I have a 2004 TL purchased in late August of that year and a Motorola RAZR on Verizon Wireless that I've had for about two years. Went to make a call this morning. The HFL recognized what name I wanted from the phonebook with no problems and the signal strength meter on the MID showed four bars. After I confirmed that I wanted to make a call and it went to dial, though, signal strength immediately dropped to nil and the call didn't go through—all I got was a crackling noise sort of like the sound you get when you're listening to an LP and the needle goes into the run-out groove at the end of a side, or the sound when you first put the needle down before the first song begins.

Hit the hang-up button and the HFL didn't let go—I had had the radio on and it should have returned, but it didn't do so until I next hit the talk button and then the hang-up button again.

The above cycle happened four times and on the fifth try the call finally went through.

Any idea what might be causing this? There were some power lines in the area as of the first attempt, but those wouldn't seem to explain why I had a nice strong signal UNTIL the HFL tried to dial. As soon as it tried to dial, signal strength went to nil.

The problem is NOT the phone. It works fine almost everywhere I use it, and it works fine with my other Bluetooth device (a Bang & Olufsen EarSet 2, which I primarily use when driving my RX-7). I've never had this problem with the HFL until recently—I recall it happening a week or two ago, but at the time I chalked it up to being near the State Department in DC and I assumed that they had some sort of electronic crap that was interfering with it. After this morning's experience, I think it must be something on my end, and the part about the HFL not wanting to let go until I re-hit the talk button and the hang-up button again further confirms that in my mind.

I've heard others talk about asking the dealer to replace the HFL on a 2004 TL. If that's what you recommend for this problem, please give me some advice—what does it cost to do this, is there any way to get it under warranty, and how would you explain the problem to the dealer to convince them that it's not just a problem with your phone?

(My "New Every Two" on Verizon Wireless is up next Wednesday, so I could get a new phone, but I'm not sure whether I want to be bothered.)

Thanks in advance for any advice.