joerockt

Me? An 08 TL-S...

joelsaxton

Does anyone with an 08 TL-S have a pinging problem? Or is it just the 07?

joerockt

I poked through the thread a bit, and yeah, it doesn't look like the 08's are affected. So then begs the question of what did they do different on the 08's?

joelsaxton

Perhaps there was a difference in the engine machining and/or ECU on the '08. Just a guess. I also think the problem may be more frequent with the 07 TL-S with manual tranny.

How many with 07 TL-S automatics are having this problem?

joelsaxton

I just spoke to Acura corporate yet again. They said they were not aware of any such issues with the TL Type-S! I told them that quite a few people have complained of spark knock but I got nothing back from them at all. I think we all know Acura knows there's a problem here.

Basically it is more of the denial game that they have been playing since the beginning.

joerockt

I think you need to go up the ladder a bit further. Talk to the service manager of your dealer and find out who the regional service mgr is and talk with him/her. Just calling customer service and taking it in to the dealer isnt going to cut it. In any service business, we know that most customer service reps are worthless for things of this nature.

joelsaxton

Yes, I am trying to find the regional manager..

2007TL-S

Auto hear and I have the issue. However, it seems to have gotten better. The past couple days have been around 70 degrees and no pinging. The engines seems to be running leaner as well. Not all the soot from the exhaust as before. Not sure if something has changed or if it just in my mind but after 1 year and almost 17,000 miles could something have changed?

I hate cars

I should add that mine is not a type S. Could be a totally different problem. If anyone is in the Bakersfield area, feel free to come by and hook up the scanner to your car. I'm curious if all of these exibit the same behavior on the scanner.

nextech

I haven't loggined in in awhile, but this problems has been getting on my nerves for a while. Just so I have this right, does the noise sound like a bunch of pennies being shaken in a can? Well, if it does, then I have the same problem. I had this problem suring the summer, and winter now in NY. At first, I thought I was imagining things, but I guess I wasn't. I always use prem. petro 93 octane. I tried reading through this thread, but I couldn't read through all 600+ posts.

Overall, I like my car, but I'm finding little annoying problems with my car. Subwoofer rattle (even when the volume is low), right side mirror squeeking when reversing, squeek from windows when closing, and random rattles in the car. I'm just p*ssed because what good is active noise cancellation if your car rattles inside? I probably have other minor problems that I'm not noticing yet. I'm just disappointed because I thought Acuras/Hondas were "reliable" cars. I even chose the TL-S after test driving the G35x. I'm assuming that this rattle issues in unresolved after reading the last few pages of this thread?

Also, some of you guys seem to have a lot of time on your hands taking your car into the dealer back and back again. I work 6 days a week, 10 to 12 hours, and I rarely have time to take it in to the dealer. I wonder if I should even bother taking my car in... Well, I hope this gets worked out, and good luck to all that have this problem. I don't beat on my car, but I don't drive like an old lady either. LOL, I didn't even know there was a 08 TL-S until today. It looks identical to the 07 TL-S. Any differences between the two? It just suks because if I decide to sell my car, wouldn't the rattle decrease the value of the car? I have 2 years left on payments, and it would be a shame if I have to sell so soon because of so many problems...

joelsaxton

Nextech, the "pennies in a can" is about right. Acura has not, to my knowledge, solved this issue for any 2007 Type-S owners on this thread. I have taken the car in three times for this problem, and although I replicated the issue on the last visit, the tech claimed he didn't hear it. So they have no documented verification of the problem. Additionally, based on what Acura corporate tells me, this problem does not exist. If I could take legal action and lemon this car, I would - but I don't like my chances..

Brettg

You are going to have a hard time getting the engine to ping in the cold winter.
Hot intake air really promotes the pinging, and you wont get that till summer...

On the positive side, you wont get much engine damage all winter, and maybe Acura will come out with a fix by summer...

Brett

FRST4DR

Mine is an Auto.

Bearcat94

2007 TL-S, 5AT.

And like Brett mentioned, little or no pinging since temps have got below 65 - 70 degrees.

Unfortunately, spring and regular 65 - 70 degree temps are just 4 to 6 weeks away.

nextech

Thanks for the reply joel.

I was getting the noise even in 30 - 50 degree weather. Maybe it's not pinging?

usequal

07 Non S auto here and i definitetly have the pinging....went away with the xylene....so we know that two different motors 3.2 & 3.5 that acura produced for the 07 TL has this problem....i hate my car because of this issue...i can't wait to get out of it.

Handruin

I'm going to try and get some audio of the problem from my 07 TL-S M/T this weekend if I can. Anyone have a good suggestion on the type of microphone to use to record the engine? I'm going to place it inside the hood in the engine bay and run the cable to my laptop inside and record as I drive around trying to reproduce it. I'll try to isolate the mic so that vibrations don't affect it as much. This way everyone here can listen and agree/disagree if it's the same noise.

