Hey all,
I'm new here, but I'm long overdue to create an account.

READ ALL PLEASE


I bought my TL back in January 2025 with 184k miles, and now about 250 miles away from 200k.
For the first couple of months she shifted like butter. Trans fluid done around 20k miles prior and I had no issues. About 5 months into ownership, I started noticing that right after an upshift (usually into 5th at 20-40mph) after an hour or so of driving, my RPM would fall about 2-300, and a grinding "brrrr" noise would ensue. It would bounce up and down as well, and eventually it got worse to where if I was in any kind of traffic it would grind BAD after every upshift, and I could only "snap it out" of it by throttling it out, but as soon as it upshifted it would go right back to it. Even while driving around my suburban town, after about 30 minutes on a warm sunny day, it would grind verrrryyy bad, it sounded TERRIBLE like shit inside the trans was definitely grinding. Like. Awful. And my RPMs would just flail up and down every other second by 3-400, with the grinding noise going along with the RPM. This was about 5k miles ago.
I came to the conclusion it was the torque converter, and I ended up contacting the previous owner about it and he said he had replaced it at around 160k, while on a road trip he stopped to do it. I'm not sure if it was aftermarket, but I can only assume so, as the maintenance he did is almost ALL aftermarket parts (timing belt, alternator, etc.) I can also assume it must've been pretty bad to have to stop in the middle of your hour road trip to change the torque converter.

About a couple months after first experiencing the torque converter symptoms, I took a trip about 2.5 hours away, and I was doing some very spirited driving on the backroads. I had calmed down a little as a cop was in front of me and I got back on the interstate at this point, but I was still going 80 mph behind him for about 5 miles. Then all the sudden I look down and my RPM's flail up to like 4,000. I immediately take the next exit, and as I'm pulling off, I'm going 40 mph at 3.5k RPM, and I'm locked out of 4th and 5th. I stopped at a gas station and let my car sit for about 15-20 minutes. It smelled like burnt pumpkin seeds inside the cabin, which I now know as burnt ATF. I had overheated my trans. I got back in and drove the remaining 50 miles home at 60 mph, all gears came back immediately and driving (seemed) fine afterwards, I knew I definitely fucked up though.

I did a drain and fill with 3 quarts of DW-1 around 5k miles ago, with my mechanic telling me to come back to do another 3 quarts in a couple of months. It seemed to fix the issue for a while. But that only lasted about 2-3k miles, until it came back (around 197k, video attached is at 192k) , and this time it kicks in a lot faster. It is also temperature dependent oddly enough, as far as on a 30 degree day, it might take 30-60 minutes for the grinding to kick in, and even then it might not until I get into traffic. On the highway I can drive with no real issues. But this past week it hit mid sixties a couple days and my car was a nightmare to drive. After 5-10 miles of driving, on multiple occasions it would start grinding harshly after most upshifts, with the RPM flailing 2-300. Key note is this never happens when the car is cold, only after its warmed up, which makes sense kind of as far as the temperature aspect goes.

Which leads me into my next issue, which is on colder days, even 35-40 degrees, after I pull off from a cold start, (but leave car idled for 2-10 mins before driving always) the car hangs gears for very long, and when shifting the entire fucking car jolts, and your body moves with it. You wince it every shift. I owned a J35 Crosstour with 226k miles with the 5AT, and never experienced ANY shifts even 10% this harsh. It smooths out when warm, but even then you can feel most shifts. Not EVERY shift when FULLY warm, but most.
And even when warm my car hangs gears, for example when pulling onto the highway WOT from 4th-5th, lately it will hold 4th for up to like 3 seconds, it feels uncomfortably long and it definitely didn't used to do this. Yesterday, I was driving and I also experienced a very rough shift from 2nd to 3rd, the RPM flailed like 2 times and it almost didn't want to go into 3rd, then it did. The next 2-3 shift felt very quick after, I think the ECU may have been adjusting to the slip.

The day before, I started my car and drove 10 minutes to a drive thru. I pulled out of the drive-thru, and my car felt like it was 10,000lbs with an inline 4. I was probably 30% throttle and going absolutely nowhere, maybe 2 mph. I felt something was very off. I drove 50ft forward to the stop sign, came to a full stop, and turned left. I gradually in a span of 2-3 seconds got up to 3,000 RPM, going about 40-50% throttle at this point. I look at my speedometer and I'm literally going 5 miles an hour. I slowed down at another stop sign about 200ft in front of me to turn onto the main road out of this parking lot, and as I'm slowing down my car JOLTS back into a gear, it felt very shitty and though I didn't see my tach, it moved my whole car, I turned onto the main road at this point it drives home normal with no issues. Drove ok the next 2 days. It almost seemed like the car took off in like 3rd or some other high gear and stayed in it until it corrected itself prob 10 seconds later. Very, very weird.

