Driving on Highway going 65mph vehicle suddenly jerked and dropped to 20 mph. Causing my entire body to collide with the steering wheel. Luckily there no cars behind me. Was on my way to work when this happened too far from home. So when I got at work which is thirty minutes from where I live I had to get a tow truck to get my car home. That’s how bad it was. My mom had this car for about ten years. I’ve had it now for three years. Never had this problem before. We’ve had the car in the family for almost fifteen years. Only thing that’s had to change was a power steering line and front shocks. Almost sold it last week and I’m glad I didn’t. Has over 230,000 so I’m not upset. Just a bit sad that this happened to my TL. Needs A/T clutch pressure control solenoid valves A B.
2003 Acura TL: jerking or lurching
39 of the 391 complaints about the 2003 Acura TL describe jerking or lurching.
- owner complaints
- 39
- of this car's complaints
- 10%
- typical repair cost reported
- $4,000
- typical mileage
- 96,000
- recalls
- 1
Jerking or lurching by model year
What owners say
The contact owns a 2003 Acura TL. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle jerked and hesitated to accelerate. The check engine, third and fourth gear, ESP fault, and VSA system warning lights were illuminated. The contact self-diagnosed the vehicle with a code reader and the code P1750 appeared. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure but informed the contact that there was no recall associated with the VIN. The failure mileage was approximately 160,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 acura tl. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, with the accelerator pedal depressed, the vehicle jerked and hesitated. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to shift above third gear. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact referenced the failure to the federal safety agency campaign number: 04v176000 (power train). The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who diagnosed the vehicle with a defective speed sensor. The dealer nor the manufacturer had been notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 230,000.
2003 acura t.l was in motion when the vehicle started slipping on 2nd gear. Then when vehicle was stationary it would not move in reverse gear. As I was on highway the car started jerking out of control, I could not accelerate, vehicle barely wanted to move so I put it in #2 gear so it work catch and I was able to drive to safety without anyone getting hurt. Very frightening and dangerous. Problem must be addressed immediately.
In forward motion, freeway. Electrical. Tranny. Car currently reads 138,356 miles. Around roughly 134,000 miles the vehicle check engine light began to flash as a result from rpms reaching about 6 on the cluster RPM display due what felt like slipping into to 3rd or 4th gear. Slipping however usually results with what I would consider a slamming experience from eventually catching and shifting into the correct gear. This happened as I was merging onto freeway. Car did not catch gear but nuetralized until I switched to sport shift mode and displayed 4 gear and the vehicle jetted off. Cel has remained on and 3rd gear still a issue. Did much maintenance, replacement of solenoids,fluid flush, etc. Problem solves then returns. This has went on for about 6mon this last month seemed issue had resolved itself after two more atf flushes in the prior month. This last week my lady and I coming home from our date night, luckily thats wednesday(hump day) for us, so freeways at 12:30-1am in san diego hold few traffic.I say luckily because going about 70-75 MPH the car suddenly felt like what slamming into a wall head on at 75 MPH must feel like. Jerking us forward, uninjured due to seatbelts, thank god. The scariest thing however was the fact that in the far right lane at that speed after the jolt caused the vehicle to neutralize and any accelaration that would occur would instantly give a less intense jolt but rapidly slowed the vehicle down making it extremely difficult and drastically increasing our levels of danger of something worse ,as I made my way over to far left side of freeway. Reaching safety I examined vehicle found nothing visually wrong. After letting car cool and letting warm to normal op.temp I put vehicle in sport mode exited freeway and took city streets home only using d2,no problems occurred. Today repeated the maintenance as before. Runs okay but I'm nervous
Recently purchased an 03 acura tl. 64000 miles at time of purchase. I drive it using the slap stick and mostly highway driving. I notice when shifting from 2nd to 3rd gears, at approximately 20-25 MPH the car seems to jerk, or jump in the front end. Also between 3rd and 4th gears. Depending on how fast I accelerate and change the gears, sometimes there is more jerking...at lower speeds....and less jerking when accelerating at a faster rate. The vehicle now has 76000 miles on it and I am concerned there are going to be transmission issues soon. This is my second acura tl, the first one having over 205k miles with no issues with transmission, that was replaced by dealer @ 55k. Is there anything that can be done with this issue that I am not aware of. There are no other issues with this vehicle. Did I miss the recall cut off date, was there never recall, or did acura miss group of VIN #s? If this is truly a safety concern, from acura, they should stand behind there products, correct the "known issues" with the transmissions, for there drivers to be safe, so they are there for future purchases.
