msk12

Hey Acura experts, I have a 2006 TL automatic with navi, which has a strange intermittent issue. Sometimes when signaling or turning on the lights, the electrical system goes crazy; the wipers go on, the washer fluid pump goes on, high beams, hazzards -- all at the same time. When shutting off the car, the lights remain on, when turning the key back on, all items continue to crazy. It seems to randomly just stop occuring, and re-occurs randomly again; its not manually reproducible.

I took it to a local Acura dealer, and they could not figure out what was going on with it.

Also, I shorted out the pos/neg terminals to drain all the capacitors and that does not resolve the issue either.

I believe its the MICU, but I'm not a 100% sure. Any tips, or ideas that any of you have? Any ideas on how to remove some of the connectors from the MICU?

msk12

Anybody have any ideas about what the problem could be?

msk12

took it to a different acura dealership, they want $1000 to replace both fuse boxes, but they're not sure what the exact problem is.

acuratech239

iTrader: (2)

Well, aside from the hazard switch, all those other controls go through the cable reel. Now, the "hazard" function could be accidental since the turn signal goes through the cable reel, and if that was bad, it could cause both to flash, like it's the hazards being on. But anyway, back to topic, the cable reel simply is something else I could suggest. I rarely see MICUs go bad at work. I can only thing of a few that I have replaced in my 5+ years at Acura (and I do most of the electrical diag, especially the in depth stuff). I'm assuming there were no body electrical DTCs set, when scanned with the HDS, that your dealership found. I wonder if they made a call to tech line, to see if they have heard of anything similar to this.

On a side note, I did, once, have an (at the time) brand new 08 TL where the headlights would literally turn on by themselves. Whether the car was locked, unlocked, parked overnight, headlight switch off, etc. Called techline after I couldn't come up with an exact cause. Given the DTCs I had (a bunch of the low B1000s for loss of communication with this and that), tech line said that sometimes "ghost codes" set in the MICU, causing random, weird things to happen. I don't remember what I ended up doing to fix it, but I can check my tech line notes today at work. I probably replaced the MICU (under dash fuse box).

I'm also assuming they checked for water leaks? I once had an 07 TL w/ maybe 15k-25k miles on it, that had a, from the factory, improperly sealed windshield, on the driver's side, causing a water leak that eventually got onto the fuse box, and caused some random electrical problems. Also, don't forget that the front left moonroof drain channel goes right over top of it. Something else to take a look at.

Hope this helps, keep us posted.

msk12

Hi, thanks for the reply. The dealership did say they called the tech line and didn't hear of any similar issues.

The dealership also checked for water leaks, and none were found.

I took it home from the dealership without getting anything fixed, since they weren't sure of what was wrong with it, and a few weeks ago we noticed that the lights were on while it was in the garage and sure enough when we turned on the key it was going crazy.

acuratech239, did you get a chance to look at the notes for that TL to see if you ended up replacing the MICU?

acuratech239

iTrader: (2)

Well I'm curious to know if there were any DTCs stored anywhere in the body electrical area. I didn't have a chance to look at my notes because I forgot about it, but having since been reminded, will try and remember to look at them tomorrow. That being said, after re-reading your original post, I realized I made a mistake. This is what happens when I post at 7am It most likely is NOT the cable reel, as I don't know what I was thinking when I said the headlights and wipers go through that

Therefore I would have to lean towards the MICU as that is the only real "common" item of the complaints. As for that other car I mentioned, remember that was just the headlights, nothing else came on. But you do know that only the headlights come on when the key isn't in, but the rest of the stuff does with the key in the (II) position. This is a clue into what circuits are being affected, since they are fused differently. Again, this is going back to the fact that the MICU takes all these inputs (from the switches, etc), and then decides what to do (turn on, etc). The HDS can actually command most of the stuff in a TL to turn on, to help in troubleshooting (in other scenarios).

Last, a far stretch, I had a 2G TL once that had been in an accident, and whenever you turned the turn signal on, the wipers went on and one of the headlights turned on or off. Or it was some combo of all that. Either way, I ended up finding a bad ground, causing the other items to backfeed and cause them to turn on. Simple fix was clean the ground, reattach properly, and it was fixed.

The only other free thing I can suggest is a full on battery reset. To do so, disconnect both battery cables, and then connect the battery cables together (jumper wire, etc). Turn the key to (II), and leave it like that for at least one hour (the longer the better though). When done, turn the key back and remove it, then reconnet the cables. (Then start the car and let it warm up, at idle, til the fans cycle twice, with NO LOADS (all electrical/A/C/etc OFF)). The chances of that fixing it are slim to none, but it can't hurt, and it's free (and sometimes, it does fix random stuff).

Keep us posted, and good luck

msk12

I think I'll drop in a new under the dash fuse box. I've tried the battery reset before, but it only worked temporarily.

Is there some special tool needed to get the connectors off of the fuse box? I need some help with those.

acuratech239

iTrader: (2)

It's just held in by two 10mm bolts. I would recommend having a pocket screwdriver though as it can be very useful in helping to remove some of the stubborn or difficult to get to connectors. And your fingers will hurt by the end of it, there are so many connectors! Between the front, side, and back, and the back ones are the worst. But yeah it's pretty straight forward.

Good luck!

msk12

Don't those connectors have some locking mechanism on them? Thats why I thought there was some tool to help remove them. Or do you just pull them straight out?

msk12

Well, I put in a new under the dash fuse box, it was pretty easy to replace but it didn't resolve anything. It's still going crazy!