Category: 2004 to 2008 Acura TL

OVERVIEW

One of the best made sedans of all time is the 2004 Acura TL which continued production from 2004 to 2008. This article will cover the factory audio system in the Acura TL and the available aftermarket upgrades.

The audio system in your 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Acura TL is made up of several components including the navigation touch screen or non navigation display screen, the factory stereo with built in cd changer and the factory amplifier which powers the 8 speakers in the vehicle.

SPEAKERS

Let’s start with the speakers. The Acura TL from 2004 to 2008 has a total of eight different speakers or drivers. It has a center 3.5 Inch 4 ohm center speaker. It also has a pair 1/2 inch tweeters that are also 4 ohms. Then it has two front door speakers which are 6 inch and have an impedance of 2 ohms. To finish the system on the rear deck the Acura TL has an additional two 6 inch speakers with an impedance of two ohms and an 8 inch subwoofer which has a two ohm final impedance. Your front door speakers and dashboard tweeters share the same full range output from the amplifier there is no crossover to protect your tweeters or woofers instead the tweeters have a bass blocking capacitor mounted on them to protect them from playing low notes. The center and subwoofer both have a high pass filters and low pass filters to protect the drivers. You can replace the speakers in your Acura TL with no problem. We sell the necessary mounting rings to change your door speakers, tweeters and subwoofer. The 3.5″ speaker doesn’t require any special mounting brackets just a speaker harness to connect your new speaker. You can get away without buying any mounting hardware to mount your new speakers but you will need to modify the factory mounting brackets or modify the metal of your door panel to fit new speakers. We recommend speakers from JBL or Infinity for the easiest installation and results. You can view our speaker packages and accessories by clicking here. The speakers in the Acura TL that fail the most often are the front door speakers and subwoofer. The rear deck speakers and center speaker don’t usually have any issues. If you are experiencing low audio or audio without much bass the issue is most likely your factory amplifier and not your speakers.

AMPLIFIER

The amplifier in your 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Acura TL is responsible for powering all the speakers in the car including the factory subwoofer. Although the amplifier does power 8 different speakers it is only a 6 channel amplifier with roughly 200 watts of total output. When the factory amplifier is working properly it produces nice rich sound. But unfortunately the factory amplifier is the most common audio component to fail in your Acura TL. If you are experiencing low sound or no sound from your Acura TL your factory amplifier is either failing or has failed already. Symptoms of a failing amplifier could also including ringing or popping and differences in audio depending on the temperature. The 2004-2007 Acura TL has a dedicated part number that is different from the 2007-2008 TL but they are interchangeable as all the plugs are the same. So if you are having issues with your amplifier you can buy a used one from any year and swap them. The factory amplifier can also be repaired. We do not repair amplifiers but this is something you can send out for repair. We do offer plug and play amplifiers to replace the factory amplifier easily. Our plug and play amplifiers are available in a 4 channel, 5 channel or 6 channel configuration depending on your budget and end goal. You can also bypass the factory amplifier all together but it will require you to install an aftermarket radio to power all of your speakers directly. Traditional aftermarket radios only have 4 channels of output so if you decided to bypass your amplifier you will need to make sure your radio can handle the load of your factory speakers and decide which speakers you plan to leave disconnected. If you are looking for the pug and play amplifiers or the amplifier bypass you can find them by clicking here. Lastly if your factory amplifier is working fine but you want to add another amplifier to power aftermarket subwoofers then you can use a traditional line out converter on the output of the factory subwoofer or our amplifier t harness to create the signals needed to power your aftermarket amplifier. If you have a Type S you will want to make sure to disconnect the ANC module below the center speaker to avoid unwanted noises from your subwoofer.

RADIO

In the middle of the complex audio system in your 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Acura TL is the head unit. This radio in the Acura TL was top of the line for its year. It featured DVD audio which was set to create an entire new audio experience. Unfortunately DVD audio never caught on so most people use it as a regular CD player. This CD player had a built in 6 CD changer that is awesome when it works but it is known for jamming and not working properly. The head unit also had XM and the later 2007 2008 models had aux inputs so you could listen to your own music. Along with the head unit came several other parts including a sub display either mounted on the top vents or along side the climate control display on the non navigation models. Then you have buttons on your steering wheel to control volume and the hands free link unit in the car. If you have navigation then you have additional buttons to control the navigation via voice commands. The Handsfree link unit in the Acura TL allows you to make bluetooth phones calls through the cars audio system. But most people have the HLF disabled because it is the number one source of battery drain issues in your Acura TL. The Acura TL has no bluetooth streaming capabilities from the factory only bluetooth calling so if you want to add bluetooth streaming additional aftermarket parts are necessary.

