Im looking to buy one of these models soon and I am aware of the notorious transmission issue. Is there a way to check if these cars had the transmission replaced under the service recall?

 

get the VIN and call ACURA DEALER. they will tell you if the car is under warranty or not.. i just brought an 02 tl-s with 66k. i call and they say my time limit is out. 7 years or 107K. and the person brought it in 01. so kinda suck. let hope everything is well.

 

so acura keeps a record on if the transmission was replaced through the recall or not? also, what exactly did they change in the transmission after the recall was performed. from my understanding, on the old transmissions the clutch packs would wear out.

 

There was never a recall; there was a product update that really didn't do crap, some dumb oil jet kit for cooling, and there was a warranty extension as mentioned above, and yes, maintenance records are kept at your Acura dealer.

 

sorry, i meant warranty

 

so even after the product update these problems still arise?

 

Yes, even after the update. Look, the failure rate in these things is about what would be considered average; its just that with Honda/Acura the reputation for reliability is way above average. Every manufacturer has some models with average to crappy transmission failure rate. The industry is in a constant push to make automatic transmissions smaller/lighter, tougher, smoother shifting, and pack them full of gears (7 speed anyone? I'll pass) ALL AT THE SAME TIME. If you want a reliable car, get one with a manual transmission how about that!

 

talk to your local acura dealer, they can pull up any warranty work done on the car..

The new units are supposidly more reliable but you do get duds every once in a while (I got a new trans in sept 08 and 17K later it is toast)

 

1. Yes Acura keeps records of warranty work (ie trans repalcements that THEY did under warranty)

2. Transmissions suffer from oiling isues and the case was redesigned in early '05 to correct that issue and since then the failure rate has dropped way down for those models. The cases were used in the reman units as well. ALL of the failures of the 5AT can be directly traced to insufficient lubrication of some part (2nd gear shaft for example or 3rd gear clutch pack)