Ok, now that the rear view mirror issue is taken care of, the next problem is the navi system. about 90% of the time, i get a blue screen with an yellow box in the middle that says something about hard drive and contact a dealer, and most of the time the clock in the lower right hand corner of the screen isn't working. if i have to go the dealer, it sound expensive. what do i do?

 

Buy a new Navi DVD update disc?

 

Sounds like faulty drive. Only Acura can tell you. We can only guesstimate. Which would you trust more?

 

Im guessing you have a '99.
That system was different than the rest of the TL's after witch are disk based.

In the trunk there is a really small hard drive that is closest related to one found in an early generation iPod.

What you can do is replace it with a compact flash card with a specific CFlash to that harddrive adapter.

Search around, this happend to someone else, i think its in the diy page, as its an obscure forum factor, not IDE, but really wieird.

Harddrives only last so long and this is typical that it will die with all the vibrations.

You can get a new hdd from the dealer, or try the Cflash card way if your feeling adventurous. Talk to the dealer first if they are willing to program it for you - or maybe you can get the old harddrive imaged if it works some of the time at a computer shop, and then copied onto the new drive.

 

Here is how you fix it
http://www.navhelp.com/

its a pcmcia hard drive
you can go compact flash to pcmcia, witch will never break ->thats what that website sells pre loaded and ready to go - might be the best route - phone the guy selling the part

 

doesn't have to be a 99...my 00 has this problem time to time. i have noticed if it's really cold out or if it's raining it usually doesn't work. i stopped caring as the 10+ yr old navi is useless anyway.

 

For you its the DVD drive.
You could get a old drive from a wrecker...


Original poster, i looked a bit more, its pretty much plug in the new drive and your good to go - its in the trunk, under the back shelf in a black box, theirs a slot under a pop of cover i think - user replaceable, the website is current and has instructions, i would call that guy and find out the deal with it as that error is from a broken HDD for sure.

 

I replaced the hard drive system that came with my 99 with the DVD unit off of Ebay for about $300. I just took it to the dealer and they gave me the security code. It plugs right up like the hard drive system did. I have not had a problem since - I did this about 5 years ago. I tried fixing my original hard drive unit many times, with new drives from that same website you all are using...never really helped. Even though the DVD system is an older system it is as good or better than our new Tahoe's navigation. Alpine is still making disk updates so you are not out of luck there.

 

thanks for the input everyone. I'll check out the navihelp site and also check the local acura dealer.

 

an update! the new hard drive from navhelp.com arrived today. plugged it in and it works great. no more blue and yellow screens telling me to go see the dealer. best $100 i've spend on the car.

 

 

Awesome... Now get the 2011 navi update for 99 before it does off sale jan 31st.

 

i would do that, but i'm planning on selling the car before the end of 2011. just wanted to get everything working so i can get top dollar for it.

 

at least let the new owner know about the security codes- where they are written down in a secret place~
and that a new disc will make the nav useful

thug= if you are still on the OE disc, yes the nav is pretty worthless
but the new or a few years old disc would have your city on it and actually find places without the `Unverified Route` bs~

 

jl
wouldnt a fully working nav make it worth more as a car overall at sale time?
ck the list on alpine for when your area was updated last
http://www.navigation.com/is-bin/INT.../Default-Start
you can buy a used disc of that version number for cheap online if its a few years ago

 

Hes on a 99.
I pointed him in the direction of NaviHelp and he now has a solid state hard disk replacement in and the navis working 100%.
They ship updated - so i think hes the latest he can go.

 

Oh, and it turns out Acura did have navi in Canada for 03 MDX's...
Not any other model though until 04, where they all updated to canada wide coverage.