Hi Praj Prasai,

I can say the transmission feels much better after the update but my car still has the issue. downshifts from 3-2 and 2-1 are not smooth and sharp.

Thanks,
Madhu

 

I just passed 4k miles and my transmission has been excellent lately. I don't know if it is the warm Virginia weather or maybe a break in period.

I will get the update though at my first service.

What a great car - driving this is truly a joy.

Don

 

After four trips to the dealership during 11 months of driving over 4700 miles without resolving the issues, I finally made the decision yesterday to trade in the TLX. I just got tired of this transmission ruining an otherwise very nice car. My car has begun to surge again when coming to stop, hesitates when slowing and then accelerating again, and continues to clunk hard into reverse. It even shakes when starting it, like an engine mount is loose or something.

It's a shame, because I really did like a lot of things about my TLX, but the driving experience just ruined it for me. I ended up trading it in for a 2016 Mazda 6 GT with tech package. This car is very nice, with all of the tech of the TLX, smooooth transmission, and great interior. Road noise is higher than TLX, which I expected (loved that about the TLX - how quiet it was), but overall I think the M6 is a great car, for thousands less than the TLX.

To all of you who have not had any issues with your transmission, I hope that continues for you. Maybe one day I will come back to Acura, if they get these bugs ironed out.

 

After 15,000+ miles and almost a year old, next month, I still have no transmission issues on my i4 DCT 8.

Wonder why, but happy.

 

NRS78, I really like the Mazda 6 and I'm sure you'll be pleased. Actually, I like all Mazdas (I have a 2011 Miata NC) - drivers cars! For me, comfort and quietness were of paramount importance, so I went with the TLX. I'm very pleased and have no regrets, but I haven't had the transmission issues that you obviously have had.

In any case, enjoy the M6. Perhaps give us a short summary review after you've had it a while.

 

After three dealership visits for the transmission issues, I finally gave it up. I traded in my TLX for a CPO BMW two months ago. What I miss is the 20% loss in trade-in value and the new car smell from the brand-new TLX. What I gain is BMW's much better driving experience, which the FWD TLX does not even come close. BMW's ZF transmission is smooth and fast shifting, paired with the motor perfectly. It downshifts when I slow down in anticipation for acceleration again. There is minimum to no power disruption between gear shifting. During my shopping period, I test drove several BMW's models equipped with DCT transmissions. Although I did not end up buying any of these models, I did not experience any of the transmission issues my TLX had.

One thing I would like to point out to the TLX owners: the TLXs do not hold value like other Acura models in the past. Perhaps it is summer time and Acura has lots of incentives on the new TLXs. Perhaps the used-car market has learned the transmission issues and devalued the TLX. I shopped around with 5 dealerships in my state. The best offer for my 6 month old, 4000 miles TLX with tech package was $28k, amounted to about 20% loss due to depreciation.

 

I'm looking into purchasing the 2.4L, but have a few questions to prepare for the test drive:

1) Is this problem prevalent in models manufactured to date, or only earlier models?

2) Also, is the jerkiness noticeable only during the winter months or do you also notice it during the summer months when the car is "cold".

Thanks!

 

1) It is hard to say. My TLX was manufactured last October. But I have been following this thread and I have seen people complained about the same problems with their TLX manufactured this spring. However, the later the manufacturing date, the better, assuming that Acura has been working on those bugs.

2) It is more likely to notice the problems when the outside temperature is cold. However, they can happen in hot weather too. Make sure that you test drive the actual car that you end up buying. Not to drive the demo car.

3) As following this thread for half a year, I say that the transmission problems are still mysterious. No one, including Acura, has figured out what goes wrong although everyone seems to agree it is software and control module related.

To sum it up, a) test drive the actual car you buy; b) drive in stop and go street traffic for at least 20 minutes (TLX is a good cruiser on the highway and you will only need 5 minutes to discover this); c) drive relatively hard with some heavy footed breaking and re-accelerate before a complete stop; d) accelerate to 35 mph, let the car coast, and then accelerate again (a poor transmission would take a long time to look for the right gear); e) do not buy on the first test drive and go back the next day or two for a second test drive (on the same car).

Don't be shy with it. Remember every sales person is "dying" to earn your business. It is much better to take your time to test drive as much as possible than losing $7k (20%) at trade-in after you regret.

 

Probably a bit off topic, but 20% deprecation on a new car you've had only about 6 months ain't bad at all. New cars typically drop about 15% as soon as you leave the lot.

 

You are taking a risk buying a jumpy jerky car. I did a 3 year lease and am I glad I did! I am counting the days until I can get rid of this one. 2 years and 5 months and counting. What everyone says on the site is very accurate. I will not buy another Acura.

