Hi, this is my first post as I am about to enter the ranks of Acura Ownership!

I know these transmission issues are OLD news, and I am sorry if I am reposting, but I can't seem to find a solid answer. Essentially, I am trying to get an estimate of my odds of failure.

I am buying a 2001 Acura CL Type S with 110,000 miles.

First, let me say, I am buying this from a very close friend who bought it new back in '01. So, everything he says to me can be trusted.

He has done ALL of his services on time and at the Acura Dealership, so they have records of everything.

When the car has 10k miles or so, when the tranny problem came public, he took it to the dealership. They "cleared" his transmission and said it wasn't affected by the defect.

Now, he has 110,000 miles on the original transmission and it is running fine, so they seemed to be right.

However, on the internet, many people are saying that ALL the transmissions were affected by this design flaw.

So, which is it? It seems most of them died around 30k miles, so the fact his is still running seems like its fine.

But, is it true they were ALL affected?

Also, the car is barely out of the warranty period. But, since an Acura dealership "cleared" the transmission, would I have any recourse if something did happen in the next couple of years?

I mean, is it true that Acura "cleared" some of them and they are solid?

Or, is that BS? I know my friend wouldn't lie to me, but I think there is a chance Acura lied to him.

Thanks for any insight. I cant seem to get a straight answer anywhere.

 

for w/e it's worth I got my car at 81000 KMS with a perfectly working tranny, by 96000kms it was done. CAR had EVERYTHING serviced at the dlr and still it took a shit. i drove it like a grandma like I still do and it didn't help shit.

I got off the highway one day and it would BARELY switch gears, stomach flew up into my throat. like ur on an airplane/rollercoaster cause I KNEW, that it was time.

And no they won't help u worth a damn for ur tranny most likely, and will tell you "that's rare... wow" TOTAL BS those fuckers are.

And i've gotten 2 cars from the DLR i asked that at and they still give me the runaround. I even know the service manager and he fucking lied through his TEETH, saying naw those cars are good car, they almost never have powertrain problems.. horse shit


how many tranny flushes has the tranny had??? if it was replaced every 40000kms or 25-30000miles then I'd say it's probably ok... But I DOUBT it cause acura says 96000kms and thats why they all MELTED gears.. So you probably have only had 1 or at most 2 changes. So be prepared. I'd find someone who's done it already... it's not hard they blow all the time so someone has to be good at fixing all these damn things

WHY DO OUR TRANNYS TAKE A SHIT?

the fluid gets really dirty, it doesn't get changed, that clogs the internal filter and the external ATF filter and the switches and then you have no fluid movement on ur gears basically SUPERHEATING them ruining pretty much everything but the external switches that control the tranny.


The fact buddy's car has been good to him is unfortunately irrelevant in my mind.

 

yeah, chances are pretty high it will take a dump soon, though you will find some people with 160K on original tranny (but this is low chance). Don't count on Acura help much because you are not the original owner. If you really like the car just set aside $4000 for a re-manufactured transmission from Acura. There is a consensus here and other boards that after March 2005 the rebuilds have some updates that make them more reliable, but the fundamental problem is still there.

 

i got my rebuild for 1700CAD and is brand new now. just replace trans fluid and ATF filter every 30K on the new rebuild and u will b fine.

I'd be hunting for a builder tho while you got a working tranny and have some time to shop around for prices

the guy who redid mine said all of his rebuilds are still out there and haven't come back. so he knows something, cause one of them has over 300k on it

 

1700CAD including labor, is that from Acura? Thats pretty good, in my area cheapest I could find was like $2500... and Acura was $3500.


TheMixer, if I were you, I would knock down a sales price by 2-3K to account for the money you will need on the new transmission. Unfortunately, this is the reality with our cars, we get really bad resale value because of transmissions, so if you did your homework right you should be getting at a price adjusted to transmission problems (I'd say go at least $2K below edmunds and KBB for private sale)

 

that's not true. not every single tranny was affected. it's not like the failure rate of acura trannies is 100%. the tranny in your friend's car could have the reliability similar to any other car with 110k miles on it.

my 2001 has 100k miles on it. they installed the oil-squirting thing to it at 32k miles.

 

I am willing to bet the the trans will FAIL in the next 2 years or 25K miles..
The trans was not affected? I had 3 transmissions put in my car by acura the last one that acura did was the end of 2005 and that one failed.
Does his trans have a oil jet installed? I am willing to bet it does and that a band-aid.. Also how often did he change his ATF fluid if ever?

I would STAY far away from the car unless you wanna add $3K to that price for the trans.

 

All transmissions 2001-2003 suffer from 3rd gear clutch pack getting prematurely worn out due to bad design and lubrication issues (there is a long explanation, do a search). Driving pattern and quality of clutch packs used could make your transmission last anywhere between 20K miles to 200K miles, its a purely luck on some of them. acura did have some quality control issues with clutch pack materials, but that was not the only reason.

 

That fixes 2nd gear problem when your transmission accidentally downshifts on highway to 2nd gear creating dangerous situation. This problem is rare, and it was mostly for safety reasons to avoid law suits in case of accidents. The real problem is the 3rd gear clutch pack.

 

around here trans is about $4.5K........few will last most will croak.........i am on trans #2 at 89K and it is almost toast.

