Mcj270

New owner of a 2015 Acura TLX SH AWD Tech package. I was coming from a 2013 Honda Accord V6 EX-L and made the transition due to the terrible winter we experienced in the northeast this past year. I was super excited as the Acura is luxurious and a nice upgrade from the Accord. The excitement was VERY short lived.

My commute is around 30 Miles one way and 95% of this ride is on the highway at cruising speeds of 65-75 mph. This is where all hell broke loose. Upon getting up to these speeds I experienced a terrible vibration that came all through the cabin. I felt it through the steering wheel, gas pedals, the passenger seat was visibly shaking and more. I thought maybe I got a bad batch of wheels and decided to bring it in for service. The service department force road balanced two of the tires and one was at an acceptable 6 pressure and the other was 35 that they got down to 29, which is way too high. But they didn't road balance all 4? Figure that one out. They explained that the car had a sporty feel and that the vibration I was feeling was normal. I explained to them the Honda I had been driving had zero vibration while driving on 19 inch wheels and that I had previously owned a 2008 infiniti G35 which was one of the smoothest driving cars I have ever experienced.

Fast forward a day later and the vibration is still there and it's literally all I can feel driving this $42K car. I bring the car back to service once again and they tell me they are going to balance all of the tires and replace any rims/tires that aren't acceptable after the balancing. This was acceptable but I don't think it will fix the problem. Acura dropped the ball big time on this car and the fact that it's almost a year later and still don't have a fix for this issue that many people are experiencing is mind boggling. I would get rid of this car in a second if it didn't mean I was going to lose thousands of dollars in the process.

This is a video of where the Acura engineers spent millions of dollars to reduce road noise, vibration and other elements from the car. I think you may want to go back and spend a few more millions and realize you designed and engineered a flawed car in my opinion is a piece of crap.

Sincerely,

A guy who will never purchase a Honda Automobile ever again

Eitan

I have as 2015 TLX SHAD V6 w/ Tech with the exact same issue.

If you do a little research you will find that the conventional wisdom of TLX owners is the vibration is caused by the VCM (Variable Cylinder Management). At highway speed, the V6 kicks down to three cylinders to reduce gas consumption/improve mileage. Apparently, a V6 that is operating with only 3 cylinders causes engine vibration. The engine mounts or whatever else is supposed to absorb the vibration, is not keeping it from going into the cabin. That is what you are likely experiencing. I am not a gear head, but that seems to make sense. Its not the tires or the wheels.

Acura has rec'd a lot similar complaints, but has not decided on a fix.... or whether it will even offer a fix. Their corporate position is that this is a normal operation of the car, i.e. live with it (on a $42,000 car.) Some people are trying to document a lemon law case.

My 2015 TLX is my 5th Acura after 4 TL's. I am done with Acura.

FYI. My dealer tried to balance the OEM Goodyear tires on my TLX SH AWD a few times. That yielded no improvement. The dealer put on a new set of 18" Bridgestone Potenza tires ; the OEM on the non-SH AWD V6 model. The vibration is less noticeable, but I still feel it at time.

mondster

I sometimes wonder if the vibration is caused by the vcm or the road itself - im not sure anymore. One things for sure though is that me returning to acura when my lease is up is getting less and less likely.

hwolfie

I just bought a 2015 TLX Tech, 6 Cylinders with 6,000+ miles. It was built late 2014 and titled to the dealer in March 2015.


It is a wonderful car but I have the same two issues I am reading folks complaining about:
1) The steering wheel vibration when cruising, and
2) A jerky transition from 2nd to 3rd gear. The transition from one gear to the other is hardly noticeable except from 2nd to 3rd
Obviously, this shouldn't happen but I am after driving a TLX Tech 6
Cylinders loaner it might be "normal".


To me it appears to be a transmission issue that Acura doesn't consider a defect, I suppose.


Obviously, this should not happen in any car regardless of price, much less on a $40K MSRP vehicle.


Everyone having this issue should write to Acura and let them know that this is not right and maybe they'll do something about it.


Henry

Robs252

My car is a 12/14 build and they replaced my transmission for the problems that you describe. All is fine now.

hwolfie

I took the car in to service and the dealer service dept. says it is working as designed.


How did you manage to get them to replace it?


Henry

rgpolson

Has anyone with the vibration issue had the dealer try replacing rotors? Or tried road force balancing?

Nexx

generally its the tires. i think the bridgestones are really prone to flat spots if they sit for a while. case in point, ive had two clients complain about this. i simply found one car with no vibrations and swapped wheels in both cases it fixed the problem. no amount of balancing is gonna fix a flat spot on the tire.

hwolfie

Maybe....In my case, I don't believe it is. If I set to sports+ mode and use the shift paddle to go thru the gears there is no steering wheel vibration. It occurs when the gear shifting is controlled by the car's computer.

kchemist

I ve had a terrible vibration at 75-80 mph and mine got corrected after road force balance. But I have to tell you I have installed 19 inch Honda HFP wheels and Michelin pilot sport AS3 tires prior to road force balance. They found 2 tires had bad weight distribution and corrected it. Now the car is smooth at least problem is reduced by 95%.

Mike_TX

There's apparently two kinds of vibration involved here if some of you got it cured with a wheel balance.

The kind I have (admittedly not a SHAWD) is VCM-related. The vibration sets in as soon as the V6 drops 3 cylinders, and stops immediately when a little throttle is applied and the VCM returns to 6 cylinders.

