Praying that the dealer fixed my problem even though I have a high feeling of doubt that they did. I took it in this morning and they worked on a couple of recalls i missed and told me i have an nail in my tire and it will cost $320 to replace it. Among other things that didnt concern me at that time........ About the poor performance and bad mpg he said they did a diag. test and nothing showed up, as there was no CEL. He told me he reset the "learning" cpu that controls the throttle and air to fuel ratio. (I tried to do that myself but I dont think I did it correctly) Hopefully that works!! Its useless to have this car if im only getting 11 mpg. I might as well get a humvee!!

 

320$ for crappy mx4ms tires no thx. Biggest rip off ever.

 

ok, before we get any more ideas for what your problem could be, just tell me this.....do you honestly drive 60 on the highway? or were these 2 different occasions?

 

Honestly I usually did about 75+mph when I could. I used to get to 60 effortlessly........ Now, At this point Im so disgusted with my lack of power and poor mpg that i dont even drive fast anymore.

 

Is it possible there's a rag or something stuck in the intake tract from when the body work was done? I'd pull the whole thing off from the throttle body down and check it out. It's not that hard to do. Pull the air filter out and see what's directly below it...you may find the culprit just sitting there.

There's a relatively complex resonator system down in the lower front driver's side corner that could have been compromised as well. If you need further scans, I've got the whole service manual.

BTW, you can order that tire for about half the price from tirerack.com

 

i have no idea what's wrong with this dude's car....

 

Thats what the dealer told me.

 

Did the dealer at least TELL YOU that he agreed that the car was driving UNUSUALLY?

 

This could be so many issues.

I'm assuming it's not running rich because that would throw a light and you would smell it.

Something that might not throw a light is if the computer thinks there's knock and the timing is being retarded.

You really need a way to borrow a scanner and drive the car to actually see what's going on. If it's showing 20 degrees of knock retard while cruising down the road, you found your problem. Is there any excessive heat under the hood?

Does the exhaust sound normal? You can try unbolting the third cat and firing it up. Is it possible they crunched the exhaust somehow while in the shop?

 

Same thing happened to me - after I did the BMW test drive deal (fund raiser for breast cancer) drove the 135 and new M3 - after that my 04 AT TL sure felt slow!!

 

I got the car back today with the cpu reset and all. Same result............ Though I did stumble onto something. Is it normal to be in third gear at 20mph? The car shifts low @ rpms around 2500. That would cause a loss of acceleration and bad mpg right?? When I put it in tiptronic mode the performance got better because I was able to stay in the lower gears longer. I didnt drive enough to see if i really got a difference in mph and consistent performance. I want to test it out some more but we got a nice little snow storm here in long island today.

Could I have a tranny problem or am I just fishing?

 

Service agent did notice the low mpg but couldnt find what was wrong with it. Told me he couldnt locate what was wrong during diagnostic and that I would need to wait until CEL light or any codes to eventuallty show up.

 

So sad. It seems like all they're trained to do is repeat whatever codes they read. It's like they're not "techs" anymore and the basic knowlege levels is pretty low.

I would press hard to find the problem as quickly as possible. If there is a problem such as a plugged exhaust, or retarded timing, it can lead to other larger problems down the road if it's not corrected.

 

So the dealer also noticed the "sluggish" pedal response.. the tight pedal, etc??

 

Yeah they test drove it with me in the car, but they couldnt find any causes of the symptoms. The car checked out perfect on the computer. The SA told me that they reset the cpu and the car should drive better. Then because it sat for a month that i should drive the car WOT on the highway to possibly get rid of the symptoms. " This car is meant to be driven, i could cause problems if you let it sit around too long". I was told.

 

Complete BS. Find a new dealer.

 

I just took the car for a drive.... I drove it in manual tiptronic for about thirty minutes. I got 18 mpg/city, and the pedal/ throttle felt normal. On my way back from the dealership i was only getting 11 city/hwy combined.

The symptoms go away in tiptronic mode!!!

 

Is it shifting through all 5 gears on it's own? Is it possible that it's starting out in too high of a gear or maybe the torque convertor is prematurely locking?

 

Off topic, but this is how you reset your ECU? SO after I get a J-pipe, test pipe and exhaust in I can do this without disconnecting the battery?

To the OP, I'm interested to know what the Acura Service Department says too. I think it may be the timing. In my old 97 Civic, I had your sluggish pedal feel. I just tweaked the timing through the distributor and it pepped right up. How does your car feel when it idles (the same)?

 

It sounded like a sticky throttle body or bent/sticky TB cable, but you say the pedal symptoms go away in manual mode, idk.

Good luck and I don't know why people insist you go to an Acura dealer. 90% of dealers, and everyone I've ever dealt with exhibits no mechanical intelligence and only an eagerness to make money off unrelated quick fixes.

 

Because he's already been to three non-Acura dealers and they didn't seem to manifest enough intelligence to figure it out ... and Acura stealerships deal with 99% Acura vehicles day in day out .. sure they wanna rip you off, some do some don't, but this "unique" problem may be be diagnosed at an Acura dealership.