I have a 2004 TL auto and recently I've experienced starting problem. Sometimes the car will not start. The engine did not even crank but the electronic and Navi were both working fine. To start the car, I have to shift to netural or shift to R/D and back to P. It seems to me that my car "think" the transmission is not in P position andrefuse to start. I have asked my dealership to check out the problem and they said they cannot reproduce the problem. Can anyone help? Thanks

 

Sounds like it is the neutral safety switch, which lets you start only in park or neutral. The dealer should be able to figure that out from what you told them, and it is an easy fix. I think it is located in the console next to the shift lever, but they will have to remove the console to do the job.

 

The mechanic in Acura did not think this is caused by the netural parking switch. He thought it's caused by the parking pin switch. But I still have the same problem after he changed the part. Can anyone give me some suggestion.

 

I have a 6MT, but my wife had a similar problem this morning.

She went out to start the car, put the key in, turned it and the starter wouldn't turn over. All systems were alive, it just wouldn't engage the starter and she did have the clutch depressed, she made a point of mentioning that.

I had already left for work and she called me on the cell. I doubled back and got home about 10 minutes later. I tried my key and this time the engine turned over, but it wouldn't start. It acted like it was flooded, sort of sputtering. I kept cranking until it finally started.
After that I tried restarting a couple times with my key and then with her key and it seemed to be fine. The battery wasn't the problem because it had plenty of power to turn over the car once the starter would engage.

It was as if the security system wasn't reading the key transponder and was refusing to let the engine start.

This is the first time the car has behaved this way.

 

>>It was as if the security system wasn't reading the key transponder and was >>refusing to let the engine start.

i suspect the key chip would not allow cranking (if it were not detected).

 

After 6 months, I'm still having the same problem. The dealership claimed they made some adjustment and then send me home. I just want to see if other TL owners have experience similar problem.

 

Mine started acting up just las weekend. It cranked and started. After 5 seconds it would stall. Cranked it up again and started and stall again. It did this 5 times before it was OK. Has not happened lately. Very weird. I will take it in if it persists.