zakir8

Hello everyone,

I bought my first car ever which is 2015 Acura TLX w/Advance Package in August with around 67,000 miles on it. Note that I am out of bumper to bumper warranty, but still barely under powertrain warranty. I was having 2nd to 3rd gear upshift jerks. The jerks are more pronounced when the car is cold then when it has been running for a while. Having dealt with buyers remorse and having seen many people on this forums reported the same issue, I thought I made a bad decision on my first car. Later, I found out that there is a TSB on this car and started seeing posts about how people got their transmissions replaced. At this point, I wan't sure if they would be replacing my transmission because it's out of warranty status. I was like "screw it". I am still going to give it a shot because it's just not the forums, but major car review sites reporting this car has "sluggish transmission".

First Dealer visit -> Made an appointment and went in on time with my car. I was glad a senior service rep took my case and gladly listened to the problems I was seeing with the car. I explained him how my car has hard jerks when shifting and told him there is TSB out on the car and many people have reported this. He documents and has a mechanic diagnose the car. I believe the mechanic drove the car and reported that he couldn't reproduce the issue. I requested to ride with the mechanic to see if I could reproduce it while being all nice with the reps. Now, the car was driven enough and was hot, the tranny jerks were not as noticeable. I still did my best to point out when I was feeling a jerk.

After the ride with the mechanic, he suggested that there was a software update that could be done on the car. I was all for it obviously because I believe that was the first step towards potentially getting my transmission replaced. But, here was the bummer. He said it would cost me as the the car was out of "bumper-to-bumper" warranty. I explain to him that the car is still under powertrain warranty and this is a transmission issue. After a bit of back and forth in a nice way, I asked him to let me speak to his manager. He nicely said he would get me in touch with her quickly. The manager privately spoke with the rep first and then came out and said they will do it free of cost without much of my effort convincing her.

I still experienced very similar jerk issues, but even worst. Worst because now there was almost a slight loss of power before shifting to the third gear along with the jerk. Meaning that there was loss of power coming for the engine right before the shift, for a fraction of a second. I guess this was good in a way to build up my case for replacement as you will find out.

Second dealer visit -> I drove the car for 500 miles. I go in and talk to the same rep. Yay! He remembered me. I go in the office and talk about the same issues I am seeing with the car. It was Friday and almost end of day for him. He asked me come during a weekday in the morning, so his special diagnostics guys will be available and can test out the car for the whole day. He mentioned I will have to leave my car for the day and I will get a loaner to drive.

Third dealer visit -> I go back in and meet the same rep. He quickly takes me in a room and documents what I am saying about the car. Takes some signatures. All the amounts say $0, so no charges for diagnosis and loaner verhicle. I drive out of their 2018 Acura TLX.

To be honest, I thought I would need to talk to the manager again to get this done for free as well. If not, then I was willing to escalate the issue to Acura Client Relationship team.

The call -> I get a call the next day after work telling me that "Good news". They are getting a new transmission for my car. It will take them 2 days to get it and some more time to get it installed. I am looking at about a week of total wait time. Till then I can keep the loaner vehicle. I feel like he was blaming the fault on the previous owner of the vehicle for having driven the vehicle in a way it wasn't designed to. I was just about to call bull crap on that and to argue that how come a very large number of people are having the same issues. But, I held my horses and sort of loosely agreed with him.

Now, I am just waiting and enjoying CarPlay in the new TLX until mine gets fixed. This is my story going from almost no hope to getting a new transmission installed. It is just a incredible feeling. Props to Acura for taking care of their customers. I will be hearing back from him when it's all ready for pickup and I will be reporting back on how the vehicle drives.

BEAR-AvHistory

Good Plan. Its always best to keep your mouth shut when you are ahead. Congrats on the new transmission.

ggesq

iTrader: (1)

Good stuf and props to your dealer going to bat for you with Acura to replace the tranny. Best of luck with the new tranny,

2012wagon

Congrats.

What is the warranty on the new transmission?

neuronbob

Having gone through an issue not long ago with my RLX, I will echo the need to be polite and persistent. Acura came through for me, too, and it's why I ended up in a TLX (ie staying with the brand). Congrats on getting a goodwill deal on your transmission.

zakir8

I am not sure, but I will let you know if they give any kind of warranty on it.

zakir8

You could not haven chosen better words. Bring polite and persistent is the key here.

KeithL

I am fortunate that while my 15 tranny is late model it is not has bad as most of the worst I have read here, my plan to get new tranny it wait 11 more months and order G70 or G80 Sport. ;-)

pyrodan007

Audi took care of replacing mine, couldn't be happier!!!!

CheeseyPoofs McNut

Congrats - enjoy the new ride!

paperboy42190

iTrader: (7)

Congrats! It looks like you handled the issue very well. As others have said before me, being respectful and polite goes a long way when it comes to dealing with getting things done under warranty/goodwill. It's easy to flat out reject a customer when they are being rude and disrespectful in the automotive industry

Crashmaster

I had my transmission replaced about 4 months ago. I went through pretty much the same thing as you did. The main reason I had it done as the shift were only a slight irritant was because when I should decide to sell this car, the shift jerks might be intolerable to the new owner. If the new owner did their homework on this car, they would know about the problem with the transmission. This could certainly be a deal breaker or I might have to take a hit on the price. I would rather have the newer transmission to be able to tell a potential buyer. The new transmission is only slightly better in my opinion. Glad you have had yours done.

2012wagon

do you know what the warranty is on the new tranny?

