Multiple System Warnings

Whelp, the same thing just happened to me. I got off work and got into my car and when I started it up, I got all these lights and error messages. Thank goodness I remember reading about this in this forum so I quickly went online to look up this thread and realized that it was still safe to drive.

So I drove to the nearest Honda dealership which was about 7 miles away. When I got there, a technician came over to help me and he was confused why all these lights were on. He directed me to another technician which made me wait until he got off the phone. When he was ready to help me, I told him how my car is showing all these error messages and the first thing he asked was if I wanted to drop off my car to be checked out. He didn’t even take a look at my car! But then I asked him if other people came in with the same issue and he said no, so I feel like I’m the first clarity driver with this problem that went to them. Anyway, I finally asked him to go take a look at it, and when he started my car, ALL THE LIGHTS DISAPPEARED. He looked at me like I was wasting his time. I told him I’m serious, all the lights were on just a while ago. He said there’s nothing for him to do... and when I asked what if it happens again, he said it should reset itself after a while. He said the car is still safe to drive, and if it happens again and the lights stay on for longer, then to bring it in. I feel like that dealership is inexperienced with the Clarity....

Anyway, I hope it doesn’t happen to me again, or if it does, I hope the error messages stay on longer so the Honda people can actually see it and not think I’m wasting their time.

I just opened my app and I see these notifications though... anyone with the same problem? How long until the notifications go away?

 

If it happens again, take a picture with your phone.
If you have the ability, put a timestamp on the photo by the app.

For people that have an Android phone, the photo app that I use is "Camera Zoom FX" ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=slide.cameraZoom ) .
It has a nice and configurable photo time-stamping ability.

 

I've been to the dealer at least three times regarding these warning lights in my first two months of owning the car. The third time, the assistant manager looked at it and said someone probably didn't properly clear the error codes the first time. He quickly reset it and I've never had the problem again for the last few months. In terms of the error on the HondaLink app, I don't remember when it disappeared. Might have taken a few days or a week after he reset it.

 

Count me in!!! At around 1200 miles & 2 months of ownership, I got all these messages. Interestingly two different people in this thread has experienced this after doing the following:

1-This happened at around 95F weather and maybe for the first time I parked under direct sun. Being a Leaf owner for 5.5 years, I never park my car under the sun, always park in under a tree's (or something else's) shadow. I parked it under the sun this time because when I parked it, there were clouds and it looked like it would be raining. But when we went into the store, the sun came back up cooking the car (and the batteries.)

2-My wife was curious about all these items like "browser", "calculator" on the screen and she pressed all of those buttons one by one just a short while before we parked the car.

As I said, there are two separate people in this thread who had this issue either in "hotter than normal weather" or "playing with the car's computer". So when we did both, we had to have all of those errors for sure!

 

I have a 2017 clarity bev and it will not charge with any ccs station. I have tried 4 different ones all with same result. I'll try disconnecting the battery for a reset but wanted to throw this out there in case anyone else was having issues with DC fast charging.

 

Unfortunately, I joined this club at around 3000 miles and on a hot humid day. 3 messages of Road Departure Mitigation Warning; Emissions Systems Problem; and Adaptive Cruise Control Problem. Also, "Brake System" light came on. Would not go away into the evening. Next morning, tried again and still had warnings but, an hour later, all looks fine. Same experience as many others. Called Honda and they said to take it to the dealer - nothing it could do otherwise. Thanks to thread posters, no thanks to Honda which should be monitoring and fixing.

 

Mine started doing this last night as well. I stopped by the local dealership and they were extremely pleasant to deal with (even though they were booked until next Tuesday he told me he'd get me taken care of this afternoon). The service advisor told me they just did the software update on one yesterday that was doing the same thing. He even knew about the HV range update when I asked him about it. He told me the head technician for the dealership owns a Clarity and would be performing the work on mine - so that's a huge plus in my book

 

Can you provide the Service Bulletin number that he refer to?

