Hello!
We have a 2007 MDX which is my 18 year old daughter's car. For the last several weeks we have been running into battery issues. It initially died back in June and we got the battery replaced as it was a few years old and seemed like the issue. It then died a couple of more times (one time after I jumped it and was driving it home from a friends house - totally died on the road). I jumped into research mode. I removed the HFL but it died again. I then brought it to our trusted mechanic but he pointed us to the Acura dealership as he doesn't deal with electrical issues. We brought it to our local Acura service center, and they came back with over a $600 fix - basically new positive and negative connectors. Then of course $10K of additional recommended services (lol - we paid $5K for the car 4 years ago). Anyway, we had them perform the $600 service and it ran OK for about 4 or 5 days, but yet again we weren't able to start it up last week.

After additional research, I replaced the AC frame relay fuse. It died again. I was able to jump it and get it started, but when I turned it off, I definitely heard the CD player making some kind of noise - which made me think it had something to do with the radio/CD player. After further research, I removed the fuse for the radio/back up camera. This was this past Monday, and the car has started up strongly every day since then and I drove it a few miles today and seems to be running fine. I think I found the source of the parasytic drain.

Here's where I need advice. Where do I go from here? Do I bring it back to the Acura service folks (who didn't seem to find the actual problem the first time) and have them 'fix' and/or replace the radio/back up camera? Do I try to replace the unit myself? How hard is it to do that? FWIW - I am pretty handy. Before having this issue, we had considered getting her Apple Play as she didn't have bluetooth. I see that the radio/back up camera and temperature control is one big unit - temperature control works just fine so I am hesitant to mess with it. But I'd also like her to have a functional back up camera. She doesn't really care about the radio not working as she uses her phone for music - which is why we were considering Apple Play. I feel a bit paralyzed about next steps and she leaves for college in less than two weeks - I need to figure out a solution ASAP and feel good about her driving this car two and from school (about a 2 hour drive).

Thanks for any advice!
Danielle

 

There were several defective Radio/CD units that were recalled by Acura at the time. They were the cause of the parasitic discharge of the battery.
But there are only 5 confirmed sources of battery problem in this car: HansFree Bluetooth Unit, Radio/CD Unit, A/C compressor clutch RELAY, Alternator.
Deal with them one by one and fix them yourself.

For problems with your Radio / CD / Climate / Stereo Unit, get a replacement from a junkyard or eBay resellers and have it swapped.