Well, washed the car and put it in the garage. Tried to use it 1 hr later & got nothing, nothing. Dead battery? Nope. Checked the acurazine site, ahhh door handle problems. The driver's handle was operating intermittently yesterday.
Checked the #7 fuse, yup burnt. Pulled the door panel off and disconnected the harness, inserted new fuse and it smoked up. I had pulled the wrong harness plug, reached inside the door and pulled the sensor harness plug right next to the handle.
Plugged in a new fuse, there was light and everything is normal I hope. We live a long long way from a dealer so this site has been a Godsend. Now, I guess i'll order a new handle IF the cost is reasonable. Thanks to all who have posted here and assisted those of us who can handle some mechanics and electrical issues. So what's the handle worth in Canada?

 

good luck

 

Did coopcoop ever find out why the ACC 20 amp fuse was blowing in addition to the #7 fuse?

Will I be okay to drive until the handle is shipped?

I certainly don't want a complete shutdown this far from a dealer. It's safely inside my garage for now.

This is a very poor design fault and Acura should be offering a better handle or we should just leave them disconnected & use the fobs.

What do you advise?

 

Short of getting in a debate (which I wont) I have to say that I do not blame Acura on this one.
If you wash the car with the remote in your pocket and cycle the locks repeatedly it burns up the part. IMO that falls on the user.

None the less, if you pulled the harness and the fuse is stable I would think that the car would be fine.

As for Coops issue, he had a boatload of shit going on.
Yours is just isolated to the locks.
But yes, he swapped out the handle and is now shopping for wheels.

 

I never found out why the 20 amp fuse was blown. Since I replaced the door handle I haven't had any issues though. I figured I should leave well enough alone. If you disconnect the door handle electrically you wont have any problems. I was still able to use the keyless entry. But I couldn't use the touch sensors.

 

Not a boatload of issues just the door handle fiasco. Everything is fine now. am searching for rims still though. Can't find that 'perfect' set.

 

Wow, I do not understand why washing the car with the fob nearby would cause this failure. I will avoid that in future. I still think the handle is a poor design by Acura when some people have replaced 5 of these handles? Thx, Heavy for the assurance.

 

If the handle is costly, it will not be replaced. Fob works fine.
Looking for wheels too as I do not want to remove Winters from the OEM wheels.

 

The handles were really only affected before 2007. I would like to see evidence of multiple failures after that year. Knock the design all you want, but it really is a one-of-a-kind feature that I have not seen on any other car. Look at uber-luxury 100k sedans, and they have that stupid black button that Nissan Altimas have. The capacitave nature of sensor does allow for issues in water, but brushing/grabbing the handle with no visible indication that a sensor is there is a timeless design IMO.

Handle is $200 IIRC.

 

My issue is with a design that could fail with water and fob nearby? This feature shut down the whole auto & if someone is in the middle of nowhere, well that's a big problem. On my sister's Lexus as you approach the car it unlocks without any input from the driver. This must be a different system. I am sourcing a handle and hopefully it is an upgraded unit post 2007. I have only accumulated 30K on my $80K RL so this failure was a disappointment.

 

It did not disable the entire system, just the sensor. You could still unlock/lock with fob

 

$80k?!?!? I knew Canadians used funny money, but DAMN!

Unless you are washing your car in the middle of no where, you'll be fine. Did you have the keys in your pocket as you washed? Did you hear the car beep throughout the wash?

 

Our Canadian money is colourful & very high tech, probably worth more than your U.S. dollar too. Keep printing that stuff, it all looks the same anyway. Ha! Ha! I'll get the exact cost & post it. Brand new, no trade & cash paid.

My cottage is 120 miles from any dealer so washing it is to be avoided? Come on guys, get real. That damn sensor handle shut down the whole car until the handle was disconnected. Luckily the guys on Acurazine helped immensely & I can do this troubleshoot/repair myself.

Calculate the cost to flatbed tow round trip, cost of trouble shoot & replace, cost of part (handle) and taxes upon taxes....sheesh.

I've ordered the handle.

 

Washing the car with a remote proximity sensor nearby that engages capacitave touch sensors should be avoided. Leave the fob in the car. The car won't lock with them in there and the problem is solved.

 

solution: sell car, by Lexus.

 

I don't recall that the washing issue has caused the short circuit or blown fuse. That is a handle failure, but not from washing. Washing just over excited sensor and it shuts down for a while. Mine has always came back to "life" in a few minutes.

 

Actually, Ford/Lincoln are using a similar design now.

I'm wondering, what is the average age of these RLs experiencing issues?

 

A distinct possibility, the GS350 looks appealing. The Genesis RSpec too, Equus also,

 

there ya go, I support diversity and the path of least resistance.

 

"The path of least resistance" in other words...... LMAO.

 

bingo