2003 Acura TL Type S to 06/07 Accord Tranmission Swap
 

Well family and friends, I have had my transmission replaced with a 2006/2007 Honda Accord 5sp Automatic Transmission and all seems well. My car has 123k miles and the transmission has 29k miles and purchased at a junkyard outside of Philly for $975. After one week of driving and over 500 miles of traveling, all seems well. Shifting is seamless at all condition of driving. I have driven the car from 0 to 115mph and shifting was all on time and no delays.

When it comes to the installation of the transmission, my brother told me it was a direct fit with some customizations described by 666Wokker and his own customizations. Not sure what all had to be done, but advises that you flush the transmission fluid and swap all parts while the transmissions are side by side and out of the car.

I love driving this car, I never liked Honda products and wanted to get my wife a cheap yet reliable car. I am a new convert for the Honda products. I cannot stop driving this car.

All looking to get their transmission replaced, I advise doing the swap with the 2006/2007 Honda Accord 5sp Transmission.

Glad to hear!
 

Good stuff man,

Had a nice conversation with your brother on the phone, let him know everything I went through to get it going again, and by the looks of it, everything is good!

Have fun with the ride, these cars are fun :thumbsup:

I got 03 Tl original trans 88,500 miles. I'll keep this in mind. Thanx. Good luck.

To justify my threadjacking, I'll begin this post with a congratulations and glad to hear all went/going well with the swap. And now that I have respectfully disrepspected the OP here, any experts here know the power handling capabilities of the newer (newer as in newer than 03 TL) Accord/ TL auto transmissions? I'm suspecting it's 04-07 that is interchangeable? What's the differences (if any) in the newer Type S transmissions as opposed to base models? Once again, sorry OP...couldn't resist!

Thank you sir for your directions. My brother loves puzzles, especially when it comes to family. I will inform him.

Glad to hear! I had my 2002 TLS tranny relpaced with a 2006 TL unit over the holidays. Hopefully we've found a worthwile option to deal with the huge problem our cars are plagued with. Time will tell!

why arent you guys swapping in 6 speeds?..

all these autotragic swaps!

^ I think its because not everybody wants to be rowing gears and also converting to a manual is a lot more work...:tongue:

i just meant for the reliability aspect of it.

seems like a lot of work to swap in another possible failure, even if the accord tranny has a better track record.

1 grand bolt in
or
3grand+ bolt in and custom work needed.

The Type S 3G TL had a stronger transmission to handle the increased power. However, it cannot be swapped into a 2G Tl easily, as it has a different bell housing pattern.

Is it only the 3G type S trans that's stronger and more reliable? Is the base TL atleast more reliable than the 2G? What are the biggest/best differences between the 2G and 3G?

Talk of the forum says that the 04 and early 05 3G TLs had tranny issues as well. Supposedly in the mid 2005 range, the internals were reworked in an effort to remedy the issue we've faced. I would stay away from 04-05 trannys for that reason.

Also, the 3G TL-S was a 3.5L engine with a different bolt pattern where it mates to the tranny.

I slapped an 06 auto tranny onto mine, as I've already got my "fun" car I like to mod. (For the guys asking why not throw a manual in) It has 330 WHP, mid engine, and 2500 lbs.

I have not swapped a manual into mine because I wanted an automatic for my wife. we just sold out maxima 5sp and she was not going back to the manual. besides as previously mentioned, that would take more modifications to convert auto to manual.

what about when you replace that used auto tranny again in 5 years :wink:

How about not everyone wants to drive a manual and prodding them about why isn't going to change any minds. The thing could go 3 times and it still would be less costly and less labor than a 6mt swap. Driving manual sucks in winter especially deep snow and black ice
Plus sometimes it's just plain annoying to have to shift.

For the Price of the Manual Swap + Mods I can have 4 AV6s Transmissions, adding your logic 4 x 5 = 20 Years worth of Trannys seems fine to me.. And I save Labor costs doing the Swaps myself.

Also I hate to Shift Manual...

meh, i can buy one of my tranny's for under $1k.

you sound defensive, maybe you're trying to justify to yourself more than me?
just a question killa.

04-06 type s had 3.2l which should mate to 2g 3.2. From 07-08 type s had 3.5l which has different bell housing.

CORRECT???

A friend is selling an 06 type s 6 speed right now and want to be certain it will fit my 03 type s before purchasing....

And adding to your logic with the knowledge out there now with the swap and the module available for the swap i could do the conversion for under 2k now and have a much much cheaper and more reliable and much more entertaining car to drive. I save labor costs doing things myself too.

:ponder: i should open a garage and start doing swaps on the side :ponder:

But yes, for those that like auto the accord/oddy transseem to be the best bet.

There were no 04-06 Type S's from the factory.

Again thats if you like to Shift and Be Handy doing Mods, Most people Arent.

Most People (Myself Included) dont care too much for the "Fun Factor" of Stick much more than Usability, My Wife uses my TL sometimes and she cannot absolutely for the sake of her life drive Stick...

