I just lost the transmission in my '06TL the other night at 73k miles. It's at the dealer being repaired out of warranty for a whopping $4551.43 + tax.

I had gone through 3 (all warranty covered) on my 2002 in 115k miles, but I thought the transmission issues were resolved in the 3rd gen vehicles. Is this not the case, or did I just get unlucky? The service guy at the dealer had told me he had only seen two other 3rd gen TL's with transmission problems. But then again, I wouldn't really expect him to tell me they are dropping like flies either.

Dave

 

100k powertrain warranty?

 

ya i would check on that warranty... you should be covered

 

Why isn't it covered?

 

Besides the warranty issues here, what were the symptoms? You probably had bad 3rd and 4th gear sensors improperly diagnosed as a bad transmission.

 

My 2006's transmission failed after 375 miles. We picked it up brand new on a Thursday by that saturday I had to have it pushed out of parking spaces, becuase it wouldnt go in reverse.
57,000 miles later the new transmission is still goin strong

 

op, do you change your atf regularly?

 

That's an outrageous price... is that with the core exchange? If not then I'm guessing your case must have been damaged, otherwise they are bending you over at that dealer. The 3G TL has far fewer AT's going out but there are inherent issues since they're basically a tweaked form of the 2G AT.

 

define "regularly". On my '02 I changed the ATF every 30k or so, and still went through transmissions like water. This time around I decided to do my maintenance "by the book", so no, I never changed the ATF.

 

Hadn't realized there was a different powertrain warranty period, I thought it was all up at 4yr/50k. Just downloaded the '06 warranty booklet from acura, powertrain is 6yr/70k. Looks like I just missed it. I didn't argue too much figuring I was 23k over my warranty, but now that I'm only 3k out, I may have to start arguing a bit harder. I guess I should just call acura directly, I doubt the dealer will do much for me since I've green lighted them to do the work already.

Anyone had any experience with this?

Thanks,
Dave

 

I have no idea... after barley making it home Thursday night from work, trying to get it to the dealer friday morning (backed out of the driveway and couldn't get it to go into drive, so I had to push it back up the driveway and call a flatbed) I just wanted the thing fixed. Dealer called me at the office with the number, I didn't get specific details about core. I can't imagine the case would be damaged though...

Yet another thing for me to check on Monday.

Has anyone had a tranny replaced by a dealer out of warranty? If so what did you pay?

Thanks,
Dave

 

Thursday morning leaving the house, I noticed it hesitated for 2-3 seconds going from R->D. I just chalked it up to the cold weather (i didn't really let the car warm up at all, usually give it a min while I run back in the house grab my coffee, etc). Drove the 25 miles to the office without issue.

Coming home thurs night I went to pass someone on the highway, gave it a bit of gas as I moved out of my lane, it downshifted out of 5th, didn't catch anything, heard the engine scream and saw the tach out of the corner of my eye swinging wildly upwards. As I let off the gas and swung back into my original lane, it seemed to catch fifth gear again and it was mostly fine on the highway.

Once I got to the local roads it was a handful. Just about every time it shifted it would slip out of gear for a bit, and eventually pick something and as long as I was very easy on the gas and kept it under 30mph I was able to keep it moving with it only popping/slipping out of gear every once in a while. (I tried playing with manual mode to hopefully hold it in a gear longer, but it didn't work. A few of the times when I moved the lever over to manual I didn't even get the display on the dash with the number of the gear it was in).

Got within 2 blocks of my house stopped at a red light and couldn't get moving again. Tried shifting from N->D, P->D, R->D, nothing. Shut the engine off for a minute, started back up, and managed to limp it into my driveway. The next morning I couldn't even get it into drive, so away it went on a flatbed.

I was hoping it was something as simple as a pressure switch somewhere, but the dealer told me the trans was completely shot. I really don't have any way of confirming that though.

Dave

 

even if your 3k over the warranty, I would still discuss with them firmly on having them replace it under good will.

 

hmm. dude that sucks...About a week ago i went to pass someone and i had the same thing happen. Didnt catch on the downshift and tach started screamin so i let off and then it caught. No other problems problems since, but FUCK i'm 2 months out of warranty. I only have 48k on my 05 but 4 yrs was Sep.1 SHIT!!

 

damage from downshit/missed shift overrev on the manual trans cars is NOT COVERED

however on the OPs car- call acura immedialty 1-800-382-2238x5
What probably happened was a service writer saw opportunity to make big commission money and did not have the MANAGER contact acura to get a goodwill situation in motion
Thats crap!!!
If you cant reach the service manager, call acura direct and ask for a real warranty rep to call you
Mention past gen2 ownership with trans probs and still bought a gen3....
Corp appreciates loyal customers!!!

 

fireguy dont worry about mile limit- everything is negotiable and acura has a well known odometer reads fast problem

If the trans didnt hook up (auto trans only) and caused overrev- thats warranty because trans has a problem

 

That's too bad. It's not often an auto trans loses all gears at once due to mechanical failure. From what I've seen, the dealer really has no knowlege diagnosing auto trans problems to they replace it. Hopefully you can get it warrantied. The best thing you can hope for is it does the exact same thing with the new trans and you get a refund and they have to properly diagnose the electronics.

