01tl4tl

that wire arm inside the light housing to hold the low beam bulb in place is CRUCIAL
more than 1 has been the culprit behind a problem after bulb swap- done with housing in place, reaching backwards and upside down in it~
back in the day when all it needed was a bulb!

Now with our cars all over a decade in use- its time to chuck that dinosaur era technology away and install some modern micro-sized, waterproofed parts in their place

01tl4tl

tom5 on the radiator fill and burp - read owner book for details and follow exactly- its about 20 minutes of special rpm holds till main fan cycles x number of times etc
Open doors and turn cabin fan on High with heater on FULL HOT--very important

for those new to the forum, here is a free download of the owner manual for the TL by year, Acura Owners Site | Exclusive Knowledge, Service, & Benefits

Tom5

Yep, this is my third time doing it on this car so I'm becoming a pro at the cooling system. Which att is running properly with no leaks.

Got the headlights/ballasts installed from HIDextra but one of the ballasts was bad so they are sending me another one priority - gotta give them props for the speedy response. Those guys are great. New headlight housing looks awesome and clean too, makes the car look great.

Now the bad, got a new oil leak coming from what looks like the rear main or oil pan gasket either way it's small but there. There is a slight amount of oil present inside the inspection plate immediate area but not a lot. I'm starting to think the oil pan is my source but I after I do the TB/WP/ oil pump o ring I will know more... Either way the tranny is gonna need attention soon after so I'll def change out the rear main seal when it's pulled out... Got my eyes on a 06 av6 trans... I'm gonna be poor.

01tl4tl

engine oil in the inspection place between trans and engine= is rear main engine seal
the good news is: it may be a sign of clogged PCV valve on top of rear valve cover!

That releases internal crankcase pressure- when it clogs the ball inside cant roll to open
The excess pressure seeks out the paths of least resistance
#1 the rear main seal, #2 the valve covers/bolts #3 other oil parts like pump seal

last winter a ziner parked car for the season, BUT started it for 5-10 minutes per week
that was the worst thing to do! It clogged the PCV and rear main leak started while it was parked!!
Replaced PCV (20 at dealer) and the rear main went back to sealing properly!
that's definitely worth a look and a shake!

Tom5

Rog, I'm checking that tomorrow. May be picking one up on the way home from work.

Tom5

New pcv valve installed and got the second new ballast in and still doesn't work. Only works with the old ballast. No idea why. Starting to think its a wiring issue. Let me know what you think if you have any ideas.

01tl4tl

swap the low beam headlight relays around
may also be the ol bad soldering issue under relay board
3rd time I've seen it this month~

installed both new bulb and ballast? the connectors are good- tested?
its possible there was a batch of ballast with problems, they grabbed one from another kit of the same production run and guess what- another dead one

if the nose is still off, have you tried swapping ballast side to side?

call them- tech support is usually knowledgeable- and you are speaking to someone in Ca. USA

Tom5

Just got the car back from the TB/WP/OP o-ring/vtec solenoid and couple gaskets being replaced and the shake (under acceleration) is noticeably better. There is still an oil leak though. Also got the car to Acura and had to do the airbag recall only to find out there was another SRS code being thrown by the seatbelt which they are replacing for free ( free scan too). The headlight issue is still there but I'm attending to the oil leak first. Got a generic intake swapped in place of the ghetto rigged intake box as well as new fogs/bulbs/harness(adapter) but I think there is a problem with my switch because the light doesn't work in the button and the lights don't turn on and the fuse is still good. Let me know if this is an easy fix.

Tom5

One of the plugs was in bad shape but after some trial and error it plugged in properly, fogs work again. Score.