Darksyne

Hey guys, I'm wondering if any of you know if the 4g TL's have any common electrical issues, especially ones that drained the batteries when the car is off for a few days like the 3g TL's did with the blue tooth modules.

Long story short my dad's 2012 TL has been having low battery error message's and check charging system messages appear on his car and my brother also has difficulty connecting to the car's blue tooth since it would just keep loading.

I replaced the battery since when I took it out to get tested it failed and the car would work for a few days then the messages started coming back up again and the car started to drive funny. One day when my dad came home he was complaining about a whining noise and thought it was the transmission.
Lucky I found out it was the alternator pully and figured "great now I know it must be the alternator not charging properly". Well I replaced the alternator with a rebuilt one the messages didn't show up when I first started the car but there was a weird "clicking" noise by the alternator but it went away after the car ran for a few minutes (figured it was the new belt just seating in or something).

After the car was parked for a few days now I go to move it out of the driveway to do a test drive and saw the "low battery power" message again and now I'm not sure what could be causing it since I'm not too familiar with the newer TL's. I was wondering if anybody else experienced the same electrical issues as this since it'll give me some kind of idea to help me diagnose this thing. Maybe the 4g's have the same blue tooth issue's as the 3g's had where the module dies and becomes a parasitic draw on the battery?

Anyway any help is appreciated and if you guys need any more info let me know. Thank you!

Reorge

I do know there is a 2012 TSB for the Battery Low Charge message.
There is a list of VIN that is applies to but even if you VIN is on the list it might not be your problem.
http://www.urvi.net/forumfiles/SB/B12-013.PDF

Unfortunately the solution it get software updated by dealer.

Darksyne

Hmm that is interesting, the 2012 TL that you're listing is the SH-AWD model and my dad's 2012 is just the FWD 3.5L model with the tech package. Great car up until now and he has neglected it lately these last few years.

Reorge

It applies to FWD (aka 2wd) ...
"Applies To:2012 TL 2WD – From VIN 19UUA8...CA000001 thru 19UUA8...CA0082392012
TL SH-WD – From VIN 19UUA9...CA000001 thru 19UUA9...CA002516"

mdb007

I’m so glad to a time this post as I missed it last year when I was searching.

My five year old AutoZone battery died in January 2023 so I went to Costco and I got an interstate and drove without any issues through early June of last summer. I then picked up a 2014 mustang convertible, so I was driving that pretty much through the summer into the fall.

However, when I drove my Acura, I had no issues with it starting and the battery dying, then last fall my Bluetooth started becoming intermittent and completely stopped working in early November.
By then I started driving the Acura regularly to work but unfortunately it’s only a six minute drive each way.
then in December the battery died and I thought that might be the issue. I checked the charging system and I was getting 13.9 to 14.1 V.

But now learning about this parasitic drain from a defective Bluetooth unit makes me think that’s why it is dying. When I started driving the mustang more this spring and not driving the Acura as much, the battery died twice on me.

I also developed an issue with the sunroof and front passenger window, working intermittently. and from what I’ve read here it looks like the battery issues may have messed up the memory?

So it looks like I’m gonna have to buy a new Bluetooth unit and install it.
if there’s any other ideas, I would appreciate it, but sounds like this could be the cure hopefully.