I've found more often the knock/ping occurs when there are 2 or more people in the car. The extra weight helps to cause it to happen (at least that's what I've noticed).

evanj5

So is it confirmed?? This is only happening with 07's and not 08's ??

I would really like to know. Maybe people with 08's havent had their cars long enough.

I am going to try and reset the ECU tonight and then tomorow when car is in learning mode I am gonna drive hard for 10 miles and see what happens.

I hate cars

Mine is an 06. It's starting to make a low pitched bassy sound from the exhaust. Every little thing is scaring me now that it has a pinging problem.

evanj5

I reset the ecu and from my initial pulls the 2nd gear ping was gone, however the 3rd gear pinging was still there. The pulls felt smoother and more powerful and my passenger agreed.

FRST4DR

My ECU was reset due to my battery being dead for a day. I had the same results but now after a couple of weeks with the new battery all my pinging is back. Still the same range. 3 to 4k in the rpms and under moderate throttle.

So if this is not happening on the 08's why has Acura not produced a fix for us. I still think it's computer related.

I hate cars

This is telling me these things are meant to adjust to the pinging point and are using the knock sensor actively to tune the car. When I need gas I'm going to do an experiment. I'm going to use 89 octane and reset the computer. After giving it a few minutes to relearn I'm going to put it on the scanner and see if there's any difference in knock retard. My guess is there won't be a difference.

This would explain why it pings all the way up to 96 octane on my car. I think they get it right on the edge of pinging and then when you fill up with gas and get a slightly different batch with maybe a point difference in octane and it pings like crazy.

joelsaxton

Acura's regional case manager for our area is James Wong (800) 382-2238 x115297. I think we should all let him know what is going on, even those of us who are not in SoCal, since he seems completely unaware of any pinging issues with the 07 type-s (at least that's what he said when I spoke to him).

I hate cars, if I were a little closer, I'd love to test my 07 TL-S on your computer.

I hate cars

If you're ever in the area, feel free to use it. I do lots of trips so if I'm ever in your neck of the woods I'll let you know. I'm interested to see actual data compared between different TLs with and without the pinging problem.

2007TL-S

Forget what I said. This @#$%^@# thing is pinging again. I don't know how much more of this I can take.

ntan

I've tried my best to read all of the 25 pages... read through 15... and I figured it be better if I just asked.... I have the 08 Type S... since I'm really unsure whether or not I have this problem.... do I just go to the service centre and tell them to check for this? TIA

joelsaxton

I am willing to bet that the 08 does not have this problem, but I can't be sure until more 08 owners start posting here.

Bearcat94

I would't do that. The two most likely things you'll hear are "We could not reproduce the problem." and "We are unaware of any such problem with other TL-S's".

Here's how you know.

Put your car in Sport Shift so you can control the shift points.

Now moderately accelerate (say 1/2 - 3/4 throttle) from ~2,000 - ~4,000 RPM in 2nd gear.

As you get to ~3,000 RPM listen very carefully.

Now upshift to 3rd, and do it again.

If you've got this problem you should hear a rattle sound in either 2nd, 3rd or both at around ~3,000 RPM.

The sound will seem to come from the engine compartment and just above your right foot.

It'll sound like "rattling spoons" or "shaking pennies in a can"; It'll sound exactly like what I imagine chattering valves would sound like - a metal-to-metal clattering.

It'll be easier to hear on a warm day with a warm engine, but if severe enough may be present at any time.

junktionfet

I drove my TL for the first time in quite a while and was greeted to the lovely sound of spark knock. I think it's beginning to grow on me. Maybe that's what Acura is counting on.

The one thing that helps my car is me driving the sh*t out of it. After really driving it hard, the pinging seems less severe. This could be attributable to a reduction in carbon buildup or just that the ECU has done some correction.

Perhaps we should just drive our cars abusively in order to reduce the pinging. Tech Line advised me to "shift deliberately" into 3rd gear, perhaps their solution to the pinging will be to drive it like it's stolen.

With advice like that, Acura needs to change its emblem from calipers (which depicts accuracy/precision I guess) to something depicting a roll of duct tape and some bailing wire.

evanj5

Resetting the ECU has helped a lot. I kept pushed my car in the high rev band for awhile after resetting it and now even the third gear ping was reduced.

joelsaxton

They just reset my ECU too, and it seems that the pinging has also lessened. Although it still seems to be there.

evanj5

Yeah it is still there. However in second gear it is basically intirely gone. I tried very hard to reproduce a ping in second gear and only once did I hear a very faint sound might not have been pinging.

If I am in third gear cruising at 3000 rpm and hit the gas, before I reset ECU it would ping like crazy now it doesnt.

The only time I am getting a bad ping still is when I hit second gear at like 60% throttle up to like 4800 rpm do a moderate shift into third hit the throttle and the ping is loud and clear. Happens sometimes from 3rd to 4th gear as well.

I am now confident that if you go buy a CAI and do the ECU reset and some hard pulls through entire power band that the ping is going to be recuded even more.

