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Hi, I'm looking for help repairing/maintaining my CL-S. I tried to use forum search, but my questions are too sprecific so I decided it's worth to create a new thread.
First of all I want to apologize for any english related mistakes I might do and overall "weirdness" of my speech here but I am not a native english speaker, I live in East Europe(Belarus) and my first language is russian.
Sooo... I bought a '01 Acura CL Type S with 5 speed automatic just a couple of weeks ago. I know that it's a rare car even for US, I know it has poorly designed A/T but I really wanted a coupe from Honda/Acura(and I'm not a huge fan of those Civics that everyones seems to like) so here I am owning a realtively rare american car(with japanese origins) far away from it's homeland(as far as i know it was never exoprted anywhere besides Canada). I believe that I am now fourth owner of that car and it have 138k miles on dashboard. According to CarFax my CL was exported to Europe via car auction in 2003(no accident records was found) with almost 50k miles on it. So after almost 90k miles on local bumpy roads with not so kind weather conditions(we have nasty cold winters and a lot of dirt and salt on the roads because of that) any car would suffer some damage and my Acura is not an exception. Besides that one of the previous owners was a fan of cheap tuning and the other one was a smoker(driver's seat is ruined by all those small burns marks on it). So here I'll post a list of problems and questions that I failed to find myself. Hope you guys can help me because there are literally only 5 CLs in my city and no mechanic who would know a thing about that car(it's all about german, french and korean cars here).
1) Automatic transmission. I know it's been said a lot about that unreliable gearbox, I know about Acura's recall campaign but transmission on my CL was already replaced about 60k miles ago by previous owner and not only that but he also installed an additional radiator for ATF cooling(i think it's Mazda CX-7 radiator mod.that heard of before). I just want to know how to use this transmission to maximise it's lifespan: should I avoid longtime driving on some specific speeds/gears range; is it better for this tranny to not use any drivemode except "D5" for daily use; how often should I change ATF; does it have oil filter or other expendable parts that I should chage every now and then? And what signs of upcoming transmission breakdown should I look for to prevent "the 2nd gen TL/CL's tragedy". And how effective this additional cooling mod actually is? From what I heard and read overheating is not the only issue with that transmission.
2) The most critical problem that I have now with my CL is the bearing on the right rear wheel. It's dead and extremly noisy even on low speeds(30-40 MPH) and it could stall the wheel in any time now. As far as I know there is no way to replace the bearing itself on the rear wheel(it could be done for the front wheels though), I'll have to buy a new wheel hub assembly for replacement. If I was living in US I would just go and by myself a new genuine part, but I live where I live, and I have only two options here: order this part from USA on eBay with crazy overprice on int. shipping and customs taxes, or find a replacement from another Honda/Acura model. 2nd TL shares same bearing hub but it is also an extremly rare car now. I heard there is way to switch both wheel hubs to ones from Accord which is much common model, but I also would have to change my rims to 4 bolts. Maybe the 3rd gen TL hubs would fit or there some other ways to deal with that problem?
3) Front shocks are soon to be dead too. Same question - can I use parts from other models to replace those?
4) One of the previous owners have installed "zero resistance filter" on the engine. Stock filter case, cover, tubes and all small parts are gone... I dont have any trust in such "uprgades" and planning to remove this blasphemy from under the hood but then again - where could I find a stock filter case? Genuine set of needed parts costs around 150$ without shipping and it's too much for plastc box with couple screws in it(and again - no parts in stock here, I'll have to order it from US). Will case from Accord or 3dr gen TL will fit?
5) I have my "Check engine" and "SRS" lights on all the time. I know how to fix the SRS warning sign(previous owner said that it came on after old battery died and it's no big deal, just "paperclip it") but I want to actually read those error codes(especially "Check engine" related). Do I have to buy a scanner or I can just short some wires under the dash and count the blinks on the gauges? I succesfully perfomed that kind of "diagnostic" on my '97 Accord Coupe a couple of times, but it was overall a much simplier car.
6) Is it possible to reprogram on-board computer to metric system(to Kilometers and Celsius)?
7) Does CL had xenon low beams lights from the factory? Here we have very strict techregulatuion regarding non-factory headlight mods(actually according to the local law all cars equiped with xenon bulb MUST have auto light corrector and headlight washer)
8) How fast CL-S is? I mean what should I expect from the car? I have never driven an automatic before, nor did I have a V6 with VTEC under the hood(my Accord had simple F22B5 engine). My CL is 17 old now, so there is good chance that the engine has already lost it power, besides as I mentioned earlier I have my "Check engine" light on so I just want to know how well maintained CL-S should behave.
9) I also have a lot of questions regarding all kinds of cosmetic issues with the interior but those are at the bottom of my "To do" list. so I might return to them later.
Hi Haddock, welcome to the forum. Your English is very good.