Tl* the contact owned a 2003 acura tl. The contact stated that while driving at 65 MPH, the vehicle encountered a pot hole causing the vehicle to jerk violently. As a result, the vehicle veered off the road and flipped over. The air bags did not deploy. The contact's left shoulder strap seat belt was detached from the vehicle leaving behind only the waist strap seat belt as the contact shifted from the driver's seat to the passengers seat during the accident. Furthermore, the contact's head was partially hanging out of the window after the accident. The vehicle was destroyed. The contact sustained a fractured wrist, chest pains, multiple lacerations and a concussion. In addition, the contact's stomach was severely twisted out of shape and the contact vomited and fainted numerous occasions after the accident. The contact required medical attention. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 123,000. The VIN was not available.
2003 acura 3.2tl. Consumer writes in regards to a defective transmission. *smd the consumer stated his wife experienced the following while driving the vehicle: three lights illuminated; two unknown and the engine light, there was a delay of 30 seconds when taking off from a stopped position and the gears jerked and when she stop and took off, it felt as though the vehicle had no power. The consumer was informed by a local repair shop, the transmission needed to be replaced.
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 acura tl. While driving approximately 55 MPH, the vehicle hesitated, jerked forward, and the check engine warning light illuminated. In addition, the contact stated that there was an abnormal noise coming from the gear shift. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The VIN was not included in the federal safety agency campaign number: 04v176000 (power train). The failure mileage was 62,000.
I owned a 02 tl first and replaced the trans in it 3 times when acura supposedly fixed it well they didn't and wouldn't honor their work so I paid $3500 for another trans then someone hit me totaled it 3 wks later! So we bought a 2003 acura tl that already had the recall done in july 2005 literally less then 24 hours of purchasing the car I was picking up my daughter from school on way home the transmission went!! It started jerking real bad like someone was slamming the brakes on which was scarey as hell because I didn't want to get rear ended or cause others to be in accident! Had to keep pulling over shutting it off to try to make it home but gears got worse and worse the check engine light came on!! I don't understand why they just don't fix the things right the first time and if not honor your luxury reputation and stand by your workman ship!! Now I have to pay to tow it to acura dealer to see if they will consider fixing it. There should never be any doubt when thousands upon thousands of people have had same problem time and time again they should pay for all repairs give us all a rental to drive and reimburse for towing expenses!! I am truly surprised that there is not a huge class action lawsuit against acura for all of us that have been affected by this! If something would have happened when my kids were in the car god help acura. I truly hope acura gets some kind of repercussions for all this cuz its just ridiculous and now I can't get to work get to store nothing stranded yet again thanks acura.
While on freeway in the morning, the vehicle was slowed down with the traffic. When traffic moved, the car failed to shift into 3 gear. It was stuck in 2nd gear. I was able to pull the vehicle to safety and upon putting it in park then back into drive, it still failed to move past 2nd gear. Switch to 4th setting and then vehicle did shift from 2nd to 3rd but will sudden jerk reaction only. For moment the car did a quick jolt and I had to take quick action to make sure I did not lose control of the vehicle on freeway. Contacted the dealership and there is recall with similar issue of failure to 2nd gear for my car and the VIN is part of the recall by manufacturer. Car was provided to dealership and pictures of the 2nd gear were sent to acura which denied the recall repair of the transmission as the second gear did not show sign of heat wear even though it had failed. The dealer offered a 40% goodwill for total transmission replacement repair charges of 2750. I would like to note that acura has failed to respond correctly to existing recall and limited the recall repairs only if the damage shows some heat wear and not just damage to second gear. As vehicle has been kept in perfect condition, I do not see how the vehicle with recall for 2nd and 3rd gear can have transmission failure which will not be covered by the vehicle manufacturer for a vehicle with only 69k miles, when there are so many of us showing this exact same failure and honda is acknowledge of bad transmission problem by issuing a recall and has been patching the problem instead of fixing it.
