2003 Acura CL Type S from North America - Comments

I am the original owner of an 03 CL Type S with a manual 6spd.

I have not had any problems with this vehicle except the warping rotors. It's not a major issue to me because the rotors warped on every vehicle I have owned in the last 7 years; 99 Honda Accord, 01 Mitsu Eclipse Spyder GT, 02 Nissan Maxima and a 01 Nissan Pathfinder.

The solution to this problem is aftermarket dimpled or crossdrilled and slotted rotors and Akebono ceramic pads. This setup will set you back 440 bucks delivered, and will last over 50k of hard braking miles with better stopping power.

Like I said, this has been my only issue at over 75k miles.

I love the car and I'm not easy on it either.

Tarp1.

If you think about it, sometimes premature clutch failure is a pretty common problem... only if you don't drive a manual correctly. I have a 2003 CL-S 6MT that I've owned since the end of 2002. I attend school 100 miles from home, and I commute back on a weekly basis. My car is not heavily modified either. I have the typical AEM Cold Air with a set of pullies and headers. my car currently has 180k miles on it. I had to replace my clutch at 120k because it finally began to lose grip on me. I know plenty people who own a CL-S, and they have also driven their cars to the 80K+ before replacing the clutch. The rotors and auto transmissions I can understand, but please, don't tell me your clutch fails at 30k because of Acura's horrible design. You're just fooling yourself.

I am the original owner of a '03 cl-s/auto. I have 57k miles on it and have had a few problems with it, under warranty I had the auto seat adjuster replaced (stopped moving from front to back), a few squeaks and rattles taken care of, and the worst problem has been the HID headlights. I had one side replaced under warranty where the inverter went bad ($400 part), they also replaced the bulb at the time. Now the same thing happened to the other side but the warranty has expired and it seems to be the same problem. This could mean $500-700 to repair...weeeeeee...expensive car expensive parts. Also I've had the same problem as others with the rotors becoming warped.

We have had 4 Cls in our family, from a '97 2.3 liter to an '03 3.2 liter, and they have been relatively problem free. Catalytic converters seem to need replacing at around 100,000 miles, could have to do with my kids running them too often low on gas. We just had our first transmission failure on a '99 2.8. It's more common on the larger 6 cylinders than the 4. Our '03 has about 60,000 miles on it and has had no major issues besides rotors and brake pads (knock on wood). My young adult children love the CLs for their combined sportiness and luxury. We've found them pretty long lasting and reliable. Dealer attitudes and repair prices are a totally different issue, though. Go to Meineke!