I leased a Clarity a few weeks ago, and from the start have been having problems connecting to a public Level 2 station near my office (it will charge for 30-60 seconds, then the unit says "Charging Complete" and the car stops charging). Thinking SB 18-097 might address this problem, I contacted Honda about stopping by to see if they could look into it for me. The dealership had to reschedule my appointment, so I finally made it in today, only for them to tell me they looked it up while I was driving over, and my car was up to date. Without directly saying so, I mentioned that I thought the car needed to be hooked up to find out if it was installed, which is why I figured I needed to bring the car by. The salesman said "Nope, I would've thought so too. But the guy over in maintenance said he could just look it up with the VIN number." So is he right? A second, somewhat related, question. My car has a manufacture date of September 2018. Would the service bulletins released up until that point (including the one related to the charging issue) have come already installed? It's not a huge deal, as I can generally make it to work and back on a single charge (unless it's extremely cold out), but I'd like to eventually be able to charge while at work, since it's free, and would give me more range on the days I don't go straight home from work.
So here's some guess and some fact. I know for sure a dealer can look up what has been done to a vehicle at any Honda dealer (if the servicing dealer actually enters the info----and they are supposed to). My dealer did that for me. I know for sure that some on this forum have had instances of service bulletin work being done incorrectly or incompletely, requiring a second visit. I know for sure that at least some dealers do not automatically do the SB 18-097 update, unless a customer comes in with exactly the complaint you have. My dealer is a case in point on this one. I would guess that manufacture date is not well correlated with software updates. It might be difficult to track down the relationship between a specific SB and build date. Initially, most, if not all, SBs that were released covered all VINs. I really know know when (if) Honda changed the VIN list. However, IMHO, if you are having a problem with the car that is obviously covered by one of the current service bulletins, your dealer should be willing to "do that one over", or "do it the first time". That's what service bulletins are for!
In terms of your first question....can they look it up with just your VIN? I have no idea. I terms of your second question....I also have difficulties with my chargers at work. I HAVE had the updates applied and after just a few minutes hooked up to my work chargers the Clarity ALMOST always interrupts the charging process. The only time I have ever come back to a full charge was when I set the timer on the charger to start about 3 hours before work ends. I have never had this issue anywhere but my work chargers. I can charge at home without problems, I can charge at public chargers without problems....it's only the ones at work. Bizarre....no?
I had trouble with a charger, and it seems to work better if I unwind the entire cord.... No loops left on the charger.
Really? I mean....I know it says to make sure of this but I never really considered......INTERESTING. Time for some experimenting!
Thanks everyone. I'll probably call the dealer again, but first will try ClarityBill's tip. Certainly sounds bizarre. Does this method work consistently, or did it just randomly work the one time? Were you able to restart the charging remotely? I've read of people restarting it and getting a minute or two of charging at a time, and eventually, randomly, it would fully charge. But with mine, I'm unable to get it to try to charge again by starting it remotely (if I select Start Charging in the HondaLink app, it eventually just times out without ever starting again).
Here's my guess. And it's only a guess. But remember that 097 is not a required SB. If the technician looks up "Does this VIN need 097?" they are not going to see it. So it depends on whether the technician supplied your VIN and used the "Does this VIN need?" or "Does this VIN have." I have seen no negative reports after installation of 097. Seems a low-risk action to ask the service department to just install it. If it's already there, fine.
I believe that SB 18-097 doesn't show up on the dealer check via VIN numbers. That was what I experienced. It seems they install it only on customer request/demand. I had them check on two different sessions, and they reported all of the other SB's that I knew were applicable, except that one. There was another thread where several people reported the same experience. They installed it at my request, and I've had no problems with it since.
I'll give the dealer another call this weekend. I tried plugging it in with the cord fully unwound, but it still shuts off after about 15-20 seconds (and I'm unable to start it remotely using the HL app).
It worked a few times....but it also didn't work a few times. I work in an environment where I don't have access to my cell phone so I can't do the HondaLink recharging thing. I only know if it worked or didn't work when I walk out at the end of the day. However....I have had experiences at other charging stations where it wouldn't charge and I tried restarting a billion times with the app and that didn't work AT ALL.
