Those current readings don't look like the A/C compressor relay. That would be 1.5-2amps. What you're getting sounds like the HFL module.

Unplug it. Pull away the back of the center console (it just snaps on), and the HFL unit is underneath.

 

put back your meter and try to unplug fuse one by one... you'l see what is draining .

 

I got the source figured out: it is the radio circuit. I pulled the 10A fuse for the radio, and the current draw dropped to about 15 mA. Before I pulled the fuse, I could hear some mechanical noises from inside the radio every time the current draw jumped up to 3A. The noise was kind of like the changer was trying to change disks. Does the radio circuit also control the HFL? I couldn't find a fuse marked "HFL" or anything similar.

Has anyone had a similar problem with their radio?

 

Ruh roh shaggy. I've seen that one before. Audio unit will need to be replaced. And woo boy are they not cheap!

 

Could it be the HFL interfering with the radio? Do you know if the HFL is also on the same fuse as the radio? I am hoping it is "only" the HFL and not the audio unit. $1600 for the parts, online.

 

On a couple of occaisions I ejected a disk while shutting off the car. The player tried to take the disk back as I was removing it. The only way to get it to stop was to feed it a disk and eject it again. Although I'll bet that Super Tech is right, I would still try feeding the system a disk (no ketchup) and see if that does anything.

 

Try car-part.com to locate a used part. I would do a lot fiddling before replacing. It may be possible to remove and send for repair. The dvd player repair was not too bad ($180).

good luck

 

Well, it turns out that it was the HFL causing the problem. The dealer diagnosed it on Saturday. They disconnected it, and now the current draw is down to about 20 mA when the car is sleeping. I guess this is good news, since the HFL is $700 compared to about $1600 for the radio. My dealership is contacting Acura to see if they will participate in the repair, since my MDX is just barely out of warranty.

 

I too am having issues with the battery draining overnight. Last weekend, I did what many on the forum have done in the past and began pulling relays and fuses. My initial current draw with the car off was around 800mA. I pulled the A/C clutch relay first - no change. Then I pulled open the center console and unplugged the HFL - current draw dropped from 800mA to 500mA. I continued searching and pulled the radio circuit fuse - dropped from 500mA to near zero (maybe 20mA at most). As a check I left the radio circuit open and plugged the HFL back in: 300mA draw. I also tried wiating 10-15 minutes for the car to go to sleep but still saw the same thing. Any thoughts on this one? It seems at this point that the HFL and radio are independent...

 

Does your horn/alarm start to go off when you placed the multi-meter between the ground cable and the negative terminal of the battery? Im trying to find the battery drain.. but I'm not sure if I am doing it correctly.

 

Make sure you have a relatively high current multimeter (one that can handle at least 5 amps DC. Disconnect the negative cable from the battery, and connect the multimeter between the ground cable and the negative terminal.

It's been quite a while since I did this, but I don't remember anything about the horn going off. Make sure the doors are closed and everything is off when you do this.

 

I had the multimeter (MM) set to 10 AMPS then connected as series (as described as above) and the horn started to go off. MM spiked at like 15 or something....

What i did was ran a second wire from battery (-) terminal to the (-) cable. Turned off the blowing horn once connected. Then placed the the MM in place and removed the second wire.

Was hoping that the second wire wasn't needed. But it worked. Thank you! I hope this helps someone else that is doing this.

 

I had the same problem with my battery and someone in this forum suggested that I disconnect the bluetooth in the console. It took me about 5 minutes and the battery problem has not happened again. Seems that the bluetooth drains the battery quickly.

 

How did you disconnect this? Having the same problem and want to fix this on my own.

 

I have the same problem with my Acura 2007 MDXthanks to the dealer that sold me a new battery for 170 a month and a half later I am with the same problem and I am very dissatisfied now they say it's the hands free link

 

selling me a new hands free link for $440 installed or disconnect the Bluetooth HandsFreeLink 440 when I believe the problem with all along the hands free link so thanks Acura this should be a recallseeing that I am NOT the only one with this problem

 

I Just Dont Understand

Okay, I've read all the way through this thread and am not real clear where I start testing!

My 07 MDX has started this dead battery thing roughly 2 weeks ago. Its very sporadic meaning sometimes it drains over night, sometimes is takes it days. I've also in the past experienced the DVD player making some crazy noise after I shut the car off. Now that is very rare...every 3 months maybe? I'll push a second cd in slightly and it makes it quit. Not sure if that's related but wanted to throw that info out there.

Battery is testing good at O'Reilly as well as the alternator. Battery is an Acura batt with the 100 month warranty and purchased 7/10 (there's a sticker) however I'm second owner of the car so dealer won't replace...which it tests good so I'm not too stressed about that. I just can't make it make sense. So, something is draining my car while its at rest right? Is the car stared and running when I do these tests on the fuses? Will someone please walk me step by step. I will be having my father assist me but I have to go to him with what I know and I need to do. This site has always helped and steered me right. I'm forever grateful for you guys/gals.
Thanks for your time everyone

Edit...HFL works just fine. No issue there. Had key in aux for less than 5 minutes today and now car won't start. Could it be just a batt? But I don't understand why it would test fine at O'Reilly. Also, have had the battery on charger all night last weekend and already dead so I really wanna believe its a batt but O'Reilly tells me differently. Any help I would appreciate!

 

Okay, I've read all the way through this thread and am not real clear where I start testing!

My 07 MDX has started this dead battery thing roughly 2 weeks ago. Its very sporadic meaning sometimes it drains over night, sometimes is takes it days. I've also in the past experienced the DVD player making some crazy noise after I shut the car off. Now that is very rare...every 3 months maybe? I'll push a second cd in slightly and it makes it quit. Not sure if that's related but wanted to throw that info out there.

Battery is testing good at O'Reilly as well as the alternator. Battery is an Acura batt with the 100 month warranty and purchased 7/10 (there's a sticker) however I'm second owner of the car so dealer won't replace...which it tests good so I'm not too stressed about that. I just can't make it make sense. So, something is draining my car while its at rest right? Is the car stared and running when I do these tests on the fuses? Will someone please walk me step by step. I will be having my father assist me but I have to go to him with what I know and I need to do. This site has always helped and steered me right. I'm forever grateful for you guys/gals.
Thanks for your time everyone

Edit...HFL works just fine. No issue there. Had key in aux for less than 5 minutes today and now car won't start. Could it be just a batt? But I don't understand why it would test fine at O'Reilly. Also, have had the battery on charger all night last weekend and already dead so I really wanna believe its a batt but O'Reilly tells me differently. Any help I would appreciate!

First step is to connect the multimeter (10A min capacity) in series to the battery. You may need to have a parallel jumper as described above to avoid ever having the battery disconnected and prevent alarm sounding. MM set to measure 10A or more.

Once MM is hooked up, use the fuse box diagram and remove a fuse from fuse box, observe amperage flow (presumably high), and see if amperage flow is reduced substantially. If yes, you've found the circuit causing the battery drainage. If no, replace fuse and move to next fuse circuit. Repeat until source of drainage is found.

good luck

 

I'm experiencing same problem. Started with not starting Sunday morning before a long trip my wife took, jumped it, it runs fine while started. Five plus hours of driving would have charged battery, but did not start next morning but did in a couple of gas/food stops.

Then, Monday after jump start in morning, had a two hour meeting, did not start, did not start each time engine is turned off.

I disconnected the HFL(hands free link) in center console as it needs replacing because it stopped working last month, dealer quoted price, but we thought we could get by with headset bluetooth for now.

So now I need to start checking voltage to various components? Audio CD was doing the cycle through searching for discs when car was turned off and unable to start due to low power.

I'm taking the battery in to get it load tested, as quick test from Les Schwab, local tire dealer said battery tested fine, but I'm guessing that was not the best way to determine battery health

I will pass on info as I get it. I'm starting with HFL, radio, starter, ??? in that order as it seems from forum research those are possible culprits.

 

My Bluetooth unit did the same thing. Killed my battery a number of times before I figured it out. Disconnected the unit and there was no more dead batteries. Replaced, and no onto the next weird electrical issue.

 

Chalk up another HFL module on my 2008... Battery (new) was draining over several days. AC Clutch relay tested fine, Fluke showed 200 ma continuous draw. Unplugged module and current dropped to 20ma.

 

Chalk up another to a faulty hfl module. I too experienced a dead battery for my 2008 MDX Sport but unfortunately I didn't put 2 and 2 together after my hfl stopped working. So after 3 calls to AAA for a jump and each time telling me my AAA battery was fine, I checked the boards to find out this probably was the culprit. So after unplugging the gray connection to the hfl unit, my $120 AAA battery is now working just fine.

