2003 Acura TL problems
NHTSA has received 466 complaints about the 2003 Acura TL, and 39% of them involve transmission. Next are drivetrain & axles (15%) and air bags (11%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 466 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Transmission 39% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 36 and 5
- Injuries and deaths
- 26 and 4
- Typical mileage
- 76,000 miles 366 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 49 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 45 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 40 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 53 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 51 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 36 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 45 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 14 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 14 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 4 |
| 200k+ miles | 15 |
What the data shows
Of the 366 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 76,000 miles. For transmission specifically, the median reported mileage is about 69,000 miles (158 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 36 complaints mention a crash; 5 complaints mention a fire; 26 injuries reported; 4 deaths reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2003 ranks 3rd most-complained-about out of 16 model years of the Acura TL with enough data (207 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 5 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
My daughter died in a accident on november 7, 2013 in the acura tl 2003. She had been telling me that it felt like the ignition was sticking and would speed up. I would check with my local mechanic and he told me acuras are known to idle high. I believe that her car problem was the cause of the accident and the police could not give me a reason for the accident. She was 19 and a senior in high school and was a good child.
I was driving from ossining, ny to takoma park , md , 260 miles on I95 when at 70 MPH smoke started coming out of the exhaust and the engine compartment. The tachometer went up to 7000 rpms. I was using cruise control. I immediately touched the brake pedal to release the cruise control. However, I had no power from the transmission. I was fortunately able to coast to the right side shoulder from the left most lane of the highway and call onstar.
!!!warning this is a safety issue and needs to be addressed!!! "cruise control control box defect!" 2003 tl type s automatic 4 door without cruise control on car engine began to rev out of control while driving, tried to apply brakes but engine is too strong, once vehicle hit 80 MPH from this on highway I calmly turned ignition off one click so steering wheel would not lock and coasted to safety. I had to detach module as well as speed control wire going to the idle control of engine.