2003TL-S_RENAMED

I am new here, but, how can I check if my transmission MAY be going bad? Do I need to check the VIN number? Or just wait to see if any problems arise from driving the car. The car is currently about 2 weeks old. Thanks.

The car is a 2003 TL-S w/out navigation.

oblio98

First off.....RELAX!!! Your tranny will be FINE!!

Enjoy the car and don't worry about the freaking tranny.
I know some of the new guys get "spooked" about all of this tranny crap, but we are only keeping track of it for future use by the FEW members who will end up with tranny problems.

Although there have been at least 3 members with 2003 TL-S tranny failures, there have been HUNDREDS of members without failures.

Calm down, enjoy the car (It's great, isn't it!), and stop worrying about your tranny.

You have at LEAST 50,000 miles to find out that it will be fine!!

Welcome, and DRIVE AND ENJOY!!

:-jon

OldGuy

To my knowledge, there are still no Canadian cars in the broken tranny list. I'm not sure what that means. The US guys are all over the place so its not geographic. The Canadian cars are from the same factory but I don't know if there is a difference in the tranny.

Osofastferu

I was looking at this thread before I bought my TLS, and I must say that I was pretty scared, but after thinking about it, I bought the TLS anyways cause DAM its such an AWESOME car for the money.

greenpelikan

I totally agree!!!
I am 30K after 15 months and my baby runs great! Just had to get those poor front roters re-surfaced. Got free after complaining.

Drive Happy everyone!

Laurelcrest

I don't use the trip-tronic that often so I never really worried about my tranny, so whenever I'd come to these boards I would kind of skip over the tranny issues- but yesterday my uncle, who drives an 02 TL-S (He liked mine so much he got one himself) brought his car in, the entire transmission was ruined...and he never used the trip-tronic either.

Add another one to your list!

oblio98

See!! I told you so!

OK, only kidding about the "I Told You So", but it STILL ticks me off when people insinuate that the driver is the probable cause of the tranny failing. It really has nothing to do with how you use the tranny, or how "hard" you drive.

Anyway, if you get your uncles VIN number, I will add him to the list.

:-jon

garylee55

Just making a post to get this at the front for those with concerns or new issues...

TypeS

No been on the forum in a while......

I am on the list buy have not added my VIN. I am currently out of town and will take a look when I get home.

I was one of the first (if not the first) to report the tranny problem. My car failed with 2500 miles, and I got it in March. I think it was the first car delivered in Texas (maybe Houston only, but that is what the dealer said).

I know have 15000 miles and think that the transmission is acting up again, but it could be my imagination. I don't drive it in SS that much.

Since mine was so early, they may have put another crappy tranny in.

jonny5

oblio98-

Can you check on mines?... Hopefully, it checks out ok.
Last 6 vin# 013619

Thanks,
Jonny5

oblio98

The numbers are only for reference. There is no "list" of numbers that will get the problem. Yours should be fine, don't worry about it!

:-jon

d_rock69

My Check Engine Light came on for the second time in less than a month. My tranny behaved a little differently than what others nposted (it would rev high in 4th or 5th gear even though I did not give it any gas). In any event, the dealer said he would go ahead and order my tranny and I should have it by Wed.

BTW ...I bought my baby in March of 2001 and it has 25K miles on it. and my VIN is in the 001300's

jonny5

Thanks Oblio. I have almost 20,000 miles on my NBP 02 TL-S, so far so good.

-Jonny5

houston-tl

My tranny is dead now.
Puchase on July, 2002
milage: 13500
vin # 19640

oblio98

OK Houston_TL, you are #48,

When we get to 50, we have to stop this madness.
Someone else can keep track of this stuff.
I think the point has been beaten to death.
Our trannys suck.

:-jon

emeraldTL

class action law suit?

Ajay_RENAMED

My tranny died last week:

VIN: 023446

2002 Acura TL Type S with 18,000 miles

Purchased July 2001

ngcreese

My tranny is going... new one on (2 week back) order!!



23500 miles on it...

Vin Number: 022516

Type - S DEP w/ NAVI

Purchased in July 2001..

thescoundrel

My tranny went two weeks ago:

Vin Number: 028583

Type - S @18,500 miles

Purchased in August 2001

oblio98

FIFTY-THREE! You guys aren't trying hard enough!

:-jon

Acuraboy

It's been months since I've come to this site. Now that my tranny died today, I thought it would be a good time to check it out. Bought my TL-S in March 2001 and now I have 26,500 miles on it. Hopefully they reinstall a revamped version of the transmission.

d_rock69

After only 31 days my Tranny is dead again (okay my car slowed to a crawl before stopping on the side of the road at 11:00 at night!!!) 31 f*&^ing days?!?!?!?!? I am guessing its the tranny again. I thought they would have fixed the problem by now!!!!

AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH

d_rock69

I was on hold for 20 minutes at 11:00pm AND waited by the side of the road for 2 hours before the tow truck eventally showed up.

ngcreese

You know, I'm driving around with this broken tranny.. It feels like there is a broken gear in there. I down shifted with the ss (reflex action..), and the car jerked like I had slammed on the brakes.... except, I didn't... Yikes....

I hope they fix this thing else my next lease is going to be 330i w/ navi, STICK!!!! (no mo autos...). It would cost an extra hundred bucks a month but at this rate, I'm starting to not care anymore...


Funny, my dad always said, "... a stick shift car won't leave on the side of the road like an automatic...". I didn't undestand him them but geez, I understand him now....

miwa

yup .. I just joined the dead tranny ranks .. 2001 TL-P tho.

sigh... I'm looking for a stick shift in my next car as well.

