Gator5000e

I have posted on this before and don't know how many RL owners are not receiving the AL Messages, but I was told a fix was coming early in January 2005. If anyone hears that the fix is out, please post it so we all can run to our dealers to get this issue fixed.

Thanks to all and Happy New Year.

larryka

Hi Gator -

As I posted in the other AL thread (https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...p?t=122&page=2), I don't think this really is a hardware issue. However, if NaviTraffic issues are also experienced in the same car, then I guess it could be since they probably use the same sub-system. I'm not an Acura trained technician though, so I could be totally off the mark.

I'm dropping my RL off at the dealer on Friday for some other issues (plastic piece under driver's side mirror is broken and navi reboots randomly), and I have asked them to confirm with Acura if there really is a hardware fix required, or if it was just a server side issue in my case. We'll see what they say...

Gator5000e

Thanks larryka. I look forward to any info you may learn.

larryka

Well my dealer wasn't able to find out if there was a hardware fix for the AL messages in the works or not. I still think it's mostly server side issues, as others have been reporting as well.

The service department also wasn't able to diagnose/fix my navi reboot issue. They didn't work with Acura's tech line even though they were supposed to. Looks like another trip to them is in my future after they call tech support and find out how to proceed. At least they gave me a TSX to drive around in for the day, which hopefully they will do again.

photonbeam7

I have had my RL since 11/27/04 and have not had Acuralink services. I have called
Acura client svcs and the said I should have it since then activated last week. I have not seen any Acura link messages as of 1/11/05. The gal said if that if I don't have any activity by the end of this week, I'll have to visit the dealer.

larryka

Do you have issues with the NavTraffic feature as well? If so, have you gone into the diagnostic mode (Hold MENU/GUIDE, CANCEL, INFO for three seconds or so) and run some of the diagnostics in there to see if the XM unit is detected properly?

mungoac

When I checked the diag, the schematic showed most of the nav system in green, but the XM hip and ecu showed red. When I asked Acura Client Services whether this could be construed as red not working and green being OK, they came back to me a week later, said they had talked with engineering who had said owners weren't supposed to know about this diagnostics feature and therefore would not tell me what the color code meant.

The problem with us knowing apparently is that there are potentially very sensitive adjustments that can be performed through this diagnostic feature, e.g.yaw sensors etc,. and they don't want owners in there. I can understand that. I spent my formative years in business in the aerospace field and know that diddling with gyros and other forms of sensors can result in some very exciting times. But seing how common this nav/traffic/hfl/acuralink seems to be, Acura is perhaps being a little arrogantly paternalistic here.

Menawhile, it is probably safe to asume that red means not working, since the functions one could logically assume reside in the green segments work fine. But guess what -- I am not convinced the dealerships know much about this function either yet.

larryka

Sounds like that's your issue... None of the subsystems should be red based on what I see in my RL...

I can understand their concern as well...

Unfortunately, that seems to be an accurate statement. As I mentioned in another thread I had to inform my service advistor that the RL has an Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) system and that there's a difference between that and the AudioPilot feature of the sound system. At first he was trying to tell me that there was just extra sound dampening material, which as far as I know, Acura used less of due to the ANC system.

As long as the issues I have don't totally ruin the driving experience of the car, I'll be ok with a little ramp up time on the dealer's part for the next month or so, if it takes longer, I'll definitely start getting annoyed.

photonbeam7

Client Svcs told me today 1/13/05 that yes indeed Acura is aware of the problem and told a fix was coming in January. If you need to use your NavTraffic, a temp fix is to remove your fuse box cover(car off) and remove the # 5 fuse for about 20 seconds and then replace. This is only a temp fix however.

8-)

I can understand their concern, and I don't doubt that it's a legitimate concern. But given this legitimate concern, why in the world wouldn't they allow us to delete that stupid "fob not in car" warning message without going into the control/alt/delete (oops, I mean menu/cancel/info) screen??? Like I'm going to take it to the dealer every time I get that warning...And I get that warning all the time. (Dropping off a video at the Blockbuster box, for one.) Duh.

medrxman

Have you tried removing the fuse?
If yes did it work for the Nav Traffic ?
Did it correct your acuralink/messages ?

mungoac

Gator: Here's a response to a similar issue I posted on another board tonite. maybe it's of interest:

Thanks. Mine is close to that and I've had the same problem, "messages" on the info screen blacked out and all that. And I had a talk with Acura CS today, who said that they had activated the service for my car last week and it "should" work (let auxiliary verbs be a red flag when you talk to customer service people) but there wasn't a single message.

