Greetings all,

I've recently purchased a 2005 acura TL with 168,000 miles on it. Carfax was as clean as can be only one owner who took very good care of the car and no damage/accident reported. Was always on top of regular maintenance and oil changes up until he got rid of the vehicle. Last maintenance was done 167,651 miles. Car ran great for the first week. Drove from PA to NY (where I live) and it drove to perfection. A couple of days ago I was driving on a service road at about 40-50 mph when the malfunction indicator light came on. I went to Auto zone and they scanned for the code and came back with code #P0741. Now according to the service ticket they gave me it says the "definition is: TCC circuit stuck off" and that the probable causes can be:

1. Low transmission fluid level
2. Poor electrical connection
3. Failed TCC solenoid (Blocked Passage)

Now I have a couple of concerns... First of all I have seen other threads dreading this code and eventually having to swap out transmissions and other threads mentioning that it may be the torque converter. My transmission shifts normally, no slips, no stalls, nothing. Could this really mean that in my situation that my transmission is on its way out? Is it possibly the torque converter? I have checked the tranny fluid and it is not low but its coming back kind of brownish.

If all fails I do have a 3 month/4,500 mile warranty on the car that covers engine and transmission so either way I'm going to call the dealership and tell them that I'm going to take the car to an Acura service center to get the vehicle serviced and this problem taken care of... and they're going to have to pay for it all. The fact that I haven't driven the car 1,000 miles yet and this popped up is totally unacceptable.

Another quick thing I wanted to throw out there is that the autozone service ticket with the code on it says " OEM Number to Cross:P0741" now I'm not sure what that means exactly and maybe I am reaching for some hope here but could that mean that they had to cross reference another code (actual code that car gave) and it came up to being similar to this one (so they went with this one instead) which maybe means its not the tranny? lol

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you and have a nice day.

 

you could try some seafoam in there to try and clean out the passages and dissolve some of that gunk. but that code

P0741 Honda - Torque Converter Clutch Hydraulic Circuit Stuck Off

for an o4 TL at 55 engine RPM should be around 1500 or so

 

Thank you very much for the reply.

I must admit outside of the regular things I'm not super car savvy. I'm just starting to get into learning about how's things really work and function together. When you say to try and put some seafoam in there where exactly do you mean? And if you don't mind can you point me in the right direction on a brand name for the seafoam not sure if anyone will do.

As far as what you said about for an 04-05 TL at 55mph rpm should be around 1500 or so is that normally how it should be or is that how it would be if the torque converter was the issue? Haven't noticed what it sits at around 55mph I'll try to get back to you on that one.

Once again thank you for the help.

 

that is normal engine speed in 5th with torque converter locked up. If your over that by a good amount you got issues

 

Thank you for the reply.

I drove it a bit on the highway today and my rpms at about 55mph in 5th gear were steadily at 1500-1800 so that's good news.

I checked the fluid today at normal engine temp and it looked to be fine after first check but after putting the dipstick back in twice and wiping, the fluid level was almost right on the min fluid line so maybe it just needs a little more fluid?

Thank you for all of your help so far. Have a nice day.

 

Sorry for the double post but I forgot to ask something. If I decide to add a little fluid is it ok to add it directly through the dipstick hole? It's an awfully small hole and I can't find a place that sells a funnel that fits in there so just want to make sure I'm not adding it through the wrong place.

 

just take the nut off of the top of the trans and add it here. I believe it is 17mm