alphasux

Hey guys.. What's the deal with the Tow Hook under the trunk in the 2008 Acura TL. There's no chatter about it anywhere from you guys -- only about aftermarket tow hooks.

I was about to tow a rolling car (car in neutral kind of deal) with tow straps and then I thought.. "what if..."

I'm assuming that hook is there to get you out of a sticky situation or for a tow truck operator to be able to lift you up the flatbed trailer, so should it be able to tow a freerolling car? I mean really -- Two people can push the car without much grief.. I'm afraid about towing it up hills and the like.

Any guidance? I'd hate to tear a hole in my car. :P

Note: This is the thing I'm talking about. (from another post here. -- thanks stillhere153)

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

If you look in the owners manual you'll find that it is a rear jacking bracket to be used as a central lifting point for the rear.

nfnsquared

The owner's manual? Who reads that damn thing anyhow?

Jesstzn

And is also a rear tie down point for shipping.

vill0169

iTrader: (4)

It's a tow hook..... What's so confusing about it? Even though your whole post makes little to no sense, I'll ask this anyways. Why would you be towing your car backwards for any considerable distance and what do hills have to do with it? Basically, what the heck you getting at here?

No offense, but does anyone read what they post BEFORE posting it? seriously.

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

^^^ no offense to you, but are you sure you read the post? It makes perfect sense what is it your confused about? He was asking what the main use of that hook was. He stated he almost considered towing another car using it and probably posted here to make sure it was designed to do that if necessary. I saw nothing confusing in his post at all.

Anyway, to answer the OP's question I personally wouldn't advise pulling another car with the TL. Sure maybe a real slow pull at idle down the street would do no damage but the TL is not designed to tow that kind of weight and for sure not from that hook (I guessing anyway). The real uses were mentioned above.

James

vill0169

iTrader: (4)

well you must read gibberish better than I do I guess. But yeah, no one in their right mind would tow another car with a TL. Jack point/tie down/etc is fine.

alphasux

Thanks for the quick replies.

Essentially my roommates car had the clutch go out in a town about 90 miles out of town. (Shiner, TX).

On advice from the local AutoZone guys we were able to limp the car back to Lockhart but the clutch was slipping so bad at that point it was having problems overcoming the force of friction / starting from a standstill.

Maybe it's better now that the clutch has cooled but we just want to get the car back to Austin, TX to a repair shop (Groovy) to get a new clutch.

Essentially it's he's a grad student trying to save $200.

I didn't think my tow strap solution was completely unfounded. (we're both engineers!) but wanted to err on the side of caution.

vill0169

iTrader: (4)

I would just never put my tranny though that. especially for that distance.

I hate cars

Sounds like you got it handled. My car was strapped down there for the dyno. But that's a 3rd gear pull with virtually no shock to the hook.

csmeance

What did you plan on towing the car with? If it's a truck or car with a trailer hitch, why not spend some money at U-Haul and rent a vehicle carrier that attaches to a hitch.

I wouldn't trust towing a car backwards like that for 90 miles in neutral, esp if something goes wrong with the steering on the TL and you car ends up somewhere horrid. Also what would you do for brakes? have a buddy sit in the car for 90 miles and tell him every time he hits the brakes?

IMO if you don't want to spend a crazy amount on towing and don't want to be dumb towing it the wrong way, spend 50 dollars on a truck at enterprise with a hitch and then another few dollars at U-Haul for the vehicle carrier.

Also what type of engineering are you guys in? EE? Mechanical? Aerospace?