Hello All,

Brand new to the forums so here we go! I own a 2004 Acura TL(Silver) with almost 195,000 miles.

I noticed my car didn't want to accelerate instantly sometimes, then last week I realized that when I put the car into drive the green light on the dash wouldn't come on, I believe the system thinks I'm going to shift it into manual so its in some sort of in-between state. I constantly have to check and make sure the car is actually in drive(indicated by the green light on the dash), all other gears seem to work fine and its not even that it happens all the time only seems to be an issue once the car is already driving. If I am parked and shift into different gears it never seems to misread.

What can I do about that, is it a loose wire..?

Thanks

 

Take out the cup holder and the assembly that includes the 2 compartments and gear lever cover. On the left side of the gear selector, you have a small plastic part that is the light bulb housing, there are 2 black cable running down from the bulb and meet up with the rest of the harness a few inches down. If you follow those 2 black cables, it will bring you a little deeper under gear selector to a little plastic box held in place by 2 pins. That is the sensor that detects the gear position and sends signal to instrument cluster. Take it out, make sure its clean and the 2 little push buttons on it are smooth and don't feel jammed up.

When i wanted to wire something that had to pass under gear lever and cup holder, i didnt pay much attention to that sensor and when i put it back, it must have been dirty and maybe one of the buttons was stuck because the car would not let me remove my key, like if it detected i was still in gear. I took it apart and cleaned it with compressed air and the area around it and it worked again.

 

Ok in this video at exactly 5:40 I believe those are the black wires you are referring to..?
If I follow it up under the gear shifter I should see the sensor you are talking about. Thanks for the quick reply looks like a fun weekend mini project. Might as well change any burnt bulbs while I'm under there.

 

Pretty much the only bulb there is is the gear bulb. The closest one after is the one in the box under armrest and that one is accessible from inside the box anyways.

So at 5:30, see where the 2 black wire go in between an M shaped piece? right above and below that M you have 2 white rectangles, those are the 2 pins holding the gear position sensor. If you push those in, you will get the sensor free, you just need a little more room, so make sure all the screws holding the panel between the seat and gear lever are off, now take something that wont damage plastic and push on the panel towards the seat, you'll need to push it in about 1/2 in and you'll be able to wiggle the sensor out.