I went on a trip this weekend and tried using the HFL Friday night to call the folks I was going to visit but nothing happened when I pushed the HFL/Talk button on the steering wheel - it's not that it couldn't find a phone, the button did absolutely nothing. When we went to play golf Saturday I tried it again and everything worked fine, but I tried it again driving home Sunday and the button sort of worked, just said "no phones were found". Today when I went to out to run errands I tried it again and like on Fri, pushing the button does absolutely nothing. I suspect it's the Bluetooth module and found the last one on Ebay that exists - no other units are available except the $1500 OEM unit which I'm not buying, of course. Questions I looked for solutions and couldn't find an exact answer:

1. If the BT module is intermittently failing could that cause the steering wheel HFL button to not work at all?

2. I read something in a thread here about a 4 number PIN being needed, but most people who replaced their BT modules said it was simple plug and play - is that true?

I know it's not my phone, it's the car that's failing to find and connect to it - this actually happened once already over the summer and it was working again after I turned the car off and restarted it. The two failure modes are odd - #1, where the button does nothing, and sometimes the button works but can't find my phone. All other buttons on the steering wheel work fine. The installation/replacement instructions I found here look too difficult for me to do myself, have to remove a bunch of stuff on the passenger side and I'm too old to crawl under the dash/glovebox anyway, so I want to grab that last Ebay BT module but need to wait to hear from my dealer about whether they'll install a used part for me - there are no car stereo stores/installers near me anymore, and most independent garages have never even seen a 2005 RL, let alone replaced electronics on it, so it the dealer won't do it I'm sort of screwed - couldn't find step by step instructions on how to remove the panels needed to get to the BT module either, just found that it appears the door sill panel and passenger side kick panel at a minimum need removed, and maybe the glovebox too.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Edit: the Ebay unit is model listed as 39770-SJA-A012-M1 - is that the same part as 39770-SJA-A01?

 

It could be a number of things. What comes to mind is a failing HFL module or a failing clock spring (spiral-wound special rotary electrical conductor which allows a vehicle's steering wheel to turn while still making an electrical connection between the steering wheel). Since you admit you aren't a do it yourself person troubleshooting these can be a difficult and expensive process. If I had to bet I'd say it's the HFL. They commonly fail in a way that drains the battery (particularly in 2004-2008 TLs) but can operate intermittently as well. Here's my honest opinion... get a good in car speaker phone and a dash holder for your phone. It's not going to be the same as HFL. To give some context, I am completely comfortable with tearing apart all parts of cars be them electrical or mechanical and been doing it for all of my adult life (and I am old) I replaced my HFL about 5 years ago (2005 TL) and it took a few used ones from eBay before one worked. I used vendors that offered free returns so it worked out ok, $65 bucks in the end. If it failed now no way I'd replace it. I'd get an in car speakerphone or just use one earbud. I know that sucks but you are looking at $1500 minimum plus labor and it may not fix the problem. There are plenty of options on Amazon and pretty much everything is free returns until end of January since it's already holiday shopping time. Biggest issue will be keeping it charged. I'd hard-wire it but remember, I fear no interior disassembly or wiring,

 

I ended up buying the last available BT module on Ebay for $99 before the rep I use at my dealer responded to my email about how much it would cost to install it - he said as long as it's not locked with a PIN it's an easy job, only $199, that's pretty damn cheap - he also said most 2nd gen RLs they work on start to have intermittent BT module problems around the age of my RL. BTW, I'm a retired engineer and inventor - I'm absolutely a DIYer and have been my entire life, sometimes because I had no other choice. I could do the BT replacement, but I just don't want to - my back and knees ache just at the thought of having to take all of that interior stuff off while kneeling in my driveway - I have no access to a garage so I can't do very much myself even if I wanted to, and can't contort my body the way I used to and get away with it. The cellphone trick won't work because I just have what's basically an emergency use only flip phone - due to my specific circumstances I have zero use for a smartphone.

Thanks for the response - now I know at least one person still uses this board ;-) Oh, and I hope to god I didn't get a dud BT module from Ebay like you did several times because otherwise it's no more HFL for me.

 

Well, I'm out $300 - had the dealer install the Ebay HFL and it's dead - crap. I found a post here that says the HFL module can be repaired by replacing a capacitor or two, but for the life of me I cannot find a step by step DIY instruction set for getting to the HFL unit myself. Some guy wrote he didn't have to remove the glovebox, others say the passenger door sill has to be removed and the rubber door seal/trim pulled away to remove the right side kick panel, but it appears the lower dash cover has to come off too - I have no frigging idea how to do this and can't find proper instructions. Do you know how to do it? I might end up having to go thru replacing the HFL module several times before I get it fixed, not going to the dealer to have it done every time I want to test one I got or fixed, they charged $199.

 

Is it possible to replace the navigation screen with the touch screen radio

 

From the research I did on Acura Zine I had no clue they could be fixed. I thought the battery drain issue was so bad everyone just disabled them. Glad to hear it can be done but I just had an aftermarket Bluetooth installed to the XM port, works very well but they can be temperamental.

