I have a 2005 RL and i've experienced the following for about 4 weeks now.
1- When the door are opened and shut, a message appears that the key isn't available or could be recognized (i don't remember the exact message, but its the one when you shut the door and the smart key isn't in the cockpit). I changed the battery, so it isn't that. i have to open and shut the door 8-15 times for the car to recognize the key.
2- When i engage reverse, the side view mirrors moves down, but the passenger one doesn't return to the exact position. it goes to about 50% to where it was.
These issues are really annoying and getting on my nerves.

Please advise!

 

1) Move key away from cell phone, or unplug phone charger.
2) Move mirror select switch to middle.



Next question.

 

Hey Qatar, haven't seen you here for a long while! In any case, oo7 gives reasonable first steps here, since you've already changed the key fob battery.

You may also want to consider that in this car, random electrical gremlins are an early sign of main battery failure. How old is the battery? If you are still on the OEM battery in your 2005, it's long past time for a new battery.

 

Thanks for the reply.
I'll try to unplug the phone charger and keep my cell away from the remote. However, moving the mirror select switch to the middle will prevent the mirrors from moving down, and i'm afraid to scratch my rims while parallel parking. Whats weird is that in on instance, i had moved the mirror selection to the middle, but the passenger side mirror still moved.
I just want the car back to normal, and the dealer is playing the guessing game and want to replace things rather than figure out the problem.

 

Hi neuronbob, indeed it has been a while.
The battery was replaced in August 2011. So, the current one should still be fine.

 

Probably not much help, but I had the exact same issue with my passenger side mirror. The "dealer" fix was to replace the entire mirror assembly.

 

There is a DIY thread about a fuse pull to reset the mirrors and seats... that fixed mine... I'll try to dig it up with that crazy search tool.

 

Here we go... search is my hero.

https://acurazine.com/forums/2g-rl-2005-2012-76/mirror-fuse-location-783224/

 

I'd cut Qatar some slack on the search snark. He took a huge one for the RL team several years back with his quest to try to get the factory backup camera installed in his 2005 RL.

Good to see you back here Qatar. It's like homecoming week with TampaRL returning as well.

 

Not busting his chops, you cant judge snark on the internet my friend.
I found the thread and shared it... search is MY hero.

 

Thanks Heavy. I forgot about that thread.

To add to what dwboston said, Qatar is an OG member. He did a total Legend conversion....grille, badges and everything. A legend on this part of the forum.

 

Yeah, the mirror suggestion was a work around b/c I didn't know the answer.

I had the issue with the key fob for over a year and put up with it. I had changed batteries, moved over to fob2, and considered replacing one of them until someone brought up an old thread that showed the official service release from Acura to dealers. I suppose enough people complained and they started throwing fixes at it to no avail. They say a phone charger or any inverter can cause EM interference. The same applies to anything with an antenna. My problem is that I carry two phones and keep my keys with one of them. Separating them has worked for me every time.

I keep my charger plugged in 24/7 and it has not caused an issue.

 

no doubt bob, I appreciate any member that documents and shares info like he has.

 

Not to hijack the thread, but for quite a while I've had a slightly similar problem: When I start the car, sometimes the steering wheel comes all the way out to me (which is where I've set the memory position) and sometimes it stops short by varying distances.

I have no other electrical gremlins of any sort. My battery is about 2 years old and tests out fine. Any of you ever had this happen?

 

That is the classic sign of bad battery. I'm assuming you do not put it in reverse or drive before wheel completes the telescoping.
In terms of the battery test - is this a load test with a battery tester?

 

I'm not smart enough to know what a load test is, but it was a test conducted with a battery tester in a matter of moments while the car was idling at a shop that sells batteries.

 

Odd that the battery was tested while alternator was running.
Most auto part stores have the testers where the battery is cycled through a simulated start and it measures cca (cold cranking amps). This is performed with engine off and usually battery removed.

 

I'm sure the battery was tested while the alternator was running.

What's the most informative way to run the test? I'm guessing the results are more valid with the battery removed, because otherwise the alternator is just disguising the problem by recharging the battery on the fly?

 

You can test without removing battery if car is turned off