Multiple System Warnings

Discussion in 'Clarity' started by K8QM, Mar 31, 2018.

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  1. Gracies, where I live, ICE has a completely different meaning. Yesterday, I did my first "hard reset" by only disconnecting the negative terminal. When this happens again I may pull both the pos and the neg, then check to voltage.
     
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  3. AnthonyW

    AnthonyW Well-Known Member

    Had this happen today after a few short trips and stops. Had the AC on pretty high (90 degrees with a 67 degree dewpoint outside). I was about 5 minutes from home so drove there and immediately checked the voltage of the 12 volt. It was at 12.45 which is a little low for a brand new 12 volt battery that was just driven. I would expect that if it had been sitting for a month without being driven. Connected my OBD II scanner and got the code: P26A3 "Engine Coolant Bypass Valve Control Circuit". Also got the emissions check warning, ACC warning and Tire Pressure Monitoring warning. Did the hard reset of disconnecting the negative and positive terminals and it is good now. Having owned the Gen II Honda Civic Hybrid for 12 years I think this is an issue with the the 12 volt battery. Actually nothing is wrong with the 12 volt but I think it is Honda's approach to charging the 12 volt. At this point, (I'm just spit balling here), but I think the electric generator in the Clarity replaces the alternator. Only problem is that we don't engage the electric generator all that often since we drive in EV mode most of the time. It is well documented on the greenhybrid.com HCH II forums that Honda does not use the traditional alternator to charge the 12 volt but instead employs the "float method". I looked briefly under the hood and did not see a traditional alternator. Didn't spend too long looking because it was hot and humid even in my garage. Will look again later tonight. Regenerative braking charges the "big battery" first and then excess energy is sent to the 12 volt. With that approach, the 12 volt rarely gets charged while driving. If the Clarity is similar to the HCH II, then the "big battery" will charge the 12 volt when the car is off after it has returned to a cooler temperature. If plugged in it will start charging both immediately. Since I was making short trips and short stops, I think the 12 volt battery got to low and threw off the internal computer. I will keep my multimeter in the car with me once it happens again (I am sure it will happen again), and also keep my OBD II connected. When it happens again I will take it to the dealership (already cleared the fault code). Hopefully this will be a simple software fix (with the exception of the one individual who needed an entire new lithium battery.)
     
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  4. peterkronenberg

    peterkronenberg New Member

    Same thing just happened to me after 2 weeks and 500 miles. . Dealer seems to think it was an error code left over from the factory and reset everything and it was fine. But after reading these messages obviously there is something else going on.
     
  5. Well, this isn't good. It happened to my wife today when she was leaving the grocery store on her way to the piano practice. Needless to say, I received a frantic call from her asking what was wrong. FYI, This is the fourth time that it has occurred with my clarity, but the first time away from home. There was nothing environmentally odd about the driving conditions today, and I still don't have any good clues as to what is causing this intermittent problem.
    I do not think that there is a legitimate fix yet, especially not replacing the big battery. That just sounds like a way for the dealer to make some warranty money from Honda.
     
    Last edited: May 17, 2018
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  6. AnthonyW

    AnthonyW Well-Known Member

    I would be interested in knowing if the same folks who are not letting the system check complete itself are the same ones who are the multiple warnings. I have had no problem with the warnings since I reset the car last Saturday. Previously I was one of the ones who would actively try to prevent the system check. This week I ceased the prevention tactics and actually wanted the system check to come on. Tried it to days in a row and it would not activate. This morning I turn right out my driveway and went down the bigger hill out of my subdivision. Still didn’t turn on. Any thoughts?
     
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  8. Vezz66

    Vezz66 Member

    Just joining the ACC/RDM/Emissions club yesterday starting the car after a short shopping stop.

    Multiple restarts no effect.

    Disconnected battery, now have TPMS errors & deactivated systems but other errors and check engine have disappeared.

    Now how to reset TPMS...
     
  9. loomis2

    loomis2 Well-Known Member

    I think it is in the menu on the head unit.
     
  10. Vezz66

    Vezz66 Member

    Ok all back to normal again.

    And hurray! My charger is installed.
     
  11. Nancy Stich

    Nancy Stich New Member

    Hello, I have now joined this dubious club. After a short sprint out this morning, about 15 miles on a fully charged battery. I had my Clarity parked for about an hour, then started it up, put in reverse and immediately started getting the cascade of alerts/ warnings. I drove straight to the dealership and had my husband come pick me up. I will let you all know what error codes come up when I hear back from the service shop.

    Argh! But I do love my Clarity.

    Nancy
     
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  13. jdonalds

    jdonalds Well-Known Member

    Our Turn:

    This morning my wife reported our 8,000+ mile Touring lit up like a Christmas tree with warnings. She said the gas filler door was open as was the trunk. The car had been parked in the garage hooked up to the level 2 charge station overnight as usual.

