Haze/TypeS

Hello everyone,

I am new to AcuraZine, but I have been browsing the site recently since I have recently acquired a 2008 ASM TL TypeS. Everyone here has a lot of great ideas and mods they have done to their TL's from what I have seen, so I figured I would go ahead and introduce myself and start becoming active on the forum.

Just a quick note about myself, I work 3rd shift (11pm-7:30am) at EMC Corporation in North Carolina, and yes I hate the hours. Wondering if anyone else is becoming a vampire working nights? I am not extremely knowledgeable about cars compared to a lot of people on this site, so bear with me.

Here are a few shots of my 2008 TL Type S:











Apologies for the cell phone pics lol and I just realized I do not have any pictures of the front, I will get some.

rossv1

Looks great. What's your first mod gonna be?

Haze/TypeS

Window tint is going down first but I'm not sure weather to go 20% like I had on my previous car or keep it legal at 35%. This car is more aggressive looking than my old one and if I get it tinted that dark I think it might give the police more of a reason to mess with me, although I never had a problem in 2+ years with 20% tint all the way around and 50% on the entire windshield.

I want to start with small things like the lights around the car, I've seen a lot of badass DIY stuff when it comes headlights, fog lights, DRLS, etc. Also the Aspec body kit is dope looking and I am definitely interested in that, just not very familiar with it.

KJ TL-S

iTrader: (9)

Welcome, and nice car!

A-spec kit is a little pricey, especially since some of the pieces aren't available in ASM anymore so you'll need to get them painted, but it will make the biggest visual difference.

LED Daytime Running Lights (DRLs), interior bulbs, license plate and reverse lights are a fairly inexpensive way to improve lighting.

Then, when you're ready, rims and a drop.

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

Nice looking Type S!!
I don't have the kind of hours you do, but I'm an air traffic controller in Chicago and I am used to some pretty odd shifts. My days off are Wed/Thurs with three shifts starting at 2pm to 10pm, then two early day shifts to end the week Every now and then I work a mid shift which starts at either 10pm or midnight depending on the day. So I'm used to being at work on some holidays, and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights I'm at work. It's funny though because having my days off in middle of the week is nice because I can't stand how busy things get on Saturday and Sundays. Love the job though and I could never imagine myself in a 9-5 job in a cubicle.

As for the Type S, they look great right from the factory. I personally like 35% tint all around and like you said its legal. As KJ said do interior and exterior LED's. I have the osram/Sylvania LEDriving bulbs inside and on my rear plate. Expensive, but great bulbs with perfect color. VLED V3 Tritons are HIGHLY recommended for your front park/turn bulbs as well as rear turn signals. As for lowering, I tried it once and yes the car looks good (with a medium drop, not slammed), but the ride suffered too much for my liking. My back cracking over every bump got old quick, so I went back to stock. Type S wheels are decent for stock wheels and match the car good, but there are other nice setups too. Aspecs are my favorite if your gonna change them up.

Congrats on the purchase.

wjo165

nice ride bro.
how much you pay for it and how many miles on it?

tones160

Congrats bro and welcome to AZine!

Mr24v

iTrader: (1)

Congrats on the new car. It looks great! I worked the third shift (12am-8am) for 7 years. The first three months were horrible, but after about 6 months I pretty much got used to it as best I could. I agree with the above that 35% tint is pretty much the best compromise between looking good, and being almost legal.

truonghthe

welcome to the site, the car look in mint condition. IMO taupe with ASM is weird color combo.

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

I went through your pics and the car looks awesome. One thing I did notice and hopefully it's nothing and wasn't something over looked, but inspect the rear of your car. I'm a sucker for fine details and I noticed the rear TL and S logo are not in the original factory location. Not sure if carfax shows any sort of accidents or anything. Also, pop the trunk and see if the original VIN labels are present. One is on the right side jam of the trunk lid, the bumper label is just to the bottom and left of the passenger side tail lamp.

bla8291

WOW...how can you even see that? It looks fine to me lol. I guess that's what happens when you have so many of the same car.