I have a 2003 acura 3.2 tl with 96k miles, I purchase from an acura dealer in june 2005. In december 2011 one day I was driving and I noticed jerking and slipping. Usually between 3 and 4 gears. While pressing down on the accelerator, the engine's RPM woud go up, but car would not accelerate. And then suddenly car would shift to the higher gear with a jerk. When I took the car to acura dealership for service on thursday, december 22, 2011 and reported this problem, the service center at the acura dealership responded back in about 1 hour that my car's transmission needs to be replaced. The lady at the service center told me that it would cost $5000. She also told me she would see if she could get a better price for me, but I never heard from them. On the 23rd of december I took it to a local transmission shop and they repared it for me at a price of $2,630.32. They told me that with the amount of milage I had on the car I should not of had any transmission proplems. I feel that acura should reimburse me for these costs in total due to apparent faulty manufacturing, in addition reimburse me for a rental car that cost me $120 for the period I had my car in the shop thank you jw
Service bulletins that may apply
- Case v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc., Case No. BC 424169 (Third Clutch Transmission Settlement
- You are required to install a remanufactured A/T (automatic transmission) and torque converter on any...
- 3.2 tl and 3.2 cl automatic transmission
- Don't invite problems doing 2ND gear inspection
- Canon A75 digital camera replacement
- P1706 a/t switch short or open
- Safety recall: cl and tl automatic transmission second gear inspection
- How to replenish atf on vehicles with a/t oil jet kits
Related recalls
Power train: automatic transmission
- What is wrong
- On some mini vans, sport utility and passenger vehicles, certain operating conditions can result in heat build-up between the countershaft and secondary shaft second gears in the automatic transmission, eventually leading to gear tooth chipping or gear breakage.
- Risk
- Gear failure could result in transmission lockup, which could result in a crash.
- Remedy
- On vehicles with 15,000 miles or less, the dealer will update the transmission with a simple revision to the oil cooler return line to increase lubrication to the second gear. On vehicles with more than 15,000 miles, the dealer will inspect the transmission to identify gears that have already experienced discoloration due to overheating. If discoloration exists, the transmission will be replaced if discoloration is not present, the dealer will perform the revision to the oil cooler return line. The recall began on april 21, 2004, for pilot, odyssey, and mdx owners. Owners of the accord vehicles will start receiving letters on june 28, 2004, and on june 29, 2004, for owners of the tl and cl vehicles. Owners should contact honda at 1‑800‑999‑1009 or acura at 1‑800‑382‑2238.
Recall number 04V176000 · Recall details
Questions about the 2003 Acura TL jerking
Is jerking or lurching a common problem on the 2003 Acura TL?
39 of 391 owner complaints about the 2003 Acura TL (10%) mention jerking or lurching. The model year with the most reports is 2003.
How much does it cost to fix jerking or lurching on the 2003 Acura TL?
Owners who mentioned a price put the repair at about $4,000 (median of 9 complaints that include a dollar amount). Costs vary with mileage, warranty and where the work is done.
Is there a recall or service bulletin for this on the 2003 Acura TL?
There is 1 recall and 35 service bulletins for the same area of the car. Check them below with your VIN.
Other symptoms on the 2003 Acura TL
Transmission failure 103Slipping 45Check engine light 32Airbag light 17Hesitation 14Stalling 14Won't shift 14Adaptive cruise 10Headlights 10Grinding brakes 8No deployment 7Overheating 7Sudden acceleration 7Fire or smoke 6Engine failure 5Harsh shifting 5Shudder 5
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