CarComplaints.com Notes: The 1999-2003 Acura TL has a known & widespread defect with the transmission.
Honda fixed some vehicles with a recall in 2004 by changing the oil cooler return line. To settle a class action lawsuit in 2006, Honda extended the transmission warranty on some of these Acura TL's to 93 months / 109,000 miles.
Now these vehicles are past the warranty limit, so buyer beware.
The steering wheel controls will work after the car is warmed up (generally speaking), but either before the car is warmed up or after general use, all of the buttons will gel up and become unresponsive or confused. The "volume up" button will work fine, but occasionally it will ignore button requests. The "volume down" is the action most prone to this problem as it will typically turn up the volume instead of doing what it is supposed to do. The change station/change song/middle button will work 95% of the time and the other 5% of the time it ignores the request. Given that the car now has 130k with confidence in a very long life ahead of it, I am incredibly happy with the car itself and this minor setback is the least of my worries. It is merely something to be aware of in the future for all of you fellow TL owners.
So in my car, sometimes (and it seems pretty random) the "Volume Up" button changes the track and the "volume down" actually turns the volume up . . . pretty ridiculous, anyone out there know anything about this? Is this a common problem? Is it expensive to fix?
- Kevin W.,
Provo, UT, US
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
The steering wheel controls will work after the car is warmed up (generally speaking), but either before the car is warmed up or after general use, all of the buttons will gel up and become unresponsive or confused. The "volume up" button will work fine, but occasionally it will ignore button requests. The "volume down" is the action most prone to this problem as it will typically turn up the volume instead of doing what it is supposed to do. The change station/change song/middle button will work 95% of the time and the other 5% of the time it ignores the request. Given that the car now has 130k with confidence in a very long life ahead of it, I am incredibly happy with the car itself and this minor setback is the least of my worries. It is merely something to be aware of in the future for all of you fellow TL owners.
- Andrew T., Marin, IL, US