Jon

 

Like jeremyw, an October build, delivered Nov 1. No issues at all with the 8 speed, I enjoy the crisp shifts when I want to accelerate quickly, it's smooth in normal driving. I'd say just test drive, and don't overthink anything. Just drive it as you would. If you look for a difference in a DCT you'll probably find it, but I'd spend a little time researching how they work and you'll understand what it is doing and why it may not act exactly like a 5 speed typical transmission on another car.

 

Back in November when I bought the car, my TLX took a week+ before it started showing the shifting defect. After the upgrade in April shifting became smooth – but again, only for a couple weeks. Somehow it trains itself into this, and it takes some time – so the test drive will not always expose the defect. Personally, I underestimated complaints about the transmission on the forums when I made decision to buy the car, and have been paying dearly since.

 

I agree with TLXdriver, you may not feel any issues on the test drive(s). I bought my car in August of last year, when it was warm. Thinking back, I do recall one slight bump in the transmission, as I was pulling out of the dealership parking lot. At the time, I figured it was just a different kind of transmission, and didn't think much of it. During the whole test drive it was smooth as can be. It took a couple of weeks and about 200 miles before I started really feeling the issues. As the weather got colder, I noticed the issue become more pronounced. First update, made things slightly better, but after a few days the symptoms returned. After the second update, things were smooth for a few weeks, then slowly got a little worse. The second update did help quite a bit with the cold shifting, but it never did get rid of the hesitation, bump when coming to a stop, or reverse clunk.

The loaner I received in December when my car was in the shop for three weeks also started out great. For the first 10 days or so, it shifted really nice. This car had 152 miles on it when I took it home. Then it too started to have problems, and at the end of my time driving it with a little over 600 miles on it, it was shifting hard when cold, did the "feels like it is neutral when it is in drive as I pull out of an intersection thing - twice," did the HARD bump into first when coming to a stop, etc. I drive pretty easy (read grandpa like...), and I do think it is a transmission learning problem. Starts out fine, then gets worse, depending on driving style.

My advice is to avoid any 2015 TLX, 4cy or 6cy, until they get these issues resolved. It is good to hear many people have not had issues, but if you read through this thread and the V-6 threads, many, many people have. I can guarantee that this is not just because this is a "different" dual clutch transmission. There are real issues here that should not be happening in any new car.

 

I can say that the 8DCT is much more responsive than the 9 ZF in my car. I was in an I4 loaner a couple of weeks ago. What HUGE response difference. I was used to no gear at a rolling stop from my car, the 8DCT was always raring to go..

I know it's OT but wanted to say something positive that I saw.

 

I had initially got frustrated too with the jerkiness of the transmission. But after the last TSB 15-021 which I did 3 months back everything is very smooth. I do not feel any jerk or downshifts now. I use to feel it before even on a hot day. Let's see what happens in this winter. I also sometimes feel that when you drive the car hard in sport plus mode for a while even the normal and sport mode changes its response levels. I feel it is more responsive at normal mode, but not sure if this is true or just my feeling. I still have a high pitched chirp from the stereo speakers sometimes. Otherwise car is doing good so far 😊.

 

Just thinking out loud,but if some people are reporting problems with the transmission and others are not, how can the issue be entirely computer/software based? If everyone was running the same software when the issues were initially being reported, wouldn't the issues be reported by all drivers? From what I read on this thread, however, some people have been OK from day 1. I'm thinking that there may be a mechanical component to these problems....

 

I had the exact same experience. The I4 loaner 8DCT is a lot better than the 9AT. When you want it to, it will actually downshift. Unlike the 9-speed where it takes 1-2 seconds before anything happens. It's not perfect, there were a few times where it was confused and jerked the car. But that tells you just how bad the 9-speed is.

 

I took my car in and inquired about the update, they did update the transmission, however my update says 15-024. Let me say that since the weather has been warm the transmission was behaving better than it was back in January/February, the warmer weather definetly helped. But since the car was being looked at for another issue I said apply the update. It's a different number but seems to address the same concerns. I will see if the update helped the shifting (again might be hard to tell with the warmer weather). Even my clunk from R to D was pretty much gone once summer rolled around. I hope it doesn't come back this winter. I have to drive it awile to see if the update made a difference.

 

I scheduled my first service appointment for next week, and the service adviser told me that my i4 TLX only needs TSB 15-024 because this newer TSB supersedes the earlier TSB 15-021. Does this make sense? It seems to me that TSB 15-021 should be installed first and then TSB 15-024 applied after.

