I was heading home from work yesterday when I started slowing for a red light and noticed a faint bucking feeling when I got down to 25 mph. As I slowed down further the bucking became much more severe, to the point that the engine seemed like it was going to stall, so I quick popped it into neutral and the rpm's jumped right up where they should be and everything immediately smoothed out. I shifted it back into Drive and the engine immediately stalled. I put the car in Park, restarted, shifted back into Drive and the engine stalled again. I repeated this process 3 times to no avail.

When the tow truck driver got there he started it and put it in reverse and it sounded like 100 BB's being shaken in a tin can. His 30 second prognoses was that the torque converter suffered a catastrophic failure. The car is currently at my local Infiniti dealer being diagnosed, but I would be stunned if a transmission replacement wasn't in my future. And to kick me while I'm down, the dealer tells me that they have no loaner cars available for 7 days. (through the Christmas holiday)

The Acura TL SH-AWD Advance I almost bought instead of this thing is looking awfully good right about now.

 

Just got a call from the dealership and they're saying that the transmission suffered a catastrophic planetary gear failure and that the entire transmission is being replaced under warranty. They claim that these failures are few and far between, but I'd like to hear from the members here if they've heard of this happening before. Considering the same transmission was used in the 4,500lb, 390HP, 369LB-FT FX50, I thought that this would be a pretty tough unit . . . guess not.

 

Honda/Acuras are also notorious for transmission failure, especially in the mid to late 2000s models. Be glad you didn't end up in one of those. The transmission failure you experienced here sounds like a rare issue, the 7-speed (although jerky without the newest software update) is actually a very reliable transmission. You are probably the first I've heard to have a complete transmission failure, especially at such a young age/mileage. Glad to hear that it's getting taken care of by the warranty though.


The RE7R01A is actually the same unit used in the Q50 400 Red Sport, so it must be built to handle a beating. Guess you just had some bad luck on yours.

 

Jatco makes two versions of the 7-speed automatic. The JR710E is good for up to 295 ft-lb, where the JR711E is good for up to 443 ft-lb. I suspect the latter is used on the V8-powered vehicles and Q50 RS 400.

 

It's ironic you mentioned the Honda "glass transmissions" of the early 2000's, as I actually owned a 2001 Honda Accord EX-L V6 that had the warranty extended due to others having transmission issues. That said, I whooped on that car daily for 6 years and never once had an issue with the drivetrain. I pretty rarely drive the G aggressively due to having a family now, and I've honestly run into more problems with the G in 9 months of ownership than I did over the 6 years with my Accord, and that's excluding yesterday's transmission blowup. That's a discussion for another day, however.