Spatts

Title says it all really.

Iggy

Welcome to the forum.

Nothing's really hidden. It's all in the owners manual.

Arkady

I found about 3 dollars worth of change inside my center-console trim, that counts, right? :P

frankjnjr

LOL: Shortly after I got my TLS, I filled the console coin holder. The coins mysteriously disappeared, not all of them, just enough to notice. . At first, I thought, perhaps my neighbor's kids were helping themselves, as they have been known to do! One day, I got ambitious and installed a phone jack, necessitating the removal of the console trim. Low and behold, there was about $10 worth of change. Turns out, the change holder, snaps shut, with enough force to throw the coins out of the holder, and onto the console hump.

Iggy

I stand corrected. THAT is definitely not in the owners manual! HAHA

Arkady

Yeah frankjnjr, that's exactly where I think all my change came from. The coins fly right over the OBD2 port lid!
Also, if you've got a lot of change, the top layer will simply slide into there if you stop aggressively haha

onekam

all my coins go into a Sucrets tin can that fits perfectly inside the cup holder, which is probably the only thing you'll see inside my car.

i dont know of any cool features, but I did buy a auxiliary adapter cable and plugged into the back of the original radio. playing music from my phone sounds great on the stock audio system. my friends love it as well because they get to play their music and all just assume that it came with the car. it also lets phone calls go through the speakers like one of those fancy hands free features that all new cars have XD

unfortunately we dont have a foldup picnic table in our trunks like my 2001 CRV did. but I like that its all business and has no stupid gimmick-y features that made this car what into what it is.

Arkady

Hey onekam, do you happen to remember what adapter you got? If it fits standard Honda radios, I might get one to help a buddy get bluetooth in his car while keeping the stock look. Don't really feel like doing all the work I had to do to install the bluetooth chip in mine again haha

onekam

This is the adapter that plugs into the back of the radio:
Blitzsafe HON AUX DMX V.1 Honda Auxiliary Audio Interface

(it was $67 on Amazon when I bought it, but its no longer on there. I see some on ebay for $70 though.)

Here's the compatibility list:

• Compatible Acura Models: All 1999-2003 (Except RL, SLX, O3 TSX)
• Compatible Honda Models: All 1999-2003, Accord 1998-2002, No Passport, No 2003 Accord.

Then I got this which plugs into the phone.

I went the direct cable route because there's a limitation to sound quality with Bluetooth, but I'm sure you could also just get the Aux interface cable for the radio and then a BT adapter if you wanted.

Once set up, it works like a charm; just click "CD" (with no CD in the player) and it goes to AUX mode and plays whatever is being fed into the line. I did it myself and I think it took about 1.5 hours. I didnt remove the actual radio, just felt the connection ports by hand after removing the trim and plugged it in. As long as you have a diagram of where the ports are it should be easy to find by touch. It wasn't too hard to do, and I kept the adapter hidden under the accessible ODB2 port cover in case I ever wanted to change the cable to Bluetooth or something else.

Chojun

I'm not sure of any hidden features but a couple differences that I know of from the 2003 model and other previous years is (anyone correct me if I'm wrong) the 2003 has auto up/down driver's window, 2-driver seat position memory, heated driver's mirror. Not sure if the seat warmers are present on all model years. I'm also not sure if the passenger mirror tilt in reverse is a thing in all models. I'm also not sure if TCS is in every model year. I know it isn't in the 1998-2002 Honda Accord. These are the only (possible) differences that I know of other than obvious ones like the introduction of the Type-S and the tail lights/headlights/grille redesign in either 2001 or 2002 and the fact that the '99 TL is like a totally different car basically.

Arkady

Hey uh onekam, do you still happen to have that AUX adapter that plugs into the radio? If I can get a picture of what the wiring looks like I bet I can make one myself with some scrapyard parts,.... If you'd be willing to pull yours out and take a few close-ups of where the wires are connected in the plug, that'd give me some good ideas.

