2004 ACURA TSX User Comment / Complaint

At about 19,000 miles, my clutch began slipping. i noticed before this that it was occasionally difficult to engage first gear, and often the transmission would grind when shifting into reverse. i brought the car to dealer, (acura of greenwich, greenwich, ct.) and was told the clutch was bad, and had to be replaced, and was damaged by overheating, as a result of my improper driving. i have owned eight manual transmission cars in my over 30 years of driving, and never had a clutch fail before at least 60,000 miles. my driving style is very conservative. i have never abused the clutch. i have checked several acura/tsx forums on the internet, and the hard shifting and grinding in reverse, as well as premature clutch failure, is mentioned by more than a few owners. fortunately, my dealer was very fair, and replaced the clutch as goodwill. however, the problem has been mentioned in an acura service dept. magazine as well. it appears several owners have not been as lucky as me, and had to spend big money. i believe there should be tsb issued regarding this problem, as this does appear to be a defect in some tsx vehicles.