Hi everyone, I took my car into the dealership last week because randomly it will not start. They ran tests on the battery and alternator, said there were no issues and sent me on my way. Well come yesterday, I drove about a 45 minute drive, stopped somewhere to eat (took about 10 min.), and came back out and the car would not start again. It turns over weakly once, no clicking, and just stops. I sit there for 2 min and hit the button twice more, the first time it turned over and wouldnt start (sounded weak), and second time started right up. Any idea what this could be or what I should tell the dealership?

 

battery.

on average batteries tend to last about 4 years....if your 2015 is on the original battery, it could be on it's last leg.
have your dealership compensate you for your lost time on your last visit. that sucks that they didn't catch it

 

I have had the battery checked out by Oreillys and Autozone, tests fine. Battery is only a year old.

 

If it's still under warranty take it to the dealership. If it's not the battery, it could be the alternator or starter.

 

should have led with that...my battery is 1 year old.

 

Haha I apologize. I thought the part about they ran tests on it was enough.

 

If the battery and alternator are testing out fine, the next thing to test would be the starter. I'm curious, what the use of the auto idle stop feature has been with your car. Has it been used regularly or rarely?

 

lol no worries.

a weak battery can test good, thus I like to go by date for batteries.
just as an average, I can only get about 3 - 4 years out of a battery here in the Texas heat

 

Im in OK, so it should be similar to yours. Date on the battery is 2/17, so I am not thinking it is that.

Is auto idle stop on every TLX? Cause mine has never stopped at idle.

 

I have a same problem like you OP. Battery tested fine but I can see the weak start in the morning. Finally, it gave up on me after 30 minutes hwy drive. Parked and grab a drink, came out car won't start. Had a jump and still no go. Good thing the guy helped me had time to spare, so he left the jumper cable attached for like 5 minutes, was able to start after that. Mine was 2 years old. My 13' Accord's battery also gave up after 2 years.

 

My car has a similar problem. My original battery started having this problem after about 1.5 years but it always checked out ok when I took it to Acura dealerships and couldn't duplicate the starting problem:. I finally gave up on it and replaced the battery on my own dime. It solved the problem... that was around last June or July. This May/June, I think (1 year later) the issue started happening again. It's progressively getting worse again. Today, I had to crank it about 4 times for it to turn over. It seems like I'm going to have to replace the battery every 1-1.5 years in this thing. lol.

BTW, it seems to happen to me (but not always) after driving the car, stopping it, going in somewhere and coming back out to start it. I never have the problem in the mornings/overnight when I attempt to start the car. FYI : I'm in Texas.

 

These are the exact same issues as mine. Only when the car has been running for 30+ min and restarted after 10 does this happen. Since it doesnt happen much, did you guys just ride it out till the battery just died?

 

I got the battery replaced after couple jumps. You don't want to be stuck somewhere where you can't get help or have to wait long for a tow truck or a friend to come and help you out. I have one of those portable jumper, but it did not help last time on me. Battery was really dead dead lol.

 

interesting. what brand are these batteries that are crapping out in 2 years? Could it be the HONDA/ACURA ones???
perhaps that's a cost cutting measure, to ship cars with okay batteries...?

I know there are only a few battery manufactures; with the 2 biggest producing GREAT batteries that last 3-4 years. Johnson controls and someone else.

 

Mine was the factory batteries that gave up after 2 yrs.

 

Ya, thats what im scared of. I guess ill just purchase a battery from an auto parts store with a 3 year replacement warranty for next time.

It is an Acura/Honda battery. Not the first time I have had issues with them. When I have a new TSX, had to get its battery replaced under warranty, too.

 

After a while I got scared I'd be stranded somewhere and just replaced it before it died. I'm hoping I can "risk it" this time for another couple of months before replacing it since I've only got 1 year on it. Insane. After that, I guess I'll replace it again since I may be taking a roadtrip around November or December and definitely don't want to risk it then.

The original battery was, of course, an Acura-branded battery, but the replacement is an Interstate, and like I said, I'm having the same symptoms of poor starts after parking the car for a few minutes and attempting to re-start. Either this is an Acura vehicle problem or Interstate makes the batteries for Acura and they have issues.

 

I had the same problem with my TLX. It would start fine 95% of the time, but when I would make short stops like to the gas station it would have a hard time starting back up and would take a couple tries. They had tested the battery and alternator at the dealership and everything was fine, but I kept having the problem intermittently. I ended up just buying a new Interstate battery from Costco and installing it and never had the problem since. Guess the OEM battery must have had a weak cell it or something. It was about 3.5 years old

 

Seems to be a somewhat widespread issue.

 

Whelp... out doing a showing for a house (I work in real estate) 50min away from home and my car will not start. A little smoke came out of my hood and a burned electric smell came with it. Tried to jump it with no luck. So now im extremely frustrated with the dealership for acting like im crazy and telling me there is nothing wrong. Thank god for warranties.

 

Nothing new the 3G had battries that sucked also. Lots of 2 years & dead. Mine was replaced either as a good will or warranty can't remember which.

Got 6 years on my OEM FORD battery in the pickup truck.

 

 

Had a starter with a bad segment on an early '70's FORD station wagon. Would fail to start it the starter stopped on that segment. The thing that is troubling is the OP smelled & saw smoke coming from under the hood. Sounds like some wires got fried, mice/squirrels eat some insulation?

 

Well I will keep you guys updated with what happens. Dealership gave me an A-Spec as a loaner, the car is sweet. Sounds much better, but im thinking that may be fake noise, idk.

 

The engine noise is fake on the A-Spec. Piped through the speakers.

 

Thats just sad. Had me fooled. Sounds so good!

 

From the dealership - valve cover leak that leaked onto the starting, freezing the starter and burning it up. Not sure what all that means, but they are fixing it.

 

Interesting. So if this is the problem on mine, I'm going to have to wait for the starter to die to get a solution. lol. Of course, the problem went away for about a year after I got a new battery before it started again, so who knows.

 

So the A-SPEC the dealership gave me as a loaner is so nice. Everything feels more polished than my base 2.4. I honestly feel sad driving it, not because I want it, but because I feel like the A-SPEC is how Acura should've started the TLX. Everything on it works together and and is so much smoother than mine, even small things like the infotainment. The layout and design of it just works, unlike the old 2015-2017 version.

Then you look at the exterior. Wow, it's amazing how far a couple small tweaks go with this car. As with the inside, I look at this exterior and think, why wouldn't Acura have done this in the first place? Just from driving it, it feels super aggressive compared to the 2015-2017s. I feel like im driving the bat-mobile.

I just wish Acura was more proactive, less reactive (or innovative) when it comes to design and function. The A-SPEC is a fun car. All that being said, for the price, I'd go for a Mercedes C or E class.

 

 

 

Have you looked at how bland many German cars now look that are 4+ years old....especially rear ends with crappy exhaust pipes. Design changes and along with it our taste change as well. I always liked the overall look of my 2015 and 2016 TLX's, but driving my 2018 ASpec Elite gives me the feeling that my car will always be the best looker in the lot

 

It's not entirely piped through the speakers. At higher RPMs, e.g. 5k+, w/ ANC turned off it doesn't sound half bad, but it'd be nice for it to sound good a lower RPMs w/o piping it through the speakers.