Hey guys, my car was having a weird burning smell after it sat for awhile so I took it to my very trustworthy mechanic.
He said I need a new clutch kit. My car has been garaged and babied since I got it at 11k miles and now it has only 37k miles.
Does anyone know if the 6MT TL's have an extended Powertrain warranty or anything like that ? It cost 1500-2000 to get this job
done and having the clutch go at 37K is ridiculous.

Thanks in advance.

 

No extended warranties that I can think of that will cover your clutch but damm that is way too early. I just got mine changed for the first time at 185,000 KM and I'm the second owner of my 2012 TL 6MT.

 

What did u wind up paying of you dont mind me asking ? I am getting quotes that are all over the place

 

I just had my clutch replaced at 150k miles a few months ago.

Paid $618.04 + shipping for the pressure plate, friction disk, release bearing, and pilot bearing from AcuraOEMParts (Delray Acura in FL), and $700 in labor from a local shop, so about $1300 total.

 

Hmm--I guess I need more detail from my mechanic. He said I needed the clutch "kit".
Which when I go to AcuraOEM parts there are about 55 things listed and some of them cost way more than 618.00...guess I need more detail.

 

Everything I listed pretty much is the clutch "kit". The kit just includes the alignment tool and some lube.

Exedy provides the OEM replacement (even the parts that I received from that Acura dealership were marked as Exedy parts). I just noticed it's actually a little cheaper ordering directly through them rather than through AcuraOEMParts even with the 5% AZ discount.
https://shop.exedyusa.com/exedy-oem/...i-2295578.aspx

 

the Acura's are one of the HARDEST clutches to master...
you've seen ceaser milan, right? the dog whisperer? it's mostly human behavior that causes dogs to go wild.

so, what i'm saying is; in the nicest way possible...someone, I dont know who, but someone incorrectly operated that clutch more than a few times.

 

Doubt that unless it happened before I got the car 4 years ago. I find the Acura clutch one of the smoothest EASIEST clutches to work with, for me at least.
I've been driving Acura/Honda clutches for over 20 years and this is my THIRD TL, never had a problem till now and I have driven a HELL of a lot more miles on my other TL's.
Parts do go bad prematurely otherwise everyone would just be going on and on about how great there cars are instead of complaining about things
failing when they shouldn't.

 

I ended up getting the clutch kit from rockauto. Came up to $580 shipped CDN and labour was $850 CDN. I called a few places prior and most places seem to charge around the $1000 mark for the labour.

 

clutches are wear items..l.i'm not saying you did it...just saying someone wore the clutch plates down...by improperly driving it.
and it doesnt matter how much experience you have....
one can wear down pressure plates pretty easy.

a human wore down the clutch by improperly operating the clutch.

only a human could do it...
the car cant prematurely wear down the pressure plate, because it takes a human to press the clutch.
the car cant automatically switch gears...

 

I'm on my original 2010 clutch and have 210,000 miles! Still no sign of clutch slippage. And my son learned how to drive a manual with this vehicle...

Guess I'm just lucky... Now if they could only solve the oil consumption problem....

 

No of course not...but I got the car with 11k miles on it, and the shifter has always felt great to me. Only thing I have done to it is add GM Synchromesh. So I dunno...
I had an 04 TL that was beat on much harder( I was younger then...lol) with 120,000 miles on it and never had an issue
so I don't know. My car is babied pretty much.

 

the clutch uses friction by nature. one is inherently slipping the clutch every time one shifts gear. by design.
if one is holding the clutch while on an incline, that could damage the plates as well.

 

My 2001 GSR sedan just turned 203k miles. Original clutch.

saw your thread and thinking of ordering a clutch to get ready for when it needs replacement

 

Actually they did solve the oil consumption problem.....

https://acurazine.com/forums/fourth-...-today-975428/

 

Hi,

I actually did have the oil consumption testing done; I only burned 8.75 quart per 1,000 miles and so I did not qualify for the "fix." Damn.

 

^^^^ The decimal point needs to move one character to the left

 

Hmm---after searching around the forum a bit, it seems quite a few 4G TL'ers had their clutch go around the same mileage.
Seems to be a low key manufacturing defect.
I talked to Acura care and they said they would consider a "good will adjustment" if I were to bring it in to the Acura dealer to diagnose being I have purchased 7 or 8 Acuras.
So I did...what a waste of freaking time that was. The dealer said their Acura field rep would need to have them do a tear down of my clutch assembly that would cost well over a 1000.00
to "consider" doing a good will adjustment. I asked if that was refundable, they said no.
What a load of BS that is. Dick move by Acura. I had it towed back to my trust local mechanic and got the OEM parts here for a little over 400 and will have my mechanic install it for 850.
https://www.lmperformance.com/857566...v6-37-awd.html .
Shout out to Acura for completely wasting my time and losing a number of future customers in the process.

 

^that's because the clutch is worn from user error.

