Geo2

I have a 2016 TLXSHAWD . At 70 miles an hour in the economy mode with the cruise control set I stepped on the gas to pass a truck in the engine shut off completely. Lights were still on but the tack went to zero. Scary situation. Immediately took to the dealer and they told me it was the fuel pump software recall issue. They had just put a new battery in my car the previous Month. Car had 27,000 miles on it. Month and a half later I get on the highway, again in the economy mode with the cruise control set I step down on the gas and all the lights in the dash lit up. The tack went to four grand and stay there. Car would not shift out of low gear. Took two Acura and they said it was a transmission wiring harness issue. He replaced the cable and all was well until two months later at 30,000 miles, again on the highway doing 70 miles an hour in the economy mode, with the cruise control set, I stepped on the gas in the engine completely shut off again while I was passing a truck on a 2 Lane Highway.
Acura gave me a loaner car and they have had my car for the last 3 1/2 weeks. Every time I call they have nothing to say to me but they are working on it. Anybody out there experiencing anything like this? I’ve been a big fan of Acura but I’m starting to have serious doubts as this was a scary situation.

dezymond

Never heard of that issue before but hope that they solve it quick.

I wouldn't take the car back until they solve it and would expect to talk to the service manager.

someguy11

Sounds like that's going to be an expensive problem to fix if it keeps happening after year 4 or 50,000 miles. Hopefully they figure it out for good. Regarding your doubts about you car, yes, the TLX is unlike anything Acura has ever manufactured in the poor reliability department.

I never experienced your issue. Personally, I would try changing out of ECO IDS mode. It likely won't prevent this, but being in ECO while cruising at highway speeds isn't saving you any gas anyway. I would also check or have them check that the fuel lines, fuel filter and air filter are all clean. It sounds like this only happens under heavy load, so maybe the engine isn't getting something it needs.

Geo2

To Acuras credit they told me they do not want me back in that car until they figure something out. I’ll let you guys know what happens…

neuronbob

Haven't heard about this. Hopefully it gets figured out.

BEAR-AvHistory

Couple of questions. Did the car restart right away, later or never? Any symptoms of the car running slower then usual like having to push more throttle pedal to maintain speed or quick sudden jerks at WOT?

Geo2

No signs before engine shutdown. 5 seconds later while coasting to a stop (around 50 mph) the engine starts up again. No loss of power either before or after.

BEAR-AvHistory

OK was thinking fuel pump relay going bad, but a bad one will usually take a few minutes to cool & recover.

Geo2

I keep thinking it has to do with the auto shut off somehow. Why else would the car start again after five seconds?

One4AL

I cannot say I have experienced the same on my 2015 V6 TLX SHAWD and it's the first time I hear TLX shuts off while driving. That said, I did experienced mt TLX shutting off more then once (3-4 time at least since 2015) while being in the middle of the traffic (and getting the whole X-mas lights turning on in the dash) while completely stopped. I won't say this is going to help you for sure but they recently changed a tiny little sensor located directly on one of the battery pole. I was told this sensor calculates how much power is left in the battery and provides battery informations to other systems. If this sensor goes wrong by over-estimating, the battery won't have enough power and yet many systems may think it's powerful enough to maintain or start various features on the car. Because you need an extra boost when accelerating (ie: re-engaging all 6 cylinders due to VCM), should your battery not be powerful enough, it may cause the issue since it may have fix my TLX (I can't say for certain, I don't drive it much anymore: Tired of getting my a** vibrated, I'm suing Honda for VCM related vibrations)... but this is a terrible nasty situation you are describing, and I hope you'll never ever experience this again.

someguy11

^— Good luck with your lawsuit. Honda has deep pockets, an army of lawyers and a history of winning cases like yours, which wouldn’t be the case if these judges would just drive these cars for a week.

If that is what your dealer told you, I’d find another dealer. I’m pretty sure any idle stop restart issues are due to a dying battery. How old is your battery? Many people here see lives between 2-4 years before stalls start occurring.

