What maintenance has you done on Clarity Plug-in Hybrid?

As fast, I mean, as slow as you drive when you hypermile you might as well just walk 221 miles/month lol

 

That sounds a lot like every 10,000 km. If so the third one would hit at around 18,650 miles

 

Yes, service 3 notice hit at almost exactly 18,600. It is saying I need A012 so it is different than the other two, still inspection and oil change, but adds dust and pollen filter replacement. I will post next week what they charge for that.

 

Viking79, boldly going where no Clarity has gone before. (que Star Trek music)

With your milage you must be hitting the MM marks before any of us. You are our best source of what to expect.
Could you tell us the time and total odometer it took to reach each of your MM messages also with the approximate ratio of EV to HV miles.
We’ll make you the unofficial MM beta tester as we try to figure out how the MM decides when to change the oil on an engine that can get moderate to very rare usage but with more frequent short cycling.

Thanks in advance for sharing the data that will help us figure out what it’s doing. Hopefully my data will complement yours since I’m on the other end of the spectrum with only ~4,000 miles in 6 months with only 600 have been in HV and less than 8 hours registering on an hour meter hooked up to a coil pack. My MMis indicating first service at about the i year mark but won’t tell me this early what it is. My concern is to crunch the data and see if the M is selecting a reasonable and efficient time inter is for changes.
Please keep your maintenance metrics available and I will too. Thanks again

 

did you get the range issue fixed and still wants you to do oil changes every 6K miles?

 

One of the things I really liked about my 2010 Honda Fit was how the MM seemed to be keyed off the oil quality - in fact the dealer would call to schedule service because it had been 6 months and they would be surprised that the MM was still at 40-50%. I ended up doing the services when the MM would indicate and it would be between 8-11k miles between services.

Does the Clarity have a "service life percentage" and does that appear to go down in a consistent fashion with engine use? For example, go a week or two with electric will not move but a week or two with a lot of hybrid mode does move it.

 

I have used tons of car was products over the years and optimum spray wax is by far the best easy to apply just spray and wipe .and it lasts a long time. https://optimumcarcare.com/product/optimum-car-wax

 

I bought my Clarity a month ago, haven't gone 500 miles and got this from the dealer: "Just a quick reminder of your upcoming Service appointment on 08/24/2018 4:45 pm. No need to reply. Have a great day and we'll see you soon,"
I didn't make the appointment, nor did I show up.

 

I’m opening this old thread because it was just hammered into my thick head how little dealerships know about this car. I had to do my A012 service as my car hit its anniversary and passed 30k miles. I do my own tire rotation ($0 vs $75) and change the engine and cabin filters ($30 vs $150). Basically this means an oil change and general inspection for $70. The service department said that I needed a $520 service as my car was over $30k miles. They tried to hit me up for brake and transmission fluid changes plus whole host of other stuff ever though the car maintenance minder AND the owners manual don’t support it. Who knows how many people get scammed this way.

 

Brake fluid replacement is recommended every 3 years (in the manual).

As for transmission fluid, the manual states that fluid should be replaced every 3 years or 47,500 miles if driven under 'severe' conditions.
Otherwise you should go by the maintenance minder which would be a code "3".

Here is the relevant snip from the manual:

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When I query my maintenance data through the OBD2 port, it tells me that I have 805 days remaining before transmission fluid replacement is needed.
This would be November of 2024 (6 years from original purchase date), so it looks like if you don't have severe conditions as described above, it would be 6 years.

 

How did you come to the conclusion that because they tried to sell you more service that you needed, that they have little knowledge of the car? What you experienced is a common practice, due to the fact that most owners don’t know much about their cars, so they’re quite likely to go along with whatever the service advisor recommends.

 

The brake fluid is a 7 code, which came up last year. When I questioned the service rep he saw that the service was performed last year. He also stated that the oil should be changed every 3k miles because even on only EV the engine still used oil. So, yes, I am convinced that they have no idea how a clarity works.

 

Regarding the oil, the manual states to change the oil when indicated by the maintenance minder OR every 12 months (whichever comes first). So far, my maintenance minder has come up with an "A" code for oil at 12 month intervals. I don't know if that is coincidental, but we drive about 10K per year total (75% EV) so that's around 2500 on the ICE. The oil is likely still fine from a miles perspective, but I change it annually per the calendar requirement.

 

Contributing to old threads instead of starting new, parallel threads, is a good idea because it makes searching for topics easier.

 

You may be on to something. The information in your previous post only suggested that they were up selling their services. In my opinion, that practice is not an indication of a lack of knowledge. An oil change at 3K miles or stating that the car uses oil (the engine) while in EV mode are potentially signs of ignorance.

Did you consider asking the service tech to explain the oil theory? That certainly would have been an entertaining answer. After that chuckle it may have been worthwhile to request the addition of a note to your file that would inform services techs that you are familiar with the service requirements of your vehicle.

 

I did speak to him about the oil change and if I wasn’t so irritated about everything else I might have been amused. . I listened to him speak with amazing confidence and authority about how the electric motor used oil and that I should make sure to change it every 3k miles. I am trying to make two points here. The first is that the Honda dealership knows nothing about this car. The second is that they have no problem telling clients to ignore Honda’s own maintenance codes to try to upsell anything they can - but I guess that’s not unique to the clarity.

One other thing i noticed is that they still had the clarity marketing posters hanging in the sales area. I just wish they had a new clarity there as well to sell because I still think after 4 years that this is the best PHEV on the streets.

 

The 3,000 mile oil change is usually a scam and certainly not needed on a Clarity. That being said, Honda turbocharged engines with gas direct injection have famously had problems with oil dilution. Thus, even 3,000 miles might be too long for these engines if you typically drive short distances. The Clarity engine is port injected so it is less likely to be plagued by oil dilution. Most posters on this forum seem to drive fewer than 3,000 miles a year in hybrid mode so changing the oil once a year is fine for them. Extending the period beyond that is less clear and not recommended.

 

I wonder if that service tech is aware that WWII is over. The 3,000 mile oil change interval pretty much vanished in the 1980’s. Just about any vehicle made in the past 20-30 years will have an oil interval change of 5,000 miles or more, under “normal” driving conditions. For the Clarity it is 7,500 miles.

Times are tough and finding good help is difficult. Regardless, I’d let management and Honda corporate know about your experience with this tech. The effort may be unsuccessful, but it’s the only way improve the situation.

 

Can you please identify where this was documented?

 

i did the A017 service at local honda dealer. $245 but I rotate my tires so I asked them to take that fee off. brakes are at "8"
A bit expensive but I want to follow the maintenance schedule for warranty purposes. 28,000 miles and exactly 3 yrs old to the day.