hey guys i jes bought my 99 tl a few weeks ago and i didnt notice until after i bought the car that when i hit tha brakes tha wheel shakes a lot. what do u guys recommend i do?

also my gps is acting up on me. when i test drove it, tha gps worked fine but when i brought it home the screen turned yellow and says hard drive needs to be formated, please see dealer. any1 have that problem?

 

It sounds like your PCMCIA-based hard drive is failing. I just went through this with the 1999 TL that I bought.

You have several options to consider:

1) Buy a new hard drive from Acura with the navigation data already loaded. My Acura dealer quoted me $1700 for one of those.

2) Buy an aftermarket, compact flash card-based, replacement from your local Acura dealer. My local dealer sells these for about $400.

3) Buy a CF-card based replacement from Paul Mooney via his navhelp.com site for $135. (Paul also sells these on eBay.)

4) Build your own CF-based replacement using a $7 PCMCIA adapter and a 512 MB Compact Flash card. This can be touchy since some CF cards seem to work while other don't. And you'll still need to get the navigation files loaded on to this.

5) Buy a DVD-based trunk unit from a 2000-2003 Acura and get a lot more map data.

I went with Option 4 and my solution ran about $20. My local Acura dealer loaded the navigation files for no charge.

Bob

 

i didnt notice until after i bought the car that when i hit tha brakes tha wheel shakes a lot. what do u guys recommend i do?

About the brakes only 2 choices
1-Get them turned, imo not a great thing to do
2-Change them for some better made then oem for ex: Rotora,Irotors etc. And put some good pads too .

 

your rotors are warped

 

bob.. option 4 seems complicated. on a scale of 1-10 how hard do u think it is to do? if its ez then w ur help i'll do that. if not i think i'd go w option 5. dvd sounds nice but how much do u think that will run?

leo... "rotors are warped" what does that mean? sorry im new 2 cars but it only shakes sometimes depending on how hard/soft i press on the brakes. when i press hard it doesnt shake but when i press it gently is when it shakes the most. so when i brake i press it gently then when it starts shaking too much i apply more force so it doesnt shake as much.

 

It happens when brake pad material is unevenly deposited/built up on the rotor surface. Your best bet is to get quality aftermarket rotors. Rotora has great products for good prices.

Excelerate is a good guy to deal with; he has good prices on them. Check it out at the link -- https://acurazine.com/forums/sponsored-sales-group-buys-10/

Or you could opt for other brands. You can get generic blanks at your local auto parts store.

 

thx adrenaline i appreciate it. i think ima go w tha rotoras

 

The Option 4 navigation system fix, replacing the hard drive with a Compact Flash card setup, can range from being super easy to a bit of a hassle. So let's call it a "5' on a scale of 1 to 10. ;-)

It depends on a couple of factors:

1) Finding a compact flash that works.

2) Getting the navigation files loaded onto the replacement device.

First, the particular brand of CF cards seems to make a difference. A service rep at one of my local Acura dealerships specifically recommended the Sandisk brand. But he also said that it can be hit or miss. With that information I bought a Sandisk 512 MB Sandisk CF card. I then bought an inexpensive (~$7 w/shipping) PCMCIA adapter card through eBay.

It turned out that my Sandisk CF card did not work once I had the files loaded. I got an "Incorrect Disk" error on my display. I then tried the same setup with a Viking brand 512 MB CF card and it worked beautifully.

To be clear, I'm not sure if it's the brand of CF card or something else that I'm simply not aware of. I've wondered if it might be a formatting problem.

So be prepared to try a couple of different CF cards. In my case, I needed to try two cards before I found a winner.

Getting the navigation files loaded can also be a bit of a hassle. My local Acura service department was great about this and they loaded the files for free. Other dealerships apparently will charge $60 to $80 for this 7 minute job.

Overall I'd say Option 4 is worth a shot since you can end up with a super simple and inexpensive repair. The CF card is solid state and, unlike the OEM hard drive,it's not affected by heat or vibration. And it's faster than the hard drive.

A replacement DVD unit will typically cost between $350 and $650 depending on what you can find. Car-part.com can be a good source of salvaged parts along with eBay. Be sure to buy one with the required DVD disc with the navigation data. Those DVDs can cost from $50 to $150 depending on the revision number.

Good luck!

Bob

 

I forgot to add that you can also find the trunk-mounted DVD units for sale in the Acurazine "Black Market" forum.

Bob

 

hmm doesnt sound too bad. mayb i'll try using a Compact Flash card setup. i eventually want to convert the gps to be able to play dvds. would i have any problems becuase of the cf card?

im going to wait until the end of this month when things are less hectic 2 really start working on it so we'll prob go in2 more details then

 

The CF card-based setup shouldn't cause any problems with an upgrade. It's a "Plug N Play" replacement for the original PCMCIA-based hard drive.

Bob

 

It is possible your car hit a curb before i had the same problem on my 02 TL after i hit a curb, an Alignment may solve the problem

 

hmm that could b possible. im tha 2nd owner of the car. mayb tha 1st owner hit a curb b4 i bought it. i bought it recently btw

 

where did you buy your.. viking brand 512 MB CF card from? your local staples? or you ordered it from a site? and after you bought that disk, you went to acura and got the data from the gps uploaded into the disk and what does the adoptor do? PCMCIA..

 

I bought the Viking brand 512 MB Compact Flash card from Buy.com about a year ago when they were running a special. I think it was something like $12 after a rebate. Expect to pay more unless you can find a good sale.

I had been using the Viking card in a digital camera and I swapped it out with the Sandisk 512MB CF card that, for some unknown reason, would not work with the Acura's navigation system. The Sandisk CF card works perfectly in my digital camera.

As far as I can tell, it's really a gamble whether any particular brand of CF card will work. I'm not even sure if another Viking CF card would work in my same unit. As I mentioned above, I actually sought out a Sandisk brand CF card because a local Acura deal mentioned that they had good luck with that brand in the replacement units that they sold.

After I bought the CF card, I snapped it into in the PCMCIA adapter that I bought on ebay. The adapter simply serves as an interface between the Compact Flash card and the PCMCIA-type connection used in the Acura's GPS system.

Here's an example of the exact same PCMCIA adapter, from the same seller, that I purchased on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=150015734987

For future reference, the item description is:

"PCMCIA Compact Flash Extreme CF Card Reader Adapter"

And the seller's ID is "adapterz".

The cost is a very reasonable $6.06 with shipping. (There's also sales tax in California.) These are continually up for sale on eBay and there are probably other sellers offering these also. You may want to shop around but you probably can't find it for too much less.

If you look carefully at the photo in the eBay ad you can see how the compact flash card snaps into the adapter. The assembled unit is small and it fits within the same compartment that the stock hard drive fits into.

After I snapped the two pieces together I took the assembled unit to my local Acura dealer and they loaded up my regional navigation files. That process took about seven minutes. My Acura dealer did not charge for this service but I've read that other dealers will charge $60 to $80 for this.

If you want a hassle-free solution you can buy an assembled unit for $135 shipped from Paul Mooney's navhelp.com web site: http://navhelp.com/

Paul pre-loads the units that he sells with the regional navigation data so you won't have to take it to a dealer.

Good Luck!

Bob

 

I have the NM (Northwest/Mountain) maps for my 99 TL disk-based nav. I am moving to CA and will need the CA/NV maps - does anyone have them and would be willing to share?

I'm also trying to make a collection of all the regions and post them online for all to share. If you can contribute your maps/data, it would be appreciated by all!