 

What BT module plugs into the "XM port", and does it disable XM and NAV? And what is that port to start with, the module on the inside of the left side of the trunk? I can live with no HFL, can't live w/o NAV and XM radio. BTW, I think I wrote in a different thread that I tried the solder reflow trick, didn't work, and the oven overshot 385 F - the plastic housing that holds the circuit board has a melting point of around 410 F, so if you don't have a damn good oven with precise temp control you're going to melt the housing and ruin it, which is what I did. I bought the capacitor that someone mentioned goes bad but first tried to see if the solder reflow would fix the HFL unit, now wish I had replaced the cap too - I still can try to replace it, I reheated the housing and managed to straighten it out enough so I could gorilla tape the housing lid back on - also have the Ebay unit I haven't done anything with yet, it was DOA. My battery died for the 3rd time in 8 yrs a couple months ago after my dealer put my old HFL unit back in after the solder reflow attempt - it was shorted somewhere and drawing 1.8 amps, drained the battery to almost zero in less than 24 hours and damaged it badly enough that my dealer replaced the 1.5 yr old one for free under the battery warranty. The tech also showed me how easy it is to get to the HFL unit - all you need to do is pry the passenger side plastic sill plate off the carpet (3 plastic christmas tree clips hold it to the sill), then you just have to remove two plastic covers under the glove compartment, also just pop off. I had them put the sill cover and footwell side cover back in place because the interior looked bad without them, through the under-dash cover into the trunk for now - some day when I get the time and patience to replace the capacitor I'm going to try to fix the original HFL module again - have soldered lots of wires with varying success rates over the years but never worked on a circuit board before - and lead free solder absolutely sucks, everything needs to be cleaned with messy flux as you heat up the wires/connectors or the solder won't stick to them, and it's melting point is way higher too, makes it hard to press a soldering iron onto two wires hard enough to heat them up. When I'm trying to butt join two wires together I use a little metal stand that has adjustable arms with alligator clips on them plus another arm with a magnifying glass on it, but the clips don't clamp onto the wires with much strength so if you push too hard the wires will separate - drives me nuts Just ordered some rosin core lead-tin solder from Amazon, didn't know you could still buy it - hopefully that will make the job a lot easier and cleaner - praying it works because the HFL module contains your phonebook, if you replace it you'll have to re-enter every person and phone # you stored - I have over 20. If that fails I'll try to replace the capacitor on the Ebay module that I haven't done anything to yet but test it in the car - don't know if it's also shorted or just has cracked solder joints. Would love to find an electronics repair store that has a reflow oven but the guys I use to fix my computers stopped using theirs because the controller went wonky and it ruined a couple customer circuit boards - they said they used it so infrequently it wasn't worth the cost of replacing the controller or buying a new oven.

 

Hacker,

The unit I installed is a USA Spec BT45-ACU. It takes up one port on the DVD drive you explained in the trunk. On my 2006 XM has two options on the radio, XM1 and XM2. It will eliminate XM1 or XM2 but one will stay functional, it doesn’t effect the Navigation unit either but I rarely use the navigation for exact locations because everywhere I’ve taken the vehicle around the country it is super outdated. Maybe I should consider buying an upgrade disc but I hear they stopped updating in 2014 for those units.

 

I thought the first three sentences (red arrow) in the below was interesting.
OP, hope you can eventually find a solution.

 

Thnx for telling me how I could restore HFL - but ugh - I had to replace my NAV DVD unit a few years ago because it died and the NAV screen went blank, meaning I couldn't get to any audio or climate control settings - they're displayed on the NAV screen, I couldn't change fan speeds or anything else. Getting to it required me to pull back part of the trunk liner, and because it's carpet backed by what was then 16-17 yr old cardboard it became permanently distorted and I could never get the liner back where it belonged, looks like utter crap now, there's a gap between the edge of the trunk and the liner - plus removing the four screws that holds the DVD drive in place was miserable - one of them is almost impossible to access and IIRC it's partly blinded by the bracket, had to get to it by feel unless you can climb into the trunk like a little kid to get a better view of it - at 6'2" with a bad back I wouldn't even attempt it - took me over 15 mins just to get that one screw out. I could live without XM2, rarely use it, but I use it more often than the HFL - as I've gotten older my miles driven and trips taken have dwindled down to almost nothing, phone is turned off 99.9% of the time. The last NAV map update came out in 2021 and you can probably still buy it - so much development and new road building has happened where I live a DVD from 2014 would be worthless. Speaking of NAV systems, did you know most newer Acuras and Hondas don't have them OR SXM modules anymore? I don't know how long ago this happened, but the last 4 loaners I've gotten from my dealer while my car was being worked on didn't have NAV, although they did have SXM - after my HFL and battery issues were worked on a few months ago and I said something to my tech rep about the lack of NAV in the Integra I drove - that's when he said Acura stopped putting NAV units in their vehicles (all of them, Honda did it too) - you have to use a smartphone and Waze or whatever app you use to get directions and you can display it on the infotainment screen and the audio system will tell you when/where to turn. No built in NAV or SXM is a full stop for me - will not buy a car without them - a real shame, the new Integra is a great car.