Car feels great after the reset. Throttle responce is better and pulls into high rev bands is smooth.

There are some serious screw ups in the programming of our ECU.

christian256

I brought my car into my local dealership last week for both the pinging and the M/T 3rd/4th gear issue, along with a few smaller problems. Unfortunately, it was cold enough at 7AM that I couldn't really get it to ping. I would begin to barely hear it, then it would go away. So, I'll have to bring it back in a month or so when it gets warmer. There were, however, a couple of related and semi-related items that came from the whole deal.

- I had a 2008 TL (non-Type S) loaner for the weekend. I even filled it with 89 octane gas and couldn't get it to ping at all, even in the afternoon when it was over 60 degrees. It only had 1700 miles on it, though, if that makes any difference.

- I know the transmission problem is off-topic, but I thought it was pretty interesting that the service manager and I got into a heated discussion over the issue. He maintained that the transmission was designed to be that way, I guess like someone said at the beginning of this thread about the pinging. I now have an appointment with the District Parts & Service Manager next week, with whom I'll discuss the transmission as well as the pinging. I also called client services about the transmission and she told me she heard that complaint quite often. Why Acura chooses not to correct the issue when they're obviously aware of the problem is beyond me, but it falls right in line with their apparent attitude towards the pinging issue. I guess they're figuring that a relatively small number of people choosing to buy a different brand is cheaper than fixing their design flaws... I know that I'll certainly be moving to Infiniti or BMW for my next purchase if nothing changes...

CedarLake

I was the proud owner of a 2004 manual, no pinging, no 3rd gear problem, no rattles from rear deck. I must admit the engine didn't sound quite comfortable at high revs but it still went...with a smile. In Canada we couldn't get the manual with Nav in 04. Dealer offers me great deal on new 06 man/nav (no type s in Canada till 07) and here I am with all these problems. I thought I was just adding voice command/gps. I also find it strange that we all seem to get exact same reply - this has to be rehearsed, globally? Ouch

Bearcat94

[off topic]

christian256,

So as not to take the pinging thread off topic, I tried to send a PM that might help, but you don't have enough posts yet. If you've got all this already - .

Suggest you reveiw these threads regarding the transmission (if you haven't already).

https://acurazine.com/forums/car-talk-5/honda-6-speed-manual-dilemma-article-382010/ - with video of the 3rd gear problem happening in real life.


3rd Gear Shift Problem:

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169391
https://acurazine.com/forums/ramblings-12/nothing-much-only-nws-%2A56k-will-die%2A-134379/#post1702236 - The "big" 3rd gear thread

A search of "Synchromesh" will turn up several others.

You might consider printing those threads and/or showing that video.

[/off topic - ]

evanj5

Going to be getting serviced next week and listed this as a problem. Ill update everyone has to what they say about it.

I am very interested to see this dealers reaction and they should not have a problem reproducing the ping thats for sure.

silverbulleTL

you have nothing to loose. i use w30 in my wifes car and it seems to have the engine temps slightly lower. its not a type s, but it can possibly yield same results.

let me guess...the factory 5w20 is in ALL your cars with the problems, right? and all of you with this problem seem to live in hot climate, right?

flame me, or go try it. hope you get some better results.

why i suggest this, you ask?
whats 5w20 used for really? for quick early morning operating conditions. all for reduced emissions, and the faster it can warm to operating temps, the faster it can go to closed loop. and after it warms up...its only gonna stay HOT and get HOTTER in warm climate areas.

silverbulleTL

oh, p.s.- one of the FIRST thing i've noticed about my wifes 05 tl when she first acquire the car was why this car runs sooo hot and equipped with a front grill smaller than that of the 4banger TSX!?

the very first mod i've done and keep my wife's car in factory looking condition was
-remove the grill in the front behind the acura badge( this requires some skill and removing necessary bumper clips to gain access to rear of the front grille)
- (non fog light equipped 05 tl) remove driver side lower grill where fogs would be located. get a sharp knife, and heat gun, and cut a large enough hole for cooler/fresh air to access to the intake.
-water wetter.
-5w30 or 10w30 or stright 30. i've never put 5w20 into her car ever since if i was to change the oil for her instead of dealer.

NO pinging problems whatsoever.

seriously guys...try it and tell me what you guys all get.

silverbulleTL

another way to also asses this... the cylinder head near bulk head/firewall is the only one where insufficient heat dissapation can most like occur. reason why OP states the pinging noise is heard or felt through there. on bank number 1. with use of 5w20 oil where it becomes thinned out like water when introduced to excessive heat, the oil itself will not stay on the top of the head long enough to provide adequate lubrication and heat removal...

anyone else still love the 5w20 in their cars?

I hate cars

While I totally agree with you on the oil suggestion, mine has been running 5-30 since it's second oil change and is currently running a 10-30/30 with no VIIs and it pings. There is definately performance to be gained and probably less wear too from the thicker oil. The factory 20wt is for fuel economy, not low wear or performance.