smexan

Hi there,

I have an Acura RL 2005. I took it through a car wash last night, drove home fine, locked the car with the fob. I wasn't able to lock it with just pressing the door handle, but this routinely happens when the car is wet due to car washes or heavy rain.

This morning the fob wouldn't work, didn't unlock the doors, won't disengage the anti-theft or pop the hood, won't lock the doors either. The anti-theft red light on the dashboard keeps blinking, even when I turn on the car with my mechanical key, the alarm goes off and keeps honking while the card is running. I didn't try to drive it, just turned it on and off briefly a couple of times.

I only have one key-fob, I did replace the batteries on it. Before doing so I disconnected the car's battery cables and touched them together briefly, put them back on the battery, still nothing. Thinking back, not sure if I should have left the cables off the battery for several minutes, it was prob a matter of seconds.

From some searches, it looks like the security system might have shorted during or after the car wash, unless the car was was a total coincidence. I've had the car for about 5 years now, never had such an issue with it or anything similar.

Any suggestions? I'm trying to see if there's something simple that I can do myself, including disabling the anti-theft system as a last resort. I will take it to the Acura dealer if I have to (I'm guessing the Honda dealer where I do oil changes won't be able to do anything about this), but I plan on selling the car shortly so I don't want to put a lot of money on it, unless I have to in order for me to drive it until I get a new car.

P.S. I've been a lurker on and off on this form for a while, before I bought my used RL and after when I had a couple of issues. I've found the forum to be very helpful, so thank you!

oo7spy

Sounds like a door handle short. Check fuse 7 in the driver's kick panel. If it's blown and you replace it, expect one door handle to get hot quickly and it to blow again. There is a little bit of risk in this method, but if the handle is shorted, there is no saving it. If you do this and that does happen inspect both handles to try and see which got hot. Then unplug that handle until you can replace it. (All of this assuming fuse 7 is blown.)

smexan

Thanks for your reply.

I'm not much mechanically inclined, but cars aside I'm generally handy so hopefully will be able to do it.

What's the risk, like causing electrical damage to other parts or something else?

As far as the handle being hot, you mean physically hot temperature-wise?

oo7spy

Some people have reported the replacement fuse blowing and then smelling a burning electronic smell. Most others say it just blows immediately, but I'm willing to bet you could feel some heat on the bad handle even in those cases.

smexan

The owner's manual fuse location (page 358) indicates that fuse # 8 is the door lock one, this is the only thing that I'm seeing here related to the door.

Would I have to remove the panel before checking and replacing the fuse, or just the slide cover?

If it blows the fuse again, when you say unplug the handle, do you mean the entire door handle?

daze05rl

the fuse that u need to look for is called back up fuse i know makes mo sense but thats it the way i found my bad door handle is by putting a bigger amp fuse wich i dont recomend since your not mechanicly inclined but i did it in accident and i found a hole and smoke coming out of the bad door handle so i quickly removed the fuse took door pannel off reached inside the door and disconnected the plug that leads to the door handle antenna. but like 007 said that is only if the fuse is blown. if the fuse is not blown then a scanner would really help but one capable of getting in the key fob data and theft system and other modules. what city are u from? and if ur really trying to sell the car let me know.

smexan

I replaces fuse # 7 (backup fuse, red, 10A) and as soon as I put the new one in, the alarm went off 3 times (just a couple of seconds) then the fuse blew again, the car smelled a bit, but none of the door handles was hot.

Now I have to see if I can find enough info to help me open the door panel and try to trial and error unplug the wires and replace the fuse again.

smexan

Ok, so I took both interior front door panels off and unplugged most all electric cables that I could see, still no go, the # 7 fuse would blow almost immediately after I'd plug it in, door handles didn't get hot, went through 4 fuses I think while trying scenarios.

Anyone has any ideas what else it could be, or anything that I might be able to do?

I'm starting to think the short is on some other circuit, not door handles. Unless I somehow managed not to unplug the door handle one. I guessed the door handle plug would be the white, round-looking one that is directly across from the outside door handles, rights?

shahram72

If the handles short, can I just leave it alone and continue to use the car and lock it? I'm not replacing anything unessential on my rusty 05 RL. Just biding my time till the next car in my life.

oo7spy

Unplugging it is supposedly a real PITA. I can't remember another circuit in the door causing the fuse to blow. There are A LOT of circuits on the 7 fuse, but everything you mention points to the door handles which we have seen quite a bit.

shahram, if you can unplug the handles, there should be no issue leaving them that way.

smexan

I'm trying to see if I can find a picture online of what the door handle electrical circuit/plug looks like to make sure I unplugged the right one, having a hard time. I found this door panel removal instruction page but the diagram doesn't seem to quite represent what I saw when I removed the door panel yesterday: http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/ac...door_panel.pdf

Can anyone help with this?

smexan

OK, I found it. It was a plug inside the door panel, you had to peal off the plastic cover off its glue to see it, its a black plug almost adjacent to the outside door handle. I unplugged that (which was hard to do) and all is good now, minus the touch-lock feature for that door, which is not a big deal.

oo7spy

ChocBoyWonder

iTrader: (1)

Im late to the party, but I suggest, you unplug the other. This happened to me on both handles. The first time left my car completed dead with the driver side. When the passenger side went, the inside started to smoke and scare the crap out of my passenger haha.