Hi all, first post here, my girlfriend's 06 TL is having problems and I would appreciate some help.

The TL has 191k miles on it and the battery started dying about a month ago. I have worked on several cars myself, but they have all been BMWs, so I have no experience with Japanese cars. I decided to look into it for her anyway. Found out there is a common 3G problem with the Bluetooth hands-free unit draining the battery; however, I did some testing with a multimeter and the readings were really inconsistent, it would jump from 0.02A to 0.4A to 0.65A randomly depending on which time of day I took the reading. Somehow I figured it was a faulty battery (was really busy on my own car) and put in a new Costco battery. It died after 3 days, and I made the mistake of telling my gf to just take it to a Honda/Acura shop near us.

The shop said the Bluetooth hands-free unit was causing the current drain, and they would disconnect it. They charged $100 for this diagnosis. They also recommended $400 in other maintenance that seemed pretty reasonable for a car with 191k miles, so my GF went for it. They also told her that "Costco batteries are weak and might cause problems", and tried to sell her a new $120 battery. I told them the brand doesn't really matter, there's only 3-4 manufacturers for batteries and they all sell under different brands, so we didn't spend any extra money.

After we got the car back, 2 strange things happened. First of all, the driver's power seat stopped working - recline, slide, etc. In addition, the SRS light was now on. Unfortunately I again didn't have time to dedicate to this, so we let the car sit for 2 days, after which the battery died again, after the shop told us it was fixed. I went out and got an exchange from Costco (the battery was probably not at fault, but since it had gone flat 2-3 times now, I decided to change it), put that in, and went back with the multimeter, determined to not be lazy this time. Cleaned all the terminals off, the radio unit was still causing a current drain of ~200mA, after pulling the fuse for that, the problem went away, and the car was fine after sitting for 3 days.

This is where the story gets interesting. GF went back and demanded a refund for the $100 electrical system charge, saying they never fixed her problem. After a lot of talking they agreed to a refund, but went back and RECONNECTED her Bluetooth unit because "that was their policy". They also told her that the seatbelt light had come on "because the battery had been connected and disconnected a lot of times", but then after "looking into it" they told her she needed a new seatbelt tensioner on driver's side (I can't pull the SRS code, so I have no idea why it's lit). They also said they would require additional time/money to diagnose the power seating problem.

Well, I pulled the Bluetooth unit and the radio fuse, so the battery problem is fixed. Next I tried to fix the power seat, and after looking under the seat, voila - they pulled the power connector to the seat, and then tried to charge more money to fix it.

Now the only thing left is the SRS light, which I'm skeptical about because the car was never in a crash and the light only appeared after the car was in their shop. So my question is, what are some wires they could have easily disconnected to trigger the SRS light? How do you reset the SRS light on a 3G? I can't find this information anywhere. Thanks for your time.

 

I'd just take it to a different dealer and have them check why the SRS light is on. Or you can buy the HDS scan tool for like 100 bucks on amazon and check yourself (good investment if you decide to buy other hondas)

And your dead battery should only be from the HFL unit and not the radio.

On a side note, you should just tell your girlfriend to not say yes to anything the dealer says before talking with you or before you have the time to look into things.

 

You can fix the HFL issues with a heatgun:
link:
https://acurazine.com/forums/problem...nk-fix-900427/

 

^ This x 1000 -

 

There's an airbag module under each seat since the seats have airbags in them. If they unplugged the wiring for the recline, maybe they disconnected the wiring for the airbag too. Mine are slightly modded because of the amps I have under the seats but if I remember right the stock setup has a piece of metal under the seat and the module sits on top of it. You're probably going to have to remove the 4 bolts that hold the seats down to get to it.

If they unplugged it, I would take it to the next level. They're screwing with your safety and your woman's safety to try and make money off of you. I would definitely take pictures of it if disconnected.