Owners have filed 468 complaints on the Acura CL, covering 1997–2003. The system named most often is Power Train (248 reports). Worst years by volume: 2001, 1997, 2003; cleanest: 1999, 2002, 1998. 23 reports describe a crash, 3 a fire, 2 a death. On average the car was 7.3 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Acura CL
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 468 CL complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Power Train 248 Read
I owed 2001 acura cl type s. Last year the transmision when out on me. While I was on the free way. It would not shift gears.all the sudden the vehical slow down to 30 mph. On the freeway I all most lost control and got into the accident.I when to the dealer they replaced it with a new one
Acura 3.2 cl type s has had 4 total failures all related to transmitions problems. The failures occured while driving in the insterstate highway at 65mph. Dealearship has replaced four transmitions causing time loss at work and placing my self in a hazardous situations while the failures occured leaving standed in…
I own a 2001 acura cl. I was driving in to the driveway, when without warning, the transmission accelerated, brakes would not operate normally and the car hit the driveway wall violently with concomitant abnormal speed. I chalked it up to a one time event. The car sustained $6,000 in front damage. Today, likewise, as…
Air Bags 57 Read
Dt: while driving 60 mph was cut off on interstate. To keep from hitting another vehicle ran off the road. When consumer's vehicle went off road struck some trees with front impact with extensive damage. The vehicle was totaled and damaged was sustained on the right side as well as the front. The vehicle is equipped…
Air bags failed to deploy after vehicle skid on black ice crashing into a series of trees causing major front end damage
Vehicle suddendly accelerated while driver had foot on brakes, wheels started to spin and went through garage wall and in back yard, but evenutally vehicle stopped because it ran up on a pole. Airbags did not deploy
Electrical System 36 Read
Horn button is too small, making it diffcult to locate in case of an emergency situation , which has already resulted in 2 accidents. *ak
The contact owns a 2003 acura cl. The contact stated that the vehicle intermittently shut off without warning. The contact had to add starter fluid to the vehicle in order to get it to drive. The dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer was notified. The vehicle was not included in NHTSA campaign number: 02V120000…
Acura says they guarantee all parts of the safety belt for the use of a lifetime of the car. Car has 120000 miles on it. I have intermittent buckling issues and SRS airbag switch is bad inside a sealed safety belt. Could easily be remedied if it wasn't a sealed unit. They say they won't fix it because it's a canadian…
Suspension 20 Read
My son hit a pole and the air bag crushed him. He died! It ripped his aorta, his liver, crushed his lungs, head injury, metal in chest
I have a 2003 acura cl s type at 400 miles a tire was michelin tire was replaced for a bubble in the tire wall, the car is less than a year old and with 11,000 miles. I have replace two more tires for bubbles. Now a fourth tire has a bubble. I am told by acura and michelin that these are caused by pot holes. There is…
Upon removing my front right (passenger side) wheel to check my brake pads, I noticed the rear portion of the sub-frame (which holds up the engine and transmission as well as the steering rack and sway bar) had rusted away allowing the sway bar to come completely loose on the right side. I researched this problem and…
Service Brakes 16 Read
I purchased a new acura 3.2cl type s with a 6 speed manual transmission on 5/24/03. In 6/16/04 with 14,396 miles I had to have the front rotors resurfaced and my brake pads replaced with updated pads per tsb01-017 because of extreme vibration while braking (out of round rotors due to over heating). This was done at no…
Brake caliper mount/bracket developed superficial corrosion which reduced the tolerance for the brake pad,s making them resistant to sliding--bound. Brake pads adhered to chrome bearing material between pad and caliper bracket, and bearing material, acted like a return spring increasing the tolerances to the rotor…
Going 5 mph in parking lot, coasting to a stop at end of aisle with foot off throttle pedal. Put foot on brake and the engine revved to high speed. Barely held car with brake. Shut off ignition. Car restarted fine. This was the second time in a week it had happened. Previous incident was on a residential street coming…
Steering 15 Read
My steering wheel randomly locks while driving. As I was driving down santa teresa my steering wheel locked n caused me to hit a curb and pop my tire
Transmission failure: the problem starts with the following symptoms : failure to place the car in drive or to remove the key from the ignition when it is in park. Loss of power to the engine while driving in highway traffic(speed drops from 55 mph to 0 mph while actively driving on highway). Car will not advance…
The contact owns a 1999 acura cl. While approaching a traffic light and proceeding to make a right turn, the brake pedal was depressed and the vehicle accelerated independently. In addition, when the steering wheel was turned to the right, the vehicle turned in the left direction. As a result, the vehicle landed in a…
Engine And Engine Cooling 15 Read
While driving vehicle at 15 to 20mph engine made a big noise, car slowed down, and engine died. Pulled out of the road. Dealer diagnosed that timing belt was broken. Consumer wanted a new engine since one of the technicians indicated that this engine was defective. Please provide further information
Vehicle displayed hesitation at 15 mph numerous times, when accelerating from a stop vehicle would not accelerate. On 25 june 2002, dealer replaced transmission, no problems so far.*akthe vehicle would not accelerate at times when stopped at a traffic light. The transmission would go out of gear. The new transmission…
The vehicle stalled intermittently while driving. The dealer was unable to duplicate or determine the cause. (cl type-s) ts scc
Visibility 14 Read
Consumer states that the positioning of the 2 outside mirrors is too high, by at least 5-6 inches, when stopped at a stop sign or intersection, there are 2 blind spots, oncoming traffic can not be seen from the left and right
Impact with deer, on left side fender, door, and rear quarter panel, broken windshield, broken mirror, which caused $5000 worth of damge, but the left side air bags did not deploy. Why?
Consumer sits in driver's seat to it's rear most position, the driver's side power mirror can not be adjusted to be angled outward enough to eliminate dangerous blind spots for vehicles that are close in the adjacent left lane, consumer has come close to collisions due to this blind spot and has mounted another mirror…
CL years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Air Bags | 2 | — | |
| 2002 | Air Bags | 1 | — | |
| 2001 | Air Bags | 11 | 2 | |
| 1999 | Air Bags | 4 | — | |
| 1998 | Air Bags | 1 | 1 | |
| 1997 | Air Bags | 4 | — |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 180 |
| Average complaints per series | 2.6 |
| Worst single series | 19 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 7.3 years |
A model average of 2.6 hides a worst series at 19. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
- What the car is worth given what tends to fail on it
- The original window sticker and factory options
- Full research report as a PDF for the pre-purchase inspection
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- No ads, no tracking — and much more
How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the CL?
By complaint volume, 2001, 1997, 2003 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which CL years are the cleanest?
1999, 2002, 1998 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Acura CL have?
468 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 1997–2003. Of those, 23 describe a crash and 3 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.