Carol, you and MANY others have been having this problem. And, I am one of them. In short, I'm trying to work with Alpine Electronics, the manufacturer of the on-board navigation system.
Here's more detail: The Honda service guy charged me $70 to "look into it". He didn't know what to make of it and was not able to speak with the "electronics guys" in CA because it was likely a holiday for them.
Then, at the end of the day, when I was retrieving the car, he said he 'found' a service bulletin and that if I paid him upwards of $150 he would ship the unit for repairs and a week later, for another $350, I'd have a working unit. When I groused about the price, he said that it was a lot better than $3000 for a new unit. Right......
I called Alpine and they told me to call Honda America (in Torrance, CA) and I spoke with some stooge who fields calls. He asked if I would pay for some of the repair and I said I would not, since there were bad design and safety issues here that Honda had better resolve for me and for all the others who have posted on the internet. He said he'd get back to me.
He called a week later and told me that he could do nothing, that there was no one else who would discuss the matter with me and that my only recourse was to work with the service folks at my dealer.
So, I'm still looking for a resolution. In the meantime, I unplugged the unit so that the systems stops trying to re-boot and I don't have to deal with the beeping and the bright glare when I drive at night. Now, I can't control fan speed, air flow and have limited resources for my radio, etc. but I'm going to find an inexpensive way to resolve this matter.
And, I'd like to get somebody, somewhere to get Honda to take care of this problem. BAD DESIGN, HONDA!
MillMatt, July 2009