Arghhhh If only the New A/T 6Spdo would just Bolt-On right there....

There were no 2006 Type-S models. It sounds like your buddy has an 07-08 Type-S tranny, and it will NOT fit as it is for a 3.5L engine with a different bolt pattern. Your buddy really needs to find out for certain exactly WHAT tranmission he relly has.
On another note, didn't they make a standard 3.2L TL with a manual transmission in 2004-2006?? Maybe that's what this guy has. Either way, he really needs to figure it out, as he could really screw somebody over with false information.

Yes, and with proper mods, it'll work on our cars.

The cheapest manual transmition i could find in spokane/seattle(washington area) is 1400 and thats from an accord with 90k on it. Most "salvage" yards dont want to go down on the price any more as they used to, richie harness is $750 , that alone is already over 2k... :ugh:

So what at tranny would work best gor my 03? What mods needs to be done for an accord/oddessey or 3g tl tranny to work? I will have this done in a month

My 03 tl s has 105,000 miles and the trans is still going strong. Hope it stays that way

i have a 2002 acura tl 3.2 the trans is going bad at 163k can i do a straight swap from a 2004 acura tl manual to my 2002 tl automatic

how much do you want to swap mine xD

Hey, I have a 2002 TL Type-S that I wanted to put the accord tranny into. I was wondering if I could get in touch with you and get the details of your swap. Can you give me a call? The number is (614) 551-8134. Thanks!

Did the OP call? My tranny went out in my 03 tl type s and am seeing what options I have. Rebuild is going to be around 1300 with a one year warranty or 1500 with a three year. Manual would be awesome but don't have the knowledge to put it in or a lot of cash

Hey NobleTL, check around the salvage yards for a 5 speed AT from an '06>'07 Accord V-6. These tranny's are of an improved design and will give ya a more durable option than rebuilding the existing TL's tranny which are flawed.

The overall price to swap in a used Accord tranny would be comparable to what you're going to spend with the rebuild. Check some other threads concerning the details of the swap.

hey guys, newb here. my trans has crapped out and i was quoted at $2100 for a remanned trans, $2800 installed. i'm not about to drop that kinda cash on another auto. SOOO i plan on doing a manual swap. I know that the CL-S 6 speeds will fit right in, but they're hard to come by, so i'm looking around for another option.

i assume that because the 06/07 Accord auto trans bolts up, that the manual trans for the same year(s) accord will as well. is it safe to assume?

also does anyone know of any other FOR SURE manual options that will bolt up?

I dunno what you're talking about, there's quite a few, check car-part.com

Attachment 111496

that's just the first page with the pricier options.

But if you must know, the 04-06 TL 6MT's work, as well as 07-08 BASE only (I believe) and they require a little modification to the shifter or something. I went with the CL-S transmission so it would be easier.

Those have LSDs.

You could get the 03-??? Accord 6MT, but no LSD

Where in KY are you? Lexington? Louisville? If so I could possibly help if it's during the summer.

WTF? i checked car-part.com like a week ago and it had NO results.. wHeird.. anyway, the 04-06 TL 6MTs, do they bolt right up? what about the CL-S 6mt, how much custom work did you have to do in the engine bay?

i'm actually in Ft. Mitchell, i practically live in Ohio haha

Must have been using the wrong search criteria. I've always used them and have found parts. Make sure you're searching '03 Acura CL + 6 speed transmission (NOT bellhousing only).

Yes, they'll bolt right up no problem. Someone else will have to answer what mods you'll have to do to the TL trans, I think it has to do with the shifter linkage or something. I stuck with the CL trans because it required zero modification.

I did ZERO custom work to the engine bay. Check my build thread below and you'll see everything I did. The only real fab that had to be done was add a hand brake (super easy). and drilling the firewall for a clutch pedal (more challenging, but not super tough). Everything else was undo electrical connections, bolts and shit, and install is reverse of removal.

Let me know if you'll need help though. I'm a full time grad student @ UK and summer will be somewhat open depending on what job I get. When you get enough posts, you can PM me for my number and I can help you with parts gathering.

fantastic! that's good news. was there anything that needed to be done to the ecu? i don't know anything about trans swaps, and i thought i had heard somewhere that you need to do something to the ecu to trick it to think it's always in park.

Nothing needs to be done to the ECU. If you upgrade to Type S engine if you currently have a base, you'll need a separate ECU, but otherwise no. I'm not sure if RichieV6 is still making swap harnesses, I hear he's hard to get a hold of these days, but that's the easiest route. Otherwise, you've gotta change a few sensors on the engine and you have to rewire the dash and such.

hmm.. so i'm trying to figure out exactly how difficult this is going to be. mainly because i'm not the one doing it lol. i have an 03 type s. i want to put a cl-s 6spd in it. i'll for sure need a swap harness? without needing a motor you think i'll be spending around $2,500 ish?

and also, i read your build thread, but i'm still a little confused lol