Crashmaster

To my understanding this "Rebuilt Transmission" has a 12/12 warranty unless your factory powertrain warranty or extended warranty is longer.

zakir8

This was exactly one of my concerns. It would be easier to sell in the future and meanwhile I will not be frustrated with the shift. I will be keeping the $0 invoice just as a prove when selling the car.

zakir8

Update: I got my car back last night. The shifts are way smoother now!! They are almost not noticible. I think they put a transmission built in April 2017 that was manufactured in Canada. I could tell that from a sticker I can see under the engine. I was told that I should drive 500 miles for the transmission to learn.

As far as the warranty on this, I do not know because I wasn't able to speak with a service rep when I picked up.

9SpeedTran

If you notice vibration when the VCM kicks in that sounds like you are driving in way to high a gear and lugging the engine, have them resynchronize the Active Engine Mounts with the car in gear. Hopefully they did that as part of the replacement.

BEAR-AvHistory

An easy test to see if its the engine speed - when it is vibrating hold a steady speed & downshift one gear. If it goes away the car is running in too high a gear.

Rocket_man

Your VIN must have fallen into the 'replacement' range of the TSB. I wonder why the previous owner didn't already replace it? For those of us with 2015's that are outside the VIN we just suck up a crappy transmission and curse Acura every day we drive the car. Apparently not in the mysterious way Acura intended their car to be driven. Maybe I should try driving it sideways?

Congrats on the new transmission. BTW, just for $#its and grins, ask Acura how they intended their sport sedan to be driven. You know, just so you don't ruin your new transmission. I'd be curious to know what logic they use to blame their buyers for the crappy transmission Acura put in their car.

dezymond

I notice a jerk on my TLX every now and then, sometimes when the transmission hangs onto 2nd gear up to like 3000rpm and then changes is when it's pretty rough, hard to replicate though.

Rocketsfan

Is your car a 2015 V6? And did you already have your transmission swapped? This was pretty common before Acura started replacing transmissions. For some, even with the multiple software fixes, it still happened. The only thing that apparently fixed it was getting a new transmission from what I was seeing on these forums.

dezymond

yes it's a 2015 v6, I believe it was made in April? Did not have it replaced as I never noticed it, or I did on maybe less than a handful of occasions but ended up forgetting about it.

I've noticed that too as well, where complete replacement was the only real fix, it's just the time spent to getting to that point you know? I don't have time to go to the dealer so often. I did notice it the other day which is why I commented above, so maybe I should take it in. I took a look at my warranty yesterday and am relieved it's 6yr or 70k miles. I'm barely 2yrs into the car and almost at 34k miles so I better look into it now than later.

Robs252

and mine was swapped twice. Ugh

Rocketsfan

Yeah, if you're still on the original transmission, the transmission can be jerky at times. At other times the shifts may not be so pronounced. I bought my car in August 2014 and I've just learned to live with it because apparently mine isn't eligible to be replaced. If you've never noticed it, the shifting isn't too bad in yours (especially after the software fixes). Even in mine, it's no longer horrible like it was the first 1.5 years. Now it's bearable-but-annoying. Just make sure you have all the software updates applied (just take it to the dealer and let them make the determination), I guess, and hope for the best.

BEAR-AvHistory

There is not much incentive for a dealer to tell him if he did not come in with a complaint. Given a choice the dealer would prefer the trans to fail outside of the warranty period.

dezymond

Just made an appointment to bring my car in next Wednesday. I feel my shifts are smooth for the most part, maybe since it's the way that I drive, but I have noticed it feels slow to shift and then I really feel it. One time it's like it didn't want to shift at all and suddenly did and it felt like if you suddenly let the clutch go in a manual transmission, was a very rough shift. Hopefully they'll be able to replicate it or I can when driving with the tech or adviser.

zakir8

Yes, my VIN number fell into the 'replacement' range. As for the second part, I was very close to asking that question, but I held myself back because they agreed to replacing the transmission. I would have otherwise said that exact same thing.

Robs252

Are they replacing it with a new or rebuilt unit?

Crashmaster

To my understanding the replacement transmission is rebuilt.

BEAR-AvHistory

Pretty normal in the industry. Warranty is good as they will honor your new car warranty or 12/24 months (variable on brand) on the transmission which ever is longer.

Robs252

Mine was one of the first to get replaced. It was a rebuilt unit. Problems resurfaced 10,000 miles later. Then they replaced it with a brand new one. All good now.

ruler1577

I just noticed this thread after posting an update on the 1-2-2-3 hard shift thread. Has anyone ever been able to speak to the engineers at tech line? In summary, I feel like my car continues to shift like garbage however I'm unable to get someone to say that I can get a replacement. My VIN does fall under the TSB. Is anyone local to Southern NJ, PA, or Delaware that's had their transmission replaced? I would love to have someone drive my car, who's had their transmission replaced, and get their opinion on it.

dezymond

Just dropped my car off and told the adviser my issues. He barely said a word and began writing up my RO. A technician has to drive it and then they'll contact me. Definitely one of the quieter advisers I've ever had but hopefully they can find the issue.

I also report a sunroof rattle, very prominent when the cover is slid back. Made sure to mention that it only rattles when sunroof is closed. I report it to another dealership months ago and they found nothing, is definitely worse now.

Will report back when I find out more...

dezymond

Received the TCM update along with the idle learn. Took a drive with a technician right after so he could confirm the rattle and the transmission seemed smoother. As for the rattle, that too was resolved it seemed. Drove the same routes with the technician after he added some material between the gaps and no more rattles.