legendguy

I was hoping that folks here would post any unusual or interesting "finds" they have noticed on their RL. I have a few that I have found or borrowed from other members of this forum (and another forum that I go to). Some are in the manual as features, but I think are easy to miss. Anyway, here are a bunch of finds you may or may not have seen, please add yours.

1. Hot looking spare - if you lift out the nicely designed jack holder and look at the compact spare you will notice that it is ALLOY rather than the usual steel. Perhaps weight saving? Then unscrew the binding plate and lift out to reveal ... a bright yellow paint job on front side. Good motivator for people to get the original put back on asap.

2. The parking brake on the floor. I have managed to bump it exiting a few times. Still better than the console mounted ones of other cars which just mess with the clean appearance.

3. The rear sunshade automatically retracts when you put the car into reverse.

4. There are two buttons inside the glove box. One is to disable the trunk lock (valet lock-out feature). The other is to open a hidden compartment to store the owner's manual. A hidden compartment, hmmmmm.

5. Auto roll down windows in the rear

6. Rear door windows submerge completely into the rear doors.

7. Also, the doors open wider than previous Legends. The rear doors open almost 90 degrees.

8. You probably know that if you push your fob open 2x and hold it ... all windows and sunroof open. This is great but how do you close them? Well, you insert the key in the door and and turn left (lock) 2x and hold and they all shut back up.

9. Either the right or the left outside mirror can tilt downward when in reverse by selecting the L or R on the control

10. There is a blue strip light found inside each inside door opener. So you can find the door handle in the dark.

11. The windshield spray jets are mounted on that strip of black plastic that overlays the wipers.

12. If you unlock the RL with your fob the door handle lights BRIGHTLY for you.

13. If you push the number button of the CD you are playing, the CD is "paused" until you push the button again.

14. The start is autoregulating, that is to say once you turn the start knob the RL decides how long to crank to start the car. So there is no need to crank for a couple seconds - once you turn to start and release, the car cranks itself the correct amount.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Wow...those are some cool features. I would like to see the self-regulating start feature on all future Acura models. The lighted door handles might also be a nice feature to have.

SPUDMTN

Does the sunshade return to its extended position when taken out of reverse?

BTW--neat features...

legendguy

SPUDMTN:
No, the screen stays down in drive (never thought of that before) but this is actually probably a good thing in case you were switching from drive to reverse repeatedly, parallel parking or something. One push of the button quickly reactivates the screen.

phile

Those two features should be available on every car! I remember we had a Subaru whose rear windows went all the way into the rear doors when rolled down.

I also believe the RL and the Audi A6 are the only two cars in this segment with manual sunshades for the rear passenger windows. Don't think the M35 and new GS have it.

EmuMessenger

The lighted door handle is a good idea. I had a 2nd gen Camry that did that, too. I have wondered why more cars to not offer that feature.

machination

So you can't close the windows with the fob like the Accord?

larryka

I don't know if this is mentioned in the RL manual, or if it is a known feature of the TL, but I have noticed that if I have the A/C fan up high (maybe 3-5?) it will slow down slightly when I hit the nav voice button on the steering wheel. When the system is done recognizing my command it will set the A/C fan back to where it was. I don't recall seeing any indication of this happening on the nav display, but I haven't been watching the A/C screen during this either. Also, I don't think this happens when I use the HFL voice commands but I might have missed it...

J RIDE 81

Cool features, Thanks!

2veloce

I was unable to get the street name accepted into the nav menu for routing. I proceed to use the telephone number and the company name along with the address appreared for routing.

This may not be new to some of you, but I was impressed - again!

8-)

Gotta try this tomorrow!!

legendguy

2veloce- just curious, why were you not able to get the nav to accept the street name? Even if you typed in manually?

machination- don't know why you can't reclose the windows with the fob. Maybe so you have no possibility of closing the windows without being in proximity to the car. Then again, the RL has contact sensors for the windows that protect occupants wayward fingers, so don't really know. Only know that if you are showing off the all-open feature, you look pretty dumb if you have to hop in and close them all one-at-a-time so I'm glad to have the all-close feature even if I have to use the key!