My car has been in the shop now for a week over this, and the tech has been in contact with Acura via Techline about it with no resolution yet. Hopefully I'll get some good news today.

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Robs252

Please share when you hear something. Mine does this too. Usually around 40mph

Mike_TX

It's starting into its second week at the dealer, awaiting word from an Acura District Manager. Local tech thinks it's motor mounts (something I suggested, too, since the car has developed a little bit of a rough idle). That would make sense, since the motor mounts are supposedly electrohydraulic to offset the engine vibrations.

Hope to hear something next week, but the service advisor warned it might take a few days.

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Mike_TX

Just got the car back, and it appears to be working properly now. I really need to drive it more to be sure, but on the ride home it didn't vibrate like it was before.

They replaced the motor mounts. In addition to making the VCM operation better, it seems to have stopped the slight vibration that had developed at idle.

I can't explain why these high-tech mounts failed prematurely, but I suspect they are behind a lot of the VCM vibration issues, since they work to offset engine vibration.

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Robs252

Interesting. Thanks. I'll be taking mine in. Let me know if anything changes with your car.

youngTL

Hmm, maybe it's the first time they're using them and the parts had a defective run? I am kind of curious (although we'll never know) if the owners who have had vibration issues had bad motor mounts all with VINs in a consecutive string or from the same time period.

Mike_TX

FWIW, mine was an 11/14 build.

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mlody

Glad your car is fixed.

My 2015 TLX also had nasty vibration, but since my dealer was soo incompetent I decided to not bother keeping the car and trying to resolve the issue. I gave up after 6 attempts to resolve the issue and traded in the TLX for 2013 TSX. I will never buy a first model year of any car, unless Acura wants to pay me extra for being a guinea pig.

EE4Life

See TSB 16-009 - Vibration Felt in Floor at Highway Speed in the TSB thread.

https://acurazine.com/forums/fifth-g...letins-914607/

kchemist

Thats strange, I have this issue which I currently masked by having a 19 inch wheels with Michelin tires. But my VIN is ending 8XXX so it doesnt apply

hwolfie

I bought the car about a month ago with 6000+ and have been dealing with the vibration issue since.


Up until now, I thought the steering wheel vibration was caused by the transmission but I now believe it is caused by the Variable Cylinder Management (VCM) and marginal engine mounts.


My guess is that Acura is using a component that is marginal that works in some cases and not in others. That is why some have the steering wheel vibration problem and others do not.


Acurazine blocks URLs.
Go to you tube and search on "acura vcm" it is the video with the heading "variable cylinder management system information" and the graphics shows a 6 cylinders engine.


The engine mounts are electronically controlled and are supposed to block most the vibration associated while running on 3 or 4 cylinders.\


It may be that because it is a marginal design some of the engine mounts work better that others and that is the reason some 2015 TLX V6 owners do not have the problem and others do.


In my case, the vibration is pretty severe.

ButterBall

Hi guys,
i just got a brand new 2020 Acura TLX Elite 3 weeks ago, i noticed the shaking and brought it back to the dealer and then they tell me it's an TLX issues and there are nothing they can do about it. It makes me even more angry after reading about owners that have to same issues since 2015 and yet they still have not fix the problem. It's a $55k car and yet i'm experiencing the same problem as the ones in 2015.
so i'm so done with Acura.

hwolfie

I tried raising the issue for the problems referenced above with Acura corporate back in 2016 and they just blew me off.
Tried to make an appointment with the Acura rep visiting the dealer and they would not schedule an appointment.
In the end it became clear that unless you ran into someone that wanted to help, the only other option was get a lawyer and that takes time and money so I gave up but it is the last Acura I will buy.
It takes time but experiences like this by enough customers eventually ruins a brand

someguy11

Sorry to hear about the experiences of the last two users. My purely guesstimate is somewhere between 10% and 25% of TLXs manufactured had this issue. Basically, a) most people don't have it, b) some people with it can tolerate it and c) the rest with it hate their car.

Regardless of the actual percentage, Acura (at some point in 2015 or 2016) determined the source of the TLX vibration was the rear differential (or powertrain), performed a cost benefit analysis, and decided the cost to mitigate it ($3,500 or more) was not worth avoiding the irritation and hatred the issue would cause for owners. While you can't do a single thing to get Acura to fix it, you can do two things about it: take your money elsewhere for your next vehicle and tell anyone who asks that you would never recommend Acura.

Car people continue to ask me about my GS. In fact, three people (two friends and one stranger) last week asked if I bought it new and complimented its looks. For friends/family who knew I had a TLX and ask about it, I say it was the worst car I ever owned, vibrated on the expressway and had the tranny replaced. After what I went through, I get a little satisfaction out of Acura bashing. The most amazing and odd thing to me is that people keep saying "well this Lexus must be a nice upgrade to your Acura." I mean, wow, Acura people (formerly me) really have blinders on to what the rest of the world knows and are missing out on driving such better cars. I don't buy cars to draw attention, but getting compliments from strangers as if I drove a Supra, Delorean or GTO sure feels good.

ButterBall

Oh you bet i will never buy another Acura and i will tell anyone that i cross path with about how bad they are and i will post on every social media outlet and will even try to file a complain to the consumer rights committee or whatever they are call. It is not acceptable for us customers that spent over $50K on a car that feel unsafe on the highway even thought they say it's not a safety issue. Mine is a brand new car and i can feel it, can you imagine a couple years down the road?