My 2006 Acura TL

Finklejag

Finklejag

Joined
Nov 23, 2003
Messages
2,941
Location
WA
I bought this car back in September 2021, from a friend. He was the second owner. It had 159,000 miles on it. I just rolled over 177,000 today. This car is a back up to my motorcycle. I got back into riding in 2021. I was driving a 2019 VW Golf Alltrack. I commute 6 miles to work and was riding everyday. The Golf was just sitting in my driveway. I sold the Golf to Carmax when the used market was at its peak. I used the profit from that sale to buy the TL. My friend did oil changes on the TL, that was about it. This was only the second used car I ever bought. I bought 17 new cars in the past. The car exterior and interior was in good condition to my eye.

I knew I was going to throw a few grand into the car to replace some parts, tires being one of them from the start. That’s when I went down the rabbit hole. I was getting four new struts installed when the shop called me and said the motor mounts were bad, the whole engine was lifting up when you pressed on the gas pedal. When I picked up the car, the shop gave me a laundry list of stuff they found. They did say the 3.2 V6 will last 300,000 or more easy.

I owned VW’s for the last 20 years so I went online and did some research, youtube also. These old Honda/Acura cars need the gaskets and o rings replaced because they get hard and leak. This car had about five oil leaks, including the rear main seal. I had the shop repair all the leaks including the rear crank seal. Next the brakes and suspension. With all that done, I bought some replica wheels since my friend drove by touch. Over the last 4 1/2 years I have replaced items that needed be because they were worn out or leaking.

I detailed the car every year. I deeped cleaned the interior after I bought it, still looks great today. The interior has its flaws. The dash has a lot of cracks, common for this generation TL. The light bulbs are burned out around the HVAC, common for this generation. You can buy most of them at the dealer, some are permanently discontinued. You pretty much have to rip the dash apart to remove the nav screen. I can live without the buttons lit up. The bluetooth hasn’t worked since I bought it. The unit crapping out is a known issue for this generation. Even though it’s broken, it will still drain your battery. You have to disconnect the harness from the box.

The longer I own this car, the more I like it! I love the linear power of the 3.2. These cars were built to last. I see tons of this generation on the road. Not bad for a car that was sold from 04-08. I just don’t see myself buying a new car with those ugly tablets and all the recalls modern cars have these days. I posted this years ago, but I will post what I replaced on it since I bought it back in 2021.

4 wheels
4 tires
4 struts
Front upper and lower control arms
Ball joints
Outer tie rods
Front sway bar end links and bushings
Front brake rotors and pads
Rear brake pads
Front and side engine mounts
Transmission mounts
Crank and cam seals
Rear main seal
Oil pump seal
V-tec seals
Spool valve seals
Valve cover gaskets
Spark plug seals
Spark plugs
Water pump
Timing belt
Timing belt tensioner
Accessory belt
Radiator
Radiator hoses
Expansion tank
Battery
Windshield
Valve adjustment

I put in about $10K for parts and labor. Mostly labor, rear main seal was $$. The other big ticket items were the struts and water pump, timing belt job. I’m on my second OCI with Valvoline Restore and Protect.

IMG_9527.webp

IMG_9526.webp

IMG_9525.webp
 
It fun to keep those older cars on the road. You can go a long time before you fix things or you might have 3 things go about the same time. I did the same thing with my old 2012 Honda Civic. Just keep on driving and enjoying your car and I hope you can make it for many more years to come.
 
That is the first Acura design entirely in the US, probably R&D as well. All others before that were designed in Japan.
It's a beautiful car and and that model became it very popular 10-15 years ago until nowadays as well.
 
You should many more miles remaining.


I have a 2006 TL as well but without the Navigation unit. It's close to 320k and I bought it from a friend when it had 265k in 2022. I am on a forum for this car and supposedly the Automatic transmission can be weak on these but I've been lucky.

The big repairs were it needed new front suspension parts about 25k miles ago (upper and lower control arms and some other stuff. I just had the spark plugs and valve adjustment done as my friend wasnt sure when he last did spark plugs (and I'm sure he never did a valve adjustment).

I also did the timing belt and water pump when I bought it from him as he told me it was overdue.

I hope it keeps running for awhile longer.
 
I forgot two more items I replaced. I replaced the PCV valve with a $10 O’Reilly’s one, which started leaking a year later. I forked out $45 for the Honda one after that. I also replaced the HID headlight bulbs last year.
 
