A friend has been looking at a low miles (40k'ish) 05 at a dealer. It turns out the dealer is saying the Bluetooth system "won't synch" and needs almost 2 grand of repairs.

My thought is they are probably just not able to pair it with any of the phones they have around the service dept, since it would be a 5yr old system versus current phones, and the BT standard has evolved over time and car makers were pretty horrible with it a few years back on factory systems (getting better now though).

I had no issue with my 06 but then I have an oldschool Nokia phone from 4yrs ago...and it paired up OK but I don't have caller ID on the dash, just basic voice functions only.

Or is there actually a "patch" or something that legitimately needs to be applied to an older RL system by the dealer to add support for more phones?

 

I never use my bluetooth in my TL, I just put my phone on speaker. You can go to your local audio + sound shop and get an aftermarket stereo with a bluetooth installed for not even $500. Or just get a portable one, clips right on the sun visor, is much clearer, and you can still have a little bit of music playing in the background.

 

New phones should still pair (plus I doubt the Service guys have the latest and greatest phones), so the dealer is probably telling the truth

 

get one from a junkyard, and install it urself, it cant be that hard ... 2k is wayyyy to much

 

I am trying to figure out what kind of "repair" they think it needs...apparently all of the other voice command stuff works.

 

I don't no any details about the HFL unit, but it might be something you could buy and install. Could you ask Dealer for part #?

 

Research, DIY, post for us = win.

 

there are quite a few posts on the TL forum about replacing the HFL
also, I remember a post by Tampa giving a link to location of HFL
search HFL and you should find

 

sometimes the electronics in the 05 have what most would call gremlins. make sure you have the radio code and disconnect the negative battery cable for 30 seconds plug it back in and sync any bluetooth phone. i have an 05 and when it acts up this always straightens it out. i have a motorola cliq and a samsung galaxy s and both work great.