schwoce1

Been watching these threads for months since getting my 2012 TL SH-AWD a year ago. 65 year old tech at Acura says he can't hear anything. No sh@t. Can't take car all over Chicago land just to try and get this fixed. My parents '79 Chevy Malibu sounded tighter inside than this thing. Hit an expansion crack and it sounds like the whole rear end is going to fall off. So disappointed. Thought I was buying a "luxury car". Last Acura I ever buy. Acura dealers are no better than any other brand. My wife's Chevy dealer treats her like she drives a Mercedes.

John35205

I have spoken with a tech, it shouldn't be a huge problem. I will let you know when I have the issue figured out.

rthammer

iTrader: (1)

So does anyone know what the cause of this noise is? Rear struts ? stabilizer bar ? Rear deck thumping ? ... I have also noticed it louder when its colder outside ( going over expansion joints near my home) and most noticeably when the car is cold.. Seem like when the car is running (warmer), and on the road for approx. 1/2 hour, when I try and simulate the same condition the clunk sound is quieter.. Any thoughts ?

S power

If i remember correctly, it is the top hat of the strut. The rubber piece where the shock tube slide through where the top nut rest on. There is sufficient gap enough for the tube to wobble around .Rubber shrinks in cold which is why you're getting more noise . This was the plague on the 3g tl, one of the main reason why I got rid of it.
I have the noise on the rear passenger side on my 4g now. But only when the road looks like a grenade hit it here in the poor cond chicago area.

Try removing the trunk liner and tighten the 14mm center nut with a box end wrench as you need an allen wrench to hold the shock tube.

rthammer

iTrader: (1)

Thanks ! Will do and revert with results

AWD78110TL

I use to have the same noise in the back and after a while I got feed up and decided to investigate for myself and guess what I found?
The handbrake cable was to loose and the lever applying pressure when I put the handbrake on it is free to play around in the housing and making noises. I put more tension on the handbrake cable an voila no more noise! Hope this helps!

rthammer

iTrader: (1)

So brought my Tech SHAWD 2014 TL to Acura and they spent the day trying to id the thumping noise. 3rd time in...

They hear it but cant find the source. From a far I saw 3 guys in the car driving it and working on it .. Not concerned they are pulling the wool over my eyes.. they have tried. Really annoys me the source cant be found. I love the cars performance, stereo awesome with Blizzaks in snow etc etc. I have placed sound deadening plates around the rear wheel wells and used a moving blanket as a bottom trunk liner..
Only thing i can think of is:
- Winter tires are slightly smaller and the sound is louder due to more space in the wells

- When the outside air temp is super cold i think this adds to the noise - not sure why ... maybe effect on the steel construct.... in the NE today its 3 degrees F - All cars make weird noises in this weather - but the thumping sound is definitely more pronounced

Thought... ?
I do have to try driving over small cracks with the trunk lid slightly open- wondering if its the trunk shimming or the ridiculously sized trunk bracket housing

I had the chance to take a demo 2016 SHAWD MDX out for the day both into the city and highway... Amazing that the MDX actually has the same Thumping Noise Problem

55K SUV and they did not add enough noise reduction or correct this problem in another model.

I have had Acura's for 20 + years ,,,very disappointed

All Ideas are welcome ,,,,

Crafty Veteran

I just posted this in a similar thread:

I know exactly what you are going through but we were lucky enough to catch it still in the warranty period on our 2012 TL AWD SH. They have replaced everything in and around the strut 2-3 times and the sound came back almost immediately each time.

The dealer had our car for over a month (we had an MDX loaner which was awesome). They had the entire back seat taken apart and had 2 master techs looking over every inch. They were never able to determine exactly what was causing the sound, but they determined that it wasn't the struts and may have been coming from somewhere closer to the rear AWD train? They said there was a loose cable or wire.. They padded everything they could think of and put it all back together. We've only had the car back a few day so we haven't driven much. I'll update when I get a few more miles on her.

viktor818

Hello,
You are correct, dealer could not find where the noise was coming from, my mechanic did and he added some type of grease and that didnt last very long. Can you please give me details on how u fixed yours. I tried to tighten the cable but that didnt do much, if the back tires go over a small bump it stll makes sounds. If i apply the hand break a few click and drive the sound i gone.
Thank you

Chad05TL

They replaced all those parts because they didn't know what the source is... So did any of these or all of these fix the noise? I don't like these 5 link independent suspensions. Even the new Camaro has it. More points of "wear and failure" is all it is..

AcuRandd

Any luck with what they did? Did you ever get the problem fixed? I am going through this now on my own car, replaced rear strut assemblies, sway bar links and bushings...still the noise persists.

Chad05TL

do you have a TL too?
stock springs and stock shocks?

I put a thin rubber washer between the body and the rophat of the shock assembly. And it helped tremendously. I have pictures.

AcuRandd

I have a '12 TL SH-AWD Tech with about 24k on it--very clean and well cared for. Its got brand new stock shock assemblies and sway bar bushings. As that didn't fix the problem I most recently replaced the sway bar end links with new Moogs. I appreciate your suggestion about the rubber washer, and would be very interested in seeing the pics of your install and what you used.