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

Your exactly right, its because I have had so many of them and im used to having to examine purchases based on pictures on the computer. So not even just on the TL-S, but I have a few things that I ALWAYS look at first in pictures that are dead give aways when inspecting used cars via the internet. On any car OEM emblem location is a simple way to quickly tell if the car has had work done. On the Type S, the S logo is actually very close to the trunk lid edge. Its barely even a half inch from the edge, and most of the time a body shop places them much further away...again, because they are lazy and really can careless about doing perfect jobs.

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

Congrats on your new Type S Haze. Welcome to AcuraZine.

Haze/TypeS

Thanks everyone. I bought the car at the Acura dealership it was originally sold it. An older guy (60+) traded it in and kept it in immaculate condition. 68K miles and I paid 19.5k after all the taxes - everything is in perfect shape except a few small scratches here and there which are barley noticeable, but it is a 6 year old car after all.

@KJ TL-S Yeah I want to do the LED DRL's, it would look way better than the amber for sure - and brand recommendations?

@Mr24v Glad I'm not the only one haha.

@JTS97Z28 Man and I thought I had an odd schedule, the inconsistency would definitely mess me up with those hours. I am very interested in the VLED's - I have to learn more about this..how difficult is installation for a rookie? lol.

Your tripping me out about the emblems on the back not being in factory position - like whaaat? The are no accidents or anything even remotely sketchy in the carfax. Ill look for the spots in the trunk you were talking about to verify everything.

Yumcha

Welcome to the forum!

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

Yeah don't sweat it. If it's got a clean carfax then your most likely good. If anything happened at all it could have been a simple respray of the trunk lid due to any number of reasons.
I actually think silver with the taupe interior is kind of cool. You do to see that combo too often I don't think.

Haze/TypeS

I can't imagine the trunk needing a respray or anything done to it for the emblems to move around, but I could be wrong. I tried looking on Google to compare the back of my car to other type S's and I can't really see any difference, albeit I do not have the same keen eye and know what to look for like you do, but they seem in the same position as others.

And whats with the awkward looks with the ASM / Taupe combo? It is really that strange of a combination that people stay away from it? Anyone else have the same set up?

KJ TL-S

iTrader: (9)

Here are the bulbs I have: http://www.vleds.com/shop-bulb-numbe...45-1-pair.html

You will also need to use a certain relay made to give the bulbs full power instead of half like they get from the factory. Here is the writeup on how to do that. The kit comes from iJDMtoy.com: https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-2004-2008-93/ijdmtoy-led-drl-harness-install-w-pics-853543/. I've been using it for like 2 years now without issue.

Also - While I prefer the black interior with ASM, I've seen quite a few in your combination. I just don't think it was as popular, so it is less common to see than ASM/black.

Sunnybwoy1

iTrader: (3)

Congrats and welcome!

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

So were the VIN labels on the bumper and trunk lid?

Haze/TypeS

I found the one on the trunk lid that matches the original VIN. Is the other one on the inside of the bumper? I didn't really look because there's giant subs in my car I'm trying to get rid of. Do I have to remove the black interior cover to see the VIN?

Haze/TypeS

So I found the other one lol, I feel retarded now. It looks insanely faded, but I can still see the outlines of the VIN #. What do you think JTS97Z28?

Haze/TypeS

Just a few front shots:

Beat-Freak...

Welcome to the jungle ! Now lets start spending some cash on the car.



Congrats on the Type S ! I also got the same color, same year and miles when I bought mine couple years ago.


I usually start off with tint and upgrade the audio if your into audio that is. Go over to the Southeast Charlotte NC regions chat.


Most of the N.C people are there. We try to meet every season so check there for meets and happenings.


Name is Bee by the way.