In addition, I've been without traffic info, and the ability to dial straight out from the Points of Interest section in the nav system through my Bluetooth phone. I have also found the car to be noisy and have suspected the noise cancellation system of sleeping on the job -- which the dealership so far has doubted.

So today I tried the trick with pulling fuse # 5 from the driver's side main fuse box for half a minute or so and voila! I got traffic, a couple of minutes later I had HFL dial from the POI screen and finally Messages. Although they were mainly messages without which I could do just swimmingly, their mere appearance was a bit of a triumph.

Interestingly, the car also seemed quiet again (I forgot to mention that all of this shit disappeared simultaneously while driving on the Interstate a couple of days after taking delivery of this electronic marvel and that, to my ear, included a suddenly noisier car).

Let me also mention that when using the in-car diagnostic method with map/guide, cancel and menu buttons pressed simultaneously for 5-10 seconds, then going to the Navi and XM.HIP and ECU tests, the whole XM, HFL HIP ECU section showed up in red, while the rest of the NAVI schematic was green. Following the fuse pull, all showed green again and the functions were back. Be aware of the fact that this is a function Acura does NOT want you to know about.

Now, nobody has been able or willing to confirm to me that the noise cancellation system resides in the same area of the circuitry as the other vanished functions, but it stands to reason. This is because it is safe to assume that the RL has the Bose acoustic anti-noise system, since it uses the Bose audio system. And fuse #5, marked "radio" in the manual, kills all radio/sound/xm/traffic/nav functions. So maybe a whole bunch of functions in that area fell out as a result of some electronic aberration and were reset by the fuse pull.

Granted, this is a whole bunch of speculation, maybe even hooey, but I have a feeling the systems designers used shared memeory for a number of things. If not, we would probably not have seen limits on things like address and phone books and the like at a time when memeory is practically free.

PS: None of my personal data was lost after the fuse pull (ain't non-volatile memory nice?), not my address book, not my settings, not even Frank's Place.

PPS: How about this for cheap when you peddle a car for 50 large: The manual says you'll find the fuse puller in the main fuse box under the hood. I opened it and -- you guessed it -- no goddam fuse puller anywhere to be found. What the hell is that all about!?!

dtrose

Welcome to owning a Acura!

I'm on my third acura (2001 TL, 2004 TL, and now 2005 RL). I have had more problems with this damn car from the Rear differential having to be completely replaced to the replacement of the XM box (due to no Traffic info being displayed. Rattle after rattle after rattle from the rear parcel shelf, and front left A pillar. The differential / transmission / AWD is still not working as it should as intermittently I hear a "grinding" noise from the rear of the vehicle when I slow down to quickly. Dealer indicates that it is "Working as designed" but with guets in the car I get "What the hell was that?" when it occurs. I'm now the laughing stock of all of my friends due to buying a first year production car and just getting rid of the TL after only owning it for 9 months. Its going back to Acura next week to address the rattles and the "grinding" noise.

After this experience back to BMW I come. I think I can live without some of the technological advances.

Gator5000e

Just wanted to let everyone know, that I called Acura CS again on Monday and reported my AL messages were still not being received. I told the guy I had been told a fix would be available in January. He told me the notes said I agreed that the last time they had done all they could and that I "Accepted" that solution and the issue closed. I told him I accepted nothing. He then said that the dealership would call, Told him the dealership knew nothing of this fix when I called. Finally, after giving me a hard time, he then escalated my call and said someone would call be back to discuss.

Someone called me back on yesterday. Said he re-initiated my registration (forget exactly what he called it) and said I should be receiving messages within a week. Well this morning I received my first message and this afternoon I received the second message. So it appears it is working now. If anyone is still having problems I suggest calling Acura CS and reporting it and having it escalated. They apparently figured out the problem.

Now to fix my 2 remaining issues:

The terrible sound everyone I make a call to complains when I use the HFL (sounds like I am in a tunnel or underwater) and;

The inability of my phone to link via BT to the Acura server.

I can actually live without the BT connection to the Acura serve, but I really want the sound to be better when I use the HFL. If no one can understand me, what's the point of having it. Wonder if installing a better quality mic would help?

tompd

Personally, I don't think there is "fix" or a "problem". I called about a week after I purchased my car, and was told they would open a ticket to re-initiate my vehicle. Well, 3 or 4 days later, nothing was happening. I called CS back and they directed me to the person handling my case. He said he was sorry that he hadn't gotten to my activation yet. He then took care of it on the phone, and I started receiving the messages right away.

Word of advice: Treat everyone nicely and they're more likely to go the extra mile for you...

