I was pulling the floormats from my '06 in my darkened garage tonight, when something that had been nagging at me came to the front of my mind: For all the thoughtful touches that abound in the RL, there's no dome light that goes on so I can see when I open the door. Spiffy blue spotlights everywhere, coolly illuminated footwells, but not enough light to SEE anything.

Immediately, I took the unabridged Acurapedia of an owner's manual out of my glovebox and into the house (its lights were working). Lifting it up started to build my biceps, and I could find a setting for how to adjust the interval before fade-out for the interior lights, but I saw nothing about making any light on the ceiling go on when you open the door.

Am I missing something obvious, or is fumbling around in the dark the modern automotive fashion?

 

Page 192 of the 2006 RL Manual:

INTERIOR LIGHTS:

After pushing the DOOR button, all
the lights come on when you open
any door, unlock the doors with the
remote or built-in key, or turn the
ignition switch from the ON (II) or
the ACCESSORY (I) position to the
LOCK (0) position. The indicator in
the button comes on as a reminder.
The front and rear of the ceiling
have ceiling lights.
To change the ‘‘INTERIOR LIGHT
DIMMING TIME’’ setting, see page
.
Push each ceiling light button to turn
its light on and off.
Push the ON button to turn on all the
ceiling lights. Push the OFF button
to turn them off.


http://techinfo.honda.com/rjanisis/p...606O00188A.pdf

 

But I'm glad I asked. Of course, that was the answer exactly.

I did in fact "read" page 192, but I sure don't know what my reading comprehension level is anymore. Chalk it up to my rapidly advancing age.

 

speaking of lights, I am doing a full interior LED swap, if interested I can save you the hassle and tell you what's good to get...I've already got experience with the crappy one's

the point is to get rid of yellow and get more light.

 

037 I am very interested in your LED selection. I want to do the doors, domes , trunk, license plate and maybe back-up lights. I have been going nuts trying to pick the correct directional aim and brightness for each application. I want them white with a little more brightness than OE bulbs.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Would love to hear what you do. I have tried several for the license plates and finally settled on a pair, but VLED no longer lists them for sale.

 

Not at all.

I have had my RL 3.5+ years now and I still refer to the manual regularly.

I downloaded a copy from MyAcura.com onto my desktop and smartphone (pdf) for quick reference.

Taking the apartment block sized manual out of my glovebox has improved my mileage vastly!

I remember my 1st two weeks with my RL. Even after trading out of my TL, which had many similar features, it was like cramming for exams. I spent hours in the garage testing features and toying with settings....at the expense of draining the battery more than once.

The amount of features and customizable settings in this car can be staggering. And once you set them, you tend to forget them.

And to prove intelligence is relative....my sister was whining her dome light was dead and the service center blew her off on her last oil change. I asked if it was the bulb or the fuse and she shrugged. I assumed (yes, I know) it was the bulb. Pried off the lens cover, pulled the bulb. I held it to the light...looked fine. Must be the fuse...right? I inverted, contorted and even farted getting that under dash fuse. It was fine.

The problem? The switch for the dome light was not positioned for that selection. The exact thing your inquiry was about.

But I had a beer and got a batch of my favorite homemade oatmeal cookies....which, by the way are not too bad after the beer.

 

The following is what I got for my self

1. Front dome

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

2. Trunk

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWNX%3AIT

3. Doors

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWNX%3AIT

4. Rear dome

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2x-Ca...Q5fAccessories

5. Reverse (might not be as bright as stock when in housing)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2X-SM...item2555316fa5

 

I went back to my selling dealer last week to tidy up several little interior items. (Woodfield Acura, Schaumburg, IL. The service was fantastic--you'd think I'd bought a new Lexus.) While I was there, I casually told the service writer that I had spent literally hours studing the nav manual and the regular manual, yet still didn't know half the functions.

She got a pained look and replied that she still remembered when the 2nd Gen first came out. She complimented me for being among the minority who'd even tried to read the manual, and said they'd been flooded back then with irritating phone calls from new RL owners who peppered them with pop-quiz questions about how to use their new cars. The staffers didn't know the answers either, she recalled, and were constantly scurrying around the dealership to find them.

I had a 2010 RL as a loaner (pretty identical to '09, I think). One detail I found interesting is that Acura has added buttons to set the ventilation-duct mode and the fan speed. I think this is a pretty good example of the RL's feature glut -- at first this sounds like a great convenience gain. But once you find out you can talk to the car and do that stuff just as easily, it really doesn't matter anymore.