Bluetooth Hell

[otter_]

Hi all, I'm having trouble with my 18 EX bluetooth. Have tried different phones, cables... it's the car. The dealership has done a factory reset on the head and was directed by Honda to first replace the Bluetooth mic and then wrap it in foil tape. No improvement. The issue is with 3rd Level Mediation at Honda.

Anyone here experience the following?

Any speed above 50km/h / 35MPH, roadnoise overtakes the person's voice making the call from inside the car. Incoming voice sounds clear over the vehicle sound system. The interference is bad enough that Hands Free Link is useless on the highway. The dealership shop foreman tried with his phone and they agree there is too much background noise. The dealership's next step WAS going to be replacing the infotainment head, but Honda specifically instructed them not to.

Service adviser stated that Honda Tech told the dealership they are aware of a few cars with this issue, but there is no fix at this time.

Honda Corporate has been less than helpful, mediation department stated that how it's behaving is a "characteristic" of the system. Drive slower, turn down your hvac blower... and wanted to close the case, I insisted on escalation. Waiting for them to investigate further.

Drove a 19 today with my cable and my phone. Fine, no issues.

Bluetooth was flawless on my 16 EX non sensing. The difference with the 18 is that sensing is included.

In addition to the background noise, the person speaking from inside the car sounds like they're underwater and there's electronic distortion.

Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

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[tinyman392]

Hi all, I'm having trouble with my 18 EX bluetooth. Have tried different phones, cables... it's the car. The dealership has done a factory reset on the head and was directed by Honda to first replace the Bluetooth mic and then wrap it in foil tape. No improvement. The issue is with 3rd Level Mediation at Honda.

Anyone here experience the following?

Any speed above 50km/h / 35MPH, roadnoise overtakes the person's voice making the call from inside the car. Incoming voice sounds clear over the vehicle sound system. The interference is bad enough that Hands Free Link is useless on the highway. The dealership shop foreman tried with his phone and they agree there is too much background noise. The dealership's next step WAS going to be replacing the infotainment head, but Honda specifically instructed them not to.

Service adviser stated that Honda Tech told the dealership they are aware of a few cars with this issue, but there is no fix at this time.

Honda Corporate has been less than helpful, mediation department stated that how it's behaving is a "characteristic" of the system. Drive slower, turn down your hvac blower... and wanted to close the case, I insisted on escalation. Waiting for them to investigate further.

Drove a 19 today with my cable and my phone. Fine, no issues.

Bluetooth was flawless on my 16 EX non sensing. The difference with the 18 is that sensing is included.

In addition to the background noise, the person speaking from inside the car sounds like they're underwater and there's electronic distortion.

Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

I would bring it into the dealer again and start implying lemon if its a relatively new car since you've brought it in a few times already. If you do this, they won't give up trying to fix the thing or accept the lemon.

 

[charleswrivers]

Haven't had anything similar but I'll double the vote to keep taking it back.

@Rickmeister 48 got lemon law invoked his climate control thermostat.. so don't dismiss all the things that aren't directly associated with the powertrain. You should get satisfaction, regardless if they fix it, or replace it. You have to stay dissatisfied and keep pushing the issue.

 

[otter_]

I would bring it into the dealer again and start implying lemon if its a relatively new car since you've brought it in a few times already. If you do this, they won't give up trying to fix the thing or accept the lemon.

We don't have lemon laws in Canada. We either have to sue or engage CAMVAP, a third party arbitraton program. Worst case scenario, I've got 31 months left on my lease if they can't fix it.

Last lease they pulled me out at 26 months for the same payment, so there's always that.

 

[tinyman392]

We don't have lemon laws in Canada. We either have to sue or engage CAMVAP, a third party arbitraton program. Worst case scenario, I've got 31 months left on my lease if they can't fix it.

Last lease they pulled me out at 26 months for the same payment, so there's always that.

Oh crud, well that's no fun. You may end up going to the worst case. Question though, if you're using Android or iPhone, do you get the same issues when using Android Auto or Apple CarPlay?

 

[otter_]

Oh crud, well that's no fun. You may end up going to the worst case. Question though, if you're using Android or iPhone, do you get the same issues when using Android Auto or Apple CarPlay?

Yep, android auto or bluetooth connection only. Same issue both ways. Dealership tried an apple phone, same.

 

[tinyman392]

Yep, android auto or bluetooth connection only. Same issue both ways. Dealership tried an apple phone, same.

Maybe an issue with the wiring/connection between the mic and the head unit?

