P0D5C Code Will Not Charge Level 1 or 2

[Michael Borquez]

I’ve read through the forums and my issue seems a bit more serious than a Charger error.

here’s the story.

2018 Honda Clarity 142,685 miles

Last night I put my car (10% charge left) on the same Charger Point level 2 charger at my local college that I normally do. When I returned, the charging green light was still on at the car. I immediately noticed the Charger said it stopped at 1kw. I got in and the engine light was on, plug-in charging system problem, range limited. I personally have never had this issue. I took the car home and hoped maybe it would go away the next day, nope. I used my scan tool and pulled the code P0D5C which there is very little information about. I reset the code and tried to plug into another level 2 charger, code popped up again. I disconnected and tested the 12v battery, which is original, but it tested fine. I was hoping resetting the battery would resolve the issue, nope, warning came back the next time I plugged in a charger. I cleared the code and tested it with my 120v charger, same warning popped up. I hear a low level buzz coming from the inverter next to the engine when I plug in a charger. I also noticed that when I reset the code I hear a noise coming from the engine, clicks like a circuit breaker, fan slows then goes back to normal. I also cleaned the charger terminals just in case, of course that didn’t work, lol. I’m in California, so a major failure should be covered by warranty. The car runs fine other than not being able to be plugged in. I can run HVcharge with no issues. So I’m going to have set up an appointment to take it to my Honda dealer and hope for the best. I did watch the only video on YouTube concerning this code, but like I stated, resetting the battery did not fix the issue. Also worth noting, the code reader said the code was permanent. Hopefully someone has some experience with this, but at the very least I will follow up after the dealer checks it out.

 

[MrFixit]

As you say, there doesn't seem to be very much information about this code.
You probably found these remarks during your search (I don't think this site was even Honda-specific):





This is speculation on my part because of lack of information, but it sounds likely to be a problem internal to the vehicle. Remember, that what you refer to as the "Charger" is not the "charger" at all (it is the EVSE). The "Charger" is contained within the vehicle. The EVSE (whether the Charge Point or your Honda 120V unit) simply provides the primary 240V (or 120V) to the vehicle's charger system. These words sound like the P0D5C may be referring to the connections between the vehicle's charging system and the HV battery. I believe the charger is mostly situated within the HV battery assembly. There have been a couple of reports in the forum of inverter failures and Honda wound up replacing the entire HV battery assembly because the failed components were not accessible / field serviceable. With 142K miles, that might be a good thing for you if that's what is going on !!

I am curious... Do you have a lot of EV miles among your 142K? It would be interesting to know your battery capacity with that many miles. Maybe you have already checked it, but if not, you can find some instructions here:
https://github.com/clarity-phev/Battery-Capacity-Read

By all means, keep us posted as you learn more about this. Hopefully it will fall within the powertrain warranty.

 

[Michael Borquez]

As you say, there doesn't seem to be very much information about this code.
You probably found these remarks during your search (I don't think this site was even Honda-specific):

View attachment 18390

View attachment 18391

This is speculation on my part because of lack of information, but it sounds likely to be a problem internal to the vehicle. Remember, that what you refer to as the "Charger" is not the "charger" at all (it is the EVSE). The "Charger" is contained within the vehicle. The EVSE (whether the Charge Point or your Honda 120V unit) simply provides the primary 240V (or 120V) to the vehicle's charger system. These words sound like the P0D5C may be referring to the connections between the vehicle's charging system and the HV battery. I believe the charger is mostly situated within the HV battery assembly. There have been a couple of reports in the forum of inverter failures and Honda wound up replacing the entire HV battery assembly because the failed components were not accessible / field serviceable. With 142K miles, that might be a good thing for you if that's what is going on !!

I am curious... Do you have a lot of EV miles among your 142K? It would be interesting to know your battery capacity with that many miles. Maybe you have already checked it, but if not, you can find some instructions here:
https://github.com/clarity-phev/Battery-Capacity-Read

By all means, keep us posted as you learn more about this. Hopefully it will fall within the powertrain warranty.

Thank you for the reply and detailed response. I agree, I may luck out with mileage and necessary repair. I charge twice a day, everyday for my commute. My commute is 60 miles each way with a grade on the return commute. I end up about 50/50 gas to electric. My electric mileage has been slipping from high 40’s to high 30’s over time. I agree that something internal has failed judging by what I’m hearing when I reset the code. The inverter cover feels warm all the time now and a low level buzz. Im going to call tomorrow and hope they have appointments.

