chinhman

I could not find the other long thread about dead radio units so I started this one.

Mine has only 3800 miles and this morning it just died. I did not do anything different/special. Just turned on the engine, waited a few seconds and pressed the Audio button. No sound and the dashboard display is blacked out.

I stopped by the dealer. After a quick inspection they told me that I had a bad radio unit - no power coming in. I will order a new one and it should take about one week. Navigation still works with no sound/voice control.
Sadly he mentioned that this is a common problem lately on RDXs.

The dealer offered me a TL as a loaner. I decided to keep mine.
Had they had a RL or MDX loaner, I would gladly accepted it.
They also mentioned that I have to wait for the radio manufacturer to get the DVD-A discs out of the unit and mail them back to me.

I hope they won't mess up the car swapping it out.

Question: Is there an opportunity for me to pay the dealer to swap the XM tuner for a Sirius tuner by any chance?

chinhman

I just saw the Bluetooth Electronics sub forum.

Mod - please move this thread to that forum.

Thanks

flags

I hope you get your discs back. This happened in my last car (not yet in my RDX!!) and the Bose head unit was sent out. I never got my 6 CD's back. The Infiniti dealer was of no help. Hopefully (Panasonic?) will be able to get your discs back to you.

Chas2

Check out this thread which has a link to the Acura Service News for Jan 2007 about the radio problem.

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=955

PS, from what I understand, the XM is part of the head unit, and you cannot switch it for Sirius.

chinhman

Here's an update on my radio problem. It's not over yet.

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...6089#post16089

m28matrix

I just noticed a similar problem with my radio today. There is no sound output when I try to play any CDs / DVD-As. XM and FM/AM radio are functioning normally. This stinks!!! Now I have to take my time out to go to the dealership to get this fix. The car is barely 1 month old, and I have to go in for service already. I just hope this is not going to be a trend. We should get a free oil change or something out of this.

Can I just go to any Acura service center to get this fixed or do I have to go back to the dealer I purchased the car from?

Matt

Chas2

Call the Acura Customer Care Line to find out the policy for sure. My dealer is close by, so I have not had to even think about this. In the past, and I don't know if this is dated info or not, at HONDA dealers, they asked that the first 30 days of warranty claims be resolved at the selling dealer, then after that any dealer will take care of it.

I am sure Acura will take care of it no matter what, but call the customer care line to make sure.

sasair

You can definitely go to any acura dealer in the country and they will take care of it for you under warranty.

m28matrix

I called the Acura service center in Bridgewater NJ. They don't have time to look at the car until next Thursday (2/22). The rep said he never heard any radio issues with the RDX before, and the appointment for next week is only to figure out what is wrong. Let’s see how many visits to the dealership I have to make before this will get resolved.


Matt

Chas2

Refer him to the January bulletin noted in this thread.

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=894

Better yet, print it out and show it to him when you get there.

sasair

Try talking to the service manager directly as they are probably the only ones in the service dept that may read the servicenews bulletins.

m28matrix

Update: I drove over to the service center that night and showed them a printed copy of the service news bulletin. They then check their copy of the service news bulletin and acknowledge the issue. It took an hour for them to prepare the paper work to order a radio replacement. I had to wait in the show room while they obtained a bunch of serial information that is "only" available in the car.

Apparently, I am the first person to report this issue to the service center in Bridgewater. As sasir suspected, not everyone reads the service news bulletin.

The replacement radio will be available by next Tuesday, and the install should take about 2 hrs. A loaner car will be provided to me, so I don't have to wait around.

I will let you know how it turns out.

Matt

m28matrix

Update: It's been a week now and the replacement radio is working fine. Got an old TL loaner while they worked on the RDX. No scratches or rattles.

Got a free car wash out of it.

rdxsteverino

Well I've been hit by the radio dead head bug. It started with several requests over a couple weeks to enter the unit's security code, like the battery was disconnected. After entering the code the radio worked fine until the next request - just annoying. Then this morning I started up the car and no lights on the upper center display, no lights on the radio and no sound. This is more than annoying. Drove to work (without any sound except the woosh of my turbo) and later went to lunch and it was working again. But the frequency of required security code entering is increasing noticeably. It's just a matter of time before this unit goes completely. I'm removing my disks before it dies and taking it in this weekend.

Only 2800 miles and VIN is around 7200. How long is it taking to get these radio head units replaced?

chinhman

So far so good with my new unit as well.
One poster mentioned that his replacement unit was shipped overnight and swapped out the next day. I waited for more than one week; called customer relation, complained and they had a new unit UPSed overnight . It took less than two hours for the dealer to swap it out.

If you want fast turn around time I suggest call Customer Relation to make sure they ship one out as fast as they could. Don't rely on the local dealer to do their best job.

davidndenver

Something similar to this happened to our TSX. The CD player and the radio worked fine but the display was dark and not readable. There was a service bulletin covering this problem and it was under warranty so everything was fixed free of charge.

It was funny becasue they ran out of loaners and the dealer rented me a car. It was some sort of entry model Chevy with no power anything. I told the service manager that I could not remember how long it had been since I had to roll up the window of a car by hand. He apologized. Oh well, at least they were friendly and helpful.

It does concern me that both models are having problems with the stereo.

rdxsteverino

Thanks chinhman. I'll try your suggestion about calling customer relations.

rdxsteverino

Acura service comes through again. Had to take a bus trip this past Wed - Fri so I brought my RDX in to have the dead radio replaced. They offerred me a loaner but didn't need one since I had a ride to the airport. Showed up at the dealer Fri night to a freshly cleaned RDX (including tire black) and a replaced radio unit. Only needed to reprogram my stations. No complaints or need to call customer relations. Maybe Acura is stocking up on replacement radios to avoid delays. Eveyone was very pleasant throughout the whole experience. This is one of the reasons I got the RDX.

BCocoPop

I hate to bring up the old thread.. but what do you do when your audio system finally died with the same symptoms after all these years.

Bought the car in Dec. of '06 of 2007 RDX. It probably out side of warranty for HU replacement. But then shouldn't it still be replace since it is a manufacture defect? Even though the service bulletin came out in Jan of '07.

googlefish

Don't know if this is the same issue as other HU. Lately the sound from the HU would cease to completely work (radio, aux, XM, etc). However, can still change channels, and the display still works, but no sound. Then after restarting the car after a short shut down, it would work again.

Anyone with the same experience?

mrgold35

I have a 2008 RDX tech and my head unit stopped responding the other day. I could not change the channels using the steering wheel, Navi screen, preset buttons, or channel up/down button below/right of 6 present buttons. I head unit would not change to FM/CD/AM/XM from the steering wheel, head unit buttons, or when I used the Navi turn knob.

Once I turned the power off/on for the radio, the unit started to respond normally.

This was the first and only time this has happened. Can I expect more problems down the road?

Carbon2008RDX

Similar. Since day one when I got my 2008 RDX in June '08 the XM would die when driving in the city between tall buildings (blocking signal I assume) or tall trees in full foliage. The only way to reset it is to turn the car off and then back on again. It's annoying at times but only happens infrequently that I haven't bothered to pursue it with the dealer. Actually, it gives signs of "about to die" and if I quickly switch to anything other than XM and then go back to XM when the skies are clear (no buildings, no trees) all is fine again!

LuvMyTSX

Is this just a problem with 2007 and 2008 models? Has anyone with a 2010 had a problem yet?

bluecarbonfiber

digging up an old thread but my 2010 tech has this similar issue of the dark screen navi and no sound reading above posts it looks like the only way to fix is to get a new radio unit, sucks cause im out of warranty.. will keep it updated on what happens