petemc

I just had my first service and I had all of the available updates applied. After disconnecting the battery to reset the system I have no problems. This surprised my because I thought that the XM radio slow refresh issue was still outstanding even after a system reset.

I would like to update the known problems and quirks post that I started a while ago to reflect where we are today, which should help everyone understand what to expect from their RL.

Have all the problems really been solved?

Please post if you are still having problems, or if all your problems have now been solved so that we can get a good idea on the latest status.

Many thanks

Pete

AcuraRLBlue

1. The lock button of the passenger front door was not working, and the door handle was replaced. It is out of order again
2. The current position of the car on the GPS screen is slow to change and causes me to over shoot turns
3. The warning chime when the driver's door is open and the headlight control is left on "Auto" is really just a bad design
4. No song title display on XM radio
5. Live traffic doesn't work after update

NJRonbo

Just to confirm what everyone else has said...

Xm is slow to refresh.

Takes about 15 seconds to update song/title info.

2005BlackRL

XM refresh is still outstanding....

DCD

The issue with the brake pads clattering in the calipers is still being addressed. Accroding to a 'reliable source,' the problem is well known by Honda R&D and they are in the process of fabricating a new shim to eliminate the problem. They expect it to be ready for the dealer in the next few months.

427

I had this happen to me when I went into Boston last weekend for some window tinting. I mentioned it to the dealer and they "fixed" the navigation position for me ... Well, they actually made it worse.

Upon attempting to delete some of the previous destinations they used to check the system, I happened upon a section in the nav screen where you can easily adjust the position of your vehicle. If I remember correctly, go to SETUP and select VEHICLE. There is then a selection to adjust your position (maybe #2). I fooled with this setting and now it appears to be much closer to my actual position ... Time will tell if it really helped.

BTW- I changed the ZOOM factor while I was making the adjustment ... I figured it would be more betterer.

konst_ms

A little more details here, please! What exactly you did?

427

When the nav screen goes into the adjustment mode, I simply turned the OUTSIDE of the dial to zoom in (just like the normal zoom function for the nav). To adjust the position, use the INNER dial as a joystick to adjust your position.

pek01

After all the updates and resets, the Xm radio refresh is still outstanding for me. Appears the other items are complete and have not recurred.

Rob L

the only real issue I have and it is pretty silly to hear the clangs and crap over bumps at low speeds.

kph3

The annoying problem I have is the center console creaking/crackling all the time!

petemc

I haven't experienced the slow refresh on XM after the updates, and so I wonder if this could be region dependant somehow?

Anyone else in the SF Bay area seeing XM refresh issues?

Pete

petemc

I just checked my service records and found that they replaced the XM radio unit with my latest service.

For those who are still having refresh problems have you had this recall?

If yes, let's log it as a known problem.
If no, can I suggest you go get the XM radio unit recall and then see if you still get slow refresh problems.

Pete

ck37

I have noticed the lag in XM at times. other times it works well. Also if it's hot outside, the dash seems to creak a bit more. I think it has to do with the plastic expanding due to the heat.
Also, I sometimes have a problem starting the car dpending where the fob is in my pocket. a few times I had to move the fob to get the signal strong enogh for the car to start. it would unlock just not start.
However she is still a joy to drive. Love every minute of it.

hondamore

ck37, I believe the issue that you had with not being able to start your car may be related to having other keys (or any other metal objects such as coins) in your pocket with your key fob. It is just a guess, but RFID (radio frequency identification) signals can be disrupted by metal. I've had the same thing happen to me, where the car was slow to recognize the key fob and I attributed the problem to the other keys that I have attached to my key fob. If I am careful to place the keys "behind" the fob in my pocket, there is no issue. The next time it happens maybe check to see if there is metal between the fob and the reader. The same issue will make the car slow to recognize the fob when you try to open the door. Good luck.

msu79gt82

My '04 FX35 has the Tech Package with the Intelligent Key. Even though I have the house key attached to the fob I have never experienced what either of you have described. Nor has the car ever hesitated or been slow to recognize my fob. I do not believe that this is normal and recommend having the dealer look at it. Good luck.

