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.