 

[Michael Borquez]

Car is with the dealership now, hoping to have an answer today.

 

[Michael Borquez]

Dealership got back to me. The AC/DC inverter failed. It will be covered under warranty. They won’t get the part until sometime next week. I’m also having them replace the 12v battery, flush the brake fluid and antifreeze. I asked about a readout on the large battery capacity. I’ll follow up when I hear more.

 

[MrFixit]

The AC/DC inverter failed

Well, there is some nomenclature fuzziness here...

This is a block diagram:


1. There is a DC-DC Converter within the IPU (HV Battery Assy). If that fails, I believe they replace the entire IPU, so that doesn't sound like your problem.

2. The "PCU" contains an inverter (and a Motor Control module). This converts from DC to 3-phase AC to drive the motor / generator. This PCU is a complicated and expensive part (P/N 1B000-5WJ-A05, around $3K). That doesn't sound right because it is directly involved with the traction drive and is unrelated to charging which is your problem.

3. Finally, there is the "Battery Charger" (part number 1C600-5WJ-A05). This sounds like it must be your problem. It converts from the 120 (240) AC line into DC to charge the HV battery. It is also complicated and expensive (~$2.5K). As designated on the diagram (and the parts list), I would call it the "Battery Charger", but I suppose it could also be called an AC/DC Inverter as described by your dealer...

 

[Michael Borquez]

Well, there is some nomenclature fuzziness here...

This is a block diagram:
View attachment 18422

1. There is a DC-DC Converter within the IPU (HV Battery Assy). If that fails, I believe they replace the entire IPU, so that doesn't sound like your problem.

2. The "PCU" contains an inverter (and a Motor Control module). This converts from DC to 3-phase AC to drive the motor / generator. This PCU is a complicated and expensive part (P/N 1B000-5WJ-A05, around $3K). That doesn't sound right because it is directly involved with the traction drive and is unrelated to charging which is your problem.

3. Finally, there is the "Battery Charger" (part number 1C600-5WJ-A05). This sounds like it must be your problem. It converts from the 120 (240) AC line into DC to charge the HV battery. It is also complicated and expensive (~$2.5K). As designated on the diagram (and the parts list), I would call it the "Battery Charger", but I suppose it could also be called an AC/DC Inverter as described by your dealer...

I agree, it’s likely the third option. I’ll get the car back today and check the paperwork. The part should be in late next week, hopefully that fixes it.

Attached is what they sent me so far.

 

[Landshark]

Dealership got back to me. The AC/DC inverter failed. It will be covered under warranty. They won’t get the part until sometime next week. I’m also having them replace the 12v battery, flush the brake fluid and antifreeze. I asked about a readout on the large battery capacity. I’ll follow up when I hear more.

I device that converts AC to DC is a rectifier.
An inverter converts DC to AC.

It will be informative to learn what Honda calls the part that has failed.

 

[Michael Borquez]

I device that converts AC to DC is a rectifier.
An inverter converts DC to AC.

It will be informative to learn what Honda calls the part that has failed.

1C600-5WJ-A11

Battery Charger, going to cost a pretty penny and looks like a pain to replace. Part should be here late next week.

 

[MrFixit]

As a side note -

The dealer reports that your IMA battery capacity is 55.0 aH. That is totally impossible for a 4 year old vehicle with 142K miles. We have learned that there is something that occasionally gets done at the dealers (perhaps unintentionally) that 'resets' the battery capacity reading. It would have been interesting to know your capacity before the car went to the dealer (especially since you are so close to the 150K warranty period). When the capacity number gets reset like this, it takes a surprisingly long time for it to return back to the actual value (months), We have maybe 6 to 10 members who have been tracking their capacity and have experienced these resets. Some are almost back to normal and others are not.

You can see some examples of these 'resets' in this post:
https://www.insideevsforum.com/comm...ry-capacity-readout.10531/page-21#post-180529

This is one reason that I am an advocate of setting up to track your own capacity. I do it about once a month (which is overkill, but I find it interesting).

 

[Landshark]

1C600-5WJ-A11

Battery Charger, going to cost a pretty penny and looks like a pain to replace. Part should be here late next week.

A battery charger does indeed convert AC to DC, which is the reverse function of an inverter. The charger also controls both voltage and current as part of a very specific charging protocol. I’d suspect that an enthusiastic parts counter employee may have adorned the part description with a smattering of their own words.

Two other points:
1) The work order mentions a 15/150 emissions warranty. Is that correct? I wasn’t aware of a warranty beyond the ZEV states 10/150 warranty.
2) The battery capacity of 55Ah is questionable. Did they actually measure the capacity and provide you with a complete report that shows individual cell voltages and a host of other data? Typically, they’ll hit you with a 1 hour diagnostic charge of $140-170 for the service. More than likely they just pulled the number off the spec sheet.

 

[MrFixit]

1) The work order mentions a 15/150 emissions warranty. Is that correct? I wasn’t aware of a warranty beyond the ZEV states 10/150 warranty.

Although the HV battery goes up to 10/150K in ZEV states, the battery charger is indeed covered by a 15/150K. For reference, I have attached the warranty document... There are actually quite a lot of items that get the 15/150K.

 

[insightman]

The magic word on the work order: "covered."

 

[Landshark]

1) The work order mentions a 15/150 emissions warranty. Is that correct? I wasn’t aware of a warranty beyond the ZEV states 10/150 warranty.

I dug into the 15/150 warranty question and found this list of covered parts. Pretty impressive list of expensive items. It isn’t likely that we’ll hit the 150K mark before the 15 year mark. Three years in, it is possible that we’ll still have the car 12 years from now. Unless it experiences some calamity that is cost prohibitive to repair between now and then.

 

[Michael Borquez]

Part arrived early, taking the car in tomorrow morning. Had service done with the last visit and I just have bad luck. I went to drive the car home and heard something sliding around. When I stopped the car I opened the hood and found the brake booster cap near the windshield and the dealers fluid flusher cap on my reservoir. No harm done, just frustrating that they did a sloppy job. I hope my charger repair is done right.

 

[Landshark]

When I stopped the car I opened the hood and found the brake booster cap near the windshield and the dealers fluid flusher cap on my reservoir.

I see that you’re out near Palmtucky, Ca. This could be a California dealer trend. We had a similar experience with the Jeep dealer in Monrovia a few years ago. We had the car in for another never ending recall and they informed us that the brake fluid reservoir cap was not present and that we should have the fluid replaced as it could be contaminated. I informed them that they had just performed a brake fluid change less than a week ago and that they were likely responsible for the missing cap. They replaced the fluid again and installed a new cap at no charge.

Our Clarity is due for the brake fluid replacement. I’ll be sure to pop the hood after the service to see if the issue has migrated to Oregon.

 

[Michael Borquez]

I see that you’re out near Palmtucky, Ca. This could be a California dealer trend. We had a similar experience with the Jeep dealer in Monrovia a few years ago. We had the car in for another never ending recall and they informed us that the brake fluid reservoir cap was not present and that we should have the fluid replaced as it could be contaminated. I informed them that they had just performed a brake fluid change less than a week ago and that they were likely responsible for the missing cap. They replaced the fluid again and installed a new cap at no charge.

Our Clarity is due for the brake fluid replacement. I’ll be sure to pop the hood after the service to see if the issue has migrated to Oregon.

sadly it must be…

I dropped the car off at 7am this morning for my appointment and got a call around noon. The Rep said they do not have a tech that is certified to work on my car and asked for me to reschedule. I drove right over and gave them a run down of all the bad experiences I’ve had since this ordeal began. The Rep talked to his manager and they put me in a loaner until my car gets fixed. I’m willing to let stuff go if they make things right. Hopefully this is it and I’ll have my car back Tuesday.

 

[Landshark]

The Rep said they do not have a tech that is certified to work on my car and asked for me to reschedule.

The fact that the tech left a piece of their equipment attached to the brake fluid reservoir and didn’t replace the cap, is indeed a clear indication that they have at least one tech who is not certified to work on any car. Do they intend to bring in a Clarity Certified tech from another dealership to replace the charger?

 

[Michael Borquez]

The fact that the tech left a piece of their equipment attached to the brake fluid reservoir and didn’t replace the cap, is indeed a clear indication that they have at least one tech who is not certified to work on any car. Do they intend to bring in a Clarity Certified tech from another dealership to replace the charger?

The certfied tech is supposed to be there Monday.

 

[Michael Borquez]

Still no call, but app alerted me that they tried to charge it. It failed at 30%.