You are on a trip 100s of miles from home. You only carried one remote transponder with you. You broke your transponder by accident and now its not working...How do you start the car?





Good to know the answer if you own a RL.

 

can't you still use the key?

 

*can't you use On Star? or does the ignition have to be on?
*you can also call TLC couldn't you?
*grab a cardboard and write "Why lie, I need a beer" sign and stand by the road
*while waiting for help, think of all the funny Southwest Airlines commercial and picture yourself in one of them right now "Wanna get away?"

 

You pull out and use the key imbedded in the remote transponder!

 

I want an RL

 

Use the key to do what? Open the door? Ok, so you got the door open. Then what?...the car can't start with out a working transponder.

 

Onstar can't start cars...they can only unlock doors.
TLC will send out a local towing service
No comment
No comment

 

Read post #6

 

Off topic

 

The question is intended for current RL owners. I will be very surprised if you have just purchased this car, got this amazing keyless access system...broke your transponder by accident but don't know how to overcome this problem.

Come on....owners....

 

If the transponder is broken, you can use the thin key imbedded in the transponder itself. It not only opens the doors, it starts the engine too. However, the plastic cover over the ignition switch must be removed (an easy task) in order to insert the key and start the car.

 

Ok, now we are getting somewhere. How do you remove the knob over the ignition to insert the mechanical key?

BTW, I know the answer...Im just wondering if any owners know.

 

OK, I'll play along but only because you are my Guru, justinjsw. The answer is:
Push the little black button on the remote fob, then slide the built-in key out of the fob. Insert the key under the ignition switch cover and hold it, then pull the cover out. Reinsert the key now into the ignition switch itself (like a regular car), turn clockwise to the START position and release. Whew, how's that?


I read the owners manual 1x (so far) but still am practically clueless on the voice commands. Will probably have to reread the manual and spend some time practicing the voice stuff in the garage... wife will probably think me to be practicing talking to a car.

 

Justin, to remove the knob over the ignition: p138 of owner's manual: insert the built in key and hold it, then pull the cover out.
BTW, I just picked up an 05 MDX for the wife, are you guys planning on adding MDX to the community or who's considered the "official" site for MDX now.
And thanks for the good work..I've learned a lot since joining as a TLS member.

 

Good question about the MDX site. My dad just got a 2005 MDX as well and I'd be interested in doing some more reading up on it.

 

Im glad to hear you guys actually read the manual.

We are not planning on adding a MDX specific forum...being there is already a pretty well organized one at www.acuramdx.org

But we do keep everybody updated on whats to come on all Acura models. And Im also very familiar with the MDX line.

 

Voice commands are somewhat tricky in the beginning. Once you get the hand of it, the knobs and buttons will become secondary.

 

I just see this thread... hehe, I think DCRL, legendguy, and peter97 did answer it right... Not many ppl read the whole owner manual... Also, I saw the similar question while JDM Honda hosted their test-drive in Japan, they introduced this method to ppl.

 

That is one thing I dont like about RL... voice commands are great but it just
too many of them.

 

OK guys, here's a question:
We know you can pair additional phones for the handsfree link so that if a call comes through, either can answer. How do you select which phone to use to dial out with?

I came across only one solution so far.

 

Is this a trick question?

This is probably your solution already...but here goes...

Lets say you have 2 phones set up
phone 1. peter97
phone 2. peter977

The last time you used the HFL will be the phone the car remembers...so lets say its phone 1. peter97. Now you want to dial out again but would like to use phone 2. peter977. Press the HFL talk button on the steering wheel and say "next phone". The car should give you a listing of all available phones you can use. Pick the one you want to dial out with. Make sense?

 

Actually, this situation occurred while we were in my wife's MDX, and the system was initially set up for her, and I paired my afterwards. I noticed that everytime I tried to call it was using my wife's phone...so I had her turn her phone offf, and the system then used my phone to dial out. But your answer is probably what the mfr had in mind.

 

Try it and see how it goes.

