a feeling I'll be let down.

 

Very nicely said. All makes sense, but even though I'm not a fan of the 4G, I think it's amazing at how they made a 4,000lb car feel and handle like a Honda Prelude. The 3G truly is a great all around car. The reason I have one is because its styling, reliability, value, and believe it or not, because its FWD and great year round for when we get snow in the winter.

 

This has turned into how to destroy a TL thread. The bottom line is the TL is a heavy underpowered front wheel drive car. You can ruin it by taking all the stuff out of it like above, or you could use it like it is suppose to and buy a car that is fast. I use my TL for daily driving because thats what it was made for.

And I average 33 MPG without making it ride and look like a Civic. If you were to ever wreck that TL and I was the insurance company that insures it, I would take easily 1500 off the value as it is now below average condition.

 

^^^ You mod the car the way you want to....and who are you to decide whether someone is ruining the car by doing particular mods to it...

Looking at your sig, with the 440whp civic, I bet you modded it in a way it "wasnt supposed" to be modded from the factory....

and my TL is DD as well....its a 2005 TL with 172K miles on her...and because of the way I have modded her, I love driving her EVERY SINGLE TIME !!!

so please keep your 2 cents to yourself and hell have my 2 cents as well

 

... lol My bad, I'll leave it at that.

Edit: And I bet my Civic felt like it had more luxury then a stripped out TL.

 

^^^ you guessing? or sure?

 

Out of my way grandma

 

What exactly are the optimal shift rpm's for each gear for the base AT? I've never been able to find info on this. I can only find info for MT.

 

Naa, the OP asked why his TL is "slow". I've only seen suggestions in this thread. It's up to him how far he wants to take it.

Despite personal feelings regarding this car, at the end of the day its actual monitary value is quite low - ranging from around 6K for a '04 base with 200,000 miles to the low 20K's for a mint '07 or '08 TL-S with low mileage. Those values will continue to drop which means you'll see more people, many of which will be young, picking them up and modding them - reducing much of the luxury aspect in exchange for performance. It's been going on for years with all sorts of vehicles. The TL's no different.

Similar to JTS, I purchased the TL for reliability and FWD which is very helpful in Utah's winters. It's a good looking vehicle and well engineered too which didn't hurt. For the first year I didn't modify much of anything. But as I've owned it I've found that it has decent potential to be a quick and agile vehicle. As the mileage has increased and the value decreased (and the loan was paid off), I've found it fun to tinker around with. I don't regret it one bit. I'd do it all over again despite the hours of labor it's taken to get it to this point.

 

ummmm clean the air filter, new spark plugs and seafoam, change the motor oil. Car should feel much improved after that.