2009 Acura TL problems
NHTSA has received 51 complaints about the 2009 Acura TL, and 37% of them involve air bags. Next are body & structure (14%) and wipers, windshield & visibility (12%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 51 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 37% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 5 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 3 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 50,000 miles 30 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 | 11 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 3 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 2 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 1 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 6 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 2 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 1 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 1 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 3 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 30 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 50,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 5 complaints mention a crash; 3 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2009 ranks 14th most-complained-about out of 16 model years of the Acura TL with enough data (20 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 3 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2009 acura tl. While driving approximately 5 MPH, a second vehicle t-boned the passenger side of the contact's vehicle. The air bags deployed as intended. The driver sustained severe lacerations to the scalp that required 225 stitches and 5 cracked cervicle vertebrae. Medical attention was required. The contact indicated that broken glass was not present inside the vehicle and the cause of the injuries was undetermined. A police report was filed and the vehicle was towed.
Tl* the contact owns a 2009 acura tl. While driving approximately 5 MPH, the air bags deployed independently and caused the vehicle to crash into a fence. A police report was filed. The contact sustained hand and face injuries that required medical attention. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where the cause of the failure was undetermined. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 92,000.
While driving my new 2009 acura tl the steering wheel locked up. I was driving in the snow in ct at about 6:00 pm on feb 17th. I was traveling down a hill in my hometown that I have driven on literally thousands of times. I know the hill is fairly steep so I was going very slow (about 10 MPH) at the bottom of the hill the road curves to the left. As I approached the turn my steering wheel locked in place and I slid into the guardrail doing only minor cosmetic damage to the right from bumper and fender.
While driving my 2009 acura tl with 10,000 miles on it the steering wheel locked up. Before I could stop the car I sideswiped a guardrail causing minor cosmetic damage. The car was towed to devan acura in norwalk ct. They could not figure out what was wrong so the engineers from honda were called. They disassembled the steering system part by part. The parts were sent out to california to the honda engineers. After "careful inspection" they could not find anything wrong with the parts.
Tl* the contact owns a 2009 acura tl. The contact stated that the rear view camera was blurry, which made it difficult to see while backing out. There was no warning indicator illuminated. The contact took the vehicle to a local dealer who was unable to explain the cause of the failure, but wanted to replace it at the owner's expense. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure, but did not provide any assistance. The failure was not remedied. The failure mileage was 16,000. Additionally.