Can you replace the head unit in your Acura TL? The answer is yes. Regardless if you have navigation or you don’t have navigation you can replace the radio. The dash kit available for the Acura TL isn’t very wide so you want to make sure you use a name brand radio so you don’t have any fitment issues. Also you want to verify that your new aftermarket radio has at least 5 or 6 RCA audio ports. Replacing the radio in your Acura TL is simple with our plug and play harnesses. Our harnesses allow you to keep all of your speakers (except the center channel) and your steering wheel controls. If you have navigation your navigation will continue to work but all of the audio prompts will no longer be heard. You will also get to keep your backup camera working on the original navigation screen. You will not retain your HFL call control buttons or the Navigation control buttons. In order to retain these you will need to make permanent modifications to your steering wheel harness. The dash kits available allow you install an aftermarket radio where the factory radio goes not where the factory navigation screen is located. If you want to install an aftermarket radio where the factory navigation screen is you will need to custom make a dash kit or install an aftermarket radio referred to as the Tesla screen which replaces the factory navigation and stereo with one unit. When replacing the radio and keeping the factory amplifier you want to make sure you send a low level signal from the aftermarket radio to amplifier to make sure it does not become damaged and sounds like it supposed to. If you do not send a low level signal it will distort at higher volumes and sound terrible. The head unit in the Acura TL rarely fails so if you are having issues with no audio we would first recommend that you look at the factory amplifier. In order to install a new radio you will need additional parts aside from our plug and play harness. You will need the dash kit like mentioned earlier and a steering wheel control interface depending on the radio you plan to install.

NAVIGATION

The Navigation system in the 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Acura TL was top of the line when it released but now in modern times it definitely shows its age. The navigation system isn’t only the touch screen in the center of your dash. It also has a brain that runs the software located in the trunk and a GPS antenna located on the rear deck of the car. If you have a 2007 or 2008 your Navigation also has backup camera integrated into it and Acura Link which provides live data via GPS to help you avoid traffic. While some owners still use their navigation on daily, many of these units have failed and show the dreaded please check disc error which almost always results in having to replace the entire DVD drive to fix. If your system does work consider your self lucky and enjoy it. If your system doesn’t work or you are looking to replace it. I have some bad and good news. The bad news is the only replacement available is hit or miss when it comes to satisfaction and the good news is that you can downgrade to the non navigation display screen with a special harness. If you want another solution there are several companies who offer an Apple CarPlay video interface that will show up on the factory screen and allow you to control it with an additional controller. If you are looking to just install an aftermarket radio you can leave the navigation in place if it works it will continue working if it doesn’t work then it will continue not working. If your aftermarket radio has video out then you can use the navigation screen to show whats on the aftermarket radio but this will require an additional part to make possible. You can also use that same part to add a backup camera to the 2004 2005 2006 Acura TL that came without a factory backup camera. The navigation system and navigation screen is not interchangeable with cars that have navigation and those that don’t if you want to convert from one to the other you will need additional harnesses to do so. Also if you have a 2004 to 2006 the screen is different from a 2007 to 2008. The connectors behind the screen are different so they are not interchangeable. Lastly if the lights around your navigation screen are out or only some work they have bulbs you can replace but you need to make sure you get the correct part number for each bulb. If you are not careful you will blow the electronics that control those lights and the entire button assembly will be forever dark so be extremely careful.

If you are looking for specifics on how to replace your radio, upgrade your speakers or install a new amplifier check out the articles below and our youtube channel for all the information you will need.

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2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Acura TL Aftermarket Radio DIY Wiring Instructions

Disclaimer: Installing an aftermarket radio in your Acura TL will result in the loss of the center dash speaker and the factory hands free link. The center speaker is not retained so you will lose factory navigation audio prompts. Also the steering wheel controls that work with the aftermarket radio are volume up, volume down, next track, previous track and mode. The call buttons will not work with the aftermarket radio or the navigation prompt buttons on the steering wheel. Additional parts may be necessary to keep your factory steering wheel controls depending on the radio you are installing.