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

That's great news that means both your trunk lid and bumper are original panels.

imj0257

iTrader: (1)

Welcome. Sweet ride.

truonghthe

your driver seat look almost brand new tho.

P1zzaman

iTrader: (1)

Kiss your money goodbye because here comes the mods

MarcoNorthPolo

Welcome! Great looking car in the best colour!

Haze/TypeS

Thanks guys.

Can anyone tell me how much of a difference comfort wise the ride is with the Aspec kit/suspension compared to the stock TLS? Looks so badass but I don't want to sacrifice comfort to lower or mess with the suspension, as I am unfamiliar in this territory. How is it perceived to have just the body kit without dropping the ride, ugly? How important is rim/tire size?

Also I do not know if this is a big deal or not, but I have been noticing my car to be a little jumpy while down revving and braking at low speeds. Something to be concerned about or nah? I browsed a little bit and could only find people having issues when they floor it going from 2nd to 3rd and being stuck in 2nd, but nothing about down revving or slowing down.

Hey Bee! I will def check out the Southeast Charlotte NC regions chat, thanks for the heads up. What all did you do audio wise, door speakers, subs/amp, the whole 9? Any rattling?

@truonghthe Thanks man I'm glad you appreciate the quality even tho you think the combo is weird lol. The seats are in excellent condition, it appears that whoever owned the car before me never had passengers because everything looks unused.

@KJ TL-S Are the bulbs that are included in the iJDMtoy kit the same ones you have? I couldn't tell, and I don't want to just purchase the lights from your first link without having all the cables and necessary stuff to make them work correctly that are included in the kit on your second link.


Appreciate the info!

ff4930

what a beauty! welcome to the forum, and the ASM club

KJ TL-S

iTrader: (9)

The A-spec lip kit looks great regardless of if you lower it. Put it on, and your TL will already stand out from probably 90 or 95% of the TLs out on the road.

Lowering your car will typically stiffen up the ride quality a bit, but it depends on how you go about it. Big drop with springs and stock struts, yea, ride quality sucks. Good quality adjustable coilovers, ride quality can still be pretty damn good. IMO, A-spec suspension isn't worth it since it costs almost as much as fully adjustable coilovers.

Not sure what you mean by how important rim/tire size is, that's all up to you. Some people stick with the waffles forever. I sold mine when I got my A-spec wheels, and now I use my 18" A-specs as winter wheels and I have 19" wheels for summer.

And no, my bulbs are not what come in the iJDMtoy kit, I upgraded to much better bulbs eventually, the ones I linked from VLED. I think you can buy just the harness kit though, and then buy whatever bulbs you want from elsewhere. Something to look in to.

Welcome to the money pit....

truonghthe

the symptom you describe as "jumpy down shift" actually part of the car was program that way it called grade logic shift, basically it mimic the way you drive manual car using engine braking. It does annoy some time and to over come this problem just bring the shifter into manual mode and go into the next gear. This can be felt more often if you drive in hill/mountain terrain road Its total normal, mine rarely do it in Houston but back in CT it does it all the time.

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

Although I cannot tell you specifically how the ride changes going from stock to aspec suspension, I do recall reading that a lot of guys say it firms it up noticeably. If thats the case then for me personally it might be a bit stiff as I think the stock Type S suspension is pretty firm as is. I do have experience with H&R Sport springs on stock Type S shocks. The ride height was perfect IMO!! not too low where the car looked slammed which I do not like, but low enough that you can tell its not stock. Unfortunately for me even that medium drop from the H&R Sports resulted in poor ride comfort. Handling was great, and the car rode just fine on smooth and minor road imperfections, but when it came time for medium to large bumps the ride was very poor. It jolted pretty extensively and was uncomfortable to me. I guess the reasoning is your simply taking the suspension out of its geometry and it just cant handle bumps the way it can stock. So you need to determine whats more important to you...looks, or ride quality. For me it was ride quality and I went back to stock. For what its worth when the TL is in motion they actually do look pretty low stock. Have you ever been driving next to a stock TL and noticed that there is little to no wheel gap? They look surprisingly good for stock.