 

Sounds like it was a hydraulic issue. What was the condition of the ATF? was it low & burnt? I paid $3k to have my AT replaced by Acura with the core exchange. Definitely don't agree to +$4.5k R&R bill.. that's almost the same price of my bill without the core deposit. Your case wouldn't be damaged unless you hit something, which is unlikely. If your case was damaged then your insurance would cover the repair if you file an incident report. What dealer are you having it repaired at?

 

ATF level was fine. That was the first thing I checked. It was a little brownish (not unexpected after 73k miles) but did not smell burnt at all. The car is at Open Road Acura in East Brunswick NJ (where I bought it).

I've definitely never hit anything worse than an occasional pothole, certainly nothing that would have cracked the transmission case (tires on the other hand...)

I'm going to call Acura corporate this morning and see if there is anything they can do for me. I've owned two TL's, was planning to get another in another 25k miles or so, my parents own an MDX, prior to this incident I had convinced my boss to go look at an MDX for his next truck (he hasn't bought yet), so I'm certainly a loyal enough Acura customer that I'd hope they will be willing to work with me considering I'm barely outside my warranty period.

 

I have not noticed any other problems so since then. Its been a little over a week. I checked the ATF and it looked just fine and smelled fine. I've owned the car for a year now and bought it with 25k. I changed the ATF at 35k. It was done at the acura dealership i always take it to. I had issues with my ex wifes 03 accord V6 with the tranny, so i just thought i would maybe help prevent any probs with my TL. It now has 48k, and i'm going to call pohanka acura today and see if they will take a look at it. Bc i'm having this freakin chirping/rattleing noise comming from the engine that i took it there 4 TIMES to fix during my warranty period, and i asked them to take a look, and they said they would look/fix it free of charge since it was not fixed when i brought it in 4 times last year.

 

^ Fireguy.. I thought you were selling your TL?

 

I hope it works out. Usually the dispute period is before the repair work is done. Hopefully you're holding off. I'm sure that since you've been through so many issues and are a loyal customer that they'll goodwill a large portion of that bill, or at least the new trans. Best of luck! I'd be weary of that dealership.. you should ask if anyone has experience with them in the regions section.

 

Yeah i was. I was going to buy a corvette, but talked my self out of it. Decided i love my TL and i only owe 8k and pay $198/mo, why put my self into more debt? I'm never going to make my down payment back. I decided i want a truck but i drive 50miles each way to work 3 times a week. So i'll wait till i pay off the TL, use it as my commute car and then maybe buy my truck. I'm only 26 theres no rush!

 

Well....Just got off the phone with a service advisor. He said thay the " NEVER " see issues with the 3G TL trannmissions. I told him what had happened and that i'm 2 months out of warranty. He admitted that what happened was not normal and we could take a look at it, but it would i'd have to pay..Thoughts?!? cuase if this tranny's getting ready to take a shit, i'm trading this bad boy in now.

 

How about the 5% mileage increase for the warranty from the class action suit?

 

my local shop has seen several.. and they are seeing many more now. The chirp / rattle could be timing belt related btw.. check out the TSB, there's a little video in there of the sound. Not sure if they did this yet..

http://www.in.honda.com/rjanisis/pubs/SB/B08-031.pdf

Hopefully if they can't address the issue.. you can file a lemon report since you've gone in so many times on the same issue and you did so while you were still under warranty. You might not get a corvette out of it but they may at least give you the retail value on the TL. Bad luck but good choice to keep you debt low. .. I think the 3G TL is a reliable car otherwise. Hopefully things work in your case.

 

Hi Guys,

I have a 2007 TL-S, drove off the dealership in late July 2007.

So, the car is still pretty new, just over 2 years and around 32K miles.

These past few months, I had this issue that the car would not move...

I've notice it must be something with the transmission, like I'll shift to D, and hit the gas, and the car would not move forward, and not even if I put it in R...

And sometimes, after many intents, the car would move, but just slowly.

Some other times, I'll have to turn off the engine, and restart it to back to normal, so, this situation happened sporadically for the past 6 months.

Yesterday and today, the car would stop and go nowhere for at least 30 mins...

And the engine icon light would be on most of the time this happened, and sometimes VSAS icon light would be on too...

And yesterday, the Navigation showed a transmission problem code P0796...

Has anybody had this P0796 before?

 

I couldn't really hold off. I gave them the OK to do the work because I need the car back in a reasonable time period (they had to order the trans, takes 2-3 days to get in from CA).

I called Acura today and they took my info down and said they will get back to me. Haven't heard anything yet. If I don't hear from them by tomorrow afternoon I'll give them another call. In the mean time I guess I'm going to enjoy the '06 RL they gave me as a service loaner.

 

That sucks dude. I hope i dont suffer the same thing. I'm just going to see how it acts over the next couple of weeks. Mean while they agreed to fix my problem free of charge with the chirping sound.

 

there is a used one on ebay for $250 i would have tried that one before paying that much, thats crazy

 

Wow you would really pay $4.5K out of pocket to get that tranny replaced???????? Thats insane.

 

Heard back from Acura, they are going to do it for $1800. I was hoping they would good will the whole thing, but it's certainly more reasonable then the 4500....

 

.. well free would be better.. but it's way better than $4.5k.