Leager 330r

Just got mine back. Replaced transmission at 24,500 miles.

2002 TL Type S, bought in march.
VIN # 001839.
Build date 2/01

Acura warranty is 4 years or 50,000 right?

sotiri

Vin # of my dead tranny
19UUA56842A059592
milage 7100
bought 01/02
manfg 01/02
symptoms, occasional hard shifting, brown tans oil

oblio98

Well, we are up to SIXTY TL-S DEAD TRANNY'S (not counting those with multiple failures)

The word that I heard from ACURA is that these tranny failures are cuased my the Power Control Module. I was told that the PCM for the TL-S is programmed differently than that of the TL-P. Apparently, the TL-P will allow the tranny to get up to temperature before it works too hard, but since the TL-S is marketed as a performance machine, this limitation is not programmed in.

If this is the case, I am wondering why this PCM cannot be re-programmed or replaced at the dealership when the cars are brought in for their scheduled maintenance.

I really do not fully understand what the PCM is. Is it inside of the tranny, or does it reside under the hood as a "black box"?

Anyone know?

:-jon

garylee55

Plus Jon, this wouldn't explaing the TL-P failures...while certainly not as many as the TL-S, they are being reported. The Serv Rep at my Acura dealership said they started seeing the failures in the '99 TL-P...although he could not offer up any theories as to why...

oblio98

Still..... with ANY car, there will be tranny failures. Just the "luck of the draw" and the law of averages takes care of that.

Though there have been tranny failures on TLs, 99s, 00s, 01, and 02s, there has been NOTHING like the failure rate of the TL-S!

Look back at the threads BEFORE the TL-S tranny problems started. You hardly saw a "dead tranny" post. Even when the first guys had their trannys go on the TL-S, everyone thought that it was no big deal, just a stray bad tranny.

It was only after 10 or so TL-S tranny problems did the hysteria start.

I was told that Acura was getting 109 TL-S tranny failures PER DAY during Nov/Dec last year!

That's a lot of TL-S's with dead trannys! Thus the "backorder" situation.

:-jon

RedLined

I was the first on the board to report a tranny problem and according to my dealership, the first in the nation (so they say Acura told them). I believe this because at the time, they (my dealership and the Acura service engineers they spoke to) were stumped. It took them a week just to figure out what to do. They tried replacing everything before they replaced the tranny.

At the time, I definitely thought "No biggie. It's fixed now. Just a fluke." Then others started having problems and I thought "Hmm, must have been a bad batch of trannies or something. But certainly the one that is in my car now should be ok." Then the second tranny went. More people reported problems. Now we're up to 60 failures on this board alone w/ a reported 109 failures per day which certainly seems to be true given that there is STILL a back order 10 months later.

Now, it seems my 3rd tranny is on it's way out too. Maybe I'm just paranoid but that's what I said last time -- "Maybe I'm just paranoid". Then the tranny went.

garylee55

How is this not making the automotive news?

thejavagod

Here is my VIN# 19UUA56942A003712 (purchased April 2001)

After I get it back from the dealer this piece of crap is so GONNNNE!

Ruski

someone needs to call a news channel

1000bpm

If you think beemers are going to be a lot more trouble free than a TLS ..... tread carefully. My colleague at work bought a 330i manual last month. Drove it off the lot to his insurance agent pulled out of the parking lot and his transmission got stuck in 2nd gear then locked up all together. 18 miles on the odometer when this happened. Besides suffering the humiliation of having his car sit on a busy intersection during rush hour traffic .... his confidence in his car has been severely rattled. Turns out the car had a defective clutch plate or somethnig like that.

Anyway .... if you're serious on purchasing a 3'er and are interested in knowing exactly what hapened to his car send me a PM .

oblio98

If you look at "the list", and the names that match the first 20 or so VIN numbers, it's like a "who's who" of the TL-S forum from a year ago. Most of these guys (me included) were pretty gung-ho about our TL Type S's......

thejavagod

This has greatly upset me because I was thinking of purchasing a 03 MDX. I was extremely happy with the TLS. Now I don't want to buy another Acura EVER

I don't want a car that I have to worry about whether it is going to stall in the middle of the road after paying 40K for it!

I don't really care for the explanations behind it...the fact remains a MAJOR component of the drivetrain failed miserably on a brand new car. For cryin out loud I thought this only happens on GM vehicles!

My dealer (Keyes Acura) was rude and told me that actually he does not need to give me a loaner unless there is more than 48 hrs of confirmed work but he is doing it only as courteousy... this attitude is f*cking retarded. Then I get a cheap Malibu while the customers at Enterprise rent-a-car from VW and Audi are getting replacement Audi A4s

Sorry for all this ranting but I feel ripped off just like some of you are feeling and the lousy dealer attitude just makes it worse

copland007

You can add me to the list, dead tranny

'02 TLs
VIN: 035847
bought: Sept '01
tranny died: Aug '02
25k miles driven
90% highway 10% city
80% in D5 auto, 20% in SS for downshifting to pass or merge onto highway.

Very sad day

DrunkenMaster

Do they have these transmission problems in the Honda Inspires as well? I noticed that although most of the parts for our cars are from here (United States), the transmission comes from Japan.

And also, what are the first symptoms of tranny failures?

-Al

copland007

Slipping gears for me, just one night before. If you have driven standards before you would notice it. Basically the gear pin hasn't engaged the mesh, but the mesh continues to spin and on one of the next times around the pin slams into spot causing the momentary surge of power when it finally catches the gear.