So this is solved and now on to trying to figure out why my passenger mirror is causing problems with my driver settings. It seems to never end...

 

Chalk up another to a faulty hfl module. I too experienced a dead battery for my 2008 MDX Sport but unfortunately I didn't put 2 and 2 together after my hfl stopped working. So after 3 calls to AAA for a jump and each time telling me my AAA battery was fine, I checked the boards to find out this probably was the culprit. So after unplugging the gray connection to the hfl unit, my $120 AAA battery is now working just fine.

So this is solved and now on to trying to figure out why my passenger mirror is causing problems with my driver settings. It seems to never end...

What is HFL? Not good with acronyms. I removed the Bluetooth and changed the AC clutch relay and still my battery drains. It’s an old 2008 Acura MDX so maybe lay it out to greener pastures. Uuugh.

 

My 2007 MDX is having the same battery drain after car sits over the weekend...makes it all the way through the week....So for the last few weeks I've been charging it over the weekend. Today we did some trouble shooting and have narrowed it down to the 10A audio ckt....so from what I've read, it could very well be the HFL - guessing that means hands free link? I never use it. Is HFL making that mechanical clicking noise every minute? When that clicking happens I see the Amps jump to about 3.68 - and that's about every 45-60 sec...then it drops why down, and of course without the audio fuse, there is no clicking, no spike....so is this still HFL?

It'd be nice telling the dealer they don't have to do so much troubleshooting as I have it diagnosed.

Will a Honda dealer be able to fix this as well? My nearest Acura dealer is about 80 miles away.

Thanks,
Mike

 

just had the same issue, battery died on 2 separate occasions on MDX 2007. took it to the dealer first time. they said there was a ? broken wire in the radio which they fixed for $ 100, did not drive for 2 days after which it would not crank, all displays were gone. following jump start to the dealer who diagnosed the HFl system to be draining >200ma when it should be less than 20. I have never used the bluetooth so the option was to replace it for $ 340 or bypass it for free. is bypassed now. Was told Acura is aware of this issue. Believe they should fix/recall esp in the 2007 model. the battery was only 1 yr old so they did not get me to buy a new battery

 

Same here....I'm actually in the dealer customer lounge typing this....they came back and said "HFL Controller". Quoted me about $350 to replace....I told them just to disable it.....for which they're going to charge me $50.00.

I'm wondering if I should complain or not....

 

Similar problems on my 2007 MDX. The battery is draining if car sits very long. New battery installed a year ago and still checks good. Just had a new alternator put on 3 months ago. While checking the battery terminals I got a big spark, thinking electrical short. Used a tester and determined that pulling the radio fuse stoped the drain. Now I have no radio, nav systm, or backup camera. Also the gas door won't open. Can all these items really be on the same circuit?

 

Bluetooth Module was the cause in my MDX,

But I replaced it with a new unit, that I bought at EBay for $180.00. The new units have corrected this problem and are, no longer, draining the batteries. Replacement takes about 10 minutes for a non skilled person...

 

please help me...I have had this problem for a year!!! what is the part I need to get called and how did you test it?

 

Just wanted to thank all those who came before me for tracking this down. I had the exact same symptoms. Used the meter and was reading about 200ma and would spike to 2000ma+ every minute or so. Disconnected the hands free controller and it dropped to a consistent 20ma - no spikes.

Will keep my eye out for a new unit on ebay if we miss it. Thanks again!

 

2007 Acura MDX - same culprit: the HFL. I have a 2-month old 650 CCA Interstate battery - completely drained. The local garage diagnosed it accurately and informed me that the Acura dealer was quoting $400 for a replacement part but ran out of stock - tell-tale sign that the part is junk. So, I told the tech to just remove / by-pass the damn module.

 

thanks for all the comments and suggestions here. I have a 2007 MDX with the very same condition. A BIG shout out to the guy who posted this video https://youtu.be/wP4y58l4Ug0 because he shows how to disconnect the hands-free link. He also descirbes another condition that is happening with my car as well...intermittant AC. He says its the AC relay adaptor and provides a link to ebay to buy new ($23). I did that as well.
One ongoing concern...with the hf disconnected I still show a draw of 460ma...too much I think. I will see if the dead battery returns even with the device disconnected. Anyone else see this continued higher than normal draw?

 

I had a similar problem, turns out the previous owners had a boomerang (gps tracker) anti-theft installed but never had it uninstalled even after cancelling the service. It was draining the battery.