Good Morning All

So I have been driving the TL consistently for the last 2 weeks - parked it after work (around 6) came back out to the car around 10 pm to leave and it turned over slow! Thought it was me so I killed it and started it again. (still slow). Parked car left hazards on for 2 minutes. Turn key to start and the car is dead! Clicking and lights flashing but no turn over.

So I research online about this HFL issue. Go out to car with same symptoms - clicking and flashing lights but no start. I then un-plugged the HFL. Re-installed and for kicks turned the key over. Car starts up very slowly. Second attempt the car starts up a little slow - third time it starts up normal. Come back 2 minutes later and the car starts slow again.

Anyone experience similar symptoms?

Is my battery now weak because the bad HFL was draining it?

Are there any reasons not to leave the HFL disconnected?

Thanks in advance!

 

i had the same problem as well because of bad hfl unit. I unplug hfl because i barely use it anyway. I think you would need to replace your battery is probably doesn't have anymore juice left.

 

I had the same issue with my HFL, had to unplug it. If you have a multimeter you can do a parasitic draw test at the battery to determine if the HFL was the culprit. Regarding the your weak battery symptom did you drive it for 15 or so minutes to restore the chrage? At idle the battery will not charge quickly. Again you could read where your voltage is sitting with a multimeter.

 

Head to autozone after driving for 15 minutes and have them check the battery. After some batteries get discharged they can't be recharged back to 100% but a lower number by 1-2%. Plus heat also ages batteries quite a bit. You might have to end up getting a new one after figuring out what is causing the drain.

 

The only side effects of disconnecting the HFL is loss of the voice control function for Navi / other voice controlled functions and the Bluetooth of course. I killed a brand new $200 Braille battery in 5 months by allowing the HFL to discharge it so many times.

 

Update: Car started up on Sunday.... Slowly but enough to kick it over! Interesting because Sat night with the HFL plugged in it would only click and flash the lights. As soon as I unplugged the HFL and re-assembled the console the car had enough juice to start... I am thinking this was a serious point of drainage.

Drove 15 min to Autozone and the battery showed a 'Bad Cell' after testing

The old battery was O.E.M. Acura; it had no date punched out and looked old as time.

New battery installed and all is well so far. I am hoping the HFL was the source!

Thanks for your help all!

 

Actually, I hope that it was the battery that was dead, since the Acura batteries had a reputation for dying before the warranty period ended and they are cheaper than an HFL unit.

The HFL is on a 30-minute delay-- it's supposed to stay on for 30 minutes after you turn off the ignition, so try plugging it in and testing the draw 45-60 minutes after the car has been turned off. If the HFL has turned off then, your HFL is good and you have Bluetooth (and voice control for Navi if applicable) again.

 

Another option would be to connect the the HFL and try to use the Bluetooth, if it works the HFL is good, if it says booting up , the HFL is bad. I haven't heard of any HFL failures where the unit was draining the battery and still worked to make calls.