It finally gave out on my 2001 CLS today, at 97,000 miles. Barely made it to the dealership, they'll return it at the end of the week, fixed; no charge. Got a rental. I have seen this coming for about a year now (the signs were there) even after the recall fix. It's just interesting how it went from ok yesterday to basically undriveable (but not quite dangerous) overnight.

 

the never-ending Honda tranny problem saga

 

wow.....plan on keeping the car ken?

 

Sorry to here that, I'd start looking for another car after 100K miles.

 

whew, you just scooted under the 100K limit there bud.

I'd turn around and start looking to sell/trade it when you get it back.

 

Yeah I got lucky. My car is paid off so I'm going to keep it until I find something else to buy which I image will be this summer. I'm starting to look now....

Oh and I got a Tourag for a rental. It's ok, not as nice as I thought it would be.

 

The car has almost 100k and they are fixing it for free. WTF is wrong with that????

 

97K, that is pretty good!!!

 

Just made it

 

Because the transmission should not die period. It is nice that Honda/Acura extended the warranty, but it should never happen in the first place. A transmission dying is at minumum a major hassle and at worst very dangerous.

The transmission problems were the major reason why I got rid of my CL. After it died on me at 29,000 miles, I wanted nothing to do with the car anymore.

If Ken's tranny died only a few thousand miles more, he would have been out a lot of $$

 

Welcome to the club Ken!!!

F23A4, whose 99 Accord tranny went south @ 38k.

 

only 100K ?
what can I tell you that you don't already know ??? happens to all those TLs CLs and even a few TSXs

 

Some people just like to bitch.

 

ALL THOSE CLs and TLs and a FEW TSXs is still a VERY small number in the grand scheme of things...

 

TSX tranny failure is news to me.

There was a recall on selected vin range because of a problem witn the the transmission housing, is that what you're referring to?

 

it's a fucking car for cryin' out loud. Things break, get over it.

 

I wonder if they'll have some sort of warranty on the "new" tranny you get. Because if only the 100k deal that Honda has applies, then you're warrantied for only 3k miles which doesn't make sense.
Good luck man. At 97k miles I would expect any car to start having trouble in major components. Maybe my expectations are just set low.

 

12 months /12,000 miles just like any Acura repair/work.

 

Killer and Mr. Steve your living in a dellusional world for this discussion.

Where do you get your ficticious numbers from? Ever spoken with any of the regional Acura managers? failure rate is a lot higher than you'd like to admit. Ask the lead mechanic at the Acura shop you go to. I know the 2 dealers near me fix 5-10 a month each on average.

An automatic transmission should last 150-200k miles. Are you forgetting Ken would have been out $4-5k if it failed 3k miles later... hello!?!? But this isn't a big deal... umm OK.

You guys also left out a few plain Honda vehicles that share the same transmission. Which also adds to the statistic

But, keep telling yourself whatever it is you need to hear to make yourself happy...

The tranmission has serious design flaws as *FINALLY* admitted by Honda. And the other reality if you have NO idea how many actually have problems. I don't understand how you can even argue your point without any data to backup your argument... Comes accross as bitter ranting because you haven't had the experiece yourself, so it's not an issue...

It's great their fixing it, but Ken got lucky... so has Honda thus far. They've played the "well it'll cost this much to fix, and lawsuits, if any, will cost this much. Which is cheaper?"

 

Yes I understand all about the transmission and its failure rates, etc, etc. BUT WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT!?!! What's the point in pissing and moaning about it? Its not like it is coming out of the blue "Oh no! My transmission died, what do I do now!?!!" 99.9% of Acura owners on the forums know about the transmission problem therefore they know its part of the risk of owning the car.

And yes I had my transmission die in November of 2003 so i've been through the experience myself, it isn't one i'd like to repeat but what can I do about it besides sell the car? Nothing.

 

gotcha. ya, I see your point. And I agree... however it still doesn't excuse Honda from this major screw-up....

 

Absolutely, its a major design flaw. But if the cost of completely redesigning the transmission (mechanically not just ECU programming) and installing that redsigned transmission in all the affected cars would surely drive up the cost of new Honda/Acura products (to cover the cost of R&D, production, and the replacement labor).

Unfortunately we are stuck.

 

Steve covered it.

 

Bingo friend working at dealer told me exactly same thing....there were days they got swamped.
A-zine regular posters comprised a tinsy tiny bit of the owner population.

 

LOL you guys say that we don't have exact data to back up our claims. Where are you getting your information that AZ members only make up a tiny bit of the owner population?

AZ has 54,000+ members. IMO the VAST majority of the members with <10 posts come here to diagnois there transmission problems and then move on. Also, there's lots of "lurkers" in the TL forum compared to the CL or TSX forum. I would venture to say that the TL forum has the oldest population and they read more than they post.

 

Approximately 270,000 CLs and TLs were sold from 2000-2003. I'd venture to say that half of the registered members are 2nd Gen TL and CL owners or were owners at one time or another. That's about 10% of the owner population which is pretty signification IMO.

 

 

no fucking way "10% of the owner population "...refuse to believe it.

 

You refuse to believe it just to disagree or do you have anything else other than your skepticism to back up your claims?

I'm positive that the 2nd Gen CL forum is populated by MUCH more than just 10% of the population. Only 37,000 CL's were made.

 

I actually think the number of 2nd Gen owners might be higher than 10%. My estimate that half of the members on the forum are 2nd Gen or former 2nd Gen owners is pretty conservative considering there are more 2nd Gens out there today than any other car represented on the forum.

 

Ya, for sure.

 

we did an informal poll no? How many of the active users had trannys go? Just wondering.....

 

Which poll? there was 3 or 4 with the same information, so they would have only been accurate at the time taken. And they are years old now... and no way of knowing which were active users nor combining the poll data to make one complete one.

If your friendly with the dealer (as I am, I'm in there so much). Just talk to the mechanics sometime... they'll let you know how many they have seen changed out. Don't bother asking the service guys... Otherwise you'll get the "no, there's not a problem with the transmissions" answer... lol

 

Also, my dealership has done "good will" replacements as high as 130k miles. Lets see you pull your Ford Taurus into the dealership at 100k with a blown transmission and see what they do for you.

Don't think that at 100k miles you are automatically SOL. If you have a decent relationship with your dealership they will take care of you. Especially if it isn't your 1st transmission replacement. They all know it isn't a wear and tear issue, its a design flaw.

 

Yeah, I go to the same dealership as Siggy. They had absolutely no problem dealing and understanding my problem (first thing he said was well take care of it right away, no charge to you; here's your rental). So they knew that I came in last summer and complained that my tranny was giving out and second, the guy I work with knows Siggy which means he knows all about blown trannies.

 

Yep, having a strong relationship with your dealership makes the car ownership so much more enjoyable.

 

Got my car back yesterday, everything is perfect again. No charge.

 

Good to hear! Good luck with your second tranny!

 

thats good Ken

 

Glad you got her up and running again Ken! Next car, go manual I did , and I'm not going back to Auto.