Problems with 2002 Acura TL POWER TRAIN

Transmission failure. replaced may 2003. transmission failing again.*ak

2002 acura tl type s, has had three transmissions suddenly fail, two at highway speed, endangering the driver and occupants. apparently from on-line reports, this is quite common for this vehicle. the transmission suddenly and without warning, seized as if the brakes were slammed on. this occurred three times: april '03, july '06, and july '11. twice acura (honda) claimed that it replaced the transmissions. however in light of the subsequent same failures, that claim is suspect unless its engineers have still not fixed the problem, and knowing so, have continued to endanger its customers by not repairing it. *kb

My trans. was replaced in 2003 because of a shifting problem. my car was still under warranty, however, i was told that i would have to pay for the repair. i paid for the repair and in 2006 i had the same problem. i was told that it was a recall, but when i informed mcgrath acura that i should be reimbursed, it was denied. i also complained of a clicking noise in the radio that was never looked in to when i took my car in for trans., apparently this is a common defect where the pins within the 6cd changer go bad, but i have yet to see a recall. i have also experienced problems with the bubbling michelins. i have had three blowouts and have finally replaced the tires with a different brand, which i think is unfair. i have also had problems with the brakes. i have had to replace original rotors for warping. my paint seems to be chipping really bad and it has been since original purchase. i also have had problems with the seat belt not retracting. *tr

Driving in my car and the car "jerked". car was also having a hard time shifting. eventually the key would not drive or go into reverse. the transmission was dead. *nlm

Owner of a acura 3.2tl type s, bought in 8/01. in 6/02 driving on highway vsa light , caution light and ck engine light came on. car started shifting down and throwing car forward. brought to dealership sent me home said nothing was wrong. 1/2 hr later car was towed back to dealership for same problem. new transmission put in. 2/03 brought car to dealership for whining noise. told me a new transmission has to be ordered, told me o.k. to drive until then. a few days later driving on highway, car would not go above 45mph car, car started to shake and would not go into third gear. thankful i was not in an accident. car was towed to dealership. a new transmission is being put in again!!!!

Transmission went out completely. worst experience ever. it gave out while i was on the way to school, so i never made it. school was only 3 miles away too. though i was aware of the imminent failure thanks to fellow owners, it was nonetheless frightening. i was shaking as i "crawled" to a safe area. if i was on the highway, this failure could of been fatal!

Transmission slipping gear during normal driving.

Today i have experienced what i consider to be more than a defect in my 2002 acura 3.2 tl-s. prior to today i have delt with numerous minor defects such as a broken sway bar link, leaking transmission seals and brake fittings, paint/trim defects and two defective tires. today's incident was unacceptable and the only reason i made it home safely tonight was pure luck! on ca-101 in san jose, california during rush-hour i was in bumper-to-bumper traffic traveling at 65 mph surrounded by cars when my front tire locked up sending my car into the lane on my right. as i counter-steered to keep the car from crashing into the cars on my right the car started to lose control and swerve in the other direction due to the fact that it was still stuck in what appeared to be first gear. after completing a 360 degree spin and barely avoiding the huge suv coming straight at me i was able to gain control and pull off of the freeway where i took a few minutes to calm myself and thank god i was still alive. the car is stuck in one gear right now and will be towed to the dealership in the morning where i am going explain to them that i refuse to drive it until the transmission is replaced with a new one, not repaired. in my opinion this goes beyond a simple warranty extension (which i already purchased - 7y/100,000) and could have not only cost my life, but the life of others as well.

I was pulling out of a driveway (store) onto a main road at less than 5 miles per hour. stepped on brake because cars were stopped for red light. car suddenly accelerated and wouldn't stop, no matter how hard i hit the brakes. i grazed the rear bumper of the car in front of me as i swerved to avoid hitting it. went into a tree to avoid hitting anything or anyone else. acura dealer swore it couldn't happen and there was nothing wrong with the car, but i found six other instances of this problem on your web site. reported it to metuchen, nj police. this was the second such occurrence, but the dealer convinced me the first was driver error. the consumer believed the accident was related to the transmission recall. *jb

I no longer feel safe in the car that i have bought. i bought an acura tl type s 2002, it only has 29,000 mi on the odometer and already i have changed the transmission once. just yesterday it has started to exibit the same characteristics as the last transmission that failed. while driving on the highway it shifted to neutral and the engine turned off! while i was on the highway!this is supposed to be the new fixed transmission!! this is unacceptable. if anything happens to me or my family, i dont know what ill do.

My transmission has failed twice. when it failed the first time in january of 2003, i was exiting the interstate with my child in the car. i was able to make it off the road safely, but it made me realize how dangerous it would have been if it happened a minute earlier on the interstate in high speed traffic. it failed the second time june 20, 2003, and the dealer tells me acura does not have any new transmissions available. they want to give me a remanufactured transmission. i don't think it is safe to give a customer a previously failed transmission.

