cicone

Bought my wife an '05 TL a year ago July. Had three batteries diagnosed with bad cells. Put in 4th new battery last night. Today I sent the car and a check list to the dealer, who diagnosed the first bad battery incident, and asked them to check the car for all recall repair work and also to specifically check for voltage leak. I asked them to check the HFL in particular. Sure enough, that was the problem. Sadly, the regular warranty had expired and the "Certified Used Car" warranty didn't cover this. 4 batteries in a year and a half...are you kidding me? I let them know that this problem likely was happening under warranty and they either failed to diagnose it or chose not to disclose it---I reminded them that they were quite aware of this issue through numerous complaints and service bulletins. I also let them know that this is not the way to get repeat business from a first time buyer. Result? A few hours later they called and offered to cover the repair 100%. I like that and believe it is the right thing to do. You don't see that often in the car business. My hat's off to the local dealer, my salesperson and the shop.

Lovingmytl

Did you happen to take a peak at the cost of repairs?? I also have an 05 tl but my warranty over. I'm suspecting my HFL is draining my battery...Im just wondering what dealers are charging. I read some of the old posting and found that the HFL device cost about 400 but i couldn't find how much the labor was.

cicone

They were talking about $700 to replace. That's a monumental markup on the device and what looks to be 15 minutes labor. A total rip. I would escalate to your regional rep and mention the TSB(I think it's on the 2004, but the problem didn't go away on subsequent years from what I've read). It would help to have documentation of battery purchases and jump starts---you never know, they just might want to keep you as a customer and $200 is a small price to pay to make you happy enough to buy a $40,000 car from them in the future. Good luck.

Aman

Would it be too much to ask for at least a partial refund from the three batteries you ended up paying for? In was after all, a result of their mistake.

cicone

I think so. The first battery came with the car and died in less than a week. The dealer installed a new one free of charge. That one lasted just over a year, so they wouldn't replace under warranty. Got the 3rd battery at WalMart in December and had to jump the car 3 times before it died a couple days ago. WalMart replaced it for free. Dead cell, just like the other 3.