    I had skimmed through this thread but hoped we wouldn't encounter this issue because we have so many miles on the car and hadn't encountered it.

    I'll monitor the situation and may opt to do a reset by disconnecting the 12V battery.
     
  14. jdonalds

    jdonalds Well-Known Member

    Do you have an update for us? Did Honda replace the traction battery? Did the multiple warnings go away?
     
  15. jdonalds

    jdonalds Well-Known Member

    The problem quickly went away. My wife encountered this issue about 9:45 am, drove 3 miles and parked. Then drove home at 11:15 am. The warning lights are all off.
     
  16. K8QM

    K8QM Active Member

    @jdonalds That's pretty much what happened with me.

    It will be nice when a software update causes this thread to no longer be updated any longer.

    geo
     
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  17. why

    why New Member

    When I encountered this problem the first time, I cannot switch it to hv mode and drove it straight to the dealership. I have these warning lights again today. For those of you who continued to drive the car without disconnecting the battery or take it to the dealership, did your car switch to ICE when you are low in battery? I am wondering if I can only drive it as a BEV until the warning lights are cleared since I cannot switch it to HV mode previously.

    Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
     
  18. Mitch Gibbs

    Mitch Gibbs New Member

    We experienced this yesterday after parking following a 25 mile drive. We drove it home, using up the EV range. The car made the switch to the ICE without a problem. If it doesn't clear on its own, I'll take it to the dealer. Frustrating. The Clarity is a great car - just a few flaws. I hope they can fix this, and the crazy HV range calculations with a software update soon.

    Mitch

    Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Inside EVs mobile app
     
  19. Viv

    Viv New Member

    Got the same issue today. Went out for dinner, started the car to come back from restaurant and there it goes. All the mentioned warning showed up. Car is just short of 2k miles. Will be taking it to the dealer tomorrow.
     
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  20. Smiley Hacker

    Smiley Hacker New Member

    Also got Emissions system warning last week. Hondalink said System Proble. Took to dealed 5/31/18. Honda Dealer found "DTC P26A3 -- Electric water valve Malfunction. They erased DTC. Test drove, no DTC. DTC is intermittent at this time."

    Drove home, started charging (115 volt), battery at 4%, at 2 pm, at 10 pm got Hondalink message of system warning, battery at 70%, but still charging, at 2 am got fully charged message. Temps in Baton rouge have been above 90 for 22 straight days, so my guess is apparent valve malfunction based on cooling system temp not allowing enough time for the sensor to reach equilibrium to the cooling medium. could just be a lack of insulation on the probe or programmed short time delay. Powered up Clarity this am and no warning message at all on the console display :)
     
  21. AnthonyW

    AnthonyW Well-Known Member

    I got the same error code when I got my multiple system warning around 1000 miles. It was not hot at all (highs in mid 60s). I did not take it to a dealer, instead I did a hard reset (disconnected both the positive and negative 12 volt terminals for about 5 minutes) and it went away. I have always wondered if intentionally stopping the system checks before they are complete has anything to do with it. Before it happened I would do like many folks and pull over and stop the system check. Since I go the initial warning, I now let the system checks complete and am at 3600 miles and have had no further issues.
     
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  22. AK2018

    AK2018 New Member

    As another datapoint, we just bought a new Clarity PHEV base model last week, and it ran great for the first 200 miles or so. After parking for about 30 minutes outside on a hot (~93F) day, the car started up with almost every diagnostic light on (similar to what others on this thread have reported, list below), even though it drove fine getting home.

    Turning it off and on again did nothing the first 5 times (on the side of the road right after it happened, then four more times in our garage over a 24hr period at various hours of the day/temperatures). On the 6th try without having done anything different, the warning lights suddenly didn't come on (mid-afternoon, in the garage).

    We have an appointment with our dealer/service center for this Wednesday -- will see what they say.

    Thanks a lot for all the great information on this thread and forum.

    -AK

    List of lights/issues we saw:
    1. Unable to switch between econ and sport mode
    2. Emissions Systems Problem
    3. Check engine light
    4. Road Departure Mitigation System problem
    5. Adaptive Cruise Control problem
    6. Brake warning light (strangely, though, the electronic parking brake still works).

    We did check to make sure the front-facing radar was not obstructed, but even if it was it doesn't seem to account for the inability to switch between econ/sport mode or the emissions/engine lights.
     
  23. K8QM

    K8QM Active Member

    @AK2018 Sorry you've run into this. The good news is that we have not had this reoccur even after a couple of months of thousands of miles of driving.

    I have been careful about how quickly I release the brake and put it in drive/reverse after pressing the Power button but that may have nothing to do with the fact that the issue has not reoccurred.

    Good luck,

    geo
     
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