Three problems related to transmission not engage have been reported for the 2002 Acura TL. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2002 Acura TL based on all problems reported for the 2002 TL.
This is my third transmission on my 2002 Acura 3. 2 Tl-s. Everytime, I had a problem with my transmission, Acura always give me hard time to admit the problem. And now, my transmission starts giving me the same issue as before again. When slowing down the car, from 65 mph to 45 mph or 45 mph to 25 mph, the gear will not engage properly. The car will be in neutral state and wait until the car realize what gear it should be before it put into gear. Scarsdale Acura, valley stream Acura, smithtown Acura, and paragon Acura do not admit the problem and inform me that there is nothing wrong with the transmission, since the check engine light is not lighted and the d5 light is not blinking. Westchester Acura admits the problem and they changed my transmission twice, but their service is horrible, so I do not want to bring my car back to them for my current problem. I have tried calling Acura, and I was told that there is nothing they can do, since they cannot see the actually and they cannot control what the dealer can do. I am at the point that I could get help and do not know what to do; in the mean time, I am at risk of my life by driving the cat with the defective transmission.
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.
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!.