NHTSA — Electrical System: Ignition: Switch Problems

CarComplaints.com Seal Of Avoid Like The Plague

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.

10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
2 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
1 / 0
Average Mileage:
84,836 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.

So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.

2003 Acura TL electrical problems

electrical problem

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2003 Acura TL Owner Comments

problem #2

Dec 052008

TL

  • 82,430 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

2003 Acura 3.2 TL on December 5, 2008 a faulty ignition switch on our 2003 Acura 3.2 TL allowed the key to be removed in any gear, resulting in a rollaway accident causing head, foot and hip injuries to our daughter after she parked the car in our slightly inclined driveway. Dealer agreed ignition switch was definitely faulty. Key should never come out in any gear but park. Our mileage on the date of accident was 82,430 miles. Shortly after we bought this car new, it started having intermittent no start/no crank problems, and sometimes it would start 5 or 10 minutes later. Each time the dealer could not duplicate problem and assured us they checked everything and couldn't find any problem. The car would be fine until it happened again. This problem continued up until just a few months ago. It has been well maintained and taken to dealer many times for same problem. They probably never inspected the ignition switch because our year car was never included in previous recalls of ignition switches, as it should have been. A faulty transmission on this same car went out on our daughter once about 5 months ago when she was driving. It was replaced under the extended warranty due to previous transmission recall.

- Porter Ranch, CA, USA

problem #1

Jan 062007

TL

  • Automatic transmission
  • 87,243 miles
Ignition lock failed allowing key to be removed in any position and not securing the auto in a parked condition. Hence the vehicle rolled back into another car. The vehicle in question has only 87243 miles on it and this part should not fail, especially as it did to allow the car to move when it was supposedly turned off, and in park. This vehicle has had previous transmission issues as well and was the subject of a recall.

- San Ramon, CA, USA

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