This 2006 Acura TL came in with the complaint that the battery would go dead while the car was parked and not being used. The first thing that I found was a dead cell in the battery but I wanted to cover all the bases and checked for a drain condition. I installed my trusty Fluke meter in series between the negative battery post and the negative battery cable. With the meter set up to read DC amps, I found that there was a constant .25 amp draw and it would cycle up to about .65 amps every now and then.
I pulled fuses one at a time in the underhood fuse box until I discovered that by removing the #15, 40 amp PAL fuse, that I am pointing to in the next picture, the drain would go away.
I checked the wiring diagrams and found that fuses 5,6,7,8 & 9 in the interior fuse box are all powered by fuse #15 in the underhood fuse box. By removing them one at a time I found that the problem was on the number six fuse circuit.
That fuse powers multiple interior lights and the Hands Free Link module, HFL. I could see that there were no lights on, so I wanted to check out the HFL. The HFL is supposed to be in the overhead console. The first step to locating it is to remove the power sunroof switch as shown below.
Depress the latch to disengage the harness connector from the switch.
Then I had to reach into the cavity and firmly pull down on the black housing.
This disengages the spring clip just above my thumb.
Remove the harness connector from the lighting panel.
I can now see the HFL module but not the connector.
There are four 8 mm headed screws that hold the trim panel in place.
With those removed the panel will come down and there is the HFL module. By the way it was warm to the touch. The customer stated that she does not use the HFL and was not interested in replacing it. I mearly disconnected it and positioned the connector out of the way.
I also found that an easy test for this problem is to touch the windshield just above the rear view mirror and see if it feels warm. Granted you would have to so this on a cool vehicle, in the shade, with a fully charged battery.
Worked like a charm! My local Acura dealer was going to charge an arm and a leg for a full electrical inspection. Heck no! Car doesn’t die anymore! Thanks so much Sparky.
Tip…you’ll also feel the warmth from the inside near the rear view mirror.
Another big thank you. 06 TL, called dealer, mechanic hadn’t heard of this, said he had tried to fix one before and couldn’t find it. Thank Zeus I didn’t take it to them.
Great instructions, fixed the problem right away.
Today I asked an acquaintance who owns same car as mine if she had any issues with her TL. She did. Told her about your site and how to fix it.
Thanks again
Thank you..I followed your step by step method and that solve my problem on my 06 TL..thank you very much..
Thank you. Worked beautifully. I had my 2006 TL in the shop for this very same reason. My mechanic thought he had fixed it by disconnecting the blue connector you see when you pull the light housing down. I followed your instructions and the draw went from .65 amps to .02 amps after I disconnected the HFL module.
Great information. That was the same problem on my TL. Thanks