Another find:

The gas cap (Honda Logo on it BTW )comes with both a tether strap and a slot in the cover door for it to sit. Talk about belt and suspenders treatment. No way you going to lose that baby!

phile

And Honda went to great lengths to ensure the window said Acura instead of Honda, and that the brakes have Acura on it...and they overlook this.

2veloce

[QUOTE=legendguy]2veloce- just curious, why were you not able to get the nav to accept the street name? Even if you typed in manually?
QUOTE]

I could not get beyond the spelling of the first name in the street name, i.e., Lenox Pointe. I could input and spell Lenox but the system would not accept any more letters and there were no suggestions being offered!

427

Ahhh ... I knew this was available, but just didn't have time to look it up. THANX for sharing this info!

Shotgun

This evening I noticed that when you leave your headlights in the "auto mode" and upon opening the car door;

1. The headlights come on (this is nothing new) and,
2. The headlights sweep from side to side as if to test it's swivel capability or mechanism - now this is NEW to me and I might add "hyper-cool"

Anyone else notice this?

legendguy

I could not get beyond the spelling of the first name in the street name, i.e., Lenox Pointe. I could input and spell Lenox but the system would not accept any more letters and there were no suggestions being offered!

That seems strange that the system obviously had the street in its database but could output it from the phone number but not from the name itself. Assuming you were in the right city and state with your entries it should, in theory, have been able to find the street. Well, at least it is good that there are multiple ways to locate information. I especially like the "intersection" method where is you don't know an address but no the names of a couple streets nearby that intersect, it will get you in range!

SPUDMTN

That is VERY cool...I'll have to check this out sometime

Points to you, for the find

legendguy

Not really a feature, but I noticed today a piece of wood I had not noticed before. There is a small swatch of real wood just above the coin holder (below the nav console). This is probably more noticeable on light colored interiors, but mine is ebony. For my tastes, more real wood is better!

AcuraRLBlue

My 2002 Lexus tilts BOTH mirrows down, no matter what position the mirror adjusting switch is in.

AcuraRLBlue

[9. Either the right or the left outside mirror can tilt downward when in reverse by selecting the L or R on the control

My 2002 Lexus tilts BOTH mirrows down, no matter what position the mirror adjusting switch is in.

AcuraRLBlue

There is a small hole with a rubber plug that could be removed between the top and bottom compartments of the center console for a wire to pass through from the accessory socket located in the bottom compartment to the outside of the console. Very nice for consealing my radar detector power plug.

Karl_in_Chicago

Which, IMO, is how it should work anyway by default or . . . at least allow me to program a preference (Both, Left, Right, or None). I'd rather not have to flip the mirror switch each time I'm parking depending on whether the curb is on the left or right.

AcuraRLBlue

1. There is a hook under the front end of the car. There is no mention in any of the literature what it is for, and there is already a place in the front bumper for a hook to be inserted for towing onto a flat-bed tow truck. I discovered this during entrance into a parking lot when the front end touched the ground of the ramp. This hook was the part that touched the ground. The RL has a rather long front overhang and thus one has to be careful and slow down going over a ramp (in and out of the sidewalk). Well, this hook gets scarified first if the front end is too low to the ground, or it could be used as a towing hook.

2. If you want the Nav screen to dim by itself at night, don’t touch the Display Mode button at the lower left of the console. When the car is turned on, the screen is in Auto dim mode, and using the Display Mode button overrides it.

2.

larryka

While playing around in the navigation system diagnostic mode, I found a screen that shows the current DC voltage. It would have been nice if it was shown on the MID, but I guess Acura thought an idiot light was enough.

Obviously, when you go into the diagnostic mode you do so at your own risk...

1. Enter diagnostic mode by pressing "Map/Guide", "Menu" and "Cancel" all at the same time for three seconds or more.
2. Go to XM(HIP)
3. Go to XM(HIP) ECU
4. Go to Telematics Self Diagnosis
5. The voltage is listed on this screen.

