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One more thing I think is fairly common (Eric, would be nice to get your experience with this) is the ball joint on the upper arm for the wiper blades detaches and the wipers flop around pretty badly.
As the owner of a 2002 TL Type S with 203,000 miles, I can confirm most of these issues. The vast majority are not a big issue IMO except for the transmission and the pulsating brakes. My thoughts below in regard to mitigating these issues below (FYI I plan to keep this car unit it can’t run any more):
[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=90896]
Transmissions. These go out wholesale.
[/quote]I bought my TL used with around 50K miles, the tranny had been replaced before I bought it, and luckily it appears to be a post-2005 (blue bolts w/NO oil jet kit installed). It has taken me to 203K miles, unfortunately I think I feel some issues developing though. What most people are doing is putting in a transmission from a 2006 or 2007 Honda Accord. They are almost a direct replacement with a couple parts that need to be swapped (gear range switch & trans fluid warmer). This will most likely solve the tranny issue for the life of the car. Tranny can be obtained for around $700 – $1000. Look up “AV6 Swap” on Acurazine.
These cars warp front brake rotors like it’s going out of style. In fact, I’ve often suggested to customers that they upgrade to slotted rotors to help eliminate the problem.
Slotted rotors didn’t help me, but being tenacious about torquing lug nuts exactly to spec has helped. It took me a while to figure out my brakes started pulsating shortly after either getting new tires or getting my tires rotated. I would then put up with it until it got so bad I would put new rotors on. Now I re-torque the lug nuts every time someone else has removed the wheels. I torque them with the car slightly jacked up, and first torque all nuts to 40 lb-ft, then 60, then 80. I use StopTech rotors (not slotted or drilled).
EGR passages clogging. Although they changed the design during the model run, it still continued to have issues. Sometimes this problem shows up as a misfire code.
I finally opened the top of the intake manifold when I did my timing belt service @ 200K, and everything was clogged. This should probably be done every 50K, it was a bit of work to clean mine after waiting so long.
Heated seat elements are also a common failure. BTW, the passenger seat does not have an upper lumbar heating element. This is because of the SRS sensor that’s placed there.
The seat design crimps the heating element against a metal rod in the leather, which eventually wears and then burns out. This can be fixed by soldering in a piece of wire in place of the burned out area (two spots in the seat cushion, and another two spots in the lower seat back).
Myself and a couple other 2nd generation TL owners I know had the passenger’s seat SRS sensor fail.
Same here, if you check the TSB regarding this, it is most often the OPDS module due to a defect in manufacturing, not the sensor in the seat back. The recommended procedure is to replace the module with the updated part, and if the codes continue, then replace the sensor.
One other note – do not go cheap on the engine mounts. I tried the cheapo set of all five mounts for $120 (DEA is a typical brand for this set) and now have quite a bit of vibration at idle. I’m considering swapping with OEM mounts despite the higher price.