 

Ok, this is a little off the cell phone topic and I don't really know the answer to that one since I haven't gotten myself a bluetooth cell phone yet, but has anyone figured out the way around the Driver 1 vs Driver 2 issue when you let your wife in the car which was unlocked using the drivers hand on passenger handle approach (I open the door for her a lot - and I'm not sure which remote - since the she had hers in her pocket book and mine was in my pocket). Then she gets in the car first, with her pocket book and fob, and when I go to get in the driver seat, it's set to her position! In order to get around this I have to normally hit position 1 on the door or I need to unlock the car again with my remote manually by pushing the button BEFORE getting in the car...

Any solutions? Other than telling her to leave her remote at home?

This is the only frustration that I had with the car and the keyless approach...

 

Oh and by the way, as you guys know the seat position is only part of the story, all the other settings (door locking, Navi, radio settings, etc (which I customized), are set to her settings, which are pretty much default since she drives the MDX most of the time.

 

I hope nobody devious reads this thread

 

OK. I guess I could just leave her at home, but that really isn't an option! This is annoying though since she is only 5' 3" and I"m almost 6 feet. Help!

 

Are you usually right behind her when you two get to the car...or maybe she is half a step ahead of you? If you notice thats whats been happening...then it could be that the car is linking to her transpoder. The person opening the door has no bearing on which transpoder the car links to...its which transpoder the car reads first.

See if thats the problem...if not...we will try again.

 

Most of the time I get to the car first and open the door. That is the weird thing. It's tough to say, but I would think the transponder it would be reading to open the passenger door would be mine. But then she gets in the car first, and the first transponder in the car is definitely hers. I think that is the problem. There is probably no fix, I just thought it was an intersting problem of this new setup with the keyless entry/start. Its a little annoying thing that some engineers never expected to happen I guess.

 

Man I love this thread. All this talk about transponders and keyless technology makes a gadget geek like myself grin ear to ear.

This also reminds me of a chat I had with my uncle about keyless start systems. He's pretty old school, so while he likes cars like the STS and C6, he doesn't want one because of the ignition. His whole argument is, what if I lose the fob? and what if I break it? My argument is, what if you lose a 'regular' key to your key? or what if you break it? It's not so different.

 

This was the topic of "tip of the day" message today. It stated that whichever transponder is recognized first will control the settings. I believe three feet was the proximity to the car. So the solution might be simply for you to approach the car first to ensure your transponder is recognized and keep the wife a safe distance away until that happens.

 

Gitch-
A question, where do you find this "tip of the day". Just wondering. Thanks. Joe

 

These are messages that appear on the nav screen. I think they come through Acuralink. I remember there was an option to turn them off but I decided to let them come through. If anyone's interested I'll take a look at where this option is actually set.

 

Thanks, I'll have a look myself.

 

Has anyone figured out how to delete the messages that come through the Nav screen? I don't see a prompt on the screen, and I've read through the Owner's Manual and Navigation Manual and can't find anything. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

 

Some of the messages allow you to "delete" after the voice system has read them back to you. You must confirm the delete with a "yes" entry. With others, once they have been read, you can simply hit the "cancel" button and return to the main message screen. The system will no longer show a canceled message as new.

But the list of the most recent messages remains when you go to view messages. (I'm not sure how many of the most recent messages the system tracks.) The oldest blurbs will drop off as new ones are added/received. None of the messages left in my listing show up as new because I've reviewed and then canceled (or deleted) them all.

 

There are two types of messages that I've seen so far in the message center. One type is informational, like the ones you get from Acura on the RL features if you set that up. Those can be deleted simply by selecting delete on the options menu while they are being read. You can stop the reading and hit that or if you wait a second after the reading starts you can hit delete and then confirm with a yes and that message goes away from the list.

The second type of message is the warning type. The one I get the most is there is no keyfob in the car. This happens when I get out of the car while it is running, with the fob, and shut the door. You'll see this message on the screen when you return (check now, Check later) and no mater which one you select it logs an event in the message center. You can only read these types of events. I have not found a way to delete them. I also don't know how man it holds before dropping the oldest off the list.

I must say, while I like many features of the keyless access, there are some drawbacks.

 

Those are exactly the ones I was referring to. Haven't found a way to delete them either. Very annoying.