hondamore

Metal can interfere with the signal of any RFID transponder, even the one in the Intelligent Key of your wonderful Infiniti FX35. The next time you go to work at the Infiniti dealership, put your key in a bag of quarters and see if it works perfectly.
When I had the single incident when my fob didn't work perfectly, I had a bunch of two dollar coins in my pocket (I was going golfing and I keep a bunch of two dollar coins in my golf bag for tipping the kids that clean your clubs, the kids at the snack shack, etc.)
My point is that a bunch of keys or a bunch of coins may have interfered with the normal flawless operation of the RL key which slowed the cars recognition of the key. Even your "amazing and perfectly reliable" Infiniti product is susceptible to having the signal from the Intelligent key being blocked by metal.

msu79gt82

Geeze, layoff will ya If you consider ck47 problem to be "normal" then perhaps my delimma of which car to buy is clearing up

I do not understand your need for sacrcasm?? I recommend ck47 get his looked at; he indicated his problem is not a one time isolated instance.

hondamore

Sorry for the sarcasm, but your Infiniti affinity is getting tiresome - the same point could have been made without mentioning the Infiniti brand name for the 1000th time (this number has been exaggerated for effect).
Anyway, it turns out that I was 100% wrong anyway. I tried my RL key fob with coins and keys all around it and it worked fine. The RFID that the key fob uses is much more powerful than the RFID transponders that I have experience with and the key fob can power through a lot of interferring material. My new theory is that something was pushing one of the buttons on the key fob when I was trying to start the car which caused the RFID to be momentarily stopped, which is why the car wouldn't recognize the key. When I shifted around to turn the knob again, whatever was pushing on the key fob button moved and the car started normally. I have reproduced this problem repeatedly by pushing one of the buttons on the key fob when inside the car and the ignition knob will not turn. This does not absolve Honda of all culpability in this, as perhaps the key fob must be redesigned to make the buttons harder to push when in someone's pocket. That said, how is a car maker supposed to predict the contents of every single drivers pockets and what may or may not accidentally depress the buttons??
Several of the "problems" that have arisen with the RL are eventually proven to be the fault of the owner/driver or other issues NOT related to the actual car. For example, drivers forgetting to turn the ignition knob all the way has been attributed with batteries running dead. This is not a fault of the car but the driver as warning chimes and lights should be adequate to remind the driver to turn the car off when leaving. That said, I am sure that Honda is probably looking to change their system anyway to make even more difficult for this to happen.
A second example of a "problem" that turned out to be nothing, is the accessory power outlet beside the gear shift knob. Many owners complained that their power outlet was "sticky" and "faulty" because it didn't pop up fully when pushed. It turned out that the outlet was deliberately designed this way so that it couldn't be accidentally opened - a safety measure required by the fact that a child could place their fingers inside the opened power outlet and potentially be injured.
You can take the approach that everything that doesn't work perfectly with the RL is automatically a design flaw (something that Infiniti apparently never has), but I take a more scientific approach and try to determine the actual reason for the problem and give the brilliant engineers at Honda the benefit of the doubt. With as much new technology as the RL is blessed with, every owner should have expected some minor issues and be willing to accept that there is a learning curve associated with using these wonderful features.

msu79gt82

I vote for a truce - your Infiniti bashing is getting tiresome. For the record I have owned three Acuras and one Infiniti. The Acura I still have, I love! The Infiniti I have I'm considering trading for a sedan. I do not have an "Infiniti affinity" - but I do have experience with an I-Key and thought I'd share my experience. I am also undecided between an RL and an M35 and maybe neither.

hondamore

Just for the record, I have never "bashed" Infiniti. My fear is that the negativity toward the RL which you bring to every discussion will rob potential RL buyers who come to this forum the opportunity to fairly evaluate what I believe is a great (albeit not perfect) car. These same buyers are capable of visiting Infiniti forums if they wish to discuss the M and the other fine cars that Infiniti makes. I don't care if you've owned a hundred Acura's, your negativity toward the RL is unquestioned and I feel the necessity to counteract that with the truth about the RL.

msu79gt82

You tend to geatly exaggerate Just for the record my only negativity toward the RL has been with regard to its price and several "shortcomings" - it is on my short list (of two) of possible purchase candidates. I fell sorry for any potential buyer who may be denied a "fair evaluation" of the car due to my research, observations, and opinions

And finally for the record virtually ALL of my references to the RL's competition has come in response to either dedicated threads started by others or in response to posts by others. I am amazed that some RL owers feel so threatened by any mention of the competition. I repeat, I have yet (that I recall) to initiate dialog regarding the RL's direct competitors.

hondamore

According to your "research and opinions", when a sunroof on an RL is hit with a rock and shatters, "it must be a design flaw". According to your "research and opinions", when a driver leaves a car that is beeping and flashing lights indicating that the car has not been turned off, "it must be a design flaw" that causes the battery to go dead. According to your "research and opinions", the M35x is such a better value than the RL, yet I'm still waiting for you to tell me the 0-60 times etc about the car. Your "research and opinions" all seems to lack logic so I feel the need to add some.