 

[otter_]

Maybe an issue with the wiring/connection between the mic and the head unit?

That's what I'm thinking but dealership said they checked connectivity

May try another Honda dealer.

 

[tinyman392]

That's what I'm thinking but dealership said they checked connectivity

May try another Honda dealer.

The connector itself could be broken, that's part of connectivity. The motherboard could have issues with the audio in, again, also part of connectivity. The fix for these is a new head unit though...

 

[otter_]

The connector itself could be broken, that's part of connectivity. The motherboard could have issues with the audio in, again, also part of connectivity. The fix for these is a new head unit though...

I'll discuss with corporate when they finally get back to me.

 

[tinyman392]

I'll discuss with corporate when they finally get back to me.

Good luck man. Hope your issue gets resolved.

 

[kg4fxg]

Here it would be a deal breaker. Hand Free Law. Cell in your hand and instant ticket in Georgia. I have no issues with mine. I am sure it is the car but you may want to try other phones such as friends to make sure. I had issues in the past and upgraded or switched to another basically cheap phone.

 

[otter_]

I found the service menu and was playing around in diagnostics. How long should it take to detect the bluetooth mic? I let it sit for 5 minutes.... "detecting"... that's it. What do you guys think?

 

[civick]

Hi all, I'm having trouble with my 18 EX bluetooth. Have tried different phones, cables... it's the car. The dealership has done a factory reset on the head and was directed by Honda to first replace the Bluetooth mic and then wrap it in foil tape. No improvement. The issue is with 3rd Level Mediation at Honda.

Anyone here experience the following?

Any speed above 50km/h / 35MPH, roadnoise overtakes the person's voice making the call from inside the car. Incoming voice sounds clear over the vehicle sound system. The interference is bad enough that Hands Free Link is useless on the highway. The dealership shop foreman tried with his phone and they agree there is too much background noise. The dealership's next step WAS going to be replacing the infotainment head, but Honda specifically instructed them not to.

Service adviser stated that Honda Tech told the dealership they are aware of a few cars with this issue, but there is no fix at this time.

Honda Corporate has been less than helpful, mediation department stated that how it's behaving is a "characteristic" of the system. Drive slower, turn down your hvac blower... and wanted to close the case, I insisted on escalation. Waiting for them to investigate further.

Drove a 19 today with my cable and my phone. Fine, no issues.

Bluetooth was flawless on my 16 EX non sensing. The difference with the 18 is that sensing is included.

In addition to the background noise, the person speaking from inside the car sounds like they're underwater and there's electronic distortion.

Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

Did you ever get this fixed? I'm running into the same problem.

 

[danmc]

For the person on the other end of the call (the person not in the car), do they report sort of an "underwater" sound? Like maybe the sound of being in a dishwasher or something? We had a terrible time with that in my wife's 2017 civic touring. The speaker phone was essentially unusable. Her Dad couldn't understand her and I couldn't get off the phone fast enough if she called from the car (and I *like* talking to my wife). It was *way* worse than any of the 15 different rental cars we had driven over the last few years and *way* worse than a $70 aftermarket radio with hands free mic in our '98 CR-V. We had 2 different dealers try to claim it was just normal road noise. It wasn't. We finally went back again (for about the 4th or 5th time) and told them we were leaving the car (still under warranty) and not picking it back up until they fixed it. We had tried complaining directly to Honda and were told that they wouldn't do anything unless the complaint came from a dealer. So... the dealer ended up replacing the whole electronics unit. And amazingly for the last 2 days the problem has been gone. What I don't know is why this fixed it. I can think of at least 3 possibilities. 1) there was failed or faulty by design hardware between the microphone and where the signal gets digitized. 2) the new electronics unit has different firmware and/or software 3) reset user settings. Not sure which but we have talked about 30-40 minutes now and it is clearly much much better. We'll see if it stays fixed. Anyway, I suggest not taking "no" for an answer and if the vehicle is under warranty then really push on the dealer. One thing I wish I had done is to make recordings from our home phone of what it sounded like under a controlled situation. For example go out at night without traffic and drive at a known speed on a known section of highway. The dealer claimed to not be able to reproduce it but I suspect they didn't bother pairing a phone and then driving while having someone on the other end listen. We had this problem with 3 different Samsung Galaxy S-8 android phones both when using bluetooth to connect and when using android auto over usb to connect. Good luck. It is frustrating for sure. This is our 7th and last Honda. The voice commands for USB audio still don't work, never have

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