RicosMix

I hope I'm posting this in the correct area. I have a 2004 TL with a similar problem, however my bluetooth works just fine. My Motorola ROKR pairs up good, I can tell it to call a number and it does ok and I can hear the other person clearly and the ycan hear me.. Occasionally it will miss some numbers, but in general it's fine. Where my my problem lies is when I want to give the navi a voice command. The navi voice makes the center speaker sound blown, and it will not understand me anymore. It keeps saying "Pardon?" or "Please repeat." The dealer here from the phone description I gave him says that it's the HFL's mic, and the whole things needs to be replaced at a cost of over $500. But why can it understand me well when I say phone commands, but not other commands navi related?

dscott4305

I know I'm happy to be a part of this forum for a number of reasons, but given the heads up on Service Bulletin's is a huge part of our "community" and much appreciated....I'm gettting the bump stops installed gratis next visit to dealer per my conversation with them a moment ago. I'll talk them into a free re-align as well. I, too, wish I knew about this SB before I paid for new tires.

dscott4305

don't worry about the $120...they say they'll charge it to diagnose and once they apply the SB, they'll waive it. It will be covered by goodwill - 100% chance.

dscott4305

They should replace it with the S/B...print it out and take it to the dealer:
http://www.in.honda.com/Rjanisis/pubs/SB/B05-020.PDF

Meek32v6

iTrader: (7)

I took mine in a little over a year and a half - I don't remember being charged but the guy did some stuff with it and just told me straight up that chances are that it has gone bad. Said it would be like 6-700 to replace. I wish I could see the expression on my face back then today. I was like whatever. That was one of the main reasons I like this car originally too. It did work before with my Nextel but when I switched service providers my blackberry wouldn't work. It would always freeze up during pairing - no radio- no CD- nothing. Had to disconnect battery to reset. Still love my car though

04 WDP

I have an '04 which I bought used and have 94K miles on it. The HFL locked up as noted. Quoted $650 to repair. I gently encouraged/gave them a pep talk about requesting goodwill assistance. He agreed to check but said very unlikely given the time/mileage. Result - 50% Goodwill coverage. I agreed and it was done this week. Works better than original.

DeltaCTU24

I have a 2004 with 101k miles. I just got an iPhone 3g and I hate how the number doesn't show up on the display under the gas gauge and when I call the iphone shows its under HFL but I hear nothing. I have to switch from Speaker than back to HFL after someone says hello. When I had a Windows Mobile Phone I never had these issues.

maddsiick

just FYI...the handsfree link box is $395 from www.acuraoemparts.com and you can swap out the box yourself, its extremely easy, then just plug in your connector and you're good to go. the part number for 05 is 39770-SEP-A02ZA and its jus a box with 3 torx screws that screw out and then replace. dont let the dealership rob you when you can do it yourself. i saw the box myself when i was doing my non navi to navi conversion and was hoooking the DVD unit for the navi to the HFL box.

AJHardee

Was wondering if this would work in my 2005 Tl w/ Navi.....a 2008 HFL module???

AJHardee

Please Help! Will a 2008 HFL unit work in my 2005 TL with navigation?

csmeance

More than likely it won't since the new 2008 Units integrate with the navigation system.

rossv1

If I'm out of warranty, how much will it cost to upgrade the HFL?

crbnfbr

iTrader: (1)

Sorry to resurrect a dead thread, but I strongly recommend not going to McDaniels Acura Of Charleston as their service manager was a complete asshole to me over the phone. Yes, my car is out of warranty, but he said they couldn't do it out of goodwill and wanted to charge me $450+, which I know is complete BS. That was only after I brought it in to have them "look" at it first. Even though they know the HFL on the 04's are bad, and I'd have to drive 1.5 hours just to have them "look" at it then come back to have them replace it, because "it could just be a switch on the steering wheel that's bad" even though they can run my VIN # and tell if the HFL has been replaced.

Sorry for the rant, but he's got me so pissed off right now. I just wanted to let everyone know about how they treat their customers at McDaniels Acura Of Charleston.

Syms

Went through this thread and a couple other threads about this issue. Thanks to all those who provided input on this issue as it has helped me make some progress with my issues.

I have a 2004 TL AT with Navi and started having HFL issues about 2 years ago. The issue I was experiencing was that the the HFL would not sense my phone. And when I press the voice control button, nothing happens (similar to many other's problems). I Went into the dealership at that time and was quoted $800 plus for the fix. Like everyone else, I didnt bother. Ended up going with a handsfree speakerphone for $50 instead and didnt really think much about it (its horrible compared to the HFL system though, and I find i rareley use it because when I want to use it, the battery is dead...just not very convenient).

Didnt bother looking into it further until a couple weeks ago when I came across this board and realized that this was not an isolated issue. I remembered I had a friend/acquaintance that I had recently run into at one of the local dealerships who happened to be the Service Manager there. So I decided to do what some others on this board did, and I called him to see if there was anything they could do for me, and asked about goodwill. He asked me to send him all I could as far as service records go (i had records going back to 2003 when the car was originally purchased by my father) so he could help me build a case to bring to the people who handle goodwill. I put everything I had together, and sent it to him within 30 minutes of talking to him.

The next day I received a call from him with some good news. I was extremely impressed that this Service Manager essentially helped me process this request pretty much right away. He got back to me less than 24 hours later!!! Amazing! Well, the news was that Acura offered to pay for the parts as long as I paid for the installation. Cost to me would be around $200 plus taxes in labour (I forgot the exact amount).

I thought about this for a bit. One thing that bothered me a bit was that I knew the labour involved with replacing this unit is no more than 5 minutes for an experienced person, and maybe 10 minutes for someone who was less experienced. So charging me $200+ for the labour was bothersome. However, I also realized that many other people were buying the parts for around $200 from different online acura dealers, and then installing it themselves...So really, this wasn't such a bad deal actually.

Ended up asking him if its possible that I simply pick up the part once it arrives and I install it myself...he said he would have to check...10 minutes later I got a call back and he confirmed that would not be a problem.

Parts on order (about 30 days to receive it). All it took was a little bit of effort and now I get this thing replaced free of charge and 10 minutes of my own time to replace it!!

I know, long story...but a great story for me, and its all because of the valuable information found here.

Thanks Acurazine!

crbnfbr

iTrader: (1)

I don't want to come off sounding like a dick, but $200 labor? The TSB itself says the job should take .3hrs(20mins). So, they must be charging $600 an hour labor if my math it right, and it usually is.

The Acura dealer wanted to charge me $385 for a new HFL installed, and the the HFL costs $155 so they were charging $690 an hour labor.

Plus, the TSB says it takes a "skilled" tech 20mins to do the job. I timed myself, and had it apart, took the HFL out and put it back together in under 10mins.

coolshades

Sorry to resurrect this thread. I just came across this thread when I tried to look for an HFL upgrade, not knowing that this has been an issue. I understand my 2004 is out of warranty and over 10 years old, but with only 80,000 actual miles!

I did find online an 05 module for under $300. Wonder if this is the updated unit this thread was talking about, or do I need to find a specific 2004 module? If the latter, does anyone know the part number for the 2004 updated HFL module. Thank y'all in advance.

Cool

martin_goings

I have a 2009 MDX with a bad HFL. I bought the car used from a dealer and was unaware of the problem with the unit. Sure wish that I was up on all the problems before I purchased it. Outside of this it is a great vehicle.