I purchased the SHAWD V6 with manual transmission because it was suppose to be "Acura's answer to the BMW Sport Car". My previous vehicle was a 2008 Dodge Charger RT w/ the Road & Track Package. As a whole I really do love my Acura TL. It is quiet, smooth riding, and very well built. With the SHAWD and the 6 speed manual transmission package this car will do almost 1G on a skid pad with great acceleration and road handling capabilities. It truly is the best compromise that I have found between a quality built luxury car with the performance and handling of a sports car.
However, since speaking with the dealer I have come across a blog where there appears to be significant number of Acura TL owners that have the manual transmission who have the same problem that I do. From what I am reading online it looks like Acura may have a design problem with the flow control feature of the slave cylinder on the clutch assembly. From what I understand the fluid is metered to allow the shifting process to be smooth & not jerky. The draw back may be that this momentary lack of full pressure plate engagement may be contributing to the premature clutch / flywheel failure.
Regardless of the root cause to this problem, if the clutch design is not conducive to driving the car so that an enthusiast cannot enjoy the sporty acceleration and handling that the car was advertised to be able to deliver, then why market this car as a sporty luxury vehicle? As I mentioned before I have had sports cars that I have driven much more aggressively than I have driven this vehicle.
For what this vehicle costs new, the advertised 60K mile bumper to bumper warranty, and the advertised performance and handling ability of this vehicle, I am extremely disappointed that the clutch design is not more bullet proof than what it is. Furthermore, I am extremely disappointed with how Acura is failing to deal with this problem.
I suspect that overall Acura has very few recall issues because of the 60K mile warranties on their vehicles. From what I can see there is a very low percentage of the Acura TL vehicles that were supplied with manual transmissions. However I would speculate that there may be a fairly high percentage of these vehicles supplied with manual transmissions that are experiencing the premature clutch failures.
While I appreciate that I missed the fact that the clutch assembly is a wear item that Acura does not consider to be a part of their bumper to bumper 60K mile warranty, and since my local dealer will not acknowledge that Acura should be taking some responsibility for this premature failure, I have been investigating clutch assemblies that are manufactured with a Kevlar segmented disc to see if I can avoid going thru this problem again in the near future.
The other suggestion that I have discovered / considered implementing would be to alter the factory Slave cylinder with metering valve to defeat the metering / flow control device on the slave cylinder. Apparently several fellow Acura TL owners claim that after replacing the clutch with OEM parts that they were able to drive over 100K miles on their new clutch assembly while enjoying the full performance capabilities of their vehicle.
If anyone has any other suggestions or recommendations to help me resolve this problem for what I would expect to be the life of the vehicle, please feel free to comment below.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I purchased the SHAWD V6 with manual transmission because it was suppose to be "Acura's answer to the BMW Sport Car". My previous vehicle was a 2008 Dodge Charger RT w/ the Road & Track Package. As a whole I really do love my Acura TL. It is quiet, smooth riding, and very well built. With the SHAWD and the 6 speed manual transmission package this car will do almost 1G on a skid pad with great acceleration and road handling capabilities. It truly is the best compromise that I have found between a quality built luxury car with the performance and handling of a sports car.
However, since speaking with the dealer I have come across a blog where there appears to be significant number of Acura TL owners that have the manual transmission who have the same problem that I do. From what I am reading online it looks like Acura may have a design problem with the flow control feature of the slave cylinder on the clutch assembly. From what I understand the fluid is metered to allow the shifting process to be smooth & not jerky. The draw back may be that this momentary lack of full pressure plate engagement may be contributing to the premature clutch / flywheel failure.
Regardless of the root cause to this problem, if the clutch design is not conducive to driving the car so that an enthusiast cannot enjoy the sporty acceleration and handling that the car was advertised to be able to deliver, then why market this car as a sporty luxury vehicle? As I mentioned before I have had sports cars that I have driven much more aggressively than I have driven this vehicle.
For what this vehicle costs new, the advertised 60K mile bumper to bumper warranty, and the advertised performance and handling ability of this vehicle, I am extremely disappointed that the clutch design is not more bullet proof than what it is. Furthermore, I am extremely disappointed with how Acura is failing to deal with this problem.
I suspect that overall Acura has very few recall issues because of the 60K mile warranties on their vehicles. From what I can see there is a very low percentage of the Acura TL vehicles that were supplied with manual transmissions. However I would speculate that there may be a fairly high percentage of these vehicles supplied with manual transmissions that are experiencing the premature clutch failures.
While I appreciate that I missed the fact that the clutch assembly is a wear item that Acura does not consider to be a part of their bumper to bumper 60K mile warranty, and since my local dealer will not acknowledge that Acura should be taking some responsibility for this premature failure, I have been investigating clutch assemblies that are manufactured with a Kevlar segmented disc to see if I can avoid going thru this problem again in the near future.
The other suggestion that I have discovered / considered implementing would be to alter the factory Slave cylinder with metering valve to defeat the metering / flow control device on the slave cylinder. Apparently several fellow Acura TL owners claim that after replacing the clutch with OEM parts that they were able to drive over 100K miles on their new clutch assembly while enjoying the full performance capabilities of their vehicle.
If anyone has any other suggestions or recommendations to help me resolve this problem for what I would expect to be the life of the vehicle, please feel free to comment below.
- cutter, Minster, OH, US