HFT problems

Hi All

My iCTDi EX HFT has played up intermittently since I've had the car (4 months approx). It either worked very well or not at all and recently konked out for good. I've a couple of questions for the knowledgeable folk here.

The problem appears to be with the microphone.

Previously I disconnected the battery and did a full reset - no affect

I've tried resetting the mic level through the sat nav interface which just races into the red, although this seemed to work in the past on the odd occassion.

Local Honda dealer has run diagnostics and there are no fault codes stored. I suspect the microphone is the culprit and have been advised to book the car in to have a honda tech rummage around the headlining to get to the bottom of the matter - at an indeterminate number of hours, I'm not too keen on doing this just yet. so.... my questions are

- This seems to be an issue that has occured a number of times judging by old forum posts, are there any Honda technical bulletin type docs on it and should I be batting any costs back to Honda?

- How difficult is it to remove the plastics around the courtesy lights as I'd like to get in and poke about with a multimeter. My initial look suggests that ramming a flat bladed screw driver into it will result in broken plastic.. any one any tips?

- Can the microphone be isolated and replaced without unthreading 15m of cabling, removal of the dash etc..?


Thanks in advance

Ade

Try using the search button fella you will find lots of post with answers but because your new have a look here

http://typeaccord.co.uk/forum/topic/361-hft-problems/

brett said:

Try using the search button fella you will find lots of post with answers but because your new have a look here

http://typeaccord.co.uk/forum/topic/361-hft-problems/

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply - I tried a search last night on my iphone and nothing came up hence the post....

Anyway, it appears I've exactly the issue you had and will try again with the light cluster to have a look see. Interestingly a bit of violence to the outer casing seemed to sort the problem last time.

Mods/Admin, you might wish to merge this thread with the others.

Ade

Ade the easiest way to get to the mic is if you take off the 2 light covers gently with a small flat head screwdriver and also the plastic cover with the 2 vents.The plastic cover is the one that covers the alarm censers.You will then find four 8mm bolts in the 4 corners undo and the hole unit will come off.Hope this helps a little.As for the mic im certain mine was a loose connection hence messing around with it done the trick.

I too have had intermittant problems with the microphone in my car - so much so that the HFT has become virtually useless. I decided this weekend to do something about it and (hopefully I am not speaking too soon)...
I have solved it!!!

It didn't cost me anything - I used a nokia handsfree microphone that I had spare.


I took the mic unit out of the overhead console...


I prised open the unit using a knife (be careful not to stab yourself!). The mic unit is hld in by a rubber insert - I peeled back the black material stuck on the top of the unit and pushed the rubber insert containing the microphone out.


The small mic just pops out of the rubber insert.


I dismantled the nokia mic and desoldered the two connections - the nokia mic is very similar in dimensions - maybe just a smidgin smaller.


I simply desoldered the honda mic and resoldered the nokia one onto it - then reassembled the mic unit.

It has so far worked flawlessly B)

No more shouting at the car when it speaks to me in German. No more "Pardon", "Please Repeat" ..............

Now thats what I call thinking outside the box. Good job mate and hopefully save someone in the future a great deal of money.

Great job pete, that could save a few people some money when they go wrong, especially as a few people have had this issue.

Well done

great write up fella as you may no i here issues with this as well

A bit more feedback - The nokia mic has never missed an instruction - it is working 100%. I have even started changing air con settings by speech, I now need to memorise more of the commands.

It is well worth changing the mic as I know how frustrating it is when the HFT doesn't work.

Update from me.

The mic and HFT have worked flawlessly since I actually tried to use it after Honda told me they couldn't fix it. I'm thinking they managed to reset it somehow..

Ade

Good guide, I replaced the mic on my car, I'd get intermittent errors from the stanav not understanding me, or going to a different instruction. I got a mic insert from ebay for about £3 fitted it and the voice control has been fine since. I'd recommend anyone who is getting voice control errors to swap it, it is a bit fiddly and needs a steady hand with the miniature soldering iron, but well worth the effort, if you can't do it yourself send me the mic unit and I'll replace it for you.

I wish someone could do this for me as I'd end up screwing it up and burning everything with the soldering iron!! Anyone near Ashford, Kent that can do this?