I had a 2005 Acura RL which had some pretty fancy electronics for its time. I gave it to my daughter a few years ago and she started reporting that the battery was dying. It would take several days to die, so at first she just jump start the car every couple of days. When she brought it home (she lives 5 hours away) I measured the current draw at >800mA when it should be <20mA.
These cars have a Bluetooth handsfree module that goes bad and starts leaking power. The fix is to bake them in the oven at 350F for 5min to reflow the solder. Already did this twice and then decided to just get rid of it. So that was not the problem.
She needed to get back so we figured out which fuse was the easiest to remove and she lived with that for a couple of months. In the mean time we figured out it was the MICU module, which is the module that controls all the electronic systems and security. Without this nothing works. I was told a new one would be north of $1200 and labor. If they could find one. The dealership said they would chase down the problem again for $165/hr just to be sure... And I would have to leave the car with them until they were ready. Possibly 3 weeks.
I found a couple of the units on ebay for <$100. One was from a 2008 and another one that had some broken plastic on the case for from an early 2005 (same as my car). I tried the first one, nothing worked, all kinds of systems failed. I learned there was an EEPROM chip in the Honda/Acura MICUs that store the codes to make the systems work and are unique for each vehicle. The Dealership can program them for a fee. Having a full electronics lab, I swapped the chips in no time. It was better, but the starter would not engage. In desperation, I did it again on the 2005 MICU and... success!
Mind you, it took >4 hours the first time to get the MICU out and 2 hours to put it back in. I did this at least five times. I got good enough at it that I could do the whole swap in less than an hour. Back and hands were not happy each time I did it for a day or two.
These cars have a Bluetooth handsfree module that goes bad and starts leaking power. The fix is to bake them in the oven at 350F for 5min to reflow the solder. Already did this twice and then decided to just get rid of it. So that was not the problem.
She needed to get back so we figured out which fuse was the easiest to remove and she lived with that for a couple of months. In the mean time we figured out it was the MICU module, which is the module that controls all the electronic systems and security. Without this nothing works. I was told a new one would be north of $1200 and labor. If they could find one. The dealership said they would chase down the problem again for $165/hr just to be sure... And I would have to leave the car with them until they were ready. Possibly 3 weeks.
I found a couple of the units on ebay for <$100. One was from a 2008 and another one that had some broken plastic on the case for from an early 2005 (same as my car). I tried the first one, nothing worked, all kinds of systems failed. I learned there was an EEPROM chip in the Honda/Acura MICUs that store the codes to make the systems work and are unique for each vehicle. The Dealership can program them for a fee. Having a full electronics lab, I swapped the chips in no time. It was better, but the starter would not engage. In desperation, I did it again on the 2005 MICU and... success!
Mind you, it took >4 hours the first time to get the MICU out and 2 hours to put it back in. I did this at least five times. I got good enough at it that I could do the whole swap in less than an hour. Back and hands were not happy each time I did it for a day or two.