That's a Damn good question!!! lol.. if they fix it, i will have it back today... if not.. it stays until i at least get back from vacation (Week of 6th). I told them flat out... if its not fixed you are keeping teh car... or i will be back the next morning. So its a wait and see....

Call the dealership and ask for Ray.. tell them you have a TL and describe the exact problem (cold runs good.. hot runs bad) you want to bring it. It will at least start the ball and minds rolling. If they dont mention having another car with teh same issue.. then you mention it. Tell them that you underand there is another TL there.. Black 08 with the same problem... see what he says. I am curious if he acknowledges it.

 

And my name is Charlie

 

Hey Charlie how did everything go at the dealership?

I called them a couple hours ago to do what we discussed and they were booked through the weekend until Wednesday. I scheduled the appointment and asked him if any other cars were brought in for the same reasons. He as vague until I mentioned your car. He didn't acknowledge you specifically but said there were other cars with similar issues but he wouldn't know until I brought it in.

Hopefully they fixed your car but if not I will be banging down there door with you. I have the Wednesday appointment.

 

Good stuff!

I actually stopped by there today to find out what was going on. So they replaced the fuel pump and the problem is still there (Shocker). But they did say that the car is a beast now at the start. They said it was actually off between 10 - 15 PSI not 3-5 as i was originally told. That came directly from the Mechanics mouth. I do have to say that the mechanic that is working on my car is really trying to fix this. He has been running tests on the car in all conditions. Hot, cold, running, in gear, while driving and idle. He ran all tests on the engine, etc. Now that the Fuel pump did nothing (as expected) Acura corporate in Cali feels there may be something with the transmission now. They are having the tech hook up the laptop to the car and go for a drive with the car in its worst possible state. Then take the data and send it over to them for analysis (this was done when they tested the engine as well). Transmission issues are in alignment with some of the earlier posts, but i guess we'll see what happens. My guess, A new tranny is on its way. Needless to say, they car is staying there next week while im away. I told them again, I dont want the car back until it is 100% fixed. He understood and agreed that they want to fix it and admitted to being baffled with this issue. The tech said he has worked on all kinds of cars, from all companies and has never seen anything like this. I admit, I do kind of feel special now

Well, god stuff. Maybe with both cars in there, the pressure will be on a little more!

 

Nice!!

Getting them to acknowledge the problem and attempt to fix it is half the battle right there so I am glad that someone is getting results or some sort of progress on this issue.

I thought about the tranny factor but the dealership told me that it was fine because there was no error codes.

Good luck with the car and enjoy your vacation. Keep us updated!!

 

So whats going on? What happened when you brought your car in? Mine is till there... lol.

They said that everything with the transmission is reading normal. Acura in cali decided that they want them to take snap shots of anther TL on the lot that is running fine and resend all the data for both cars and do a comparison. So that's where I am at now...

 

Well, put me on the list. I have an '05 6MT that I just bought used about a month ago.

My explanation of the bad times are "non-linear acceleration". Even if I'm speeding up slowly, I can feel the minor acceleration surge. I'd greatly love to see some kind of resolution on this. My car is way out of warranty and taking it to the dealer for days isn't my idea of a good time.

I came from a 330Ci ... and I'm not expecting that kind of performance from this car, but smooth acceleration seems like a simple order. My 2003 Maxima had a smoother powerband ... nevermind the Bimmer.

 

Let's hope one can be found. We all feel your pain!

 

It basically comes down to two things. Detonation or throttle position sensor. Run higher octane or put a gallon or two of tolulene in the tank. If it goes away you know the cause of the problem.

 

I took it to the dealership last week and they wanted to charge me $110 (1-hour labor charge) diagnostic fee just to take a look at the car. I was told that if they found something wrong that was covered under warranty i wouldnt have to pay for anything, but if they found nothing or if the problem wasnt covered I would have to come out of pocket.

I didnt trust them I and figured they wouldnt find anything wrong and charge unnecessary money so pleaded my case and eventually left. I made another appointment with rallye acura this Thursday b/c they never charged me a fee to check my car.

There is strength in numbers so hopefully others in our arear can be proactive and maybe they will take this issue seriously.

 

Is your car still under warranty?

 

I felt this today in my TL-S.. well I feel it a lot lately.. sometimes it purrs and really flies...and sometimes I feel like something is horribly wrong as my rpms are shooting up but I'm barely moving in mph...feels like a 4 cylinder.. weird shit....

 

I am out of the original factory warranty (4yrs 50K), but I have the extended warranty from acura.

 

So they called me yesterday. they claim to have fixed it... we'll see. They replaced the knock sensor, timing was 15 - 20 degrees off when hot. Should pick it up today during lunch...

