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2 New Transmissions for my 2001 Acura TL - Help
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These TLs are not a complete "walk-around" (don't buy), but they get scrutinized much more than before. That has to, and does, effect market position and percieved value.
Please don't think I'm being arrogant here - consumers have little or nothing to do with how used prices are set at auction and trade-in - just at purchase.
When I'm talking about the TL being soft, it just means that instead of pulling a strong book price as with most other high-line imports, you're not sitting as pretty. Instead of wholesale book or $500 over w/s, you may draw $500-1000 less. In light of the way some others get beat up in the market, $500-1000 is cheap, actually.
I bought this car when my old 93 Toyota Camry needed a new transmission at about 85,000 miles. I thought I'd buy a new car rather than spend the 4K on a transmission. I was hoping my Toyota would have lasted me 10 years.
When I researched this car it had nothing but good reviews and rated high in CR. So I purchased it and had no problem until the tranny. As so as the problem occurred I researched it and found that Honda was having a problem with it. I took it into the dealer ASAP and had them replace the tranny under the warranty and they gave me extended warranty.
Other than that I'm still happy with the TL, I planned to keep it until it reaches 150k then I might get a new car.
P.S. If you don't already know, the remote for the car is defective. If you haven't already had it replaced, check with your dealer.
Check with your dealer ship. There is a service bulletin out about this.
We got rid of a 95 Windstar with a bad trans/bad head gasket problem to get the Oddesey and paid up for it.
When the trans blew out, did it give any warning signs?
This is really annoying. These cars are my second and third Honda's, and nearly everyone in my family has been buying Honda's based on my wonderful experience with my '91 Accord and my brother's experience with his '94 Accord.
The problem was with the lubricant used it could'nt take the heat and allowed for accelerated wear on the tranny.
All his customers who owned Acuras and still do. Had recieved a recall letters for their trannies, however none of them saw the need to take advantage of since none experienced any of the issues related to these transmissions.
Their trannies were all using a high quality synthetic oil and these cars were well in excess of 170,000 miles. Quite a few had 220,000 miles and more, could very well be the lubricant cannot withstand the heat excerted by the transmission and its lubricating properties diminish well before it should, whereas the synthetic lubricant has a higer tolerance for heat and extra additives needed for the cleanliness.
Thereby the fluid stays intact.
Why would you replace transmission oil that often??? Acura TL requires this to be done at 60K miles and then every 30K miles. I doubt that Honda Odyssey requires significantly different schedule, if at all different. It seems to me you're just throwing away money and increasing your chances of having something go wrong with the transmission. My feeling is that the more you let mechanics tinker with your car, the higher the chance that they'd do something bad to it.
The problem started small at first. Sometimes the transmission would slip for a split second but then recover. Then it slipped for a longer period of time but still recovered. Then it slipped and took an incredibly long time to recover. Then it was like driving a manual transmission that you don't know how to drive. It was horriffic. The whole process took about two weeks or 600 miles. Anyhow, you'll know if it's happening. But the VSA exclamation point light comes on along with the VSA malfunction light, the Check Engine light and the D5 indicator blinks--oh, and the car doesn't drive all that well...
Good luck to everyone else's transmission!
The dealer says the refurbished unit will be great, and that the TL transmission failures are small in number .only 1% of all the TLs. Judging by the number of posts here and at the NHTSA web-site, it appears the TL transmission issue is huge. The Consumer Reports car issue is out in April. It will be interesting to see how the transmission is rated on used TLs. I expect to see the red dot change to black.
I confirmed through comparison of the part number used in the transmission replacement that, in fact, a “new” transmission was not used in the replacement operation – a “remanufactured” transmission was used and several points come to light on this issue:
- The only transmission housing source for a remanufactured transmission is from a known defective component – new transmission housings are not built for use with used/remanufactured components.
- A remanufactured transmission’s internal components are usually only replaced if they are “out of specs” with a certain requirements - obviously not the same wear and tolerance specifications as a new transmission.
- A vehicle with a remanufactured transmission, especially a newer vehicle such as this, bears the burden of “not being in original condition” and subsequently assumes a loss in value of at least 40% - considering there are no other contributing factors as is not the case on this vehicle.
- An educated consumer or used car manager, upon having the ability to compare this vehicle to one that is similar but is equipped with the original transmission, would choose the original vehicle. Even if the mileage on the vehicle with the original transmission was more than on the remanufactured unit, a buyer can be certain the original transmission is built to tighter tolerances and constructed by the vehicle’s manufacturer – not an “aftermarket” transmission-rebuilding factory.
