Hi all,
I bought a 2006 TL last May from a private owner and got everything but the HFL. I have been trying to connect it to my phone and in search mode or pairing mode my HFL cannot detect my phone and vice-versa. I called the 800 number for HFL and they asked me to take my car to a dealer to root-cause.
Any ideas what might be going on? I am not much of a hands on guy. So would really appreciate some tips "do" stuff along with your suggestions.
Thanks in advance!

 

What kind of smartphone do you have?

 

FWIW, I've found when pairing Bluetooth devices that I get the best results when I wait to activate the phone's Bluetooth until after I've put the other device in pairing mode. That is, in the case of the TL's HFL, I don't activate the phone's Bluetooth discovery mode until after the HFL lady says the system is searching for a mobile phone.

May not be strictly necessary, but once or twice I've had problems pairing things and it seemed to work best when I did it this way, so that's what I do. It's been over three years since the last time I paired a phone to the TL, though (my current iPhone 4; I'm considering a new one and would then wind up pairing that if I get one).

 

have you tried other phones? My iPhone 4 works in my 06 without issue.

 

I have tried both my smart phones: iPhone 4S and Nokia Lumia 925. The HFL would detect neither. Both these phones pair just fine with a stand-alone, standard bluetooth handsfree.
Is there a software upgrade or anything needed for HFL?

 

I'm having the same issue these days. My HFL worked just fine up until last week and then one day it just stopped connecting. For the life of me I can't get the car to detect my phone and vice versa. Tried disconnecting the battery on both my phone and car, hoping it would reset something, but no dice.

I don't think it is the phone though. It connects to my other car without issue. I think the HFL may have crapped out and I really don't know how to fix it.

Anyone else have this issue? or a solution?

 

check the HFL menu....if it says "Booting" for more than 15 seconds, then the HFL is the problem. Do a search....there are many threads below discussing solutions.

 

When you say "HFL menu", you mean the bottom right hand portion of the gauge cluster, yes (I believe that's what guys call the MID, correct?)? Sorry, i keep reading to run a diagnostic, but I have no idea on how to do so. If I select the HFL on my gauge cluster, all it ever says is "no information available". I've never once seen the "booting" message- or is it else where?

My HFL just stopped working one day. No warning signs. I tried baking the chip twice with no results. I'm ok with having to purchase another chip for $200, BUT, I want to be sure that is the issue. By the way, my car has the oem Navi in it- reading through the "Bluetooth fails" thread, it sounds like there may be something on the back of the Nav screen that may also be the culprit. Is this true?

Please help!

 

That's where to look initially.

The 2nd place to look is at the HFL diagnostic menu via the Navi-- for the procedure, see post #2 at this thread: https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-problems-fixes-114/hfl-not-working-628686/ .

There is a "delay box" behind/below the Navi screen which might go bad, but it's most often the HFL unit in the overhead console that goes bad. The HFL is much cheaper and easier to access than the delay box, too.

 

Thanks Will.

After digging through old posts, I finally did find how to do the diagnostic. Sadly, mine says the HFL system is okay. Nonetheless, I ordered the chip anyway, so we'll see if that fixes the problem. I really hope I didn't spend $200 on nothing, lol.

 

Sadly? You mean luckily.... Fixing the HFL can be expensive.

 

When I started my car, it warned Starting the pairing process from a bluetooth phone is not allowed.

I deactivated bluetooth on the phone, then started the pairing process on the car. After stating the four digit pairing code, I re-activated bluetooth on the phone, and the phone found the car's HandsfreeLink.

It's always worked for me this way.

 

hey TacoBello,
Did the new chip fix your problem?

 

I want to know as well. My HFL isn't working either. I wanna know if TacoBello received the new chip yet for his car before I buy one

 

I'm in the same bind. Bought the car a couple of weeks ago and my phone can't even see the HFL while in the pairing process. I can go up to the point where I confirm the four digits and it asks to find HFL on my phone, but I never see it. When I try to search from my phone for Bluetooth devices (at the same time) it can't find anything.

I have a LG G3.

 

Its been more than a year, I'm pretty sure he would have posted his success if he had any.

Sadly, when you have a modern phone and try to make it work with a decade old technology, you're bound to hit a wall sooner or later. Just take into consideration that it took 2 years after my HFL was made for the first real touchscreen smartphone to exist (iphone) It seems as if in the past year, the "new phone cant pair to HFL" threads are multiplying like crazy. Myself included, I lost all hope after my S6+ brought me 95% of the way to success and then miserably failed. My hope was that it was just an isolated case, but my disappointment was confirmed when I got the Note 5 and the exact same thing happened. I have also tried to pair my friend's G4 and co-workers HTC One M9 with a slightly different process, but same result. I gave up all hope and cooked up a simple, inexpensive solution that even added features I didn't have with HFL. On my 05 TL, i bought a Kinivo BT receiver and plugged it into the 3.5mm input of my GROM unit. I can now talk handsfree, plus I can stream my music, unlike with stock unit. I might have lost caller display on my cluster, but on most phone you can activate car mode that announced your callers name or number.

 

I ordered something similar too, an iSimple unit. It was more for the music, but if that's the only way I'll get access to Bluetooth then so be it. Just waiting to receive it now.