Rob L

This is totally out of the blue but hondamore where are you located? I know you're a Canuck but which province?

As for the RL, there is no doubt it has its share of minor problems (that make me scratch my head and wonder how they can even be there, ie the clanging brakes over bumps at speeds under 60km/h) but I got to say it is one amazing car. I have not tested every car in its class but I highly doubt any one model has a superior overall package (meaning performance, price, features, fit & finish) than the RL. Some are most likely on par but I doubt they are superior.

hondamore

I'm in Alberta.

psteng19

I don't get it.
Do you get a cut for every RL sold?
"... rob potential RL buyers"

hondamore

Nope. I'm just a guy who thinks that Honda makes great cars. Because I have received such valuable help from the members of this forum I feel that I should help others get the true picture of the RL.

DCRL

Bravo, hondamore, bravo!

hondamore

Thanks DCRL!!

mrdeeno

since I am in the same boat as msu79gt82 (undecided between the RL and m45), I will put in my 2 cents.

It is USELESS to go to an RL forum and read ONLY about the RL, and then go to an M board and read ONLY about an M, since both sites will be biased and the discussions would be 1 dimensional.

It's far more useful to me to hear what the RL people say is good about their car compared to an M, and it is also more useful to hear what M people say is good about the M compared to the RL. I have to visit both forums and discuss both cars for this information.

on another note, I started a post several weeks ago asking for some specific info about the RL, and I only got several useful responses. Most of the other posts were smart-ass comments such as "Don't buy the RL since the car can't do 0-200mph in 2 sec" or "Since you race at every traffic light, you won't like the RL".

instead of helping me with the info that may sway my decision one way or another, these types of posts are just a waste of bandwidth and server space.

The RL IS a great car and I appreciate people who will back up their opinion and decision to buy the RL by stating the "true picture" of the RL as hondamore so elegantly put. But I don't want people to paint a "false picture" of other cars in order to raise the RL's status. Give me all the info, honestly, good and bad, and if the RL is the right car for me, I'll buy it.

msu79gt82

Because there is no such thing as a perfect car, any "true picture" MUST necessarily include the good and the bad. I will say one thing for this forum, they are not afraid to post problems and issues regarding the RL. The RL's bugs and shortcomings are discussed in a somewhat forthright manner; as they should be. One purpose for a forum such as this is for owners to be able to find solutions to their problems!

However another purpose of any car forum is to discuss, compare, and contrast the "featured" vehicle against industry competition. And given the nature of any vehicle specific forum there will be an inherant bias in favor of the specific featured vehicle (in this case the RL). Care must be taken to guard against trolls and honest seekers. It does no good to "tar and feather" a legitimate seeker who may be leaning a little too close to the competition for some members comfort.

Rob L

Yeah I dont get why people defend their car like it is their child...it is a piece of metal and leather that I had nothing to do with making so I wont defend it like I slept with its mom and conceived it. I guess people take it personally if something they choose to buy gets trashed by others.

My only beef with people when they criticize something I have is when they do it in an ignorant way and try to argue with me about something I USE that they havent ever used and they act like they know more than I do. I know nothing about different brands of figure skates so you wont find me telling someone who owns model X of figure skates that they are junk because they dont do this or that....I feel with cars MANY people do this when they go and trash cars that they havent even sat in let alone driven simply because they are biased for a certain brand and lack the intelligence to open their minds to products not made by said brand. A good exmaple of this is at club lexus where they trash the RL...I sued to be a member there but some longtime members there kept trashing the RL (without ever seeing it in person) late last year and I told them off and got banned. The best part is that if the RL was a lexus (btw I love Lexus models and my last car was a Lexus) they would have gone orgasmic over it but just because it is a diff brand they thought it was crap. I dont get brand whores like that...