Notice: When replacing the radio in your Acura TL if you have a 2004, 2005 or 2006 there are only two connectors that will need to be wired to make your aftermarket radio work. If you have a 2007 or 2008 Acura TL then 3 connectors must be wired. The white connector behind the radio is not used. To complete the installation you must color match the wires to the wires on your aftermarket radio.

Here is a PDF Version

Blue 20 Pin Connector A (All Years)

PIN COLOR FUNCTION
A1 Yellow Constant 12V+
A3 White (RCA) FL+ RCA
A4 Red (RCA) FR+ RCA
A5 White (RCA) RL+ RCA
A6 Red (RCA) RR+ RCA
A8 Gray Steering Wheel Control Output
A9 Red Switched 12V+
A10 Blue FM Antenna Power Input
A11 Black Ground
A12 Orange Illumination Output 12V+
A13 Black (RCA) FL- RCA
A14 Black (RCA) FR- RCA
A15 Black (RCA) RL- RCA
A16 Black (RCA) RR- RCA
A20 Black Steering Wheel Control Ground

 

Gray 26 Pin Connector B (04-06 Only)

Pin Color Function
B1 Blue Twisted GA-NET+ Resistor Loop
B3 Blue Factory Amplifier Turn on Input 12V+
B13 White (RCA) Subwoofer + RCA
B14 Red Twisted GA-NET+ Resistor Loop
B25 Black (RCA) Subwoofer – RCA

 

Gray 40 Pin Connector C (07-08 Only)

Pin Color Function
C2 White (RCA) Subwoofer + RCA
C9 Red Twisted GA-NET+ Resistor Loop
C22 Black (RCA) Subwoofer – RCA
C29 Blue Twisted GA-NET+ Resistor Loop
C35 Blue Factory Amplifier Turn on Input 12V+

 

Gray 2 Pin Connector D (07-08 Only)

Pin Color Function
D2 Black Antenna Signal AM/FM
D3 Blue Antenna Power Input 12V+

Pioneer/Kenwood/Sony: Most Pioneer, Kenwood, and Sony radios only have one blue/white wire. This blue/white wire must be connected to the blue wires on the connectors provided in our wiring otherwise you will have no sound. If you are having trouble please call or text 877-542-2872

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Plug and Play Harness Questions

Our harnesses allow you to complete a DIY installation or a Plug and Play installation. A DIY installation requires you to wire the harnesses provided by us and the harnesses that came with your radio together. The harnesses we provide remove the need to wire splice or cut any factory wiring. The connectors will just plug into the factory connections and provide color coded wires for you to match to the wiring that came with your aftermarket radio.

With our DIY products the harnesses eliminate the need to wire splice/cut any of the factory wiring and instead give you harnesses that plug into the factory wiring and provide clear labeled wires/instructions for you to follow and wire your radio together. You can install aftermarket equipment such as subwoofers and amplifiers with our harnesses. Our Plug and Play installation harnesses are already wired with all the necessary connections for your installation. Those connections include the connectors for your specific vehicle and the connection that plugs into your aftermarket radio. With our PNP harness all you have to do is plug the components in and start enjoying your new radio.

Our plug and play harnesses require no wiring at all. They are custom made to the radio you plan to install. In order to prepare and ship a PNP harness you must provide us with the radio brand you plan to install and sometimes the radio model. The harness is then made specific to your vehicle and radio combination. The brand of radio you plan to install might be a pioneer, or a Sony, Kenwood etc. But the model number of the radio will be something like pictured below.

Some radios require you to connect one or two wires yourself as they are physically attached to the radio and we cannot connect them for you. The harness will have these labeled whether they are for the steering wheel controls or the parking break. The steering wheel control wires are often blue/yellow on kenwood and brown on other radios. You will need to hook up the blue/yellow to the brown wire provided in our harness. The parking break wire is another connection you will have to make it will either need to be hooked up to your parking break or you can add a parking break bypass to your order and remove the need to make this extra connection.