Zackery

 

15-024 states:
Supersedes 15-024, dated June 9, 2015, to revise the information highlighted in yellow.

The text highlighted in yellow states:
NOTE:
This software update contains some shift quality changes. For more information on these changes, see S/B 15-021, Transmission Slips or Shifts Hard When Cold.

Looks like it's an update to 15-021. I plan on printing out 15-024 to take with me to make sure that's what they perform.

 

The PCM software part number/program ID is the same for both TSBs, but TSB 15-021 also requires the clutch break-in procedure to be performed twice. This is not mentioned in TSB 15-024, which will likely cause issues if it is not performed.

 

It is so sad to see TLX owners so disapointed with their purchases....This is a huge financial and emotional purchase and to have to live with disapointment/regrets for 3+ years is not good and will leave a bad taste in people's mouth.

Acura should take these issues more seriously because once people have such a bad experience or dislike toward a brand, they will never come back and share their negative views to other potential buyers. Word of mouth travel very far, and even now with the internet....common sense 101

 

Good luck with the Mazda 6 GT. Please write a review or comparison if you get a chance. The Mazda 6 is certainly on my list. Very nice looking car, as are all Mazda's lately. The badge and road noise are not great but it is undeniably sexy especially in GT form. It might even have better steering and brakes than the TLX.

 

Several have asked me to give a review of my 16' Mazda 6 GT, so I thought I would give my initial thoughts on it. Part of the reason I think we purchase Acuras is for the value - ie. lots of content/options for the price. Invariably, there is always a compromise, trying to balance options and performance for cost (paid $32.9k for mine).

The Mazda 6, at least in GT form, is a very good value IMO. For 2016, they redesigned the interior, and it is very nice. Seats, are very comfortable, knobs, trim, surfaces, are all great to touch, and feel several levels above the class - almost Audi like. At first I thought the stereo (Bose) sucked, however, I discovered that it was just the Sirius portion of it that is bad. Honda uses XM, and I assumed since they merged to form SiriusXM, it was all the same - wrong. Sirius is much lower quality than XM, and they are not same. However, Pandora, and the FM HD stations sound fantastic, as good or better than ELS in Acura. The LED headlights, which move as you turn, plus the LED foglights (standard on the GT - not a $700 add on) are amazing, and I think better than Acura's Jewel Eye headlights. Plus they include auto high beam on the tech package. Pretty much every tech option on the Acura is available on the Mazda, I won't go into all of those features.

The drive - well the power delivery is similar to the 4cy TLX. The transmission (6 spd) however, is much smoother. Not quite as fast of gear changes as the DCT (obviously), however, not a single bump, hesitation, or clunk. It does have a sport mode, which holds gears longer, downshifts sooner, and tightens throttle response. Cornering is about a wash. I would say it feels a little more buttoned down than my TLX, but it also has 19" factory wheels compared to the 17" on my TLX, so that may be what I am feeling. Ride is really good. Tire noise on rough surfaces could certainly be improved. It could be the crappy Dunlop tires they put on as OEM. I may change them to test that theory. I won't say it is loud, but not as quiet as the TLX.

Lastly, just a couple of things that I think Mazda got right, and Acura could learn from. Heated seats - there are still dedicated buttons on the dash for the heated seats - yay! Also, when you turn them on, turn off the car, and turn it back on again they turn back on to where you left them - brillant! Another feature, you can set the smart key to automatically lock the car when you turn it off and walk away. That is what a smart key should allow you do do. Things like that just show forethought by the Mazda engineers.

Overall I would say I am pretty happy with it. Time will tell if it turns out to be problem free, but so far I am really enjoying it. For the same money as the base TLX, you really get a lot more content. Certainly the Mazda 6 won't compare to the 6 cyl TLX, but if you are looking at a 4 cyl TLX, I would recommend you cross shop. You'll save about $4k and still have all of the features as the TLX.

 

Thanks for the review. I had a Mazda 6 for a few years back in the aughts and was quite happy with it. It was more a drivers car than the Accords and better looking too IMO. My wife has a 13 Mazda 3 and I love to drive it. Spunky and fun to drive.

The downside for Mazda from my experience is NVH and resale value. Plus - I don't know about the current generation of their infotainment systems but that was just a notch below what Honda was offering. As you said it's always about compromise. Still - at that price point it's pretty impressive what you can buy today.

Enjoy your new car!

 

I concur. Upshifts issues appear to be resolved, but occasional downshifts are still hash. I must admit i almost forgotten about the transmission issue since getting the TSB 15-021 fix, until a recent road trip (caught in stop and go traffic for hours!)