 

For the US:
18-069 is the HV range fix
18-079 is the multiple warnings fix

My service mgr told me the updates are all encompassing. The most recent address all past ones. He also showed me on his computer that the last one is for all VINs but suggested that I don’t need it since I’m not having that problem.
So far, I think these are the only 2 out.

 

Hopefully they'll have one for the satellite radio per-conditioning bug soon

 

The bulletin numbers listed on my checkout invoice were the ones KentuckyKen listed above. Although it shows both were performed (not just 18-079).

 

Maybe they need both installed in order. It’s not surprising that one or both of our service departments are not well informed on the Clarity. On reflection, I should have taken my dealer’s information with a grain of salt as almost all of us should.

 

Me too... Snippets from email to my Honda Service Agent - read below

I bought a 2018 Honda Clarity from local Honda Dealer last Monday (7 days ago - Monday August 13, 2018), and I love the car.

Drove it for 6 days and it drives like a dream, most of my miles were in Electric Vehicle (EV) mode.

On Sunday morning I was in the car which was parked in my home garage and I was setting up the Android Auto software on my phone and connecting it to the Honda Info system (the center tablet).

A little bit after that, I got a battery low warning message, and the car shut the instrument cluster down after showing many many warning messages. The big propulsion battery was completely full, so I reasoned it must be the front small 12 volt battery that is low. I did not get a chance to take pictures because my phone was being setup with Android Auto. So couldn't use it as a Camera.

Before that warning message, the instrument cluster was reporting that the EV range was at 54 miles (see attached picture), thus indicating to me that the big propulsion battery was completely full (as the Clarity PHEV is rated at 47 Miles of range and I was a bit beyond that).

I was not able to drive the car on Sunday - Day 7 of owning the care, and the car has 130 miles on it.

I researched the issue and ended up on an online forum( Inside EVs) where other Clarity owners were having similar issues. The Multiple Warning Issue.
https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/multiple-system-warnings.1031/

There are 2 Honda Service bulletins about it (thanks to this Forum):

• 18-069 HV Range Fix (this does not affect my Clarity)
• 18-079 Multiple Warning Fix (this may be my problem).

On Monday morning I noticed that the big propulsion battery of the Honda Clarity managed to re-charge the small 12 volts battery in the front of the car.
Voltage was 11.33 volts mid morning and by noon it was at 12.44 volts. ( see attached picture)
The owner manual page 18 says that the small 12 volts battery is re-charged from the big propulsion batter - No alternators here.

When I attempted to put the car in Drive, I got the following message: Gear Unavailable, Try again after awhile (see attached images)
I also attached images of the 3 other persistent warning I was getting in the instruments panel:

• TPMS - Tire Pressure Monitor Problem
• VSA - Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) Problem
• Drive Carefully, System initializing ...
• Gear Unavailable - Try again after awhile

I am having the Honda Clarity towed to the local Honda Dealer by Honda Road Side Assistance mid morning tomorrow (Tuesday 8/21 11:00 AM).

I told them it needs to be lifted into a towing bed instead of just being towed.

Towing the car is my biggest fear as I am not sure how it will be done since the car is not allowing me to put it in Drive.

I haven't tried putting it in Neutral, will try first thing tomorrow morning.

Any ideas of what is my problem?

 

I was under the impression that that 12 volt battery charging only happens when the car is running. Are you sure the car shut off when you were first having the low battery problem or maybe it kept running in that weird error state?

FWIW when I bought my car, it wouldn't start (it was sitting in the dealer showroom) due to dead 12 volt battery. They jumped it and then drove it out of the showroom and I don't know what happened after that. They promised to check the health of the 12 volt and replace it if needed.

Anyway, I am just wondering if the low 12 volt battery can trigger this multiple warning light issue. It'd be nice if you could somehow find a work around to get it drivable without needing a tow.

 

The 12 volt battery got low very fast and many things shut down. I was in a state of shock that I wasn't able to take any pictures.
Because the car does not have an alternator to charge the 12 volts battery, it gets recharged from the big propulsion battery. (See attached paragraph from page 18 of owner manual).