Just my $.02

Gator5000e

tompd, you are right about being nice ( and I think I was very nice but the CS I spoke with the 2nd time was pretty rude - but that is besides the point). But the different CS reps I spoke with admitted there was a problem and not all the cars were getting messages in spite of activation. So I guess they got the problem fixed (or finally got around to activating it after telling me 3x they had already done it). So alls well that ends well.

dseag2

I'm really sorry to hear you're having so many problems and can't enjoy this wonderful car. My experiences with Acura have been totally different. I've owned a '99 TL, an '04 TL, and now an '05 RL and have never had issues with any. They were all first-year models. My RL with 1700 miles, has had no problems, while my Infiniti FX (second-year car), which was purchased one week earlier and has 1900 miles, has rattles from both the passenger and driver side windows and has already displayed the "Service Engine Soon" light which mysteriously went away after one week of driving.

I can certainly understand your decision to move to another brand, as I did the same when Audi's service finally got on my last nerve, but I'm not sure I would go running into the arms of BMW for solace from reliability issues. And BTW, I wouldn't consider anyone who has $50k to put down on a car a "laughing stock", even if it has issues.

Just my

AcuraRLBlue

How the hell the dealer could say that your call was "working as designed"? This is what really gets me mad.

I understand your frustraction. If one was to put up with problems with a "luxury" car, one might as well risked it with the European cars.

8-)

Gator: Glad to hear your messages are coming now.

Concerning the inability to link via BT to the Acura server, I couldn't get mine to work either. Then, a couple of weeks ago I was at the dealer, and he asked me to demonstrate the problem. So I was drilling down through the menu, and when I got to the "connect to Acura server" item, it was grayed out! I'm not having any other problems with the Nav or any other items. The dealer didn't know about this function at the time, so I was supposed to call him back. (Forgot to do that!) So I started thinking about it, and I realized I don't even have a clue what the purpose of this is. So I have 2 questions for anyone out there:

1. Can you connect to the Acura server via the menu?
2. What's the purpose of this function?

Thanks guys.

Gator5000e

The manual says it is for dialing a place of interest that you may find on the navigation map (the little green i - if you click on them you will be given a list of restaurants, etc at that location and you are supposed to be given the option to call via the BT phone). I think it also provides a way to receive additional mesages from Acura. I beleive the manual lists some other stuff as well. Like I said, no big deal if I can not get it to work. Having an AT&T phone, I don't know which easy set up to use, AT&T or Cingular and I don't know the PW or User name.

My last 2 items are to get me to sound better on the HFL (still can't figure out if its the phone or HFL) and to determine if the noise cancellation is working.

larryka

Sounds like someone stole it or the factory "forgot" to put it in for you... my fuse puller was there when I looked for it while installing my V1.

larryka

I can connect to the Acura server via my Sony Ericsson T610 on T-Mobile. I use "*99***#" as my dial string with no username/password. Which carrier are you on? Do you use data with your phone and a notebook/pda? If so, use the same dial string that you use to initiate the data session.

As far as I know, the purpose of the RL dialing up to Acura is to report any engine codes that might occur and then show some detailed messages to the driver on what is happening and how to proceed. That's what I remember reading, but again, I could be wrong.

larryka

I would try the AT&T setup. The Cingular setup probably refers to the pre-merger Cingular, although it's worth a shot if the AT&T setup doesn't work. As I mentioned in my previous post if you use your phone for data with a notebook or PDA then the same dial string and username/password would apply.

Do you have a bluetooth headset? If so, I assume you don't get the same complaints, right? If you don't have one, you might want to try a friend's or one at a store to see what kind of reports you get and try to rule out the RL's BT connection as the issue.

8-)

Thanks, Gator, for the info. Now I have a reason to make this work! I really, really need to read the manual soon.

Thanks, larryka. I also have the SE T610, using Cingular. I haven't looked at the menu for about a week, so I don't really know if it is still grayed out. Maybe this weekend I'll give it another shot. PDA? I'm trying to simplify, no PDA for me. And the laptop stays in the den so I can play on Acurazine! Hopefully the easy set up will work.

Thanks guys for the info.

Shotgun

Well, here I am, fat, dumb, and happy until I run across this superb post. I too became aware of what appeared to be increased road noise several weeks ago and didn't recall ever getting any "messages"! Now you know, that after reading this post, I had to push the map/guide, cancel and menu buttons to see what the deal was! Lo and behold, I too got the "red" blocks in the XM, HFL HIP ECU sections.

