Also known as: j32a1, j32a2, j32a3, j32, 3.2 v6 honda, cl type-s engine, j32a
Honda's 3.2 V6 — the J-series at the displacement before the J35 — in the Acura CL and TL and the European and Japanese Accord.
The most useful thing about it is what it does not have. Honda's later J35s carry Variable Cylinder Management, which shuts down cylinders under light load and is the defining problem of that engine: oil consumption, fouled plugs and misfires. The J32 predates it entirely, so a J32 burning oil is not VCM and none of the very large body of advice about deactivating VCM applies. Establish which J is fitted before reading anything about the family.
It is belt-driven and it is an interference design, so the belt interval is a date rather than a suggestion — and the water pump is driven by the belt, meaning the two are replaced together and a pump changed alone means the belt was disturbed and not renewed.
On the cars it was fitted to, the bigger complaint is usually the automatic transmission rather than the engine. The five-speed automatics behind these V6s have a well-known reputation of their own, and a great deal of what is written about Acura CL and TL reliability describes the gearbox. Establish which side of the bellhousing the fault is on first.
Cars fitted with this engine
4 generations, across 2 makes. From the authored catalogue — an absent car means the catalogue has not reached it, not that the engine was never fitted.
Information, not instruction
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Posted about this engine
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What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
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