No-start or intermittent start failure on the 2006 Acura TL
When no-start or intermittent start failure gets reported
Owners of the 2006 Acura TL report no-start or intermittent start failure at a median of 110,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 110,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 90,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 130,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 43,200 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88,800 miles | 108,000 miles | 108,000 miles | 127,500 miles | 132,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $200–$1,800 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 80,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 170,000 miles.
By volume the 2006 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
The hands free link malfunctions and drains the battery. If the car sits for more than a day, the battery is dead and it will not start. This has left me stranded more than a dozen times. A search on the internet reveals that thousands of acura tls have had the same issue. The dead battery leaves people stranded and eventually leads to the destruction of the alternator. Acura knows this is an issue, but has not done anything. *tr
When I started the vehicle, it had a moaning sound. I continued driving and the battery light, airbag light, csv light, all came on just before the dash lights flickered on and off, then totally went out and the car engine shut off. When I tried to jumpstart the car, the car started after a few minutes but when the jumper cables were removed, the car instantly shut down. The car was in the middle of the road and had to be towed to my house. Three months ago, the car would not start. I got it jumpstarted and it ran perfectly until the above incident occurred. This is the third battery this car has had since 2009. *tr
When I started the vehicle, it had a moaning sound. I continued driving and the battery light, airbag light, csv light, all came on just before the dash lights flickered on and off, then totally went out and the car engine shut off. When I tried to jumpstart the car, the car started after a few minutes but when the jumper cables were removed, the car instantly shut down. The car was in the middle of the road and had to be towed to my house. Three months ago, the car would not start. I got it jumpstarted and it ran perfectly until the above incident occurred. This is the third battery this car has had since 2009. *tr
Also reported on the 2006 Acura TL
Other body or interior problem
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Other steering problem
Audio or connectivity failure
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 13 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does no-start or intermittent start failure happen on the 2006 Acura TL?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 110,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is no-start or intermittent start failure on the 2006 Acura TL?
13 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed