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.
Thanks- I took your advice and had the HFL disconnected last summer. Worked well for awhile, but now am back to dead ( new!) batteries when the car sits for as few as 4 days, garaged. It is Phoenix, but not even hot now!
Thank Buddha for AAA, but I’m tired of this! My 2006 TL still has less than 100k on it.
Other ideas?
fantastic! had the same problem with my 2006 TL, and disconnecting the bluetooth fixed it; have been screwing with battery problems for a year and a half now, and finally googled it and found your solution! many many thanks!
+1 … fixed my issue also, 2006 TL. HFL box was warm to the touch, now it is disconnected.
Fixed my problem in 15 minutes. Draw went from .65 amps to .04 amps after disconnecting HFL. No more battery problems. Thank you!
Thank you, I just followed your instructions & it only took 15 mins. Reading all the previous comment, I’m sure my problem is fixed.