Approx 6 months ago my 2015 tlx (bought as a certified in 2018) traffic display on the NAV system
works about 50% of the time. Sometimes when I start the car it works "normally" after a minute or so.
Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it can be working and then the TRF icon on the lower left screen will disappear.
I've wasted several hours of my time on the phone with Acura and $85 of my money with the place where I bought the
car. No 1 seems to know anything about this.
It's satellite-based so there should always be coverage and the subscription doesn't expire until January of 2022.
Any 1 ever hear of this issue?

TIA
Walt

 

If you're talking about the green, red and orange "traces" overlaying some of your main roads then much depends upon WHERE you are driving and if other cars with navigation systems are on the roads as well. According to my semi-thorough "research" that I mucked through on my 2020 TLX back in Sept 2020 the traces are generated by what amounts to automatic feedback from cars on the roads you are displaying. No other cars with navigation systems = little/no feedback. My problem was that the traces were often inaccurate. Sometimes the traces would show "green" but I was in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Other times the traces would take a while to populate, if at all. I'm in South New Jersey not far from Philadelphia and many of the issues cropped up when I was on less traveled roads..

Acura Tech Service in California was not all that helpful (they tried, but they appeared to be reading the same manual as I). In the end, since the reliability of the data was hit or miss I just killed the icons so that there were no "traces" showing at any time. This made the screens look like my prior TL's navigation (2001, 2006, & 2013). The Service Manager of my Acura dealership plowed through the depths of the tech manuals and came up with the magic "How to Do" as the manuals are not exactly clear.

The threads are on another AcuraTLX website, which I'm no longer active on. The date of the last thread was around the 1st week of Sept 2020. JimE53 was my ID. Good luck with your research and, hopefully, resolution.

 

Thanks for the feedback. What material were you reading? The Acura-supplied manuals?
BTW, on the 2021 tlx, it looks like the nav system uses whatever Garmin supplies on their handheld units.
Very little info is available on this from Acura as well. It seems to me that for 2018 and later, you're better off using the Android auto to get the traffic, if that's what it does.

 

I found the forum you mention: https://www.tlxforums.com/threads/na...8/#post-324819

 

I wish the feedback had more value to you.

My trail started with the Acura TLX manuals, all three of them. I don't know when it started, but the 2020 manual provided with the car is essentially an abridged version. Folks wanting the complete versions (regular Owners Manual and Navigation Manual) could order through Acura America at no cost. These are the "phone book" versions... about 1,000+ pages. Reads provided no help.

Then I worked through 3 different groups Acura/Honda in California. They were polite, but didn't seem to have much info on the ins and outs of the Navigation system... at least what they would, or could, release to me. My big question was "Where were the "traces" coming from?" was it via AcuraLink?? or was it through the satellite generated data from the Navigation system provider?? Somehow the car's system had to be told that Highway X was backed up.... or wide open. I was pretty certain the the data provider hadn't posted elves on every road to monitor traffic.

I finally Googled the heck out of every listing that I could find to see if I could make sense out of the source of the data and its flows into the car. The "sandpaper" was that these systems have rapidly evolved so I was looking for Acura 2020 specific info. A posting from, say, a 2017 MDX might or might not have value... not to mention that some postings were penned by complete idiots. Also muddying the waters was that technology (combined with other car functions) and ownership (provider of the feed) had changed a few times.

I finally concluded that it didn't matter if I fully understood how the system worked internally. I only needed to know that the problems that I had experienced were not specific to my car, but to the overall collection, storage and transmission. In other words Acura could replaced every component but the end result would be the same... iffy reliability of data.

The last step was to configure my screens to eliminate the "trace" icons. I figured that if I couldn't trust the info, then it was better to just eliminate the traces. If I wanted to see if the road was crowded all I needed to do was to look out my windshield. Since, in many cases, routing options were limited I just go with the flow.

And so it goes....

 

Yeah, I hear all you say.
But hows the Android Auto integration working for you?
It only started being supported in 2020.

I have used the navi system with the traffic and if rerouting was necessary around an incident, that worked well.
Acura escalated my issue to the next tier support level.
We'll see where that gets me. Stay tuned.

 

I don't use either Apple or Android apps in my car. The Acura supplied navigation, plus satellite radio, plus CD's recorded to the HDD provide me with all that I need/use.

 

Resolution? Here's the details:

Apparently there is a small cabal of Acura engineers who know how the Acura traffic info works.
Louis (extn 87868) phone 888 528 7876 is representing the Acura engineering cabal
when they asked him to forward this info to me.
Louis told me that intermittently NOT receiving traffic IS, in fact, a known issue in 2015 and later cars
including TLXs.
But because it apparently has affected so few customers thus far (whatever that number is) they
have YET to issue a service bulletin. If this is, in fact, a software issue on their end, as it appears, they can "fix" or patch
all day long and until they find the root cause it might never properly get fixed.

There's NO KNOWN PROBLEM in the car's computer module which is the ONLY thing that an Acura service
department guys can check in the service department so if you have this problem see if it
can be resolved over the phone first..
Louis told me this problem was an issue with THEIR servers and that a "fix" (a software patch)
was applied. For at least a day, the traffic has displayed perfectly but I told Louis I would continue
to observe and report back to him as needed.

I told him that if a service bulletin, of some sort had been issued by Acura, I wouldn't have wasted $85 of my money on
a service appointment., an hour or more of a tech's time, and several hours of my time dealing with Acura.
Let's let Acura spend their money fixing their problems.
More info to follow as it becomes available.

 

Wstagner,

Thank you for posting this information. I also have a 2015 TLX and my real-time traffic data went screwy in early June 2021. Long story short I don't have a solution, but below is what I've been experiencing and tried as well. Still looking for a solution.