Any suggestions on where I go from here? I called my mechanic and I'm draining 3 more quarts of DW-1 on the 26th of this month, which was the soonest he could get me in. I'm debating on bringing him another 3 quarts and having him drain and fill again after he does the first 3 quarts.

But assuming this doesn't fix it and my trans is too far gone, what do I even do? Because right now I think I'm dealing with a bad torque converter, as WELL as transmission issues.

Has anyone had success just dropping in a used trans off car-part.com or something in their TL's, particularly the 5 speed? I want to make this car last a while. Thank you!

 

Replacing an old transmission with a used one is common practice; these automatic transmissions are very reliable, so they're inexpensive. There are tons of 5speed transmissions on eBay; you can order them and they'll easily deliver them directly to your shop or home.
Here's an example.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/25645858989...temCondition=4

 

Yeah, I was a little worried about the complexity of the AWD system as far as the trans replacement route goes. I'd be taking it to a shop as I'm a young man with zero mechanical experience, just only (some) knowledge lol and I'm worried that the complexity of the swap will run me a lot more $$. I've been looking on car-part.com and I found a trans with 48k original miles for $650, it looks enticing, and if the drain and fill fails I should be going this route. I think I also need cams done though, so...

 

So even after all the horrid experiences you listed, including smell of burnt atf, you didn't bother to change All the ATF and just replaced only 3 quarts which is about half or probably even just 1/3 of the atf ?

do all these shifting and noise issues occur when driving in fully manual mode ? I assume your car has paddle shifters ?

If you feel motivated to do it you could do a full flush and also replace the atf filter and see if it gets you anywhere.

 

Your transmission is cooked, draining and filling is just a waste of money and time.

 

well when you put it like that lmfao
yeah i wanted to do a 3x3 but my mechanic said he wanted to go that route. on thursday i’m bringing in 6 quarts and having him go through with it all.
i don’t even use my paddles, i’ve used them probably 5 times total, early into ownership i downshifted into 1st at around 20mph 3k RPM and i heard a nasty grinding sound, don’t really use them now. I tried last week and the shifting with the paddles felt shitty and quirky, though no slips or anything, so I switched back to D


and isn’t the ATF filter like internal or something on the 09-11’s? It’s different on the 12-14’s for sure and a lot harder to access on the 09-11’s to my understanding

 

If you want to "save" the trans you need to swap out all the fluid, buy a case of it (way cheaper than buy the quart, I paid around $8 or less per quart for a case of 12 shipped from Bernardi Acura/Honda) and have the mechanic use a ATF Fluid exchange machine off the trans cooler lines (video I saw used a BG Machine), or do the ATF change with the drain and refill way (takes longer and is more expensive).

It honestly sounds like one of the clutches or the torque converter is toast. I would suggest a used trans and before getting it installed, have a trans shop refurbish it with new clutch packs and upgraded parts like from a company like SONNAX to avoid more issues in the future.

Also while the trans is out have them do the rear main seal and also the gasket that goes on top behind the Rear main plate seal! Save some Labor $$$$ and do it while they are there. Also is your TL burning any oil?

Forgot to ask, are you getting a check engine light or check transmission light? They symptoms you are describing should be triggering some sort of light/caution message.

 

Thanks for the response, surprisingly, throughout the entirety of my ownership I have not had ONE check engine light. The only time I "technically" had one was when my battery died, and it had went away within 5 minutes, I'm assuming it was just due to that as that was over 12 months ago now and it's never came back.
Even when my transmission overheated, I didn't get a check engine once, its almost funny at this point.

I'm going to go tomorrow and pick up 3 more quarts, totaling 6, and fully drain it out.

And yes, it does burn. I've only owned it for 16k miles, but my experience is sometimes it'll drink 2.5 quarts in 2,000 miles, other times it'll drain like .3 quarts/1000 miles, it heavily varies. I do see that when I put straight 5w-20 in, it tends to burn off faster with STRAIGHT 5w-20 v.s. after I top it off with what usually ends up to be a mixture of 5w-30 and lucas (very small amounts).
I also am 90% sure I need cams. I've been driving with the noise in the video(s) attached since I bought the car (15.7k miles ago now).

It drives amazing though, especially before the overheating event. In May, I took it 14 hours round trip from the Chicago area to Columbia, MO, and she was pushed the entire way, and I had absolutely zero issues the entire way there and back. Took it on many other 2-3+ hour road trips, and I drive 80 miles 1x a week roundtrip, and as far as the engine goes she runs great, just ticks.

 

Make sure it's not the timing belt tensioner ticking. But if it's the camshafts ticking, it means wear particles are appearing in the engine. This means that during a cold start, these particles are directed past the filter, which in turn clogs the strainer in the block, ultimately causing oil starvation throughout the entire engine. Therefore, you should either replace the heads as soon as possible or you'll have to replace the entire engine.

 

I've heard valvoline restore and protect helping with the oil burning so you might want to look at that too.

Check the cam ASAP, very common on the 3.7L engine.