I bought my car in the end of January brand new.

I now have 10k miles on it so I have some "history" to speak on...

I have read a few other threads that were similar... The TLS transmission is 'sport tuned' seemed to be the response that was given and the computer is always trying to stay in the right gear. Makes sense....

Here is my problem. I can very easily trick my car (not on purpose)- putting it into the WRONG gear.
It struggles to find the right gear going up and down hills. It seems to not know if it should shift or not at 3 gear. In a roll on situation, if I 'floor it' there is a HUGE (2-4 seconds) hesitation where the car downshifts, then--its almost like its saying FUCK I shouldn’t have done that yet, thinks about up shifting (or maybe downshifting two gears) but then reverts back to the previous decision. Then when it finally does shift into gear and start to accelerate-- the transmission is all choppy and the car sounds like shit. Not to mention in the meantime I might get Tboned by a car. Or worse yet lose a race to one of those G*damn Hyundai Tiburon’s.

My own personal conclusion has been that 3rd gear in my car is either really really bad- poorly tuned or both. I know that the 6MT has all kinds of problems around 3rd (one of the reasons I opted for AT), so I thought maybe Acura just doesn’t know how to do 3rd gear. As a side note…I blew a transmission when I was younger in a Honda Prelude. 3 rd gear was the first to go.

If I drive tamely, or start to go fast from a stop everything works flawless and I love the car...

Anyone else experienced this?

 

yup......i got a 05 TL AT.....and i noticed this problem only on 1 slope by my house......so i make a left from the light and the car shifts from 1st to 2nd and 'FUCK' what do i do now :P....lolz.....after 2 seconds shifts to 3rd and again......'FUCK' now what......the revs go upto 3000-3800rpm.......but it wont shift to 4th.....

not funny yet.....so i trick it into something.......i put it into sequential shift (manual for the ignorant).....and i put it in 4th.....and its fine.....revs go down.....then to play with the car i put it back to auto trans......and it revs back up to 3500-400rpm and gets into 3rd.....

and trust me this doesnt happen always......only on the slope by my house....:P.......

 

yea, there is a slope right by my house after a light where my car does the same thing to a T.

I also shift it into M when i want it to do anything specific. However, i have had a situation or two when i really needed to get out of the way and the car just kinda sat there. Pissed me off...

At least im not the only one

 

Can't comment about the delays you are speaking of since mine doesn't delay at all, no matter what the situation is.

About the shifting, Since both of you have noticed this happening on a slope, are you sure you are not experiencing the torque converter locking/un-locking?

On an incline, whether you are in full auto mode or sequential shift, you will notice the rpms change when the load justifies it......I jokingly all it a half gear, cause when this happens, the rpms don't quite go as high as they would if you were to manually go down a gear.
Hope this makes sense.

 

Hmm... it looks like the drive-by-wire throttle. My lexus does the same shit!!! I really hate it when the acceleration and deceleration are too "computer controlled".

 

I think you've got a few different things going on:

1. Grade Logic Control. Seems to create some "interference" with what you might expect on hills - refer to the Owners Manual for when this will kick in. And it'll kick in iin Full Auto and Sport Shift Modes.

2. Gas Pedal deflection. The tranny/engine will react with gear shifts, partly based in throttle input. Don't floor it, then ease off and don't feather it, then floor it. Either go 1/2 , 3/4 or full throttle and let the car work. By manipulating the throttle you *can* get the car to drop either zero, one or two gears.

3. Drive-by-Wire. Can/does create some hesitation. There are a couple of performance mods that will minimize hesitation - P2R Throttle Body Spacer and UR Crank Pulley.

4. Not using SportShift to control Gear Changes. In the current TL-S, this is the best way to insure the gear you get is the gear you want.

 

oh shit, now that is bad... a tiburon?

 

 

Its hasnt happened--its the thought that scares me.

Thanks for all the help-- i guess i am going to just have to use the M more than i would have liked. It makes me wish i would have just bought the 6MT. I didnt buy it because i drive over 1000 miles per week and it get old trying to shift while doing other things at the same time.

O well--still a happy TL owner

 

so you mean to tell me at 3500rpm the car is dumb enuff not to shift to 4th.....temme how would it kick in the vtec at 4200rpm then....... .......

lolz on a serious note.....whether you gas it or not.....the car speeds up on a downhill (inertia + momentum).....speed goes up so rpm goes up......at 2500-3000rpm (no acceleration) it would shift......if u have a heavy foot on the pedal then it wont shift up which makes sense......but with no gas-ing the car.....i think it tries to calculate on how you were driving and when to shift........

what bothers me is......when you shift up sequentially to 4th and put it back to automatic......it shifts back to 3rd......

 

Grade Logic is strange thing. I personally don't think it's particually effective. But to see if what you are experience is in fact Grade Logic, you've really got to look up the shift parameters in the Owners Manual.





This really isn't a surprise though, right? I mean, when you go into SportShift, you are saying to the car, "I will tell you what gear to be in". When you are in Full Automatic, you are telling the car, "You run in the gear you think is best".

The two systems (SportShift and Automatic) are totally separate, so there should not be an expectation that setting a gear in SS will have any effect when you go back into auto.