Battery warranty

Discussion in 'Clarity' started by glonroy, Feb 12, 2020.

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  1. glonroy

    glonroy New Member

    The warranty guide states that the "gradual capacity loss of the high voltage battery is expected and not covered under warranty." Does anyone know what Honda considers as gradual? What if the battery degrades more rapidly? Is this gradual degradation defined anywhere?
     
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  3. insightman

    insightman Well-Known Member Subscriber

    The Clarity Plug-In Hybrid Pre-Delivery Inspection document (17-093) describes how bad the battery has to be to qualify for a replacement. A new Clarity's Battery Pack Capacity is typically 55 Ah or slightly better. Unfortunately, the equipment that can test the battery pack's capacity is not inexpensive. Some dealers have friendly, helpful service departments who will perform this test with their diagnostic computer and i-HDS software for free.

    4. Checking Battery Pack Capacity
    The high-voltage lithium-ion battery in this vehicle has an 8-year or 100,000-mile warranty. But unlike earlier vehicles
    with high-voltage batteries, this vehicle does not set a DTC when the battery pack capacity value has reached the level
    for battery replacement under warranty.

    To check battery pack capacity in this vehicle, you must use the i-HDS. Just go to the Electric Powertrain Data List,
    and look at the Battery Pack Capacity signal. If its value reads less than 36.6 Ah and the battery is still under
    warranty, the battery is eligible for warranty replacement.
     
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2020
    Sandroad and KentuckyKen like this.
  4. KentuckyKen

    KentuckyKen Well-Known Member

    Yes. I found it in the Clarity specific PDI which has a lot of other valuable information. I have attached it for you and here is the thread on it:

    https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/lots-of-brand-new-info-from-pre-delivery-inspection-doc-esp-on-battery-replacement.2742/

    Basically it says when the battery capacity drops to 36.6 Ah from what appears to be a nominal value of 55 Ah, then a warranty replacement is in order. Note that California (PZEV states?) gets a 10 yr warranty while the rest of us get an 8 yr warranty. This equates to about a 1/3 loss of capacity or range.
    This can be tested by your dealers i-HDS along with pages of other test data.
    The good news is that so far only one person on the forum, @jdonalds , is having battery loss problems. The other good news is that Honda has given us a very good BMS (battery management system) and a liquid cooled battery pack that prevent overheating and cycles of complete charge to complete discharge which are both Li-ion battery killers. With a very good BMS and liquid cooling, I expect my battery pack to last much longer than my cell phone battery which has neither. Some people do try to “baby” their battery pack by only charging to 80 or 90%, but since my ChargePoint EVSE and Honda Link don’t offer this, I am happy to trust the BMS’s built in buffers at the high and low ends of the SOC (state of charge). The general consensus on the forum based on several calculations is that 20-25% of the capacity is restricted, although we don’t know the exact split between top and bottom.

    If you want more info and more numbers to crunch, you can search or try this thread where we determined, the figures from the Clarity specific PDI, measurements from the OBD port, and some research documents were all in close agreement concerning the battery metrics such as capacity and buffers.

    https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/scangauge-ii-extended-pids-capacity-and-specific-energy.2633/

    If I could easily select charging to 10% less than max, I probably would, but I’m not overly concerned about it. I do use scheduling to charge as late as I can to minimize the time the battery is at 100% SOC and don’t charge when I have enough to make my thankfully short commute the next day. Cell balancing seems to occur after a full charge so most would recommend charging to full periodically if you’re doing the partial charge to protect the battery thing. Note that the manual says to charge every time (and if it’s in the manual or on the Internet it must be true!).
    It is comforting to see that Teslas with similar batteries, BMS, and cooling, have been shown to have rather low battery degradation over time as seen in this thread:

    https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/article-and-video-on-a-2015-tesla-with-450-000-miles-battery-and-repairs.5768/#post-63637

    And here are some more threads that will either put your mind at ease or give you more strategies to obsess over.

    https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/honda-clarity-top-end-battery-reserve.6913/

    https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/new-2018-clarity-battery-concerns.6385/#post-71620

    https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/li-ion-battery-health-measurements-by-reading-the-battery-pack-capacity-signal.3007/#post-62228
    https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/charge-strategy-for-max-battery-life.1154/
    https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/lowest-battery-percentages-seen-in-honda-link-app.4340/#post-44804

    I also attached a few battery articles previously posted by our helpful and erudite members if you really want to go down the rabbit hole.
    As for me, I’m just gonna drive and enjoy it! 2 years and 15,500+ trouble free miles on just 17 gal of gas with no range anxiety and no angry bees ever! Yeah, I love this car!
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Feb 12, 2020
  5. Phil_Meyers

    Phil_Meyers Active Member

    30 percent degradation is about the same as Tesla. But I expect the battery to last longer. I trust a home bms over Tesla.
     
  6. Kerbe

    Kerbe Well-Known Member

    DC charging really stresses the battery pack - batteries that charge at only L2 are not so easily damaged by being "fully" charged, especially when there's already a 20% buffer.
     
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  8. Lowell_Greenberg

    Lowell_Greenberg Active Member

    This is a fantastic post. One thing I would like to point out, is that the Chevy Volt's long term battery performance, not a Tesla's, is probably a better indicator of longevity for most drivers. This is because the smaller battery equates for many to a much greater daily depth of discharge. It is possible the battery and BMS design as well as battery reserves are such the Clarity's battery will be strong through out the car's useful life. But I am more confident this is true with a BEV than a PHEV for most drivers. Overall the now discontinued Volt has done well however. Hopefully this will also be true for the Clarity. Also, Tesla's battery tech is probably better.

    Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
     
  9. Several years ago a statistic was cited that the average Volt owner logged more miles of electric use than the average LEAF owner. This, despite the fact that the Volt had only 16 or 16.5 kWh battery capacity vs. the LEAF's 24 kWh.

    The likely reason was that with the range extender engine, a Volt owner could use every mile of battery range made available on a daily basis, whereas the LEAF owner would, on average, plan trips to leave a comfortable buffer of available range.
     
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  10. Cash Traylor

    Cash Traylor Well-Known Member

    If you have done the PDI or have had the dealer give you the reports of battery capacity during scheduled maintenance I have a thread trying to accumulate some raw report numbers for battery capacity (not range) over time here. I would love to get some more data. You don't have to include your full printed report but date of manufacture (from the ID plate in your door jam), date put in service (when purchased) and mileage would be the most helpful. Trying to just get data, not really generate a "discussion" but I already failed on that part myself. Guess I am just to long winded...

    https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/battery-capacity-test-reports-ongoing-data-for-warranty.8317/

    Cheers,
    Cash
     

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