Starting in early June 2021, when I would leave my house in the morning (car was parked inside garage overnight), the traffic (TRF) indicator "label" on the map was missing. No green/orange/red traffic lines on the map, and if I clicked on Traffic Incidents it would just show an error like "Cannot connect to AcuraLink". As I drove further away from home, I would notice that the traffic indicator label would magically appear on the Nav. Sometimes 5 miles from home, sometimes 10 miles from home. I also noticed that sometimes after stopping/starting the car (for example while running errands) the traffic indicator label would appear after 2-3 engine restarts (and then sometimes disappear again). Further, when pressing the Settings button (while on the Nav screen), then Info, and then selecting Acuralink Subscription Status, sometimes at the top it would say "No Status" and that's when the traffic data wasn't appearing. Other times it would say "OK". Also when the traffic data was missing and I knew I wouldn't be stopping/restarting the engine anytime soon, I would choose a previous destination in the NAV and let it plot my course, then cancel, then choose another destination, then cancel, etc. Once in a while, this seemed like it would randomly "kick start" the traffic data, but it was inconsistent at best.

Initially I thought it could be something to do with antenna/internal wiring or power since the problem was intermittent, but other functions of the radio/nav were working just fine. Then I started thinking it perhaps had something to do with the way the traffic data was being received. I didn't know whether the traffic data was acquired via satellite or cellular (acuralink), so I started looking online and came across a service article that talks about the AcuraLink Telematics Unit from Feb 2017 (B17020D v1). Specifically, this talks about a change from CDMA cellular to LTE cellular, and my thinking was that maybe in my general geographic location the CDMA coverage/towers had recently been shutoff/weakened since most things are now LTE. Again, however, I don't know if the traffic data is from satellite or cellular. Here's a link to the PDF if you're curious: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...08701-9999.pdf I then checked the diagnostics menu, and that showed that I was getting good GPS signals (6+ satellites), so I figured it probably wasn't a satellite issue. In fact I tested this in a wide open outdoor space, had 6+ satellite signals, and still no traffic data.

Based on what you wrote, it seems like this issue is something wrong on Acura's end. Maybe my traffic data stopped working correctly in early June 2021 as a result of some "patch" that they were attempting to apply to their system to fix someone else's issue. Recently I stopped by the dealer to ask if they knew of any issues with AcuraLink, and they said they hadn't heard of anything. This obviously parallels your comment from Acura HQ about it being such a small fraction of owners who are affected. The dealership said it would take many hours to diagnose the problem (min $180) and even then, they may not find it if there was no error code. I declined the $180 diagnostic/fee, and from what you've shared, it seems likely they would not have come up with a solution either. I'm sorry you lost $85 in fees and countless hours, but just know that your post has saved at least one other person some diagnostic fees that may well have been in vain.

Lastly, did the personalized "patch" that they applied for your particular case happen to solve your problem long term, or was it just working for 1 day? In the meantime, I'll keep an eye on this thread in case you have anything new to share about this frustrating issue. If I happen to stumble across a fix, I'll share that as well. Thanks!

 

Harold....I am THRILLED to have helped one other person, believe me.
ALL 2015-2020 TLX owners have the POTENTIAL to have had this happen.
No, my issue is NOT resolved and is ongoing and sounds exactly like your issue.

On 7/26/2021 i encourage you to call 888 528 7856 ext 87868 and talk to Louis.
Tell him WALT suggested you call because you're having the same issue.
Trust me, nothing you OR the service dept. can do about this other than charge you money,
Louis says the reason a service bulletin has not been issued is because it doesn't affect enough people and engineers don't yet have a fix.
I told him this is a "pantload" and the least they can do is make service depts aware.
Anyway, enough ranting. Please report back here after you've talked to Louis. He's in CA so be aware of the time.
If he doesn't answer right away, let it keep ringing.

 

Louis from Acura called me yesterday 8/2/21 to advise me that the engineers applied another
patch to their servers that might improve things. We will see. Thus far since then we are
3 for 3 for working.
Louis will call me again endofweek to see where we stand.

 

On 8/2/21 Louis from Acura Navi support called me to inform me that the engineers applied another patch to their servers.
This one is designed to improve communication between the car's module and their servers.
"Somehow" the module never made or lost connection. Since engineers nor Acura support post here,
we are left to speculate what this really means.
Since 8/2/21, the traffic has worked every time, every day. The way I left this with Louis is that I'd contact him
if anything changes.
I talked to my sales person at Mueller's WoodField acura about this and apparently the intermittent traffic memo
has gone out because when the owner talked to HIM about this he told the owner had had already learned about
it from ME!
Although I felt good being the instigator, that's not how this should work.
More updates on this subject if/when they are available.

 

Is the real-time traffic intermittency still a problem for anyone on the '15 -'20 TLX? My '20 TLX has not had real-time traffic since November 2020 though my subscription is still valid. I've been back and forth with AcuraLink since early December and have gotten nowhere. At first, AL case manager acknowledged that the dysfunction was exclusive to my vehicle and that a fix would need to be patched on their server. That patch was done and nothing changed. As the car is still under warranty, I had the dealer work on it for about 2 days. They had no other reports of the issue nor were aware of any TSB on it. They did everything but replace the unit. After multiple tests and hours with Acura Engineering, they were told by Acura that the problem affected multiple models '15- '20. There has been no resolution. AcuraLink keeps telling me they are "still investigating". Overall, the guidance on this has been extremely disappointing. As the car is still under warranty, I'm wondering if it makes sense to just swap out the unit. I fear the rattles that might induce but am pessimistic this will ever be fixed.