Just discovered this web site and can't wait to tell my story.

I bought my Black MT 05 TL in April and absolutley love the car. No speed parts, all break in instructions followed, no abuse. Even stock the combination of looks, power and luxury continue to impress. If I didn't love Hondas in general and this particular car so much at this point though I might have serious misgivings.

I've owned an 83 Accord, 86 Accord 3 door, and a 88 Prelude 4WS. I "upgraded" from a 99 Prelude SH to buy the TL and had certain preconceptions and expectations re: handling. The torque steer was well publicized and can live with, but the overly boosted steering was a bit of a surprise. Also I suffer the 3rd gear balkyness that I have read others experience and am anxious to try the GM lube fix. I also experience some of the phantom rattles in the cockpit which defy localization. Mostly minor stuff considering the car overall.

But here's where it gets strange.

400 mi. after I bought the car the SRS light came on and required a trip to the dealer. The explanation was that it had a bad cell in the battery. Could have sat on the lot a long time etc. etc. It was replaced under warranty and all was well for another 7 or 8 thousand miles. Then one morning the SRS light came on again, a hassle I thought, but no big deal, I'll just have to get back to the dealer. Two hours later, while in traffic at about 30mph, while raining, the right front brake performed an UNCOMMANDED, full on threshold brake application. That's right, my foot was nowhere near the brake. The car veered dramatically to the right and if my hands wern't on the steering wheel at the time, would have gone off the road. In the course of this occurance the VSA light and ABS lights came on and stayed on. Truly bizarre I thought, figured I'd better call that dealer asap. After parking at work and getting back in the VSA and ABS lights were off. After 5 min of driving the same uncommanded right front brake application occured again, this time at about 50 mph. (eye opening)

Ultimately the dealer plugged the car in and it showed 12 error messages. The service manager, a twenty year Honda vet admitted having never seen that many errors occur on one car at the same time. Ultimately the car was at the dealer for a week. Corporate Honda was disbelieving of the number of error messages and my story of uncommanded braking until the dealership emailed the error codes and the error history to them. The dealer informed me that the computer indicated that the braking had actually occured three times, once without my knowing it.

The final analysis was that the "main computer" failed and in doing so sent out damaging surges or signals to the two front bumper crash impact sensors and the yaw sensor. The main computer and the yaw sensor are evidently housed within the center console and thus required many man hours to access and replace. The work was done as fast as possible considering a wait for parts which I imagine don't need to be replaced often and are therefore not lying around in warehouses. No complaints about the dealer though, I got another 05 TL as a loaner and regular updates via phone.

Hypothesis about why the computer failed---lightning strike. I think this is a long shot as there were no electrical storms about the time of the malfunction. The car has been great since then and I remain still pleased with the purchase.

I drive with both hands on the wheel now though.

 

that is quite a story and its amazing you made it out of that incident in one piece. glad your still happy with the vehicle.

 

That must've been scary. I'm glad to see you're okay.

It's a troubling thought that the car's computer has so much control over the vehicle that it can throw you into harms way and leave you almost helpless. Obviously, VSA intended purpose is good, but it has the potential to do some very bad things if it misbehaves.

Maybe there should be a standard big red kill/override computer button in all cars with VSA like technology?

 

The override is evidently the fact that within 1 -2 secs of the occurance all the electronics shut them selves off returning control of the car to me. When I read my own post it reminds me of something else I have been thinking. All my other cars were bulletproof. Other than some rust at the end of their lives...never any other problems. This is my first American made Honda. I don't know if this is a statement about American vs. Japanese build quality or work ethic, or if I just got a bad computer. I wonder where the computer is manufactured.

 

really appreciate you sharing the story/experience and not delivering it wrapped in an "Acura sucks" package. Luckily it was fixable and not a recurring problem for you. Great descriptive post - thanks.

 

good story sato, glad you're okay. Im gonna go with bad computer.

 

Maybe you got this guy's old car...

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...ight=wife+died

Don't worry, you didn't. Glad you're ok and welcome to the forum!!

 

Damn... glad to hear youre ok... A lockup out of the blue like that at 50 mph must have been an interesting experience.... I probably would have had to change my shorts....

 

Apparently VSA can kill you... I wonder if automakers are gonna come out with "VSA-assist" with second set of yaw sensor to keep you on track.

 

very good story....but at 50MPH damnn that must have been pretty scary

 

wow... what a scary story .. that's scarier than when my trannies failed on me on the highway in my old TL-S. Imagine if you were just cruising at 80mph w/ a couple fingers on the wheel.. that could have been bad. Glad you're ok , and glad they took appropriate action to repair it.

 

I agree with this post...

And it just proves you can post a short coming or issue with the car here and not get Flamed for it as long as you don't take it to the "I hate ACURA" or "ACURA Sucks" level right away.

Glad everthing worked out for you!

 

Amazing store indeed.
I think you are on to something with the location of the build of the vehicle.
I currently have 3 other Acuras that were all built in Japan. As evidenced by the VIN starting with 'J'. Have had no problems out of them. However, I have had a couple of minor problems with the TL that has required a trip back to the dealer.

 

That's some story. By the way, Sato does rule. Good thing they found a home for him.

Black/black 2005 TL
all stock

 

Amazing story. I hope that this is one of those random failures and am glad to hear that you are OK. As for the light steering, you can improve it with the A-spec suspension. It's firmed up the wheel a fair amount at low speeds for those of us who have it installed. Please keep us updated.

dsc888

 

I'm glad the car did not hurt you.

Some days I really miss my old 1989 Toyota Supra Turbo. That was the last car I owned that did not have some form of "driver aide". Too bad the baby seat was so tough to get in and out of that car.

 

Yeah, but does your TL rattle?

 

Nope, 100% free of rattles. The car is broken in now with about 12,000 on the odo and the engine has loosened up. Fast! No more computer issues at all.