2002 Acura TL 3.2 TLS from North America - Comments

Ah heck. I was driving home from work tonight, and my car started doing that gear slippage and revving issue that so many people have posted about.

Thanks to everyone who mentioned the www.hondatransmissionsettlement.com website, as I found that my 2002 Acura TL with 88,000 miles on it is eligible for the warranty repair. I know the car was originally purchased in late 2001 thanks to the Carfax report, and will be contacting one of the local dealerships here in Phoenix to get this resolved as soon as possible.

The funny thing is I love this car - I've only had one thing go wrong with it previously since I bought it in 2004, and that was a mere battery issue; since my circumstances have changed recently, I can't afford to just take a loss on this car and sell it.

One question though - on these free warranty replacements, are people getting charged labor, or is it really completely and utterly free of charge?

Feel free to contact me at coffeewhore (at) cox.net.

Thanks.

I have a 2001 TL. I bought it off a lease with 58,000 miles. The transmission was replaced by the dealer at 53,000 miles under warranty. I have 107,000 miles on it now and the tranny went out. I contacted Acura and they said the other transmission had 12 month or 12,000 mile warranty. I took it to my mechanic and he talked to his transmission specialist who specializes in Acuras and Hondas. He told me the best thing is to try and find a low mileage used transmission and put that in over a rebuild from Acura since the rebuilds are poor. The other recommendation was to sell it after it was fixed since the best he has seen out of the transmissions is about 50K miles. I am like most others on this, love the car, but am looking at something else at this point. My old car, a 1997 maxima has 250K and the original transmission and is going great. I guess I will be looking at an Infiniti or Nissan.

To the person with the 01 TL and 107k miles. Your car should still be under warranty. The current warranty under hondatransmissionsettlement. com is 7yrs 9 mos or 109k miles. Your car should still qualify under both counts. Acura should cover your replacement tranny. Personally, I'd drive it for about 10k miles after fixing it and then sell.

Like most of you here we have the same problem on our Acura 2001 TL with just 45k miles on it. Dealer is installing another transmission...

But what I found interesting is this.

"Transmissions replaced prior to March 2005 usually fail again. Transmissions replaced 3/2005 and later include a redesigned third gear clutch pack reported to fix the problem.

"

So I was wondering if there is anybody out there who had their transmission replaced AFTER the date mentioned above and it failed again since then.

That's an interesting statement.

"Transmissions replaced prior to March 2005 usually fail again. Transmissions replaced 3/2005 and later include a redesigned third gear clutch pack reported to fix the problem."

Did you read this somewhere or were you told this by someone? My trans was replaced in 1/06 and I've gone at least 25k miles with no problems - I've been holding my breath, but this gives me hope. Please let me know where you found this. Thanks!

I found it on wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acura_TL

But I cannot find the origin of this statement.

The references mentioned on wiki did not help

Currently I've been looking through different Acura related forums trying to find the originator of the statement.

I will let you know if I have any results.

Call your acura dealer and explain your issue. My wife just passed 109k and her second transmission failed. First one was covered under warranty. Sure enough this one will be covered as well, parts and labor so no out of pocket expenses for us. Dealar told me they got a bad batch of transmissions in the last couple years. Ours was replaced at 90k and just failed at 109700. Either way it is all free. Call them and be nice, sometimes that is all it takes.

I have a 2000 TL that is a great car. Bought used with 45,000 miles and at 130,000 miles the trans went out. Dealer claimed car was out of warranty and we had no options. It appears that this is incorrect from the posts. Comments??

Love the car, but am worried about the transmission again.

Thanks.

I just had the automatic transmission rebuilt on my 2003 TL-S. Bought it new and have 73,900 miles on it. It's a late 2003 VIN and Acura would not cover it under warranty. It was slipping into 3rd gear. Dealership wanted $3750 plus tax, independent shop did the work for $2600 incl tax with a 12 month 12,000 mile warranty. The entire torque converter was wasted and was loosing hydraulic pressure. The rebuild kit included the latest updates and fixes (better than original). I hope the rebuild will last at least 100,000 miles because I really love the car and everything else about it.

Don't lose sight of the safety aspect of suddenly losing your trans at any moment... my wife and kids are worth more and we got out. It's a harrowing experience that can happen at very bad timimg. I wish we hadn't lost so much money, but it is not worth the alternative in my opinion. We had a 2002 TL Type S.

Have owned a Acura 2000TL for 4 years and just last month the Transmission went. The dealer went good for a rebuild (no cost to me) But... two weeks later it now has gone again! great rebuild taking it back today. Hopefully will get a reliable transmission installed this time! Other than the tranny I have loved this car (other than the speeding tickets)

My Husband and I have owned a 2003 TL Type S for a year and a half. Bought Used 80,000k. It now has 140,00K. The tranny just failed. Was in the car with my 20 month old son, and barely made it through the intersection before it left us dead on the side of the road. We are not covered by this extended warranty. I am in Canada. Have contacted Acura Customer support; they are looking into it, but I fear the worst... $4600 ticket to fix it at the moment. I am looking for any suggestions or contact info of customer support people who may have been a great help... Please help! This will be the key; they have the chance to make a loyal customer here or lose one...

I traded our loaded 2002 Type S for only $10,000 in fall 2006 for that very reason because of my 2 young children being in an unpredictible situation with sudden trans failures. It was a financial loss fortunately not a family loss. The absolute worst depreciation we ever had, but worth it... I reviewed this on an earlier comment. We now own new GM's.

Like the rest on this site, our 02 Acura TL Type S is now experiencing the gear shifting issues. We purchased this through private sale 4 months ago and only have 76,000 miles (obviously we didn't do enough homework). I called our one Acura dealer in the area and was told this car already had the recall transmission replaced before and since this was rebuilt salvage, it was not covered. Has anyone else been successful in getting multiple transmissions covered under warranty with a rebuilt car? My NY state title doesn't state salvage, but I was aware of the rebuilt status.

Well, the same story here. Original owner of A 2000 TL with less than 70K miles! My tranny went bad 2 days ago. It is at the dealership for repair. After reading all these posts, I'm not comfortable driving the car that I love so much anymore. the sad thing is that this was the smoothest car I ever owned. So I’m not really ready to go for something else, but a Camry Hybrid looks appealing at this point. Will replace my TL shortly. Never had any problem with it prior to this issue. I was very lucky since I had 2 more months of the extended 7 years, 9 month or 109 miles left. My concern is that the new transmission comes with no warranty! They refused to sell me any warranty on that either. BTW the rep told me that he dissuaded the manager for going 50-50 on the charges of the repair! I was not happy with the comment since it made no sense at all. It's either covered or not, why BS me? Oh, I forgot to mention, I'm a woman, what do I know about cars or legal issues, right?

Do you know if I can buy a warranty for the transmission that they'll put in? This is just for covering the next 2 months since I will be out of the country for 3 weeks of it and do not have enough time for car shopping before the existing warranty expires, specially that we are still getting faulty transmissions put in.

I have to say I never had any problem with the service in the past and I currently have a nice loaner, a 08 TL. I wish Acura had done something to save their reputation. but

BTW, thank you all for your comments and thank you for the site for keeping this post alive for so many years!