So the 1st Gen forum had a lively topic, Easter Eggs?, with some neat and surprising tricks and discoveries. The thread got sidetracked often (and at length) with posts about something unusual, but clearly documented in the Owner's Manual (OM) ... these were discouraged as not true "Easter eggs," which by definition are undocumented and often denied by software publishers.

I'd like to invite the '09 TSX new owners to post here if they find something that is either a holdover "Easter egg" from the 1GEN, or a new discovery. I only ask that you thoroughly check the Owner's Manual(s) first. And keep checking the online versions. As you have an early printed copy in your glovebox, the online versions (unlinked until the end of the model year) are revised and updated periodically. (As of this posting, both manuals were last revised 05/01/2008.)

A caveat ... you may find something in the '09 TSX which is not in the printed OM that accompanied the car, but is in a later PDF revision. I'd judge that cool, as it's an Easter egg until Acura documents it later. Curiosity is encouraged, but clairvoyance is not mandatory.

 

The 2009 TSX manual was updated with a 6/05/2008 revision.

And, word of warning,... it's HUGE. 25.4 MB versus 9.2 MB.

 

This is less of an easter egg, more of a helpful hint in my book. My salesman told me that the navigation display would automatically go to night-mode whenever the headlights came on. A few days after I purchased the car, I realized this simply wasn't happening. I played with every setting I could find, both in the nav system and the multi-info display. Nuthin. Called the dealership, they gave me some elaborate steps on how to "sync" the light sensor and the navigation. Still nuthin.

Finally I played around with the dash's brightness adjustment knob. If its turned to full brightness, the nav screen will stay in daytime mode all the time. Any lower, and the screen switches to night time mode any time the headlights are on! I believe this is only adjustable when the headlights are on. The dealership didn't know this little detail either, so hopefully no one else has spent too much time with it.

So there you have it, if anyone is having trouble getting their nav screen to switch to night time mode, adjust the brightness knob!

 

^^ That's the same for the 1st gen TSX as well.

 

Yeah, you don't want to drive at night with lights on, with the dash lights full bright to the MAX daytime detent. (p. 116 OM)

 

I posted this somewhere else, but I'll add it here. Notice that the Acura 'A' caliper logo on the wheel hubs, perfectly lines up with the valve stem - it's the same on every wheel.

 

Instead of creating a new thread, I just add to this as I was driving in the rain today and confirm my previous suspicion of the easter egg.

When your wipers are on intermittent speed, you will get an "extra wipe" when you release the brakes from stop. This is definitely an easter egg since I don't see it in the manual, This is so you will have a clear windshield free from raindrops when you move from stop (sitting at a stop light, for example)

You can confirm this by pumping the brakes on a rolling idle with the wipers on intermittent. The wipers will do a wipe every time you release the brake pedal. Very neat

Now the TSX needs to get some rain-sensing wipers, just like the 1st gen Euro Accord.

 

This was in the manual for the first gen. I'd be a little surprised if it's not in the second gen manual somewhere. I wish this worked for more than just the shortest interval though (maybe it does in the second gen?).

 

No wonder why the last time I drove in the rain I was like "WTF? Why are my wipers changing speeds?"

Thanks!

 

Does anyone know if the 09 TSX allows you to chuse male or female voice comands for the bluetooth. I found this a few weeks ago with my 06 you have to say system at the main menu and the setup to change this it also allows you to choose for the car to ring or sound a tone when a call comes in.

 

Does the 2G center arm rest slide forward like the 1G does? I found that out from reading the 1G easter egg thread. Makes the center arm rest a lot more comfortable!

 

It does, and it does it better than 1st gen. There is a lever to lock it into place now, for different forward increments. However you do lose the top tray of the center storage compartment.

 

I can speak for the tech package, and yes it does, in the "phone set-up". For some reason, you only get the female voice choice in the navigation (of which you can thankfully shut the voice off).

 

Lets bump this and see if anyone has come up with any cool features lately.

 

It's not really a secret but if you have the mirror adjustment switch switched to the right, the passenger side mirror will angle down when you put the car in reverse to assist with parallel parking.

 

This ought to be common knowledge; we've known this for years with the first generation. Like everyone else, I don't leave the brightness knob on max because I don't want to be blind at night. The usefulness of this feature, though, is that if you have to turn on your headlights during the day (rain or fog, for instance), you can just twist the knob to max and the navi will switch from night to day mode. This beats having to work my way into the setup screen to switch the mode.

As for the other "eggs" mentioned here, they are all known from the 1G, except for the passenger side mirror angling down.

 

evening/pitch black scenario...

for those w/ 6MT, the blue LED ambient light lines up perfectly with the top of the shifter knob when in 5th gear giving it a slight glow. Not sure if this is applicable in 1st gen or if it's mentioned in either 1G or 2G owner's manual, but I just discovered this yesterday and thought it was a pretty nice touch!

 

Which is listed on our Accord Euro CU2 owner manual