Tomorrow I'm going to pull fuse #5 for the recommended half minute to see if the red indicators go away and if my car will get quiet again and/or perhaps send me some messages. Now what concerns me is that someone posted that the "Fuse #5 pull" was merely a temporary fix - temporary how? I'd like to know...Temporary until you turn the car off and restart? Or temporary for a day, a week, a month! What?

Although I changed no setting when I went into the diagnostic mode I did notice one interesting "selector"...it was labeld "Download"...Do you suppose the car can download firmware updates through the XM module?

Larryk, Mungoac and Gator I appreciate your posts...it's good stuff! Keep it coming...

mungoac

Shotgun: In my case the fix has lasted at least hree days with many starts and stops. But of course, it could be temporary. We shall see. Best of luck.

jkatz714

acuralink hasnt worked since i got car about ten days ago...no messages ...nothing!...numerous calls to cs reps... 50 thou and you cant even get a straight answer for acura...oh well...I'd like to try the fuse pull reset idea... when all else fails...control alt del...nothing changes!

Shotgun

OK, thanks...I just pulled the fuse as you and others recommended and as predicted, all status settings turned to green! I've not driven the car long enough (just to the end of the block and back) to determine if the ANC is functional but I will submit a follow-on post to keep you apprised. Additionally, I will check the diagnostic feature weekly to determine if the fix is indeed a temporary or permanent one.

Shotgun

As a follow-up...The car now seems quieter! I see icons on the navi screen that weren't there before, and I see the "envelope" icon in the upper right hand corner again indicating I have messages. Apparently the fuse pull/replace exercise works...I think all Acura RL owners need to be aware of this issue/fix.

Gator5000e

I am going to try to fuse pull exercise but was wondering if anyone has connected with the Acura server with their BT phone? If anyone with AT&T has, could you please post the dial string and if a user name and password is required?

Thanks. I am going to get all the features on this car working if it kills me!!

jkatz714

hey..I also have att on my t637 sony ericcson so If you get any dial string info please share it... I'll of course do the same...thanks

tompd

So does the fuse pull thing work for the active noise cancelling in the speakers? It seems like my car got noisier, but can't verify..

Shotgun

Tompd, it apparently worked for me! The car seems much quieter and I don't think its a figment of my imagination. Try it and give us your feedback!

tompd

OK everyone.. I'll be giving it a shot Wed. morning. I'm taking care of my daughter at home, and will have an opportunity then. (Hoping all my settings stay the same)

photonbeam7

CS told me today that tentative fix date is Feb 6th . Also somebody asked about a fuse puller. That item is located in the engine compartment in the "primary" fuse holder compartment. It's a little white puller.

Gator5000e

photonbeam7, is this a fix for the initial 30 some messages you are supposed to get on various features in the car thru XM, or is this a fix for connecting to the AcuraLink server? Hopefully it's the latter. Thanks.

Gator5000e

The quick set up dial string for AT&T appears to be correct - *99#. I was able to connect my Pocket PC to the net using a BT connection through my phone, but not thru the car. So I know the phone data connection works. Something up with the AcuraLink system, I suspect that they are not telling us about. Hopefully the post below about a 2/6/05 fix is for this problem.

mungoac

Gator, I believe you're supposed to get a message a day for 90 days after the AcuraLink is turned on through a cooperative/communicative joint effort between dealer and AcuraCS. I emphasize SUPPOSED to.

Meanwhile, I have clear signs from ACS that there may have been a few problems with the AcuraLink initiation at the outset. I also believe that this may be the crux of the Nav/Traffic/HFL problems so many owners have experienced. I see some dealers have switched out the XM boxes in the trunk, but I don't believe this is the problem with the phantom features.

I believe it is some sort of transient phenomenon at the early stage of usage, either a voltage dip (not a spike, since it's a 12V system -- I think...?) or an RF phenomenon.

Meanwhile, all my functions are back since I did the fuse reboot over a week ago and they remain functional. So let me go on the record as believing that the problem with these subsystems are caused by some strange aberration in the AcuraLink start-up. This, obviously, is strictly based on guesswork and a profound -- almost religious -- belief in Murphy's Law.

That being said, I'll soon address an interesting brake situation I encountered in this vehicle, Gator. But that had best be the subjct of another post...

jkatz714

hey guys i hope i am uisng this screen correctly...thanks for reply...i think this site is great and so helpful thanks again everyone

Gator5000e

Unclear re the fuse pull. Are you guys pulling the #5 fuse under the hood or in the car? The manual says, I think, the #5 fuse under the hood controls one of the headlights. So if someone could clarify which fuse, I would appreciate it. Thanks.