At the moment, based on the number of questions you have regarding your 01 CL-S, I recommend getting in contact with forum member @Inspire J32A2 . He has a 2001 Honda Inspire UA4 (the right-hand drive version of the Acura TL) and lives very close to you in Moscow, RF. Check out his thread below. The last time he logged into the forum was 05DEC2018, so he is still active and probably would be the best individual to help you find other model equivalent cross referencing parts for your car because he is in the same boat as you, as far as access to parts.
I tagged him above, so he will get a private message regarding this thread; however, you could also get his attention by responding to his thread below because the back office part of the forum will send him another e-mail notification and you guys could then converse.
Привет! Пытаюсь тебе написать в личку - не могу ничего отправить, пишет, что ящик у тебя переполнен. Английский у тебя и вправду хороший, согласен с пользователем zeta По поводу коробки - маслокулер штука очень хорошая и нужная. Но я точно не могу тебе сказать, является ли маслокулер панацеей: многие говорят, что он помогает, но бывали случаи, когда коробки умирали и при наличии кулька. Лично я себе поставил коробку MRDA от Инспаера следующего поколения. По части обслуживания - у нас в РФ есть фанаты, которые меняют масло в КПП вместе с маслом ДВС)) лично я меняю его раз в 15 тысяч +/-, дожидаться регламентных 60 тысяч точно не нужно. Использую Honda DW1, хотя народ из Сибири льёт себе ZIC (ругая при этом оригинальное хондовское масло). На коробке есть внешний фильтр, живёт он рядом с аккумулятором, его советуют менять раз то ли в 10, то ли в 20 тысяч. По поводу ступицы - сейчас сравню партнамберы CL и Инспаря, вообще я заднюю ступицу менял - ставил Фебест. Мне все говорили, что Фебест говно, но я уже больше 50 тысяч на ней отъездил - полёт нормальный)
У тебя есть аккаунт на DRIVE2? Можем там сконнектиться.
А вот со ступицей проблема - номера разные у Инспаря и у CL. Вот тут и вправду непонятно, что делать. Либо рискнуть и попробовать неоригинал от Inspire заказать, либо цапфы в сборе от него же.
It might be a silly question, but is this how sparetire trunk lid should look like? I mean the thin carton plate with some sort of fabric on it(looks like some DIY stuff from previous owners) Lid
.
It might be a silly question, but is this how sparetire trunk lid should look like? I mean the thin carton plate with some sort of fabric on it(looks like some DIY stuff from previous owners).
I just checked mine and that's the factory look. I have the same four 'square' pieces of white foam strategically placed in the same locations, although the sound proofing is dark grey.
Thanks for the replies. Well... I don't have to do anything about that part anymore I guess(but the latch handle on the lid was broken from the start, had to install metal rod in it).
Thaks for your generous offer but as far as I know it would be too expensive to ship that kind of stuff overseas(even via boat which is the cheapest way to go). Also the shocks may fall under shipping restriction(cause they usually contain pressurized gas/liquid that could explode if dammaged). Besides I found a replacement shocks from Kayaba that should fit it perfectly(and it's much more cheaper and accessible to buy here even in brand new condition).
What I'm really craving for right now is the instrument cluster and climate control unit from canadian 2G CL-S or TL-S. We use metric system here, I already got like 10 speed tickets for going 95 instead of 80(kph). And fahrenheit to celsius conversion is not so obvious and simple as I thought).
I also need to do something about the rear right side body panel. It was badly damaged in small car accident by previous owner and already started to rust. But I dont think that it would make any sense to ship the whole panel from the US to Europe(the panel alone cost over 1k$). I think junkyard scavenging is a way to in cases like that but obviously I can't do this remotly from here on my own.
12-09-2018, 03:38 PM
Owning a CL-S outside North America
По поводу коробки - маслокулер штука очень хорошая и нужная. Но я точно не могу тебе сказать, является ли маслокулер панацеей: многие говорят, что он помогает, но бывали случаи, когда коробки умирали и при наличии кулька. Лично я себе поставил коробку MRDA от Инспаера следующего поколения. По части обслуживания - у нас в РФ есть фанаты, которые меняют масло в КПП вместе с маслом ДВС)) лично я меняю его раз в 15 тысяч +/-, дожидаться регламентных 60 тысяч точно не нужно. Использую Honda DW1, хотя народ из Сибири льёт себе ZIC (ругая при этом оригинальное хондовское масло). На коробке есть внешний фильтр, живёт он рядом с аккумулятором, его советуют менять раз то ли в 10, то ли в 20 тысяч. По поводу ступицы - сейчас сравню партнамберы CL и Инспаря, вообще я заднюю ступицу менял - ставил Фебест. Мне все говорили, что Фебест говно, но я уже больше 50 тысяч на ней отъездил - полёт нормальный)
