I had just gotten home from a 3.5 hour drive from Shreveport [I live in Dallas]. The following morning I was heading to class, and I made it only a few hundred yards until my car stopped accelerating and would just rev as if it were in neutral. not good. I restarted the car and was able to get a few more yards down the road so I could get off the highway. I had it towed to my local dealership in Irving, and they say its the transmission.

They haven't gotten back to me on cost yet. It won't be cheap.

There's only 95K miles on it, but they say that it's no longer under warranty.

I've done a few minutes of research and it would appear that the 2004 TL's were in large part recalled due to transmission problems. http://www.automallusa.net/2004/acura/tl/recalls.html

"Some vehicles were found to be subject to heat buildup between the countershaft and secondary shaft 2nd gears in the automatic transmission, eventually leading to gear tooth chipping or gear breakage. The problem was corrected by updating the transmission with a revision to the oil cooler return line to increase lubrication to the 2nd gear."

Not only this, but I was never notified of the hydraulic power assist recall either. A few months ago I was at the same dealership, and they fixed that problem for me, and were surprised I never received the recall notice. There appears to be a pattern now though.

This is going to be a MASSIVE expense if I end up having to replace this. Is Acura liable for any of this? Any advice? Thanks

 

You never know with Acura, usually NO, but if you are the original owner with documented maintenance history you got a shot@ a discount maybe 20-35 percent off. Your out of there warrant period 6 / 70 k miles, so they don't have to do anything. Private shops will provide a cheaper bill than others, do your research on this website. There is a plithra of information on this topic.

 

Would it be better to just... get a used car replacement? How much am I looking at? I do have a documented history with this dealership and my father also owns an RL so, we'll probably get a significant discount [or at least that's what the service rep seemed to imply].

 

You can go for a used transmission, but there are very hard to find. Although they are on ebay.com for sale. Im not sure about that route. let the dealer diagnose it and wait for them to give yours options, hopefully you have options. Also it doesn't hurt to tell the service manager to ask Acura for help. You have to get the dealer to back you if they got your back it makes dealing with Acura more favorable.

 

Yeah that's exactly what happened. He backed me and wrote to Acura. We'll see. Thanks for the help.

 

Call Acura Corporate HQ. I hear they are very helpful.

 

with the lower milage they might be willing to help out let us know how it goes

 

I lost my tranny at 93K, and the oil cooler had been upgraded within the warrantee. Pretty much it did the same as your TL. I doubt ACURA will give any discount, althoug I hope they do. It cost me $1,600.00 to do the tranny all new inside. It is as new, I am learning a bit more how to make it last with a few of the AZINERS, specially "i hate cars", he is very knowledged it the ACURA transmissions. Good luck!

 

O, and I have had mine since new, 2004!

 

Recent Success story.

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-problems-fixes-114/yet-another-serious-transmission-issue-almost-out-warranty-815616/

 

Its been awhile since I've posted here, however, i am not sure how the whole ordeal turned out for the OP, but my transmission on my 2004 Acura TL failed, i don't drive it very often at least not many miles, as of this date it only had 53k miles on it, i took it to the dealership that i bought it from, and i have gotten all my services done at either the dealership i bought it from, or a few other acura dealerships in the area. When i brought it to them i was told that to replace the tranny plus labor it would be in the ballpark of 4400. Even though i was willing to bite the bullet on it because i love my car and the miles were low, i decided to try to handle the situation with care. When i spoke to them, i pointed out that the car had low miles, never been abused, was taken very good care of, as well as i have gotten all of my services done on time. They were more then happy to work with me. They told me that they would talk with Acura. They did, Acura said they would pay for 90% of the repairs and the dealership said they would take care of the other 10%. It was a great experience.