I’m also sure there is no “battery life” sensor. That’s not a real thing. You can really only read two things off a battery: its voltage (a multimeter will do this and should read around 12V +/- 1V, maybe down to 10V, but that doesn’t really tell you much) and its life/capacity. This is obtained with a more sophisticated load tester that works/cycles your battery. Cars do not have built in load testers. Otherwise our cars could warn us of dying batteries on the MID before they died.

Lastly, I’m pretty sure the line they gave you about the battery providing extra juice to restart VCM cylinders is complete rubbish. Batteries are in cars to start cars. Once started, the battery should be charging and the DC system should be running entirely off the alternator. That’s why you typically see a 1-2V increase when the car is running vs just the battery voltage of 11-12V. They’re completely separate supplies. In fact, you should be able to remove a battery from a running car and it will keep running. All the lighting, sensors, controls and yes, VCM, should work. I never tried this personally, but you could drive a stick shift car without a battery at all if you parked on a slope and dumped the clutch every time you started it. What they told you is utter garbage.

Any numbers besides 12V battery and 14V on alternator could indicate a problem with your battery, alternator or both. I don’t know how the car monitors the charging system, but your battery won’t last long with a bad alternator.

someguy11

The more I reread this, the angrier I get. They made up a phony part and completely lied to you about your problem, probably to avoid testing and replacing the battery. You were totally bamboozled.

First, technically speaking, measuring the voltage of DC requires readings on both poles, so a sensor on only one of the + or - terminals does nothing. It’s nonsense. The foundation of their story does not compute.

Second, if the TLX did come with a multimeter-like sensor to read battery voltage - which it doesn’t - it wouldn’t be a tiny little device. There are typically plenty of places to read system voltage, like the ECU or whatever, so a sensor on the pole (doesn’t work) or both poles isn’t necessary anyway.

I can picture a bunch of service advisors standing around a table sharing stories like this, laughing their asses off, at the BS people will believe - like a daily competition of “who can get away with the most bogus story today?” I would go back there, ask for your vehicle service history and see what they wrote up. If there is no part number on it, ask what tiny little sensor they replaced. I’m dying to know, personally, what sort of revolutionary electrical engineering technology Acura has developed.

someguy11

Okay one more thing. Honda does make a part called a “battery sensor.” That’s a really poor choice of words. This guy broke one down to explain how it works.

The reason it’s a poor description is because it’s a sensor that goes on the battery, but it has nothing to do with the battery. It’s actually a current sensor mounted to the terminal assembly. I was thinking to myself earlier that sure, you can read current but not voltage with one pole, but that tells you absolutely nothing about the battery life, level or capacity. This sensor is to regulate the alternator. So while the part is real, your dealership either lied to you or completely misunderstands what it does.

One4AL

Wow, Someguy11, you are quite on fire....3 consecutives posts. Don't get angry for this much. I mean, it's not the first time I'd be given BS from my Dealer or Honda, such as "You know, sir, you're the only customer complaining about car vibration" (it was in Fall 2018). Yeah, right! I sure was the very first one to complain, especially since they had probably already been in Court with Tardym.

That said, this sensor had to be real (and is probably similar to the one mentioned in the video you shared) because they changed it right in my face along with changing my dead battery [they had too, because I brought them a perfectly working battery (and the car as well, but please note here that I didn't mentioned the car was perfectly working. Lol) and they killed the battery while performing testing on my 2015 TLX. Despite charging the battery for a couple hours with their special battery charger, their charger test result came as "dead battery". Honda (not acura dealer) paid for the battery, which was the original battery].

Lastly, with all due respect, should everyone be following this type of mindset regarding the size of Honda's bank account, or the number of lawyers working on Honda's behalf, I guess Erin Brockovich-Ellis would have never even try sueing for water pollution, and she'd have never win either, nor would Honda be currently discussing a formal proposal about a settlement in the Honda Civic body paint lawsuit in Canada. That's food for thoughts.