 

Yeah, I've seen you play that card on other threads where the clutch died prematurely too and I didnt buy it there either.
I have over 800,000 miles of never killing a clutch(and a good 600,000 of that is SPECIFICALLY on the Honda clutch) so I dont go with your theory that it's user error.
I believe car Manufacturers screw things up (if that was NOT the case, we wouldn't have much of a forum would we ? )
and **some** of these clutches have a problem for prematurely going bad.
Just like
*some of the transmissions go bad
*some of the cars leak oil...
etc etc, and about 50 other issues.

Now as far as Acura is concerned--I would have been OK with them just saying upfront one of two things.
1) Your car is out of Warranty, there is nothing we can do.
OR
2) We require a 1100.00 (non-refundable) teardown of your clutch in order to determine what caused the issue.

If either of those things were said to me upfront, I could have not wasted my time taking it to a dealer.
Its bad business for them to go about it the way they did.

 

Cheapest I found from a reputable place by a wide margin. OEM part, brand new. Fast shipping.
https://www.lmperformance.com/857566...v6-37-awd.html

 

Did anyone remove the inspection cover and see if your clutch had any oil on it from a leaking rear main seal or something?

 

Not on Acurazine as much as before .
Cannot help but wonder if the burning smell you mentioned in another Thread and your Clutch issue are related. Possibly engine Oil leaking on the Clutch plate?

 

yep. Its the clutch. I am having it repaired as we speak

 

Maybe the non removable clutch delay valve has something to do with it?

 

Non removable Clutch Delay Valve? What's that?

 

https://acurazine.com/forums/4g-tl-p...linder-905162/

 

well, that's just another saying for "user error"

learn the characteristics of the car...the car doesnt learn you.

 

any luck with the new clutch?

 

I found the car to be very hard to drive smoothly from a standstill and I had a similar amount of years driving Honda manual cars.
That checkvalve is the devil. If it was sticking it would basically create the same circumstance as riding the clutch if it wasn't allowing
full disengagement...add new slave to your grocery list IMO...not sure if the Master on 4G causes any hangups.

The car I'm talking about is a 3G TL where the checky valvy is removable BTW...took it out early in my 7 years of ownership and it was
night and day.

 

Yes ! Car drives great now, I got the entire job done for like 950 in labor and 420 in parts (plus another 60 for synchromesh)
which was like HALF of what the dealer wanted. In addition to that, the Acura dealer also casually said, "oh by the way you may also need a flywheel"
which would have easily been another few thousand or more). My mechanic checked the flywheel which pretty much confirmed that this dealership was basically
just trying to steal money from me (I had never dealt with them before and certainly never would again).
I love my car but really dislike Acura and their shady dealerships.

 

that's all dealerships...not about Acura at all.
The one by me is stellar.

 

Assuming it's not you, which I think is reasonable - I'm assuming your previous TLs are manual trans... (To be fair, most clutch wear problems are due to driver behavior)

I really don't blame a dealership for not buying into the "I swear, I'm a good driver!" argument which god only knows how many times they hear.

Either the previous driver was hell on the car, or there is some other underlying problem that caused the wear. Because you smelled burning, it makes me think there is/was some other problem causing friction within the clutch and my biggest concern now is "Did that problem get fixed with the new parts?" If i were you, I'd go back to the same mechanic in 10k-15k miles and say "Hey, based on how fast the last clutch burned out, can i pay you a hundred bucks to inspect this and tell me if things are wearing normally or if there is excessive wear?"

I haven't heard anywhere else that TL clutches are an issue - I generally hear the opposite, that they go forever. An improperly adjusted clutch can allow constant slippage instead of truly locking out when the pedal is fully released. That would absolutely explain premature wear and the heat needed to cause the clutch plates to smolder and stink. I'd check for something like that and chalk it up to a defect in assembly.

 

I hear you. I saw the plates and they were worn down to the metal.
I would have been fine with Acura telling me they flat out would not cover or if they told me up front it would cost me almost 1100.00 to disassemble (non refundable). But they didnt....so I got stuck paying the bill to tow it there.
It was handled as poorly as possible.
My mechanic would gladly look at the wear on the plates if I asked him down the road.

 

There are a number of threads here with premature clutch issues.
I know at least one stellar Acura dealership. The other two by me are ass. But I know this is highly dependent on who is managing dealership/service area at the time.

 

Big time, dude...
like with anything.
If you can believe it...there's a Chik-Fil-A near me where the employees aren't that nice. They even are stingy with the sauce count when I ask.
It's not an easy life.

 

@SilverJ Generally, it's good practice to resurface or replace the flywheel. I'm surprised there wasn't any chatter when you drove it. How is it holding up?

 

holding up great TY. No further issues.

 

I own a 2010 TL AWD w/Manual 6 speed with 240,000 miles on the original clutch! I've experienced no clutch slipping (amen!) and I taught my son how to drive a manual with this car. I'm feeling extremely lucky and praying that I won't need a clutch before I trade in this car for an EV...

 

Did I read that right, 240k? Wow you must have the record for a 4th gen TL on the stock clutch! Impressive, considering the TL's 300hp+ power.