 

That seems like a plausible fix

 

Well, I believe it was mentioned in earlier posts. However, that didnt fix his issue. But when he changed the IAC Sensor, it did. Now, I have already changed the IAC in my car, so if this does in fact fix it, im wondering if that guy had 2 senors messed up on his TL.

 

Well.... I think she is fixed folks...

They replaced the Knock Sensor. Their exact words were, tell your friends that if they come in with the same problem, they will now knew what to do to hopefully resolve. It's worth a shot... do it up Boys!

As a test, I was lighting up the tires around every turn possible with the car in 1st and the Track Control off. I had two other guys in the car with me as added weight for EXTENDED testing

If she holds strong for a week or so.... LET THE MODS BEGIN!!!!! I have my AEM CAI setting in the box still since CHRISTMAS! AEM, here I come

 

i hope that it is the case with my car too. Good work by the way, we all appreciate it.


also does the car feel stronger in general ???

 

Thanks

I'm not sure if I can say it feels stronger. Cause in theory, the car never felt the way it was supposed to when it got warm from the very start. Technically, I am guessing it feels stronger from the standpoint that it felt like SH*T when it was warm (which doesnt take long to acheive). I will say that I was tearing ass out of turns when I put the hammer down during my road tests. From a standstill I coulnt tell yet cause I had 2 other people in the car with me. I will be able to test the performance with just me in the car (from a stand still, etc) on my drive home in like.. 5 minutes.

I'll report back later...

 

I tested her out on my home last night and she felt pretty good. I'm going to have to test her some morethough to be sure. Tough to figure out because I'm not sure how she is supposed to run when she is warm. Def better though... Test more when I get home. I'm in atlantic city for a bachelor party.

 

make sure you let us know about any kinda progress... im thinking to give that one a try and see what it does for me...

thanx

 

Yeah, Charlie, I fixed my "other" problem with an APP sensor, but I sill get this un-even acceleration. I'd really like to know if yours is fixed after a week or two. Please keep us posted. If you have anymore problems, let us know what your dealer says. Thanks for taking the time to document all of this. And the hassle of hashing it out with the dealer.

 

Whats an APP sensor and what was the "other" problem?

No problem, i have been a member of numerous problems and have always received a lot of help. its time to repay where I can!

Here is what i can say. The car is def better! Around turns my tires hauls ass when i have it in manual mode. What i am trying to figure out is if they reset the ECU when they changed the sensor. If so that would explain the slowness off the line at any temperature and the car is going to have to "re-learn" how i drive and where i want it to shift, etc". I remember it being punchy maybe? or i could be imagining things. not 100% sure. if anyone else with a normal TL tell me that wold be great. I cant really chirp the tires if I stomp on it after then engines warms up, even slightly. When it's for the most part, cold, I can get some chirps out of her. It feels quick and it remains quick... but like all cars.. when u drive them REALLY hard like i was when i was testing it... its normal for them to slow down a bit. its def not as slow as it was before when it was hot... it def feels more responive through 1st gear when she is fully warm and beaten on. I just wish I knew EXACTLY how it is supposed to perform. If i knew, i would be able to answer my own question very easily. But again, its definately better!

 

Wow im having the same dam problem. When the engine gets really hot, and i floor it the rpms fly up, but the car has no torque, and the day before it was a beast. And i can't even chirp the tires flooring it through a turn even a sharp 1. MAN WERE'S MY DAM POWER>

 

the way that i see it is when the car runs great, like at night for example then you can feel the pull in any gear pretty much. This night for example i tryed in manual mode around 30 mph in 4th gear you can feel the car picking up without a problem.... but when its in that lazy mode i gotta press the pedal almost half way just to get the rpms above 2000.... when it runs great and you give it a little gas it jumps right away to about 2000 rpms...

i dont know must be some sensor related sh...t

 

APP = Accelerator Pedal Position. The 3G TL is "drive-by-wire." Therefore it doesn't have a TPS. It has an APP sensor that controls the position of the throttle blade. The APP sensor is basically the same, though.

The problem that I fixed was with the APP sensor. It was causing the throttle to be very erratic under about 1/2 throttle. It was bouncing around making it very hard to keep the car at a steady speed. I replaced the APP sensor and that problem is fixed.

I still have this acceleration problem that you guys are describing. Especially when it's hot. It seems like it has NO power. It definitely will not chirp the tires anymore. I would really like to hear what sensor will fix this problem. The IAT (intke air temp) sensor is really easy to change and should be pretty cheap, but if that is not going to fix the problem, I don't want to replace it. And what about that knock sensor? That is a little more involved as far as replacement. It is mounted in the top of the block under all of the intake and fuel injectors, right? I hope someone can provide an educated guess on this one.

