Hello all, I am a new member, and a first time Acura owner. I have a 2002 3.2 TL Type-S. I just bought it a few weeks ago. I have always had a special place in my heart for the 2nd Gen TL Type-S, love the looks of it. It has 132,000 miles on it and from what I can tell nothing done to it other than the stereo system, tinted windows and an HID headlight kit...are the factory Hid's inadequate? I have so far have only added vent visors to it. Replaced the front pads and rotors, and rear calipers, pads and rotors. The car was a mess when I bought it. I don't understand how someone can disrespect a car like this. Interior was dirty, console pieces are all separating, crud built up in hard to reach places, hadn't been vacuumed in probably 2 years. Outside needs some tlc but isn't in too bad of shape. It is solid underneath, nnorot barely any rust at all. I am going to remove the intake resonator box and put in a drop in K&N filter within next couple days. I want to add an OEM body kit to it. I am going to start saving my pennies for the inevitable....why make such a nice car with such a poop transmission? I kinda like the look of tth factory wheels, just wish they didn't have a bad case of curb rash. Is it possible to sand them down without ruining them? I have been reading a lot on here, some great info and a ton of beautiful cars here. Sorry I guess I am rambling on here...looking forward to taking in all this forum has to offer!

 

Hello and welcome to the forum! Nice to meet you. The 2g tl has been one of my favorite cars of all time. Used to occationally drive my friends 2003tl and it was truly a smooth vehicle. The transmissions don't "always" go though. You "may" get lucky lol.

What color is it btw? Love the 2g in black or white.

 

Nice to meet you as well! Wow, all that rambling and I forgot to say what color it is. I don't know all the codes for the paint colors yet, but mine is black exterior with the beige color interior.

 

the factory HID's often failed. instead of paying an arm and a leg at the dealer(upwards of $600) one could get a DECENT to a very good aftermarket HID kit for about $250.

but not all aftermarket HID kits were created equal and the previous owner could have installed a cheapy HID kit.

 

Thank you, justnspace. It wouldn't surprise me if the previous owner cheaped out on them. I'll have to see if I can find out what kind they are one of these days.

 

^usually, the owner laid the ballast somewhere in the engine bay close to the headlights.
if you can find it, it usually displays the brand name. notate the name and do a google search or report back!

 

welcome to the nuthouse

 

Okay, I'll take a look. Thanks.

 

Lol, thanks for the welcome!

 

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/ has some great quality aftermarket HID solutions

 

To some people, it's a car... a means of transportation. Nothing more, nothing less.

To others, it's their baby... their pride and joy.

Most of us would probably fall into the latter camp since we're on a car forum.

I say take care of it and enjoy it. Not everyone is fortunate to own a car.

 

True, I guess I didn't look at it that way.

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

Well that didn't last long... Had my TL for about 3 weeks now and I'm pretty sure the transmission just went on me as I was going to work. Backed out of my driveway just fine, drove off down my street fine, went to make a left hand turn out of my street and all kinds of clunking and banging noises and the car would not accelerate, would just rev up as if in neutral.

 

^did you make it back home?

 

No, I let the car roll as far as it would go and pushed it down a side street so at least it's off the main road. I have read a few threads on here about the tranny failures, but not many yet as I'm pretty new around here. Does that sound like what normally happens when these let go? No flashing D on the instrument cluster. No slipping beforehand, no real hard shifts. Just went.

 

This literally just happened 40 minutes ago. I had to leave the car and am waiting for a ride to work.

 

Could just be the axles. Not necessarily the tranny.

 

If this needs to be posted somewhere else, just let me know.... I immediately thought the worst and assumed it was the transmission. I remember reading a post a couple days ago where someone said that they had a shimmy feeling from 40-60 mph and had gone through a bunch of different things and it ended up being the axles. Well my car did have a slight shimmy, shudder feeling under acceleration at those same speeds. If it is in fact the axles, would it still make a clunking noise once put into gear, without the car moving at all? If I shut the car off, then put it in park and restart it, there is no noise until I put it in gear. If I put it in park while still running, after already having put it in gear, it still makes noise in Park until I shut it off and restart it, then it is quiet again.

 

sorry this happened to you with such a relative new to you car.


you'll have to head back to the car to further inspect if its tranny or axles!

 

Damn. That sucks. Unfortunately, 2nd gen TL's and similar year Honda's/Acura's are notorious for their transmissions going out.

 

best way of putting things here.

 

Well I got very lucky. Ended up being the drivers side cv shaft. Thank you, Thoiboi. You were right, I would not have thought that was the problem. The cv shafts never gave me a heads up that they were going to fail. No clicking when turning, no clunking, no noises at all until it went. The outboard joint disintegrated. It wasn't an easy repair, for me anyway, but I was so relieved to find a broken cv joint instead of my initial assumption. Thanks for your help!

 

glad you got her up and running again, even if it wasnt easy

 

phew!!

Thanks for checking back in OP, glad it was something other than the Tranny.