And yeah Chojun, the '99 also had the seat warmers and the heated mirror (not sure what the purpose of that one is - mine's broken anyhow so I guess I'll never know). I believe my '99 has TCS, but definitely no passenger mirror tilt in reverse.

Chojun

A lot of people may not realize they have the mirror tilt thing because it doesn't work unless the mirror position selector switch is in the middle (that is, not left or right).

I've used my heated mirror only a couple of times, once during a severe winter storm where driving wind was piling snow up on the mirror and another time when we had a freezing fog/ice storm episode. It only works on the driver's side mirror. It's a pretty useless feature IMO but whatever I guess.

Oh and I guess now that I think about it there's the multi-disc CD changer that I think isn't available in all model years as well as the self-dimming rear-view mirror which I don't think is available in all model years from what I recall.

Arkady

Hm, I keep mine in the middle and I've never noticed the mirror thing - next time I'm picking around in that area of my car I'll see if maybe something is disconnected or broken, as that seems like a cool little feature.
And that makes sense for the heater - very limited use for it still. Not much chance of dealing with that scenario in the South-Western United States, haha.
I've seen the self-dimming mirrors in every single Acura TL that I've encountered at the yard, so I'm not sure about that one.

Chojun

Yeah you're probably right about the self-dimming mirror.

Oh and one other thing, the '99 TL doesn't have a time bomb bolted to the engine

Arkady

... wait a minute, is the '99TL transmission better than the tranny used by the rest of the 2nd gens? I've been worrying about it and saving up for a manual swap ever since I got my '99 so this'll be big news to me.

Chojun

The 4-speed transmissions don't have the same problems as the Honda 5-speed V6 ones. That is to say that the 4-speed ones experience similar problems at a similar rate as all other Honda 4-speed AT of that era.

Arkady

Wow and here I was freaking out since February of 2017 that I had the same ticking time bomb that I had heard so many horror stories about on here. Still an old trans but it's a load off my shoulders!

horseshoez

iTrader: (2)

Hmmm, not sure where you got that, the 4-Speed units were pretty crappy; can't say better or worse than the 5-Speed units, but certainly in the same ballpark.

Arkady

Would you say that rebuilding the 4-speed auto is as futile as rebuilding the 5-speed? The only reason I've got rebuilding in mind is that (as far as I understand it) the AV6 swap is noticeably more complicated when applying it to the '99 model, since you've got to swap out the engine harness as well.

Not that I need to rebuild or anything at the moment, my trans is behaving beautifully for now (knock on wood, haha)

horseshoez

iTrader: (2)

Regarding a 4-Speed rebuild, not all rebuild kits are created equal; there are a number of kits available (sorry, don't have any links handy) which not only include Honda's latest engineering updates to allow ATF to keep things cool, but with upgraded clutch packs. With some of the higher end rebuild kits, I've heard of folks, mostly in the Gen 6 Accord world, who have managed over 200,000 miles.

Chojun

This is based on information I've picked up on in bits and pieces all over about the Honda 4-speed transmissions. I was pretty careful in saying that they experience the same problems as all other 4-speed ones and that they don't have the same problems as the 5-speed ones do. That right there is a suggestion that they are more reliable than the 5-speed ones.

I have a 2000 Honda Accord with 195K on it that my son is driving, original transmission. Except for a bit of a rough shift from R -> 1st it's still going fine.

horseshoez

iTrader: (2)

Your transmission is exceedingly rare; the 4-Speed units were so crappy they had at least one recall, and possibly two. Easily as unreliable as the 5-Speed units.

Arkady

There's a 2002 4-speed Accord in my family with similar mileage to Chojun's, with the original tranny and it's still going strong, but that's anecdotal evidence. Either way, the fact that rebuilding is not a lost cause for the 4-speed as it is for the 5-speed is great news to me should I ever need it.

onekam

one thing that I just found out recently was that the fuse box under the hood in the top left corner has a "fuse puller" key and some spare fuses. it was practically new when I found it and was a nice little surprise.

7LPP402

Found out that my TL-S drives like a NSX but without all the expensive parts to replace it.

Silencer_

Center console arm rest slides forward and backward