When I replaced the strut assemblies with the new OEM units, the rear sound was gone and the car was perfect (minus the clunk in the front end that needs the TSB for ball joints completed). In about 2 days I began to hear an occasional thump, (but hoped I wasn't, haha). Then after a week and a few hundred miles, the clunk came back again, although not quite as bad as it was before. I did apply Shin-Etsu silicone grease to the rubber parts of the shock assemblies that were visible without disassembling the shocks prior to installation. Maybe after some rain and use, it wore off? I am also suspecting I may need to disassemble the assemblies and apply the Shin-Etsu inside the boot on the bump stops, and also on the top hat, and top mounts. I am also wondering if maybe the crown nut on the top of the rod needs to be tightened as the rubber may have compressed from use.

Any other suggestions I would love to hear! It seems like a lot of people had this problem, say that they will bring it back to their dealer and report back, and then never report it back. I hope someone had luck with getting this fixed up. Otherwise, I love the car!

Chad05TL

I am surprised to hear that replacing bushings didnt help. Are you talking about rear bushings? If so, which rear bushings? rear subframe?

Here are some idea's and things to do and/or check for the rear:
1. Verify the bottom coil spring is sitting on the shock boot or spring insulator.
2. Verify the nut is tight on the top of the shock while it is installed on the car. If there is a gap between the upper washer and the lower washer, then it will rattle on the inner metal sleeve. I do not think replacing the rubber grommets will help.
3. I would remove the added insulation and even the back seat (upper and lower) while you are troubleshooting. It will make it easier to tell if the rattle is coming from the top of the shock or not. Even then its not easy to tell.
4. Tires can help remove extra "jarring". I noticed my car made more noise in general with my Bridgeston S04's and it rode firmer too. A guy online said he switched from Eagle F1 to Continental on his late model Camaro, and he said the Continentals made his Camaro ride like a sedan, whereas the eagle F1 made it ride like it was on rails. Pretty amazing to hear a Camaro could ride like a sedan just based on tires alone. So tires means a lot these days.
5. Verify the 2nd and 3rd coil of the bottom of the spring are not so close that they are banging together over hard bumps. If they are you can buy spring insulators or make a temporary fix with some clear rubber tubing that Home Depot sells. You can cut off 1" pieces and place them around the coil to see if it changes anything. If it does, then you can buy permanent spring insulators from eibach..
6. Here are some pictures of what I did to virtually remove the noise. We shouldn't have to insert this rubber washer, but I did anyway.. The last thing I need to do is get some better riding tires.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/DANCO-6-i...9849/203193498

Chad05TL

A few more thoughts!
1. This is my first car that has the independent suspension with the 5 point control arms, and all I can assume at this time is that when they get over 65k miles, I think they tend to make noise because of all the JOINTS.
2. I too have a bad clunking in the Front! I tried this Rubber gasket trick to the front shock assemblies, and no luck whatsoever!
This is what I have done to the front so far..
I replaced all sway bar links on all 4 corners.(front and rear)
I replaced ball joints on the front
I replaced inner -and- outer tie rods
I replaced bearings since I had the arm off ( I knew that would not fix the clunk)
I replaced springs and shocks on the rear about 3 times comparing OEM, vs, Koni vs KYB. And the last solution on the rear was KYB + Eibach springs. I have not changed the front so much. But I presently have KONI+ TYPES springs on the front but I have a pair of KYB's wating to be tired.. haha
I changed the upper control arm on the front.. So the upper has a new ball joint too.
I verified the brake calipers are tight
The lower shock mounting bolt is tighter than OEM specs on front and rear.

The only thing left is the front lower compliance bushings. And that may actually be the culprit on the front because the clunk on the front makes more noise when I am accelerating and if I hit a bump at the same time. I think it is because when I accelerate, there is more pressure to the front compliance bushing than when I am coasting. Therefore when I hit a bump while accelerating, it makes more noise than when I am not accelerating.
My only question is, do I really have to remove the lower control arm to change that front Compliance bushing. I should have done it when I was replacing "everything" else. But I didn't think rubber would make noise.. So I left it unchanged. I do have a replacement bushing and a portable C-clamp type press but I am so tired of working on it. haha

AcuRandd

Wow, that is a very comprehensive list of things to check out, and will certainly use it for my diagnosis. I am going to start with a fix similar to yours with the rubber washer, and the lubrication of all the shock assembly components, especially the bump stops. Once I get the time to work on it I will report back what I end up with...

And wow, what a bummer about your front end! Did you check out the engine mounts? Apparently that is a very Honda thing to go bad, and can definitely make clunks over bumps...

If I can't get the stock solution to quiet down, I may just do some performance shocks and springs. If its going to be rough, it might as well handle better!!

Please keep us posted on how you fare, and I can totally get how you're tired of working on it!

