I was getting a Red light on my On-Star since last week that never went away. I took the car to my dealer today and was told that they had to order the On-Star module the old one was no good. This is covered under my CPO so i am fine. Anyone else with the steady red light might have the same issue.

 

Thanks for reporting. I think yours is the first report of this I'm aware of.

 

Is the 2nd gen RL system an analog/digital hybrid system or purely digital?

 

The ONSTAR module in the 2005-2006 RL is a tri-mode, 3 channel unit. Two are Digital, one is Analog.


*** Greetings from Athens ***

 

I am guessing that is not Athens, Georgia!

You are quite the world traveler. Let us know if you see any Honda Legends in Greece.

 

Now that your Onstar is working, what are you going to do with it?

 

does the onstar even work in the acuras that are equipped with them anymore?

 

If it is digital, then yes. The analog units stopped working a couple years ago when analog cell phone frequencies were discontinued. Basically my RL's Onstar is worthless and some folks have retrofitted them to be bluetooth units instead.

 

^^^^^
Yeah, but you've got a 1G RL, Ken. *full disclosure*

All the 2G RLs are golden. They just don't have the OnStar 8.0 functionality like Remote Ignition Block and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown, which I've got on my V. Unfortunately, OnStar is not big on backwards compatibility....good example other than Acuras is the new 9.0, which has an iPhone app with it. Because I've got OnStar 8.x, I can't use it. Boooo!

 

Can you get turn by turn with an 05-06 RL? I love OnStar! Have it in my '10 Tahoe and wifes '08 Tahoe. Just ordered her a '11 Burban to replace the '08 Tahoe. It is an awesome feature!

 

When I bought my '05 RL last year, I called OnStar and asked them what all features are supported on the '05-'06 RLs. They are:

-Remote Unlocking/Horn & Lights
-Automatic Crash Response
-Emergency Assist (Roadside Assistance)
-Stolen Vehicle Tracking (They can tap into the RL's GPS and track the car's movement, but cannot shutdown or slow the engine)
-Handsfree Calling (Not to be confused with HandsfreeLink Bluetooth)

Turn-by-turn navigation, engine shutdown, and vehicle diagonistics are not supported.

At first I did not want to buy it since $200/year was a little steep. But then I thought about it and what sold me was the Automatic Crash Response. If you get in an accident and any of your airbags deploy, OnStar will automatically call you. This is a great feature and I think should be in every car.

 

Thinking about retrofitting Ken?

I havnt heard Lisa Davis talk to me in a long time. lol



Oh and I thought Acura stop putting OnStar on the newer RL's at some point? 08???

 

Yeah I thought about retrofitting it and then realized I might as well yank out the entire headunit, get a USB connection, better sound quality and bluetooth. Upgrading Onstar would just be pointless and another monthly bill.

 

we turned ours on in the 2006 RL. It may seem like a lot per year but if some idiot hits you and you are out, it will trigger a response that may save your quality of life. Also we have used the OnStar phone when the cell was left at home and it is much clearer quality than the Verizon blue tooth unit we have. I give it a thumbs up.

 

I believe 07 was the last year for OnStar on the RL. It's too bad. OnStar is a great safety feature. I wish Honda and GM had found a way to work things out. I thought Acura was to have its own version of telematics....but the last I heard about this was perhaps 3-4 years ago.

 

Onstar was dropped from the RL (and completed it's contractural agreement with ONSTAR) as of the 2007 MY. The 2006 RL was the last Acura with ONSTAR.

American Honda (Acura, specifically in branding sponsorships) is a key preferred stock owner and was a controlling interest in XM (now in the mix of Sirius/XM). Acura also still retains rights to some bandwith used by XM to support AcuraLink. XM also supports bandwith utilized by ONSTAR. Acura was planning a new generation and Honda exlusive telematics system based on this platform. I think the sputter of XM and ONSTAR has delayed (jeopardized?) that product launch. Further, Acura was bound by an ONSTAR agreement which had to be satisfied before launching it's own telematics.

But things were sticky since GM owns ONSTAR and also held common shares in XM (prior to the Sirius merger) although not the controlling interest Acura has. The Acura / ONSTAR contract was rooted back in the days of cross branding agreements with GM (who controlled Isuzu USA) and Honda / Acura. Remember the Acura SLX (Isuzu Trooper), Honda Passport (Isuzu Rodeo) and Isuzu Oasis (Honda Odyssey)? Part of this partnership was that GM's ONSTAR would be offered in the Acura SLX and RL.

Now that the ONSTAR commitment was done, American Honda (Acura) was free to develop it's own telematics system and capitalize with XM as the platform. AcuraLink was the first step. Bluetooth phone integration into Acura's NAVI does overlap much ONSTAR capability, but it does not offer passive monitoring, alert, connect and control that ONSTAR can do. That likely would have been part of the new telematics Acura was designing.

But the market hit a speed bump and ONSTAR, XM, and Sirius sputtered. It appears they are now stabilizing. Also the telematics that Acura trailblazed with the RL and TL systems circa 2004-2005 are now becoming common place in the mass market. Is not Ford's Microsoft Sync a near replication of the RL's telematics? And gee whiz...like it was never heard of before....ever. And we have had it for nearly 7 years with Acura (even if newer systems have some slicker graphicsm, better resloution and hard drives, the functional concept is nearly identical).

I have not read any reports, but my hopes is that a new generation Acura telematics will be launched with the next gen RL (and likely an new power / drivetrain a la DualNote luxo-performance-hybrid-SHAWD). IF GM continues to develop ONSTAR (now with smartphone app access) and Ford is the vehicle for Microsoft SYNC to the mass market, I expect Acura to leap frog that (and hopefully market it) to something very slick and sophisticated.

I am patiently waiting (along with gritting my teeth that Acura will replace the styling vomit is spews at me) for the next RL (LEGEND?). I am OK with 2013 too. Why? Because my 4+ year old RL still wows me every single drive.

***Greetings from Bodrum (Turkey)***

 

i have the steady red light and it hasn't bugged me too much, but i've noticed that my bluetooth hasn't worked since the light came on. coincidence or did you experience the same issue?

 

Thank you TampaRL!

I'm waiting too for the next RL. *prays to car gods AGAIN that Acura doesn't frack up the styling and gives us more than a J37 engine*