I just spent the last 2 hours reading through all these issues I'm having or had with my 04 TL, 70k miles and these are my observations....

At one point I thought all these were related to a bad ground somewhere due to me hacking up my TL to pieces by adding a carPC, infinity sub, 2 xenarc lcd's, oem navigation screen, oem navi clock, all this on a non-navi TL.

This basically drove me to check and re-check all my grounds, connections etc... which i did dilligently. And mind you.. I'm not a noob when it comes to electrical / wiring installations.

Anyway so here is the lowdown:


1- Both my rear windows don't go up or down even though i hear click and have power on the motor.

Took apart both doors, removed motor and tested them.. they seemed ok but bit sluggish. I got white lithium grease and greased and cleaned everything. Now they go up n down like a champ!
Put it all back together... runs fine for a couple weeks or so and now they both don't work anymore.

Since i got tints on my windows i read a thread about installers messing up with the weatherstrip or something... that causes the window to be "stuck".
So I'm gonna take it appart again when i have time and look for that issue.

2- Car battery gets weak and dies if i don't drive it for over 2 days.

I've replaced my battery 3 times in the last 5 yrs. I been getting those Duralast Gold on autozone bc they warranty it for 3 yrs. Last one I got replaced within a year and half for a brand new one under warranty. Right now its dying again and I've had it since October 08. Probably gonna go for a Die hard or Optima. Something is drawing too much power, I think all the TL's have electrical issues where the car just draws too much power when off. Just read the innumerous threads about batteries dying.
In my opinion, there's nothing you can do to fix this annoyance except by switching batteries every couple years or less!

3- Door locks itself, multiple times while car is running!

This is just bizarre, when engine is idling and I close the door, the car locks. I manually unlock it and about a minute later it locks itself again. By now i am thinking I must've messed up my whole alarm system!!.... Also whenever i closed the door even with key out of the ignition, the car locks itself right away and even rolls up the windows to some point! this is without even pressing any buttons.
So I disconnected my window roll up module, my entire system in the trunk etc...and it still does it. I checked all MID settings, and this would happen on ANY FOB key I used. Got so bad that I had to carry the 2nd key around afraid i'd get locked out.

During this time I took my battery to get looked at by autozone which they charged it for free. After re-installing the battery, the problem is gone!
Go figure.


Believe it or not i'm not completelly frustrated but i'm glad i found some answers to these problems. I thought my system would just drain the battery too much and the alternator never got around to charging it. Voltage when car is running is 14.5 which is good. Right now I'm just gonna accept that I will have to replace batteries every so often. As for the locking problem which is gone for now... I think my car was possessed or the dying battery somehow was causing this.

The rear windows probably caused by bad tinting installers.

Anyhow just wanted to share these issues and hope it helps anyone. When i find a definite fix for my window problem I'll make sure to post it and remember....always carry jumper cables! preferably in the back seat too bc if ur battery is dead, you can't open the trunk either lol

I'm actually wondering if I can even start my car tomorrow to go to work =)

 

1 - Do your windows have Moleskin? If not, get it and install it. This will allow the windows to go up and down smoother and protect the tint from scratches.

2 - I have an Optima Yellow top. I think with your audio upgrades it's pulling to much juice. You need a battery to handle it. Also check this out for battery drain:

http://www.in.honda.com/rjanisis/pubs/SB/B08-057.pdf

3 - Probably the battery being low (low voltage).

 

Just replaced battery today and did some very important current draw measurements....

I just checked the current draw on the HFL and its BAAADD...
The current draw for the car battery when off and locked is 0.7A (which is very high IMHO, no wonder my batteries dont last more than 2 yrs). So i went to fuse 6 which is where the HFL is connected along with all the interior lights. The current draw there is 0.29A with the car locked and no lights on.

I took appart the map light console, and disconnected the HFL unit and voila! the draw on fuse 6 dropped to 0.09A. This is absurd... I have a 04 TL and the HFL is actually from an 06 TL as it was replaced under warranty due to it locking up.

I did a quick search on google and normal draw for a car should be 0.3A or under. My car is doing 0.7A, and 0.2A is from the HFL alone...wtf Acura.....

The HFL issue is not only to TL, but RL's also are plaged with dead batteries it seems.
I will be contacting the dealer and see if they can do anything about it. I might just make my own circuit to power it on only when VAcc is on.

*** I just just saw this bulletin.

http://www.in.honda.com/Rjanisis/pubs/SN/B070400.PDF

Im gonna go measure again after waiting 10 minutes and see if my HFL really DOES go to sleep!