Chad05TL

Yes, my car has 88k miles on it now. And I replaced all 3 motor mounts in the 60k mile range. And again, it had no effect on anything. A lot of what you read on this site is over-hyped. At best, many times, t only pertains to that individual. Anyway, my front lower ball joints did need to be replaced because I visually saw up and down movement and there was some weird other long "groaning" noise coming from the front. I knew that groan was the ball joints. That stopped and never came back after I replaced the ball joints. And the car literally handles a lot better in the curves. I am still not used to how quick and sharp it moves now. But unfortunately, it did not fix the clunk too.. But Lately I have been just living with the clunk.. I need to get back in there again this weekend and inspect the front compliance bushing again. I bought a Steelman Wireless Ear tool about a year ago, and it detected some clicking from the front compliance bushing, but at the time it did not sound much like a "clunk" when it came over the speaker. But maybe it is? Who knows. Either way, it's been a pretty good tool, except I do get a lot of static coming through the speaker. Like I dont know if it is from all the wifi routers in this apartment complex or what. But the static will interfere with troubleshooting when you are trying to listen for car noises.. I mean, if static drowns our the speaker then what good is it? You can search it out on Youtube. Plenty of videos on it. I got 4 transmitters so if one seems too static-y then I will switch to another transmitting. Maybe batteries will help, but I have not used it that much so dont know why the batteries would be bad already. Anyway...I feel like I am ready for another car, but these TL's are not worth much on a trade. Surprisingly, I've see CIVIC got for about the same price, and a good running TL (like mine) will get over 30 mpg on the highway and it's a lot more car for the money. So I have no idea why those cheap little civics can cost so much. I think it has to do with peoples shallow mentality. They have it in their head that a little Civic will be cheaper. And thats not exactly true. Especially when you consider how much more you get in a TL. Anyway, I have noticed through a lot of this exercise, is that if you compare the suspension of a 04-08 TL, to a Civic and a Accord, they all have the same pieces and they are the same design. Just a TL is slightly bigger parts. I suppose even the 09+ TL has even larger suspension parts but still the same design and the same number of pieces.. Its almost appalling to think a Civic can have the same design as a TL, I wondered if GM does the same thing, but I know my old Camaro and CTV does not have a similar suspension design as a Cobalt.. haha So in a way, this really speaks volumes to Honda's cheap side. Their engines run a long time though..I guess as long as you change the timing belt and water pump and all that stuiff inside the motor.. But I still think maybe a timing chain like GM deploy's is better. I think the inside of an engine should last as long as the rings do. Otherwise, its an early death. And changing the timing belt is not a good thing, its not a good way to make an engine last, and we should not have to rely upon changing a belt or else the engine will keel over at 105k miles. But the Good thing is that I have never had a Check Engine light. It never has not started on me except when the starter we out (once) and the battery went out, like 3 times already. haha And yes I already replaced the timing belt. So, I have done all this work and really, I'm ready for a BMW. But BMW's , like the 2011-2012 X5 have had a lot of Lemon "buybacks". So, BMW may be worse than Honda. I am pretty sure they are and I am even more sure that maintenance is higher. But those X5's are quite the Luxurious!. My TL is nice, but as I described above about being so closely kenned to a CIVIC and a Accord, -- it sort of speaks "CHEAP" to the TL name.. Plus when I cannot find a Rattle.. That again is speaking Cheap Design. I hate cars the rattle, especially a suspension. I always love a tight suspension and low profile tires.. and to have a suspension that rattles and rattles that I cannot find, it just really creates a very unpleasant driving experience.. And I now do it daily.. The only thing good, is that the engine runs darn good. It runs as good as the day I got it, in 2007 @ 35k miles. And it will likely last another 85k miles. So that is great.. But after all this, 1 thing I learned.. Never buy a car that you think "will do" or one that is "mediocre", if you think you want to keep it for a long time, like 10 years! because you will be stuck with it for 10 years! And cars "degrade". So, it wont be any better than when you buy it. So, it's all down hill from there. So, basically, I suggest buying a bit above your comfort zone, but not to the point to where it presents a risk of repossession if something goes wrong with your job. With Financing Aside, and if you pay almost all cash, I would buy a car that is the top of the line model, so you can coast for several years. Because I have thought to myself, I should have bought a newer model TL when I got this 2005. haha crazy! I thought I was smart or conservative by buying the older model. but let me tell ya, there are more differences between the 04-06 and the 07-08 than meets the eye. If you think I have done a lot on the suspension, you dont want to know about the flawless conversion of my speedometer from 05 to 08 typeS. And TypeS navigation. I'll never do that again. The only reason I keep it up is because it has been paid for since 2008. So since these TL's are not worth much, I was thinking about just buying another used X5 and keeping this TL. Or am I nuts? I'd be lucky to get 5k on a trade. I could probably get 7k on retail since I have the typeS bumper, and the typeS tail pipes, typeS Wheels, front bumper, and typeS headlights and side skirts.. Yes, I did all that.. even my interior lights are red... haha

Chad05TL

I found the front rattle. I swapped out the Koni shock on the drivers side this morning, and the rattle is gone. The Koni's have been rattling ever since new. like 4 years! insane.

Cara

Thumping after rear shocks replaced. rear seat and other things removed to do that. any how the guy couldn't find the cause of that noise after so...
I hunted till I opened the little rear seat access door and the trunk carpet near that opening was never re secured after ripping it out. ha...
after re securing it down that the thumping stopped. Search and destroy