Going to ask the dealer abt TSB 15-024 next week.

 

Dealer said that i don't need the 15-024 update after the vin check. Oh well.
Just curious, for those that have the transmission issue, how often the glitch happens? I am not happy about it as well, but since i'm only seeing the glitch maybe 0.01%( or less), the other merits outweigh the issues.

 

Took my wife's 2015 TLX to local Acura dealer. Initially they didn't want to do anything about the transmission but I showed them TSB 15-021 and TSB 15-024 and they finally agreed to make the upgrades. They then told me that 15-024 would soon be announced as a Recall. They did both upgrades (including two clutch procedures, as directed in 15-021).
So far the transmission shifts much smoother. We'll have to wait and see if that continues long term, including during the winter, but for now it is a big improvement.
I am kind of disappointed that you have to coerce the service dept to make the changes be showing them their own TSB's, but I guess they still don't consider this a final fix and possibly Acura Corporate doesn't want to pay for interim fixes if they don't have too.
Fingers crossed !!!

 

Well it's been about two weeks since I got the update, my opinion the car shifts better on cold start ups. Sometimes it can feel jerky slowing down to a red light or to a stop( not all the time) and in stop and go traffic it's more noticeable. Clunk from reverse to drive isn't there anymore (weather is warm now), hopefully it doesn't come back in winter. So overall it's better than before, still a little jerky. Now is it jerky because it's a dual clutch or because of the programming or a little of both, who knows?
How is everybody's else's opinion for those who had the update done?

 

bump....any other updated news from 2.4 owners and the behavior of the transmission since the latest software?

 

My BWP 2.4 was affected by the "key" issues cited within this thread. Now has the most current s/w updates & associated re-learn procedures applied. The only nit is some apparent jerkiness in tense stop and start traffic conditions, but it is ever so slight. My dealership team was proactive and did what it took to fix the issue. Overall very pleased, the acid test will be when the weather turns colder here in a couple of months..........

 

good to hear. Seems like the updates to the 8 speed DCT have been pretty successful (at least in the warm weather). Lets hope that it holds in the cold. Thanks

 

Does anyone know how to verify if we have the latest s/w update?

 

My 8sp has developed worse and worse symptoms. When cold and accelerating from stop, the teams not hesitates and bucks. Dealer still says my VIN not included on last update.

 

I had my TLX in for A1 service and the dealer installed updates ( 14-026 (cross monitor alert - I never had an issue) , 15-021 and 15-024). I had the printouts with me to show him and it was a help.

The transmission is vastly improved ! I don't even notice shifting anymore and I have no clunks or lurches. It's as smooth as my 2004 TL was.

For me Acura has fixed the issue and I am optimistic when cold weather returns I will still have a smooth transmission.

Don

 

We'll probably be getting a 2015 TLX 4 cyl w/ tech this coming week. We'll be trading in my wife's 2010 TSX. Having been through a tranny replacement on the 02 TL-S we had, we're not unfamiliar with Acura tranny issues. In all the posts I've read about the 8DCT issues, I haven't seen any name (other than ECU update) or number for the update. Everyone just calls it the ECU update. Is there an actual Acura/Honda bulletin number that I can tell the dealer to verify has been done so they can't say they never heard of it? I have other updates to have the dealer verify have been done (the dealer doesn't have the specific car we want so will be getting it from another dealer) including the Audio/Nav/Phone.

Never mind, I found them.

 

Also in yesterday for the A-1, the car was flagged for 15-024 and despite having no shift issues since new November 1, except for the delay in R to D first thing in the morning, I gave the OK. It may shift a little differently, maybe a little sooner on light throttle if I had to define it, but continues to give smooth shifts at light throttle and under acceleration. The R - D seems fine now.

 

VERY GOOD point!!!!

 

I concur - 15-024 addresses (and fixes) the long delay when shifting from R to D. It doesn't seem to change anything else though - maybe the shift points are a bit more refined but it's really hard for me to tell.

 

We went into the Acura dealer last Friday to get the update. I showed them the service bulletin for the transmission since they still act like they have no idea what you are talking about. After a few hours my wife's car was ready for pick up. She drove it first and said it felt okay, better, but nothing dramatic. I then drove it for the rest of the afternoon and I can say without a doubt the transmission is a million times better. No hesitation from start. No waiting for from R to P. No feeling like you were just rear ended. Even felt better in stop and go traffic. My wife then drove it to work for the next couple of days and finally realized what a difference it made. Especially in the early morning pulling out of the driveway to go to work. Overall, very pleased with the update. Hopefully it stays that way.