While Acura may be within their rights to install a remanufactured transmission, account must be taken for the financial burden this places on the consumer.
An appraiser has no concern over whether the manufacturer has the legal right to use remanufactured parts. An appraiser simply looks at a large number of vehicles and chooses the most desirable – a vehicle with a remanufactured transmission is not desirable and pales in comparison to vehicles with their original components. The appraiser must also consider other major component damage during the failure or because of the conditions, like abuse or neglect that led to the failure.
At first the dealership told me they would put in a brand new transmission... When I arrived to pick it up I asked if a new transmission was installed. They replied it was remanufactured. I was not happy about that. They told me that the remanufactured transmission solved all of the problems and that it is as good as new. I have a hard time believing that remanufactured is as good as new. What can you do? When I tried to inquire about what caused the failure, the service rep was vague. I also asked how common this was... once again vague response. It has left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. Although the remanufactured tranny seems fine (2K miles since replaced), I constantly question every shift...
I just hope the remanufactured tranny holds up.
http://www.acurainspired.com/gallery/view_photo.php?full=1&se- t_albumName=album07&id=aap
Page 2
I hit 66430K in my 01 TL and the tranny bombed...waiting for a new one...told me 5 days for the turnaround..we'll see.
here's page 2.
http://www.acurainspired.com/gallery/view_photo.php?id=aaq
If the selector sticks in the reverse position, the car will operate normally until it attempts to shift into 5th. If 5th gear is not called for until freeway speed is reached, the result will be even more radical than a downshift to a lower forward gear.
The manual does not mention an interlock to prevent this from happening. In fact, the manual discusses the problem of the car moving forward when reverse is selected, and mentions sticking of this selector in the forward position as the probable cause. Sluggish movement of this selector probably causes the delay in engagement of reverse which has been mentiond by several owners.
If this is the explanation for the radical "downshifts", the car can be driven safely after transmission problems become obvious so long as D4 is selected rather than D5.
Acura has undoubtedly studied the transmissions which have failed. If this is the failure mode which leads to the sudden downshifts, they should notify all owners of the safe procedure for driving to their dealership for repair.
I have written several letters to Acura regarding this possibility. They refuse to comment on my question.
Perhaps additional letters to them would result in a comment on this suggestion.
"I have written several letters to Acura regarding this possibility. They refuse to comment on my question."
For those of us who've had trannies fail and attempted to contact Acura... the above response is a typical experience.
I suspect that your explanation may be one reason for the highway lock-up's, but there's a lot of owners who believe that the tranny issue is overblown, and will need a TON of proof before they believe anything negative about their beloved TL's. I was one of those faithful owners until my tranny went south.
Not sure of your background/expertise, but it will surely be questioned.
Shhh... listen.... the flames are coming.
I'm not sure what methods Consumer Reports uses for evaluations, but based on my own experience I don't trust them anymore.
While investigating mini-vans around '94, I read good reviews in Consumer Reports on the Dodge Caravan.
We bought one.
We went through 3 transmissions in a few years.
I checked the internet and found many, many people with problems, lemon-law cases, etc.
I checked with a trusted mechanic and he said it was a known problem dating back to the late 80's.
I have heard since then that Ralph Nader had listed it as a serious auto problem for consumers to watch out for.
Yet Consumer Reports gave it high marks.
My son has a 2000 Acura TL bought off-lease with 32k miles. He drives very sensibly and generally babies the car but there's still concern about the tranny problems occurring regardless of usage.
On the issue in general, I'll grant that no mechanical device is perfect but do regard as critical the manufacturer's manner of addressing the defect.
Also - Honda claimed in Sept. '02 that 16,000 trannys failed out of 1 million - but some think they watered down the failure rate by including models that did not experience greater-than-normal
problems. Anyone know what the current failure count is and how many 00-02 (problem years?) TL's and TL-S's were manufactured? Zeus - you seem to consistently have informative posts - any idea where one can find the truth as to how many trannys have really failed and percentages? (Honda could be understating the problem). Thanks in advance.
P.S. My own experience: '01 TL, 32,000 miles, love the car, always noticed occasional 'hiccup' and hesitation on downshift, am now slightly nervous.
I've yet to see an Acura with a transmission problem in PA, NJ and DE.
due to climate (heat, cold, humidity?) hilly terrain, or because certain 'batches' were bad?
Just a thought - although just today (I'm in NY) I ran into someone who had a '99 TL who had the tranny replaced at 36,000 miles (Said it never was right shifting from 2nd to 3rd, not 100% happy w/ replacement but has 68,000 miles total.)
I was amazed cuz I just found out about this reading Edmunds the last few days.