 

well my car behaved much worse prior to changing the IAT sensor... but it didnt fix that problem completely. Its just that it takes a little longer for it to act up. I also recently purchased the ATLP exhaust and loved it a lot until the car started acting up, and when that happend the drone was unbearable....i would think that it was worse then on a 4 cylinder civic ....I came many times to the point of trading it in. Its a little hard sice a i traded my 6speed 04 tl for this 05 AT (big mistake i made). So now that this one is paid of im not really looking to lose any more money....

 

Charlie, it's been a couple of weeks since you got your car back. Is it still doing good with the new knock sensor? I haven't ordered any parts yet, but am thinking about picking up a knock sensor and IAT sensor. Just wondering if yours is still ripping up the rubber. Also wondering if anyone else has had their knock sensor replaced and seen any improvement. I'm still having the "ratchety" acceleration. Especially when hot.

 

This is a great thread! I'm starting to have the symptoms when the car gets hot. I know the part number for the IAT sensor, but what about the knock sensor? How hard is it to replace?

I would love to attempt this myself since I hate giving the stealership my money.

 

Good thread. Mine is doing the same thing but running race gas makes it go away so at least in my case, it's real knock. I did a water decarbonization so as soon as the good stuff is out of the tank, we'll see if it made a difference.

 

As discussed in this thread, we don't know specifically what component in the engine compartment is the troublemaker. But, there is a troublemaker. When that troublemaker gets too warm, there is trouble (loss of power). Instead of trying to solve who is the troublemaker, I decided to just make the entire engine compartment stay cool. Then he (whoever is the troublemaker) will not cause trouble.

My mod is not for everyone. But if you are daring enough and willing to make comromises, it will fix this problem.

The Ultimate Cooling Mod (click here)

 

i have a 04 tl with same problem. i have been attempting to fix it also. replaced iac. changed plugs with new factory oem NGK. replaced thermistat. While looking for different causes i seemed to have found a clue. Let me know if your car is doing the same pls. wasnt sure if this was a symptom related to the problem. The temp gauge seems to read fine at half way, and car produces heat through vent when ac off and vent on hi fan on hi. but when idling fo 1-2 minutes i can feel temp drop off at vent then regain heat when rpm increase. temp gauge remains half way. fluid is good. theremistat is good. no leeks.

 

that will be a tuff symptom to crack. the TL HVAC system will maintain whatever temp you had set before turning it off. as you move with the AC off, outside air will cycle through the vents and you'll feel whatever temp you had set trickling out of the vents. When you stop, no air pushes through the vents and you'll feel nothing.

 

i have the temp set to hi, and fan speed max. putting my hand in front of the vent at a redlight the vent feels hot but not hot enough to hurt. when i start driving i have to move my hand back from the vent so i dont get burned. i just noticed this a few weeks ago along with the sluggish performance. which i believe is heat related cause symptoms only apear when engine is warm, and disappear when constant driving like highway driving or parked long enough to cool down. i think its because the engine is not being cooled properly at low rpms, so the heat build up is causing engine to run sluggish. i lived in orlando fl. temps in sumer are 96+. car always ran great even for long city drives. my fans never once turned on when i parked my car after driving. i moved to pittsburgh a few weeks ago with temp below 87 and my fans run everytime i drive for more than 20 minutes when i turn off the car. Just a observation. but for me these problems seem related. wasnt sure if anyone might know more about this problem.

 

was spending alittle time doing research. has anyone ever suspected a plugged catalytic converter. i have 74k on my 04 tl. i went to ehow.com,they had symptoms listed along what to look for in a plugged cat, there list fit my cars performance almost perfectly. engine runs warmer than usual, lacks power with a hestating or bucking feeling. poor fuel economy.

 

That might make sense for me. I have the ol' Eshift Procats (pri/sec) on my car for two years now. They are notorious for early deterioration. I could be getting obstructed pieces stuck some where in the exhaust.

However I did change out the IAT couple of weeks ago, but only got to drive for two days. I've been out of town for the past week. It seem to have felt better. I will give more feedback when I get back.

 

05' TL... MT with 95k on it... I bought it from my uncle in 08' and had only been serviced at the dealer. I abolutely love this car but it's been a headache from the get go. I've done the 3rd gear repair already... a starter (unacceptable... way too early for a car with mostly highway miles) and I have wanted to address the loss of power issue but had no idea where to start. I'm gonna call my dealership this week and have them take it for a ride and change the IAC sensor. If that doesn't do it, this die hard Honda/Acura man is going to Toyota/Lexus.

 

order the precat deletes and have the old cats inspected. if they are failing, and there's been more than a few people with the sluggish problem, that would be a recall in my book.

 

Alright... but can you tell me what precat deletes are? I haven't a clue!

 

search, young skywalker. get rid of those stupid catalytic converters hanging off the exhaust manifolds. awesome mod for those that don't have to worry about emissions tests...