 

It's really hit or miss. Some people have gone through about a half dozen transmission jobs already, and others have gone to over 150k miles on the original transmission. There seems to be no rhyme or reason behind it...

 

Does anyone know what the actual failure rate is? Can't seem to find it anywhere. I did see one site that said Honda claimed 3%, but 8% is more realistic. Still seems low considering the amount of complaints.

 

Honda claimed 2-3% in 2003 LA Times article. Well, there are few problems with that, was it 2% for 2nd gear problem (which is not common) for which they installed the oil jet recall? Even then it was 2003 and too early to tell, after that the numbers increased after people put more miles. From what I've seen on acurazine.com, and my personal experience, its likely for the original transmission to fail at around 70-80K miles, but not for all of them... Its impossible to guess about the percentage, Acura keeps it a secret and usually people who have a problem come here, so this site might seem to make problem more negative than it usually is. If I had to guess, I think if you are 100K+ on your original transmission, you have 50-60% chance that it will fail within next 20-30K miles.

Look, if you really want this car just be cognizant that you might need to pay $3-4K for transmission repair. this is very realistic and likely scenario, we are not trying to scare you. The car is great otherwise, if you can buy it cheap, then this might be worse it.

 

I am going to say based upon talking to the acura tech at my dealer said that typically do 4 or 5 a week for the pre 06 TL/CL cars. I am going to say that the failure rate is greater than 50%.

Talking to another acura dealer in the area resulted in the same information 4 to 5 transmissions a week

 

DUDE i got the oil squirting thing too on my car and it still took a shit.

i got my tranny rebuild by and acura mechanic from my dlr,,, but at HIS HOUSE.. so i got hooked the fuck up big time.

Anyone local...or willing to come up here, i'd be glad to help you out too

 

if you can believe it i was quoted 1400!!! but the he opened it up to find:

the clutch packs were all good, and switches too, it's just the tq converter and gears were fried (as in gears 2 and 3 had 1/2 the metal left on them)...and the low hold gear was a lil worn, plus a broken front trans mount so 1960 actually. all said and done cash...

i should have taken picture for u guy to be like OH MY FUCKIN GOD

my guy opened her up and told me it was one of if not the worst one he had seen.... and he's seen a lot.

and he still resurected it from the dead, so don't think it's impossible to fix.

best part is I still talk to him and if anything were to go wrong he'd willingly help me out, cause he's a man you pride himself on his work.

and he's got my name too. lol coincidence? i dunnoooooOO

 

the hard metal parts should not wear unless they were made from some soft chinese steels man.....lol

 

man, any metal can wear out after 1000s of engagements being superheated

 

From all my dealings with dealerships and people I know who own 01-03 CL's its hit or miss and In my opinion would say the percentage is much less than 50% but it is a real issue. I would venture to say about 20% it might seem like a lot more because on the forums we are constantly hearing about it over and over.

 

yea ppl go on this forum just for that reason actually

 

yeah, I know a guy on 2001 TL with 160K miles on original transmission, he has no idea that transmissions can go wrong. He thought I was telling him BS. He was like "what do you mean, Acura makes best cars, nothing goes wrong".

 

lol i had a CL-P when it came out... my mom did. I was too young back then.. but anyways, it gave us ZERO problems in the 3-4 year we had it and 100000kms, so I thought the SAME thing.

Until i got this CL-S then became a member and then realized.. oh shit

 

Well, I bought the car.

It has 110,000 miles on original tranmission, and my friend hooked me up and gave me the car for $4,000.

I couldn't resist. It's black on black, fully loaded, great condition.

He even added a bunch of stuff. Sub woofer, shark-fin antennae, touch screen head unit with navigation/DVD/TV/etc, and a remote-ignition security system.

At $4k, I am actually ok if the transmission blows. I could sell this thing for $8k probably.

 

shit man sounds like a swell DEAL.... u could blow 2 trannys lol.

if ur near ontario, drive up here for a few days and my guy would hook u right up... assuming it's still drivable.

I got lucky in that I drove about 100kms at least actually, after it was already missing gears and melting itself

 

Yeah, the thing has 110,000 on original transmission, and it drives like a brand new car. Shifting perfectly, no sign of tranny wear.

I think theres a good chance this one will actually last a while. If not, I know a guy who said he would do a full tranny install for $1,700. I still got a 01 acura for $5,700!


BTW, I love this car SO much. Best car I've ever had, hands down.

Despite the potential tranny problems, i think I am officially an acura guy.

 

yeah, $4K is a good deal. You might luck out and this transmission might just last another 50K miles or so, but just be prepared and don't be all surprised and stuff.
Some of the transmissions fail within 1-2 days, going from perfectly fine to junk in a matter of few days.
When getting a rebuilt, you might want to consider going through Acura as they made some updates to the transmission to make it more durable. If going through local shop, make sure they are aware of the updates Acura made

 

Any idea when/how your buddy was changing tranny fluid?
I change mine every 3 years/30K miles, only do 3qt drain and fill. Some do it more often, but we have not seen any proof that more frequent changes will make your transmission last longer.

 

cleaner oil.... better lubrication. it's pretty obvious.

Some just end up clogging up and others get lucky i guess

 

He religiously took it to the Acurca dealership for all the maintenance. But, I doubt Acura did it ever 30k. I am going to take up that practice from now on, though.