My 2012 TSX has made a whine or turbo sound since I've had it (new). The 2nd time I took it to the dealer for an oil change, I had them listen to it. It makes the whine or whirr when the engine revs (in park or D, a/c on or off).
The tech quickly dismissed it and said , "It's normal". I never thought it was normal, but I accepted it.

Now at 101,000 miles, A new noise started to accompany the whirr sound. A different tech located that sound and replaced the belt tensioner pulley. As he listened to the car, he told me that whirr sound isn't normal. DUH! He sent an audio clip to techline. They said the tranny needs to be replaced. My dealer asked for some concession from Acura (I'm a 5-time Honda owner). They paid for all but $300. The sound is gone now. I'm pissed that it was mis-diagnosed when it was originally under warranty. I drive 60,000 miles per year for work. I bought Honda products to eliminate down time.

My entire steering system crashed and burned at 73,000 miles!!
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...light=steering

This car is as unreliable as a 1980's American car!!! Steering system craps out, now tranny grenades at 101,000 miles. WTF is next??? I'm scared to ask...

Acura has slightly below the norm as far as brand loyalty....I'm beginning to see why. I do appreciate them helping me with these major failures. But, really! So much for Japanese quality!

 

I agree but 300 is better than 3000! I have a 2012 tech I hope I don't run into your troubles ! In the end Acura should have eaten the 300. Good luck in future.

 

I had my odyssey tranny changed at 40k 80k 120k 160k 200k 220k 250k
TSX is quite a bit more reliable.

 

I've heard of trans problems with the RSX but not so much for the TSX, infact I've hardly sold parts for the TSX in general.? Been in the parts business for over 15 years. Honestly Acura are one of the more reliable cars out there.!

 

Putting things in perspective, the tranny still lasted 100,000 miles... in the big scheme of things, it's still not bad, specially for the out-of-pocked price.

 

Not making light of the situation, OP, but that's how I look at it as well. Auto trannies have never been Honda's strong suit and 100K+ miles for a piece of machinery as complicated as an auto tranny is pretty acceptable in my opinion. Honda/Acura reliability is a catch 22 it seems: their cars can run forever but then we sometimes expect EVERYTHING to run forever.

But with that being said I have been disappointed lately w/ Honda/Acura's customer service and I could understand your annoyance, OP. Yes $300 is better than $3,000 and of course a business can't remain in business by constantly giving things away however, without knowing all of the details other than what you have shared here, making you still pay $300 under these circumstances may not have been the best move on their part.

I have a very long story that I won't bore everyone with here but recently family members had things happen to their vehicles at around the same time, one Honda and one Nissan, and Nissan blew Honda away with how they resolved the situation (and Nissan didn't even need to do anything really according to the "letter of the law" yet they still took it upon themselves to do so to make things right; their reward? My family members were so impressed that they made an immediate newer Nissan purchase!). On the flip side my other family member told me, "I will probably never make another Honda purchase again [and this was her second]," because of how her situation was handled and is now instead considering other brands including Nissan, which she had owned before and liked.

And this is just one recent story, I have a few others as well. Honda/Acura does an awful lot right but I think they may be slipping just a bit and if not careful, could find themselves dropping a little.

 

60k miles a year?! What do you do smuggle drugs across the border?

 

I guess I am hoping this 4-cyl TSX was going to be as reliable my 2004 Accord was. The little Accord got sold with 288,000 miles. All it ever needed was an o2 sensor.

My 2010 Accord had a bad master brake cylinder...diagnosed and replaced early and under warranty. The the VCM issues started at 70,000 miles and again at 100,000 miles with "bank3 issues" and destroyed plugs.


Yes, over 60,000 miles per Year. I know, it's crazy!!! Oil change every month, new tires every year.

 

You beat car to death and complain about a measly $300?

You've had a great car reliability. I'd be happy with that performance. A transmission dying at 101K miles seems odd but then again, so is 60K a year in mileage.

 

...but seriously, what do you do. LOL.

Yeah I kind of have to agree with this. You're using the car at the point where you odds of something going wrong are going to increase no matter what car it is. Just be thankful that you're not doing all that driving while driving something German lol. Oh and $300 for a new tranny is still a steal like was mentioned.

 

I'm in sales and cover a large territory in parts of NC and SC. Lots of windshield time.

I have the dealer change the tranny fluid every 30,000 miles.

I'm surprised that more of the high-mileage crowd hasn't chimed in with stories of ultra-reliability.

I've had company cars (chevy) that didn't need a new tranny this early.

My main point....the dealer didn't diagnose this sound correctly when the car was under warranty. I am grateful I only had to pay $300. Very grateful.

 

I am in outside sales in NC as well but cover a much small territory than you, only about a 60 mile radius. I have 127K on my original transmission and change the fluid every 30K or so as well. I haven't had any issues with mine.

 

05 TSX sold with 178K miles on it. Bulletproof. 07 TSX: 225K miles and still going strong. Bulletproof. Steering at 73K, and now a trans at 101K? If that doesn't spell lemon, I don't know what does. I wouldn't have waited for the tranny though, I would have been in something new the day after the steering sytem was fixed (under an extended warranty).

 

I'm assuming much of the OP's mileage is from highway miles so that would hardly be beating a car to death, if so.

 

ESHBG is correct, most of my miles are Highway. I usually average 33-34mpg on premium fuel....if that helps paint the picture of my driving style...

 

The winning noise us usually a differential bearing, probably defective new and it took 100k to really get bad enough to know for sure what it was, not common nowadays for transmissions to go bad like the older odysseys and accords (I'm long time Honda tech in salt lake city Utah's biggest dealership we work on over a hundred cars a day) just a little bad luck on your part, freeway miles are so easy on the car, this should have never happened

 

My 1988 Honda CRX has almost 200k miles and I haven't ran into anything major that had to be replaced. I'm hoping my TSX lasts me just as long, and then some.

 

Have you ever replaced fluid in transmission?
If so did you use genuine fluids?

 

your car is 2012 and you already have 101k miles. You drive a lot. having the car constantly running will also require more frequent maintenance work

 

You probably should invest in an inline cooler if you drive that much. At 60,000 miles a year, you should be doing at least 1 transmission fluid change annually.

 

I finally dumped the TSX after several issues. I can't deal with the continuous problems from this car.

 

what did you replace your TSX with?

 

I ended up getting a good deal on a '15 Camry XSE.
So far, so good. 18,000 miles under the belt as of now.

Quiet and softer ride.

 

What other issues did you run into after the transmission? I thought Acura extended our powertrain warranty recently. I may want to get my transmission checked out since it makes the same whine noise when accelerating.

 

I had to replace the VTC actuator before I decided to dump the car. I was pretty much done at that point. Shortly after that repair, the car wouldn't start again if I moved it while it was cold (move it in the driveway to re-arrange other car that might be in garage).

I decided to end the madness.