The transmission on my acura 02 tl-s malfunctioned while i was on the highway. it some how got stuck in the 4th gear. ts

Transmission failed after slipping twice. it completely stopped while i was accelerating to highway speed. acura replaced with re-manufactured transmissions, which according to the dealership is considered new. it seems like this "new" transmission is shifting irregularly after 6,000 miles. original failure was at 32,000 - make/model: 2002 tl type s. *nlm

Transmission slipping in and out of gear. started in the middle of a turn on a windy back road... then it had a hard time getting up a small hill. problem stopped for 5 minuets then came back in the middle of traffic, i nearly caused 3 accidents. - very dangerious

Since december 2002 this vehicle has had three automatic transmissions replaced. dealer replaced transmissions at no cost to consumer, who felt that transmissions should not have malfunctioned so soon in the first place.*ak

While traveling on the highway at about 60-70 mph my transmission failed. the car downshifted from 5th gear to 2nd. this cause the vehicle to suddenly stop. luckily the car behind me had enough time to get out of the way. i have been hearing of this problem with my model. acura is replacing the transmission, but i hear the replacements are failing also. acura won't recall the car because they say not enough have the problem. this is highly dangerous and someone will die sooner or later from this. driving a car that can suddenly stop at highway speeds is a danger to the owner of the car and everyone else on the road. acura is replacing my transmission but the problem is likely to occur again. this should be stopped. i do not feel safe with these cars on the road. please contact me if i could be of any assistance. i was one of the lucky one's to walk away from this but someone else won't be. dt

No summary. dt

With no prior warning, the automatic transmission suddenly and totally failed while traveling about 50 mph on pennsylvania turnpike at 11:30 pm in snow on 11/26/02. although on an incline, i was just able to get out of the line of traffic into the break down lane. transmission would not engage in any gear total failure. manufacturer replaced under warranty. dt

Transmission disengages when accelerating. also, transmission falls out of gear causing unexpected loss of power. dealership adjusted base idle of the engine the first time i took it in for this problem. transmission total failure at 24000 miles. replaced transmission and had the same problem three weeks later. power loss when turning left in the middle of the intersection, barely avoided collision. i do not take my children in this car for fear of power failure. *nlm

I have a 2002 acura tl-s and have had to replace my transmission once already. i lost all power. i pressed on the accelerator but did not get any power to my car. i brought it into acura in san jose, ca on a monday and they could not find anything wrong with it. i let the service rep know that i would be down there that day to pick my car up. he said that he would like to keep it for a few days. he said that a mechanic took the car for a test drive on tuesday and did not find anything wrong with it. and on wednesday, he said that as his mechanic was pulling into the acura lot that he experienced the problem that i was having. they replaced the transmission. i am at 42,000 miles now and i feel like the tranny shift rougher now .*ak

Transmission on my 2002 acuta tl-s has been replaced on two occassions. i have no reason to beleive that this problem has been corrected, the 3rd replacement transmission is now mis-shifing at highway speeds. dealer nor acura has provided any explanation as to why this model vehicle needs so many transmission replacements.

I called acura customer service to explain that my transmission was acting up, and they refused to replace it or even acknowledge a problem. the same was true of my local dealership, david mcdavid acura of austin. only when i was driving down the highway and my car downshifted from 3rd to 2nd gear, causing me to quickly decelerate, and causing the person behind me to almost hit me, did they replace the transmission. this was even after one tech at king acura of birmingham felt the transmission problem. dt

Car will downshift erraticly at times.

No summary. dt

Consumer vehicle is not shifting properly. consumer states' that when traveling between second and third gear the vehicle vibrates. took to dealer and dealer replaced transmission. ts

Automatic transmission failure while vehicle under power. transmission slips in 3rd gear and causes unexpected loss of forward motion. transmission started to slip 10/05/2002. continued to get worse until dealer determined replacement necessary on 11/01/2002. dt

At first the shifting on the car was very smooth, and car would jurk and it would try to shift. and later on, on the freeway transmission would not shift. dt

Transmission hunting for gear, making noise, bogging down, rpm's go way up, then shifts, loss of power, very dangerous. *ak

While driving 60 mph transmission downshifted to 40 mph. vehicle is at dealership at this time. please provide additional information.