Finklejag said:
I bought this car back in September 2021, from a friend. He was the second owner. It had 159,000 miles on it. I just rolled over 177,000 today. This car is a back up to my motorcycle. I got back into riding in 2021. I was driving a 2019 VW Golf Alltrack. I commute 6 miles to work and was riding everyday. The Golf was just sitting in my driveway. I sold the Golf to Carmax when the used market was at its peak. I used the profit from that sale to buy the TL. My friend did oil changes on the TL, that was about it. This was only the second used car I ever bought. I bought 17 new cars in the past. The car exterior and interior was in good condition to my eye.

I knew I was going to throw a few grand into the car to replace some parts, tires being one of them from the start. That’s when I went down the rabbit hole. I was getting four new struts installed when the shop called me and said the motor mounts were bad, the whole engine was lifting up when you pressed on the gas pedal. When I picked up the car, the shop gave me a laundry list of stuff they found. They did say the 3.2 V6 will last 300,000 or more easy.

I owned VW’s for the last 20 years so I went online and did some research, youtube also. These old Honda/Acura cars need the gaskets and o rings replaced because they get hard and leak. This car had about five oil leaks, including the rear main seal. I had the shop repair all the leaks including the rear crank seal. Next the brakes and suspension. With all that done, I bought some replica wheels since my friend drove by touch. Over the last 4 1/2 years I have replaced items that needed be because they were worn out or leaking.

I detailed the car every year. I deeped cleaned the interior after I bought it, still looks great today. The interior has its flaws. The dash has a lot of cracks, common for this generation TL. The light bulbs are burned out around the HVAC, common for this generation. You can buy most of them at the dealer, some are permanently discontinued. You pretty much have to rip the dash apart to remove the nav screen. I can live without the buttons lit up. The bluetooth hasn’t worked since I bought it. The unit crapping out is a known issue for this generation. Even though it’s broken, it will still drain your battery. You have to disconnect the harness from the box.

The longer I own this car, the more I like it! I love the linear power of the 3.2. These cars were built to last. I see tons of this generation on the road. Not bad for a car that was sold from 04-08. I just don’t see myself buying a new car with those ugly tablets and all the recalls modern cars have these days. I posted this years ago, but I will post what I replaced on it since I bought it back in 2021.

4 wheels
4 tires
4 struts
Front upper and lower control arms
Ball joints
Outer tie rods
Front sway bar end links and bushings
Front brake rotors and pads
Rear brake pads
Front and side engine mounts
Transmission mounts
Crank and cam seals
Rear main seal
Oil pump seal
V-tec seals
Spool valve seals
Valve cover gaskets
Spark plug seals
Spark plugs
Water pump
Timing belt
Timing belt tensioner
Accessory belt
Radiator
Radiator hoses
Expansion tank
Battery
Windshield
Valve adjustment

I put in about $10K for parts and labor. Mostly labor, rear main seal was $$. The other big ticket items were the struts and water pump, timing belt job. I’m on my second OCI with Valvoline Restore and Protect.

View attachment 335035
View attachment 335036
View attachment 335038
Click to expand...
Yup a gorgeous vehicle that's when Acura stiffened up their chassis to set it apart from the Honda's.
 
One of my friends had one of these (a couple of years older but with the same styling). Best of all, it had a manual transmission. I really liked it and should have bought one too but we had a '00 Solara and didn't need another new car.

My 2007 Accord V6 6MT 4Dr seems to be the pedestrian version of his older (and nicer) TL.

I think that engine is good for a lot more than 300,000 miles. Someone on "Bob" reported putting 1,000,000 miles on his Accord with a 3.0 V6 6MT. He burned a too tight exhaust valve at about 950,000 miles, but pushed on to 1,000,000 miles anyway. I recently put new valve covers on my Accord and sure enough, even at 190,000 km (120,000 miles) the exhaust valves were a little tight - and are now back in spec of course.
 
ctechbob said:
They've been a cheap kids car the last few years. People buy them and do all kinds of dumb/ugly stuff to them, and then usually wreck them. Sad, but that's how the used car market goes.
Click to expand...
Exactly and it sucks. I'm an Infiniti fan, been looking for the right G37 to come along but pretty much all of them get snatched up by young kids that impose "tasteful mods" to them, then proceed to beat them into an early grave🤬
 
I was deciding between the TL and the IS back then and picked the IS. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice, I really like the TL as well. If it has a K24 I would probably have picked the TL instead.
 
PandaBear said:
I was deciding between the TL and the IS back then and picked the IS. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice, I really like the TL as well. If it has a K24 I would probably have picked the TL instead.
Click to expand...

We got non-VCM J-Series, which as mentioned above, is a rock solid engine. I'd put it on par with the K24's for longevity (so long as you maintain them that is).
 
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