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Acura TL Aftermarket Radio Install Questions

Our accessories allow you to retain the factory steering wheel controls excluding the call control buttons. These buttons include volume up, volume down, mode, next track and previous track. The other buttons can be retained but require modifications to the steering wheel wiring and manual programming which result in an installation that is not plug and play.

If you want a plug and play installation then only the buttons referenced above will auto program. When replacing the factory radio with an aftermarket stereo you will also lose the center channel audio. Although you lose the center channel when upgrading the stereo, the new stereo will allow the factory system to be much louder and have better bass response.

The components in our kits allow you to keep the factory subwoofer of your Acura functioning with the factory radio as well. There is a SUB RCA that you will connect to the aftermarket radios SUB output and that will keep your factory subwoofer functioning. If you would like to add aftermarket subwoofers to your Acura you can do so with our harness/kit as well. You will just need to split the RCA to send signal to the factory sub and the other subwoofer or you can disconnect the factory sub.

Lastly, If you have factory navigation and it is working then our harness will allow it to keep working with the aftermarket radio. The touchscreen will respond and you will be able to look at the map but you will loose any audible warnings such as turn by turn directions. The factory backup camera if equipped will still work. You will also lose the factory HFL or bluetooth hands free but this feature is found in your new radio so it is unneeded. If your factory navigation is not working you can still replace the radio without an issue. If you want to place an aftermarket radio where the factory navigation screen goes, this can be done but you will need to make permanent modifications to your vehicle. We don’t recommend or support replacing the factory navigation with another radio, this includes the tesla style radio.

As for radio selection you can use any radio that has six RCA ports on the back for audio (3 pairs) and also offers a steering wheel control input. Many amazon/eBay non branded radio will not work either because they don’t have the correct inputs/outputs or because they will not fit correctly in the dash kit. When replacing the radio the part that is replaced is where you adjust the volume. So the two knobs are replaced with an opening for a standard double din radio. This opening can accommodate a standard single din radio and a pocket or a double din radio. The bigger double din radios will not fit. Other radios may fit incorrectly and leave a gap we recommend using a name brand radio from sony, kenwood, jvc, boss, pioneer, or jensen to ensure you have the best installation experience.

If when upgrading your radio you want to install a backup camera this is also a possibility and universal backup camera can be installed. It will just require you run wires from the rear of the vehicle to the front. Almost all backup cameras are compatible with our accessories. If you are looking for an OEM style camera you can visit our store to find one like the one pictured below.

 

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3G Acura TL Climate Control Display Lights

If your climate control bulbs aren’t lighting up this article should help you determine the cause. First a disclaimer everyone’s situation is different the reason your bulbs may not be working may not be the same reason as someone else, if you proceed to troubleshoot and cause damage to your vehicle you are solely responsible.

My situation is:

Only a few lights don’t work:

This is most likely due to bad bulbs please check your Acura parts source for the correct part number for your vehicle Type S bulbs are different. Here are the common part numbers

39055-SEP-A31
39055-SEP-A22
39054-SEP-A01

 

None of my lights work:

The first step here is to check your fuses and make sure none are blown the TLs electrical system is pretty tied together and if one fuse goes out it sometimes takes out another, also the illumination fuse is under the hood and in the kick panel so both must be good for the lighting to work correctly.

All of my my fuses are good but no lights work:

This is the worst one. According to https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-problems-fixes-114/light-bulbs-around-navigation-screen-out-851060/ and other posts/forums this leads to the electronics within the climate control display going bad. This happens when you put a bulb in the wrong orientation or put the wrong bulb in a location. This means that the electronics inside the board must be repaired and we currently don’t know anyone who does this repair. This almost always leads to just having to replace the climate control display. If you have navigation yes this means the entire navigation screen. Before condemning the climate control you can try replacing the bulbs to see if maybe they all just went out at once, this can happen but it is very rare.

Climate control displays are not interchangeable between all TLs only from models 04-06 and then 07-08 so a 2008 display will not work in a 2004 and vice versa.

Can I replace the bulbs with LED lights?

Yes you can we don’t really know too much about this topic but you would need nano wedge bulbs that are 14v and 8v and the color you want them to be.

