6speed ftw

 

I knew from the beginning when I bought my car it wasn't gonna be the fastest thing in the world. I bought it because it is a sweet looking reliable car that rides nice with great features for the money.

 

I am no where near as "hardcore" as most in these threads. My advice is forget the numbers, if it feels quick/fast and you enjoy it, stick with it and be happy. My TL-S is/feels plenty fast for me. I miss the low end TQ that my previous car had, but that was a turbo and the TL is a different animal. Aside from the difference is the powerband and AWD, the TL is an upgrade all around and still makes me want to drive it. I guess it helps that most of my driving is on the highway where the TL does its best work.

 

Update: just got back from the drag strip. I took out my subwoofer in the trunk along with the spare tire. The best time I ran was 15.5 at around 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit. My three other runs were between 16.0-16.2 and I waited about 30 minutes to an hour between each run.

Here are the details of the best run:

60': 2.496
330: 6.805
1/8: 10.212
MPH: 72.86
1000: 13.113
1/4: 15.544
MPH: 93.11


I am starting to think it is my transmission not converting all the power: I did a top speed run the other day and at around 150 mph it seemed like the transmission had a "flare". It sounded like the engine was just revving up higher without giving the wheels any power. Needless to say that was the end of my top speed run, I slowed down and everything felt fine. There has been a 'whine' sound that I have been experiencing for awhile when I maintain a constant speed, it is most pronounced in 5th gear maintaining speed. Maybe a failing torque converter?

 

yea thats much slower than usual... have did you just leave in drive???

 

All of the runs were in the sport shifting mode, I think the best time I shifted 2nd to 3rd at about 200 rpm before redline, others were shifted just at redline. I tried both power breaking and just flooring it. Wheels were not slipping in the runs, I had full traction

 

Hey nice meeting you last night at the track. Sorry we didn't get the chance to run. 15.5 is not too shabby considering how hot and humid it was. My best time was 14.8 however my best time at this track this winter was 14.2 with the same mods I have now. 3.7 mani/tb, pnp runners, cai, IM thermal gasket, type s cats, rv6 jpipe, tb coolant delete. So in cooler conditions you car should run 14.9. Keep modding and swich your tranny fluid to redline and put in new trans switches is my advice.

 

Hummm, mid 15's in the low 90mph range? That doesn't sound very good regardless of outside temperature. Somethin doesn't seem right.

 

Nice meeting you too, we will have to meet up at a later race. I'm from Orlando but was visiting Sarasota for a few days so thought I would drop by the track. Ya I am going to keep modding, have a xlr8 v2 jpipe coming in and thinking about stock diameter lightweight pulley. Does the tranny fluid and switches help a lot? my trans in jerking when I let of the throttle a bit during 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd gear shifts.

By the way, did you see that 1500 truck loose his rear axle due to wheel hop?

 

power braking the TL trans for a better launch is bad. builds up a lot of heat. I hope you didn't do it too much.

 

dude, they sell stickers on ebay that give 10+ HP. I plan to get one soon. I think I am going to buy 5 and get 50+ horse!

 

that makes sense

 

noob.. Acurazine sticker is +100hp. I have 3.

 

Yup. Mlg.

 

Thanks for the advice! im guessing your next advice is an electric supercharger from ebay!

 

No, I missed that!

I sat in the stands and watched a bunch of races to scout what the other cars running. I saw a couple wrx's and speed3's running close to 16 and a new v8 M3 run 15.0 so don't feel too bad, poor guy really could not drive...

I ran a 07 wrx with a cobb tune, intake and exhaust. I had a crap launch and broke traction giving me a 2.6 60 foot time. I caught the wrx and beat him by a half car length and .2 on the 1/4.

 

I just remembered one of my battery terminals has been corroded for awhile, I've always just cleaned off the corrosion but never knew how to stop it from coming back. I figured it was just the result of having an external subwoofer.

Would this hurt engine power delivery at all?

 

whats your elevation?

 

actually yes....

read this thread:
https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-problems-fixes-114/finally-fixed-problem-tl-being-sluggish-no-low-end-power-882439/#post14363313

I think the OP had the problem and IHC and him switched to die hard platinum battery and rest is all history....

I have not done this but the couple things I have done is:
TB Coolant Bypass
Full Ultimate cooling mod
Relocated IAT sensor

I am thinking of doing the shark mouth grille....

 

you may want to hook a scanner up to see if you are reading 100% throttle (or close) at WOT. I was told at the dealer that the Accelerator pedal sensors are known to have problems on the TL because of heat from the exhaust. The TSX (i think) has the same exact sensor but no problems.

 

depends on what you are reading....relative throttle will always be 20-30% even at idle....at WOT, it goes to 100%....whereas absolute throttle will be 0% at idle and will max out at 75% at WOT

 

Most cars will only show ~85% as WOT. Not many will come close to 100%

 

ECHO






Echo







Echooooo

 

+1

Have the spark plugs ever been changed? You could also have either your precats or main cat slowly clogging up. Had that happen to my '02 Maxima, replacing the precats knocked the 45-85 time down by 3 full seconds.

 

Spark plugs should have been changed around 105,000 miles, car now has 130,000 miles. I actually just took a look at the precats and saw the front had a stain on the outer heat shield, almost looks like the heat shield is cracking. Here are pictures of it:







Also just changed air filter, cleaned battery corrosion, Added new jpipe. After this the car does feel faster, but there is still this hesitation almost like the car is bogging down in low rpm's when accelerating sometimes. It is noticeable now and then but I think something is bogging down the car. I am going to check the vacuum lines today.

 

^Which J-pipe?

 

XLR8 v2

 

 

The only thing I got out of this thread is one poster was happy to get out of a nose heavy RWD Camaro SS into....... A TL with 70% of its weight on the front end.

 

I've owned several Hondas v6s. Sadly that's just how they get after 100k miles. They get really really REALLY slow. U can do some things to help for example..
change your cold air intake filter
clean/change out your EGR
Get new coils
do a "fuel system cleanup"
make sure your tires are good
Do a valve adjustment.

Out of all of those suggestions the most effective change you will probably see at over 100k miles is from the Valve adjustment and the new coils.
sadly these cars are just horribly slow after 100k miles and theres not much that can restore what ultimately comes down to drivetrain loss. Hondas 5 speed auto is very inefficient. After 100k miles the valve timing will go off pretty anytime u engage vtech
Hondas are very reliable in the sense that they will start and serve their purpose for many many miles.. they are NOT however fun to drive for very long.
WHY are Hondas still considered great cars to do many ppl if there's so many small annoying things that impact daily driving? Simple! Because they're made well enough that the every day drivers will not usually notice these things that lead to power loss, long 0-60 times, and the occasional weird noise coming from the hood. As long as it's getting them to work they're good cars "so to speak"
as an enthusiast I notice every small change in my car's performance.. lol and I've learned many lessons with the MANY MANY little things that's I've had to repair on the Hondas I've had.
bottom line is --> Hondas are pretty decent. If you want speed, problem free, visceral driving thrills for years to come get something different. Can you go wrong? Ohhh Yea. Most likely tho.. you'll have a pretty decent car that probably won't have ALOT of MAJOR Issues.
P.S. some of them do loom really cool