I will easily point out the shortcomings of something I own (ie the RL) if a person really wants an informed opinion. I cant be completely unbiased but IMO I think I can come pretty close (clsoer than any other RL owner I bet) with respect to this car.

curry7

I have that same problem, and the dealer's service dept. is going to try to fix it tomorrow. The guy I spoke with in the service dept. told me that he just finished fixing another RL with the creaking-center-console problem, and it was just a matter of figuring out where to put some extra foam padding under the console. It's really annoying, considering how quiet the cabin is otherwise. I'll let you know how it works out.

psteng19

LOL, don't me started about ClubLexus.

I got banned from there because I asked a former 540 now new GS owner if he checked out the Infiniti M since it's probably most closely matched with the 5.
Apparently, any mention of a competitor there is an instant ban.

No doubt the work of 1sicklex and DaveGS4?

Rob L

hehe yeah 1sicklex is 1stupidass and he and I guess that DaveGS4 guy got me banned simply because I told his useless ass off.

It is sad to see those brand whore fanboys be so ignorant since I am such a huge fan of Lexus cars and they embarrass me.

The best was when 1sick was comparing the interiors of the GS, M and RL and trying to imply the GS had better fit and finish by the pics. I told him the RL's interior is basically on par with the LS430 (my folks have a 430 with the ultra luxury package) so it is better than he thinsk but he didn't seem to care what actual owners or people who have sat in the RL had to say.

kph3

Curry 7....Did the dealer fix the center console creaking????

Please let me know how your service visit went.

thanks!

curry7

kph3:

Bad news. The creaking is now worse, and pretty much constant! Man, I love this car, but this sound is driving me crazy and they'd better be able to fix it the second time around. I'm taking it in again on Tuesday. What a hassle.

I'm also having some trouble with the XM presets getting erased every 2nd or 3rd time I start the car. They claimed to have fixed that as well, but it appears to still be doing it.

curry7

Good news! On the second visit, the dealer was able to get the creaking in the center console to stop. I'm loving the sound of silence. What he did was, he applied more foam tape inside/under the console so that it stopped creaking. But, then he kept the car overnight to let it settle and see if creaked in the morning. Lo and behold, it DID creak still the next morning, so he went back in and applied more foam tape. Seems like this time it worked, and I'm driving an RL with a nice quiet interior.

Seems like this is kind of a trial-and-error process for the dealer, as he told me that when he'd put the tape in one area, the creaking would move to a different area, then he'd apply more tape and the creak would move again. Eventually, he chased it away. And I'm very appreciative of the efforts he put in to solve this problem.

dseag2

Okay, I'll give you an unbiased opinion. I owned 2 Acuras... an '04 TL and an '05 RL, and I now own 2 Infinitis... an '04 FX35 and an '06 M45 Sport. Prior to that I owned primarily Lexuses. I'm not partial to any brand. I just want a car that suits my needs.

Both Acura and Infiniti are great brands. The '05 RL is an extremely well finished car. The exterior paint is second to none and the interior materials are beautiful. I personally prefer the blue guages/lighting to the orange guages/lighting in the Infiniti. The car handles like it's on rails due to SH-AWD. The nav system is superior to anything out there. The power is decent, although the engine can get a little noisy during hard acceleration. When cruising, the RL is much quieter than the M because of the 19"s and sport rubber on the M. When I traded the car last April, I was still experiencing a significant delay in XM artist/title display, the NavTraffic never worked and my brakes squealed consistently. There's the good and the bad.

The '06 M45 is a well finished car, although the materials (IMO) don't look as good as those in the RL. With that said, I like the design of the interior/exterior better because it just feels like a more substantial car. I've gotten used to the orange guages. The XM display only has 10 characters vs. 16 characters in the RL, and you can't program the nav system (other than address book/previous address) unless you're stopped. The steering in the M feels sharper than that in the RL and the car handles very well. The V-8 engine has intoxicating power. It is quiet and effortless. The air conditioned seats are great in Florida. I now have 5,000 miles on my M and have had only one problem. A circuit in the box that moves the driver's seat blew. Infiniti gave me a loaner car and fixed it overnight. I've had no other problems, and I have a very early model. Again, the good and the bad.

As I've said many times, the RL is a great car but I have no regrets that I traded. Everyone has different needs/wants, and the M better suits mine. That's about as objective as I can get.

curry7

Update on center console creaking problem: My problem returned, and the dealer actually made it worse when he tried to fix it again this week. He's ordering a replacement "shift bezel" (the plastic horzontal square under the shift knob) that should arrive this week. He suspects it's a fit problem with that bezel. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, as this has been an ongoing annoyance for too long.