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Acura TL Aftermarket Radio DIY KIT Instructions

Download a copy

Disclaimer: Installing an aftermarket radio in your Acura TL will result in the loss of factory route navigation guidance, the loss of center channel audio and the loss of certain hands-free functionality within the factory system. All these features are easily obtained in your new aftermarket radio along with an amazing improvement in sound quality.

Notice: The following instructions will help you wire together our DIY kit with your aftermarket radio and steering wheel control adapter. We will refer to the blue plug as connector A and the grey plugs as connector C26 & C40. On Acura’s from 2004 to 2006 you will find connector A & C26. On Acura’s from 2007 to 2008 you will find connector A, C40 & D(antenna connector). There is also a white plug on all Acura’s that is not used when installing and aftermarket radio it is for the factory XM unit.

Pin Color Function
A1 Yellow Constant 12V
A3 White(RCA) Front Left + RCA
A4 Red(RCA) Front Right + RCA
A5 White(RCA) Rear Left + RCA
A6 Red(RCA) Rear Right + RCA
A8 Red/Black Steering Wheel Control +
A9 Red Switched 12V
A10 Blue FM Power Antenna (04-06)
A11 Black Ground
A12 Orange Illumination
A13 Black(RCA) Front Left – RCA
A14 Black(RCA) Front Right – RCA
A15 Black(RCA) Rear Left – RCA
A16 Black(RCA) Rear Right – RCA
A20 Black Steering Wheel Control –

 

Pin C26 Color Function
C1 Blue GA-NET + (CANBUS)
C3 Blue Factory Amp Turn On
C13 White(RCA) Sub + RCA
C14 Red GA-NET – (CANBUS)
C25 Black(RCA) Sub – RCA

 

Pin C40 Color Function
C2 Black Sub + RCA
C9 Black GA-NET + (CANBUS)
C22 Black Sub – RCA
C29 Red GA-NET – (CANBUS)
C35 Black(RCA) Factory Amp Turn On

 

Pin D Color Function
D2 Black Antenna Signal FM/AM
D3 Blue Power Antenna (FM/AM)

 

The 2007 to 2008 Acura TLs do not have pin A10 instead the power antenna 12V signal must be connected to pin D3. Pioneer radios only provide one blue wire for amp turn on and power antenna connect both blue wires D3 and C3/C35 to that blue/white wire to have full functionality. Kenwood’s and Alpines offer an amp turn on wire along with a power antenna wire be sure to match each wire to the correct one.

The steering wheel control interface needs to connected to pin A8 Steering wheel control positive, with our harness pin A20 is already connected to ground. If you have any questions or are stuck please call us at 631-538-0068 or email us at info@mobilemaxcaraudio.com. Thank you for your business and congratulations on the new radio!

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Acura TL Aftermarket Radio No Sound | Not Working

Did you install a new aftermarket radio in your Third Generation(2004,2005,2006,2007,2008) Acura TL? Is the aftermarket radio powering on but you don’t hear anything through the speakers?or Do you get sound through the speakers but it gets very distorted at higher volumes? Is your factory navigation touchscreen not working after the install? If you are experiencing any of these symptoms you are in luck because we have the solution for you whether you have an 04-06 or an 07-08 Acura TL.

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Acura TL Factory Amplifier Replacement

Are you not satisfied with the sound quality of your Acura TL’s factory sound system? Are you starting to consider replacing the factory amplifier? We recommend you start with replacing the stereo if you are really looking for the best bang for your buck when it comes to upgrading. If you are set on upgrading the factory amplifier the information below should help. If you find that your Acura isn’t as loud as you would expect it to be the cause is often a factory amplifier going bad. The bad amplifier will limit the audio output and you will experience very low audio levels. This is a common failure of the Acura TL factory amplifier. The best solution is to simple replace the amplifier with one of our plug and play amps or another factory amplifier that does not suffer from the same problem.

This video will help you also.

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Acura TL Factory Subwoofer Replacement

Are you looking to add more bass to your Acura TL? You would be surprised at the upgraded sound quality and bass if you upgrade your factory radio and use the factory speakers. You can find more information on that here. If you are a bass head or have already made your mind up that you are going to get rid of the factory subwoofer once and for all prepare for a challenge my friend. Check out our subwoofer and amp upgrade packages.

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