2013 Acura TL problems
NHTSA has received 74 complaints about the 2013 Acura TL, and 38% of them involve steering. Next are air bags (26%) and electrical system (8%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 74 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Steering 38% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 1 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 2 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 66,000 miles 43 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 | 10 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 3 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 3 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 13 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 3 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 4 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 2 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 3 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 2 |
What the data shows
Of the 43 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 66,000 miles. For steering specifically, the median reported mileage is about 75,000 miles (23 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 1 complaint mentions a crash; 2 injuries reported. Its complaints are less severe on average than those of 87% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2013 ranks 12th most-complained-about out of 16 model years of the Acura TL with enough data (34 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 2013 acura tl. While driving approximately 15 MPH, the driver's side air bag erroneously deployed. The contact crashed the vehicle into a brick mailbox. A police report was filed. The contact sustained injuries to the chest and arms, which required medical attention. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where it was not diagnosed or repaired. The VIN and failure mileage were unknown.
The fly by wire throttle system is inconsistent in application. Sometimes in traffic when you need to accelerate, instead of lighter application of the throttle, the car waits several heartbeats before anything happens. Then catches up to the pedal position , which if you've tried to move forward and nothing happened and you've keep pushing the pedal now you're instantly at half throttle in heavy traffic. Acura says this is the way the car was designed and there's nothing they'll do about it.
Rear suspension noise when going over speed bumps or potholes at lower speeds. Noise is more prominent when its a sudden hard hit on potholes and speed bumps. It sounds like metal hitting metal. It sounds more like when control arm bushing goes bad and it makes metal on metal sound. I took it to acura dealership and they said rear struts are the problem. They replaced both rear struts but problem still persisted. They then said they need to replace the links.
While driving straight on rural road alarm panel displaying check power steering system, alarm and audible and visual alarm blinking repeatedly, complete loss of power steering control while driving, luckily I had just pulled off a major busy highway onto a backroad when the problem occurred.