As for the automatic, these cars have a pretty rough downshift especially in the low gears when slowing to a stop like you said. It is 100% supposed to do that and is normal. I noticed that on my automatic TL-S's as well and it is pretty annoying. Never made sense to me why they would design a car to have clunky and somewhat abrupt downshifts. Next time your coming to a stop. pop the car in neutral....thats how the car SHOULD have been designed to come to a stop, like most other cars out there. I now have a manual Type S and worrying about that is a thing of the past


I also noticed your seats seem to be in great condition. Being a picky car guy that's also another thing I look at right off the bat when buying used. If the seats are well kept that can mean other things have been as well. Interiors with beat to shit seats IMO means other parts of the car could have been neglected as well. Or some people get in and out of there car in ways that just kills the seats, or does that and never cleans them. People say that's just how they get over the years with or without taking care of them, but that's not true. With regular care, and watching how you get in and out of your car can go a long way.



Those LED DRL kits look pretty cool. I have never tried those, but one thing I have been thinking about lately that could be a pretty cool mod would be this: Disable your DRL's all together. Might be as easy as yanking a fuse, but then you will have a DRL indicator on your dash...no big deal, or maybe there is a way to turn them off without getting the indicator I don't know. Then purchase the VLED V3 Triton's switchbacks. These will have a bright white always on "DRL" look from your park/turn signals, then when you use your turn signal the white on that side goes off and blinks amber. This mod will give you a modern look since most cars come with some sort of LED running lights now.

dngo

I just got an auto 2008 ASM TL base and I thought something was wrong wuth my tranny because it downshifted hard. Thanks for clearing it up. Now I can breathe a sigh of relief.

Haze/TypeS

This place is rich with information.

I can't wait to mess with my headlights although I am very nervous...

The other concern I had about lowering the suspension is that I have to drive over speed bumps every day to work that are unavoidable. I will look at different types and setups people have with their suspension but I will most likely stay stock for the time being.

Hearing that you went with aftermarket springs and achieved that ride height got me excited because I'm not a huge fan of the super slammed look although I would like it lower than stock.Then I lost faith when I read you eventually went back to stock for the comfort...decisions decisions lol. Time will tell on this one for me.

And thanks for putting my worries to the side about the downshifting ordeal!! It is bitter sweet I suppose that that is 'normal' on the autos..it can be very annoying. 6MT would be nice.. Will try the neutral suggestion though.

Honestly I didn't realize how good of shape the seats were in until you guys pointed it out. I looked at them before I bought the car of course but I didn't really look at them haha. The biggest struggle for me is not smoking in the car! It is a pain in the ass but so obviously worth it! I've always had dark interior so this is different for me, I will try to get a few other pics of the inside.

Mr24v

iTrader: (1)

I've been on the fence on which suspension setup to go with for this very reason. I commute 70 miles a day, 6 days a week on some of the crappiest roads in NYC so ride comfort is somewhat important.

I'm willing to sacrifice some comfort for a little more sportiness, and from what I read, that's what the A-Spec suspension delivers. I just wish it was lower by another .5".

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

Well not to make you all nervous or anything, but I'm pretty sure only the auto Type S has the firm downshifts when decelerating. I don't think that's a feature the base model has....which IMO is something you don't want anyway. So now why your car has harsh shifts is beyond me :-)

nttstt444

iTrader: (1)

Auto Type S and base(07/08) both have the grade logic II downshifting. Ill agree its a bit annoying sometimes, but you get used to it eventually.

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

Well regardless that they both have grade logic, im almost 100% positive my 07 base did not have the somewhat firm low speed downshifts that my auto Type S's had. I specifically remember that only occurring on the Type S's. Interesting.