UPDATE on my situation Tuesday 8/21: I called the local Honda dealer and shared with them that the car was not letting me put it in 'Neutral' or 'Reverse' or 'Drive'. This was a concern because we may not be able to put it in the towing bed.
So the Service agent asked me to unplug the negative terminal of the small 12 volt battery, wait a minute and re-connect it. I did.

I still got the warning as per the previous email screenshots, but I was able to put it in Drive. So I drove it to the dealer ship and now it is at the dealership.

When I turned it off, the service person at the dealership turned it on, we did not see any of the above warnings though. As if the Clarity healed itself.
I only drove it for about 10 miles though to the dealership. (we've had flooding here in Madison WI).

The dealer will be checking the electrical system and the health of the small 12 volt battery as well as applying both Service Bulletins 18-069 and 18-079 (thanks to this Forum) and will also verify that the noise reducing plugs have been installed (also thanks to this Forum).

So now I sit and wait to find out when it will be ready. Dealer gave me a loaner car for now.

I want to take this opportunity and thank everybody on this Forum who've shared their story. It made my life easier and my service agent found it so helpful too. Thanks to all of you on this forum.

 

I am also of the same opinion (without any proof - just my gut feeling) that the 12 volt battery, when it get low on voltage, triggers all kind of warnings because the monitoring agents get starved of power. If so, why is it taking the big propulsion battery so much time to re-charge the small 12 volt battery?

My big propulsion battery was fully charged when the small battery died on me. I was in the garage fiddling with Android Auto...

 

For the benefit of all, I am reporting the outcome of my trip to the dealership (see previous 4 messages above for context).

UPDATE Tue. 8/21/2018 (Evening)
My local Honda dealership could not find any problems with the Clarity, there were no error codes. By the time I drove the Clarity to the dealership and from that time on, no warning messages appeared. They stress tested the small 12 volts battery. And it was found as a Good Battery:

• It is rated at 310 Cold Cranking Amps (meaning it would be considered a bad battery if below that)
• It was measured today at 511 Cold Cranking Amps.
• It had a measured voltage of 12.98 Volts

The dealership also applied the Software patch of SB 18-069 and the Car accepted the update
They also applied the Software patch of SB 18-079 and the Car accepted the update also.

My service agent told me that both software patch could be applied to all Honda Clarity with ALL VIN numbers.

He also verified that the 4 noise dampening plugs were installed into the bottom of the car during the Pre-Delivery Inspection (PDI).

I drove the Clarity home, and it was a pleasure to drive. I love the car. Hopefully this is the last time this happens, considering both software patches have been applied.

I will update all if anything else happens. If there is no news, then it is good news.

Thanks again to all who took their time and reported their own issues with their Claritys

 

I just joined this forum. A week ago, I started car threw into reverse and started to drive. The screen then went blank and rebooted. I thought that was queer. Today I went for a small trip to grocery store and when I was driving the "Road Departure Mitigation System Problem, Emission System problem, Adaptive Cruise Control Problem" warnings all popped up. Since it is Saturday night, I will try removing the negative terminal as suggested and see if that will help. I will call honda dealer on monday and see if there are any software updates. Car has almost 7000 miles on it. I hope I didn't purchase an expensive paperweight

 

Ziggynaught - see my reply #178 (above)... There are 2 software patches

1. SB 18-069
2. SB 18-079

My personal experience and gut feeling is that when the small battery (12 volts battery and not the 17 KWH propulsion battery) is low, then the warnings start popping up. I don't have any proof, but this is what happened to me. I had the patches applied and all is good for now.

I carry a small wrench and a multimeter with me so that if the warnings happen again, i want to know the voltage on the 12 volts battery. The wrench is just in case where I need to force a reboot to the car's computer (disconnect, wait 1 minute, then reconnect the negative terminal of small battery).

The car is a dream to drive. I love it, it is an upscale luxury car even in its base model. It is very quite on the inside and is very well planted. It drives like a 7 series BMW.

Hope this helps.