While driving the transmission shifted from 5th gear at 45 mph to 1st, causing the car to scretch the tires and to lurch foward. *ak

Transmission failed on major highway. just learned that there have been over 16,000 such failures in the acura and hondas using same transmission. very dangerous and nearly hit the car in front of me.*ak

The vehicle showed a up/down shifting into 3rd gear problem. it would slip when trying to shift up. when shifting down to 3rd you would hear a clunk and the vehicle would start to search for a gear. nlm

No summary listed for above vehicle. *ak

Near accident because at high speed car dropped into 2nd gear causing loss of control. very scary!!!*ak

The transmission had been exhibing some shifting problems a few days leading up to the failure. when it failed, it would not shift up to 3rd gear. i tried to turn the car around to head to the dealer and was momentarily unable to shift into drive or reverse because it would not engage. after about 5 tries i was able to shift into reverse and then back into drive and limped the car to the nearest parking lot where i waited for a tow truck. had this happened on a highway it might have been much more serious. i have heard of people with a cl or tl (same transmission) that have had their transmission fail when doing 60+ mph and it shifts down into 2nd without warning. very dangerous!*ak

I was on highway 280 doing about 65 in my morning commute from san francisco to cupertino. without warning, my transmission shifted from fourth to second, sending my car into a sideways skid as if i had hit the brakes...hard. fortunately, the car beside me on the right was able to avoid hitting me as was the car behind me. left with second gear, i limped back to the dealer and received my car, with a new transmission, three weeks later. i am lucky to have not been injured and do not trust this car any longer. it was bought for insuring the safety of my family and i am worried about a repeat failure. thanks, ben. ph *nlm **dimsii ivoq entry posted after 12/12/02 cut over to artemis**768534

Transmission fails (disengages) at all speeds without warning. problem engaging into reverse. nlm

Transmission went out and was replaced, then transmission went out a second time, and transmission was replaced again. consumer was charged and the labor was reduced. *ak

The transmission mis-shift several times from 3rd to 1st gear and was unable to shift from 1st to 2nd gear and 2nd to 3rd gear several times. the car was brought into the dealer first time on 8/19/2002 and the transmission was flushed 3 times. the problem was not corrected and i brought the car to the dealer second time on 8/28/2002. the dealer replaced the transmission. even though, there is no accident in this incident. i am really concerning the safety issue caused by the transmission failure and i was not the only one having the transmission failure problem in this particular car model. i hope nhtsa can take appropriate action to investigate this problem before the fatal accident occurred because of transmission failure.*ak

Consumer has learned that these automobiles have a latent safety defect in the transmission that causes the vehicle to downshift while traveling. the dealer will not inspect the vehicle until a problem occurs. jlg nlm

Dangerously faulty transmission caused me to crash vehicle, slipped into "park" at high speeds on freeway locking-up tires. faulty rotors/brake pads cause steering wheel to "shimmy" at braking.*ak

I also got a rebuilt transmission that went out on me after another 2,000. this is extremely dangerous and i want acura to do something. there is an article in the la times that speaks of this on 9.13.2002. please help me, i'm worried i or someone else may get injured or killed. nlm

Consumer while driving the vehicle suddenly down shifted to second gear. consumer took to dealer and they replaced the transmission. please provide any further information. nlm

Transmission slipping and reported at 14823 dealer said that they did not find a problem, rotors warped at 14823 miles replaced pads and resurfaced rotors, cd player replaced at 14823 miles, squeak in rear suspention due to a leak in the rear right strut at 18933 miles, both front seat backpanels loose, transmission replaced at 20322 miles car was at the dealer for 25 days, vsa and check engine light remained on after transmission replaced. replaced lock upshift solenoid valved ecu reset, transmission not shifting properly and slips at 23583 miles, door frame peeling at 23583 miles replaced door frame. cruise control not working at 23700 miles, font suspention or steering column making squeaky noises at 23700 miles. dt

Transmission started to switch gears will driving.

Gear shifter grinds slightly when shifting from 1st-2nd at all speeds. *ak

No summary. dt

I am one of thousands of owners of an acura 3.2 tl with the 5 speed automatic transmission who has had his suddenly fail on them while driving. while driving,the car without warning slipped into a lower gear, and it is now consistently slipping while changing from 2nd to 3rd gears. within the last week, honda of america has recalled over 600,000 5 speed automatic transmissions in their honda pilot, acura odyssey, and acura mdx models because of the possible safety hazard. the transmission found in the acura cl/tl model is the exact same transmission, and clearly suffers from the same defect. it is as much a safety issue in the cl/tl, and other model lines as well, and there are over 2000 people who feel the same way and signed this online petition http://www.petitiononline.com/acura/petition.html my only saving grace was that no one was on the road immediately behind me during this episode, or else i might had to report a crash with an injury or fatality. *jb

Transmission will start to slip out of gear, starting from 2 to 5th. contacted dealer, and the dealer was not willing to do anything.*akdealer told consumer to bring vehicle in. after inspection, it was determined the transmission needed replacing. a rebuilt transmission was put into vehicle. *jg

Transmission slips or hesitates at various times. *ak