Apple CarPlay problem with 2019 Acura RDX and iPhone X

Marked improvement for me since the upgrade but after about 6 solid good days it's happening again. :( I had my daughter check and the phone does continue to charge even when it's "unavailable" through the infotainment system. The Leo video is 100% my situation. Taking it into Acura next week and will have them reset the system even though it doesn't seem to do the trick for most folks. Also noticed Sirus/XM delay of "loading" for at least a minute has stopped.

Hi,

I did called in today, I spoke with Candy, she did recognized my name from the youtube video, he even mentioned that the video was done at night, so it had an effect.

She did say the last update was to solve the issue, and yes we should call and let them know that it didn't.

She also said Acura is not technically responsible for the Apple CarPlay feature.

Bottom line: We all need to keep calling and bugging.

Acura Client Relations offered me a settlement, but I’m also talking to a lemon law attorney to weigh my options. Acura has replaced all the infotainment components in my car and while most of the major issues are fixed we still have annoying intermittent issues. Unfortunately for Acura is they have a 3rd party company that makes the infotainment system for the RDX (different than all the other cars they make) and that company appears to not know how to fix these issues. Unfortunate for us is Acura is not taking responsibility and providing a viable solution. We pay too much money for this vehicle to have to put up with major features not working.

I am out on vacation, but I will do another video showing the problem is not Apple CarPlay, USB music won’t work as well, showing that problem is unrelated with my phone.

soneone once mentioned something about a fuse, whoever it was, could you be more specific?

David, meanwhile, could you disable Apple CarPlay, disconnect Bluetooth, and just connect your phone on USB audio for music and check if it will disconnect as well at 5 min?

I was going to say, this doesn't really seem like a Car Play specific problem. Seems to me that a software bug wouldn't cause what's happening. This feels like a hardware problem, maybe overloading the car's system with bluetooth and usb at the same time. Acura simply can't wash their hands of this and blame Apple.

One thing I want to add is that I did not have any CarPlay disconnect problems until last May after I had the car for 10 months. Then suddenly the CarPlay disconnects started. Nothing about the USB hardware would have changed. To me it seems like it is how the RDX infotainment system interacts with the version of iOS on the phone. Anyway that’s my thoughts.

Correct, and I think that is the same with everyone. It wasn’t happening right out of the dealer. Mine started months after I had the car. I think it is a defect, on the USB part of the infotainment, that doesn’t affect everyone, but enough of us. Someone has the infotainment changed, but I wonder if the USB part of it was also changed.

I purchased my 2019 RDX in March 2019 and the “Apple CarPlay unavailable” and infotainment issues started in August 2019. Less than 10 minutes into my drive, CarPlay disconnects for anywhere from 3-10 minutes, then reconnects. This occurs repeatedly throughout my 1 hour daily commute. Sometimes the infotainment system freezes and goes completely blank. This is a huge liability and distraction on the road, especially when using apps for navigation. When the system is glitching, the infotainment system, radio, phone, is inoperable. My car has been at the dealership repeatedly for multiple issues. Each time I’ve been issued a loaner, but have not yet experienced this issue with any of the RDX loaners. I wonder if I have a lemon. The dealership said the issue was due to a faulty touchpad, which they replaced. Nope, issues continued to occur. Has anyone had any luck resolving this? I have an iPhone XS with the latest iOS update. I just deleted the Acuralink app to see if that’s what’s causing these issues. I’m at a loss. I’m bringing my car back to the dealership since lately it’s been disconnecting every couple minutes. The issue has gotten worse.

This is the 4th Acura we’ve owned and the only one we’ve experienced issues with. The RDX has spent a lot of time at the dealership with a litany of issues. The dealership replaced the brakes with less than 5K miles as part of a service recall. The other Acuras we’ve driven for 10+ years without issue. I’m hoping deleting the Acuralink app works. This is frustrating and a safety hazard. The infotainment system has frozen and crashed several times, and the dealership’s fix is to do a hard reboot, which doesn’t solve the problem long term. Interesting to note, we rented a Hyundai Tucson recently with CarPlay and didn’t experience any issues with it. That car is half the price of the RDX and surprisingly drove well with a ton of features.

I had the same experience a while back. Problem is, the software on your phone and the infotainment will eventually be updated. The next iOS update I did sent me back into the hole. Factory reset helped there too, then the car had an update and right back into the hole again. I haven't done the last update and am always reluctant to update my phone. This is a terrible feeling. Good new is, I don't seem to have the problem as bad as others. I get the drop, but it usually reconnects and then stays on. The hard freeze with the weird high pitched noise hasn't happened in a while. That was the worst.

I'll be hitting up the other forums as well but I have to report my interaction with Acura Client relations was horrible. Someone named Steven called me back and did the usual "what seems to be the problem" like he didn't already know this was a known issue. Claimed he called the dealer and there was no "documentation" that I had an issue with this. Um, I have mentioned this to the dealer every.single.time I've been in and complained. The fact that service advisors chose to tell me "yep Acura is working on it" and not document the convo is not my issue nor does it mean there hasn't been a problem for almost a year now. Steven also tried to assert that it's not a wide ranging problem and depends on many things like "your phone, your cable, etc." BS. And when I asked that the issue be escalated Steven said, it has been escalated....to me. Thud. If you all have had better results with Acura I'd like a name since it's clear my complaint directly to Acura will go nowhere.

I told my dealer this worked almost a year ago, but that with every phone or Acura update, it came back. Every update behaves a little differently also with regards to the factory reset. I wish it were a simple, permanent fix, but it's not. It will work for a while, then he symptoms will come back unless you can hold off on any updates, which is almost impossible with the phone.

jnjshapiro wrote:

Thank you, this is very enlightening. Is it fixable with the current hardware in our cars or does something need to be swapped out?

Sure, completely fixable. Will Acura do it? Probably not. There's no reason when they have a solution in hand (factory reset) that doesn't cost a million dollars.

Apple might find a way to work around it. And that's the thing that rubs me the wrong way in these forums. I see a bunch of people blaming Apple for everything. I've found that Apple is far more likely to find a workaround to an issue than the people who not only create the issue but perpetuate it even further by not addressing the issue in following model years.

Bluetooth is the other one that drives me nuts and the same methodology applies. The iPhones use a by-the-book protocol for BT communications. Most cars do not for a myriad of reasons. Usually they buy the cheapest bluetooth controllers and they have to code around hardware limitations. Not a good solution and compatibility issues all around. I could write about this stuff for days, I'll spare everyone.

My understanding from speaking with two Acura dealerships is that the factory reboot will only last a few weeks. Acura and Apple need to fix the problem for a lasting solution.

It is an Acura issue - I know many people with 2019 RDX that have this problem - this is unacceptable and we should all report and fight this