When I had my engine running with lights on, the reading was around 13.83V, when the engine was off with the lights on it was around 11V, with the engine off and the lights off it went back up to around 11.80V.

konst_ms

Wow, that's pretty cool! How have you found out about this mode? What other info is available about it?

Thank you!
Konstantin

petemc

You can also see the location of the satellites in the sky using this mode...use the GPS option.

...and it looks like you can calibrate the tire sensors

Pete

larryka

I think I ran across the key combination on the TL forum, or someplace else online. AFAIK, it's common to the Acura navigation system. There's some interesting stuff in the diag mode...As petemc said you can view the GPS satellite information. I'm not sure about the tire sensor calibration though. I thought the tire calibration that I saw was related to adjusting the GPS system for different size tires that would cause errors in speed/distance calculations when the GPS data couldn't be used and the system falls back to dead reckoning. I could be wrong though, I'll have to check that menu again.

In addition, you can run diagnostics on your XM/Navigation/AC sub-systems to make sure they're all communicating. There are some other functions in there as well. Explore at your own risk.

Rob L

Is there anything you can do in this mode that can fug shit up?

NSX-Tuner

Make sure you leave lots of room between other cars while parking other wise your passengers will be dinging doors.

Precision Crafted

I didn't realize that the fob on the Accord could close the windows/ sunroof the way VW does. I guess using the key is for "safty reasons". For the RL not have have a fob control feature is odd given the All Auto feature comparied to the TL's front window only All Auto feature.

Rob L

I just noticed this 2 days ago...the black trim around the air vents has sparklies in it and looks pretty cool with the sparklies.

hehe yeah, it is a lame find that most I am sure noticed right away but I thought it looked cool.

Precision Crafted

I continue to be impressed by features the RL has standard that are options on cars costing 20 to 30 thousand dollars more.

2veloce

so does trim around the emblem in the grille....

legendguy

Rob L & 2Veloce-
Nice finds. The trim has sparklies indeed! Wonder who thought about that and why? I was thinking the emblem trim was to have it match the Nighthawk Black with its blue sparlies but I don't know.

As far as the key (instead of the fob) closing the windows I suppose it is a safety feature but probably not necessary. The only thing I really wish is that Acura had included remote start in the fob -- THAT would have been a great feature and easily done (safety feature exludes perhaps??)

Karl_in_Chicago

Remote start is standard on the Caddy STS, even the V6. Shouldn't be a safety issue really, as long as it's auto-trans; it's the sticks where the factories won't install them (and probably with good reason).

I also wish the RL offered remote start. Strange that it offers keyfob window-down but not window-up.

legendguy

Yeah, with it being standard on some cars, you would think they would include the remote start on this techno wonder. Because of the keyless start, it precludes you from adding the remote feature on your own because you would have to leave a fob inside the car (and the RL won't lock with a fob present inside the car). Does anyone know of a work-around??

BbPhaeton

- Did you notice that the side windows glass are flush with the window trims?

- Also, you actually don't need to slam the door, just push the door to 75 % close, and the spring will close the door tight. No need for electronics.

legendguy

BbPhaeton- nice find (auto close doors) -YES, it does seem if you let go of the doors near the 1st "step" they will close shut all the way without a push. That is quite a feat!

Two more well designed features:

1. Trunk hinges disappear behind the liner. No worries when loading suitcases in trunk that you will impinge the hinge on a suitcase. This makes up for the smallish trunk (NOT!).

2. MODE stereo button moves you through your LAST USED presets. I assumed that pressing the MODE button on the steering wheel would cycle you through the same numbered choice (ie. FM1 #1, FM2 #1, AM #1, CD #1, XM1 #1, and XM2 #1). But, instead, it cycles through your last used selection from that music category. So you can jump from your favorite XM station to last CD track to favorite AM news station (whatever you were listening to last). This is way it should be.

2veloce

The door closing is not something I thought about - but you are right it does excactly what you indicated. Neat!