Plug-in charging system problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Eva Farkas
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Rajiv Vaidyanathan said:
Maybe if other stations having the charging issue also needed a cord/connector replaced, it could be brought to the attention of Chargepoint, who are monitoring this forum. I will report back once the cord/connector at my work station gets replaced.
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Thanks for updating us on our other thread that you're working with a team member at ChargePoint regarding this.

For others having any issues with their Clarity using a ChargePoint station, please check out our update here, and keep our driver support line handy to report any issues as they happen (1-888-758-4389 available 24/7). I hope our team can get to the bottom of this (with your help) as soon as possible. :)
 
fluffyonion said:
Bought a clarity PHEV the past weekend and got the same range limited error message with the engine light on the dashboard using a chargepoint charger at work.

While taking it in to the dealership, my navigation just turned off by itself and after about 4/5 mins it restarted itself, has anyone experienced this?

kind of frustrated since I just bought this car and my dealership is pretty far away from me.

edit - i tried the parking brake/locked doors method
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I have had my Clarity for less than two months and charge it at a Lowes. No problems until two weeks ago when the charge stopped and I had engine failure, battery failure, charge failure and brake failure and a few others. The car wouldn't start when I unplugged it but it did start after about a two minutes wait and the failure lights were still lit up. I drove it to the dealer, left it for the day with the same results "couldn't find any problems". The service manager did say there were two other Clarity's who charge at the same store who have had the same problem. That same day I later plugged into the dealers charge station, no problem. I also later charged at a charge point and no problem. I took a chance and took it back to Lowes and my car would not charge on three of their stations so I took it to the dealer and charged at the dealer with no problem. Since then I have traveled from Calif. to Tennessee with no charging problems. The only anomoly I have experienced while driving in 100 degree+ heat is when the charge is down to ZERO the car will do a self charge without me pressing and holding the Hybrid button. It's done that twice.
 
Scott Petersen said:
I've gone to my dealer three times. They are concerned, but Honda USA has always given them the same line: "we are aware of the issue and our engineers are working on it." That's the same response I got when airing my concern to Honda via an internet complaint three months ago. They were aware of this issue 5 months ago and still haven't fixed it! Having converted an ICE to a BEV years ago, and driving it over 30,000 trouble- and charge-free miles, I know it can't be that complicated.

Like many of you, the Level II charging was an important factor for us in buying the car. Ours rarely charges for more than 10 minutes without shutting off (we have a Siemens unit, rated #1 by EV users). Any ideas for getting this issue out to the media to apply some pressure to Honda?

Frustrated in Washington State,

Scott
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In a different thread someone commented that the failure to charge on Level II might be due to over-conservative limits in voltage spikes. Upon reading that I remembered that my Siemens EVSE (wall unit) allowed for reduced charging current, so I set it at 75% (22.5 A) and have had no problems since then. This adds another 30 minutes or so to a full charge on an empty battery, but is still 4X faster than 120V charging. I assume most other home EVSEs will allow you to reduce the supply current.
 
GentLarry said:
I have had my Clarity for less than two months and charge it at a Lowes. No problems until two weeks ago when the charge stopped and I had engine failure, battery failure, charge failure and brake failure and a few others. The car wouldn't start when I unplugged it but it did start after about a two minutes wait and the failure lights were still lit up. I drove it to the dealer, left it for the day with the same results "couldn't find any problems". The service manager did say there were two other Clarity's who charge at the same store who have had the same problem. That same day I later plugged into the dealers charge station, no problem. I also later charged at a charge point and no problem. I took a chance and took it back to Lowes and my car would not charge on three of their stations so I took it to the dealer and charged at the dealer with no problem. Since then I have traveled from Calif. to Tennessee with no charging problems. The only anomoly I have experienced while driving in 100 degree+ heat is when the charge is down to ZERO the car will do a self charge without me pressing and holding the Hybrid button. It's done that twice.
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I continue to have the problem with the ChargePoint unit at my place of work and they think it may have something to do with the cable and connector (which is now on order to replace).

I have the Siemens unit at home and have never had a problem with it. Is it possible that you have a connector/cable problem with your Siemens unit?
 
Scott Petersen said:
In a different thread someone commented that the failure to charge on Level II might be due to over-conservative limits in voltage spikes. Upon reading that I remembered that my Siemens EVSE (wall unit) allowed for reduced charging current, so I set it at 75% (22.5 A) and have had no problems since then. This adds another 30 minutes or so to a full charge on an empty battery, but is still 4X faster than 120V charging. I assume most other home EVSEs will allow you to reduce the supply current.
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So a potential fix would be for Honda to update the System Config options to allow drivers to set the max current draw the car will accept to something below its allowable. I think other mfrs allow this (Tesla?). It would be difficult to trace the failures that people have had previously to whether they were at EVSEs that were capable of supplying the maximum allowable for the Clarity charger. From this point forward, it would be a good datapoint if when someone has a failure to note what the initial current flow was at the public charger so we could maybe identify a correlation.
 
Inside the Chargepoint App, you can see the charge rate graph for any time you charge at one of their locations. For the three stations I used last month, the graphs all show the charging was just below 6kW. I had no problems with any of these.
 
This just happened to me. I was plugging in at a level 2 location I’ve used before. I’ve had issues with the charger turning off prematurely so I plugged and unplugged a few times as I wasn’t sure it was working. Finally, the rapid blinking started and the charger stopped. When I got back in my car, the engine malfunction light was on along with the power error. I turned the car off, and about 5 minutes later the power error was gone. But the check engine light is still on. Looks like I have to schlep over to the dealer to get it reset
 
ChargePoint, this happens on DC Fast Chargers too. I have to do the ChargePoint dance on level 2 and 3 (have the BEV version).

On DC fast charger, it's impossible to stop charging. No problem stopping charge at 19:59 seconds, on EvGo.
 
For everyone who is having these charging issues, have we all submitted tickets/cases through Honda Customer Service? Learning from the experience of KentuckyKen and the thread about the HV range issue, if we all make sure to submit a case, then hopefully this will bump this issue further up on Honda's to-do list.

From the comments here, it seems to happen on a variety of different chargers, inconsistently (working some times and not others), and with varying outcomes (either just stopping the charge, or kicking on the warning and check engine light that may require a dealer re-set). I have personally experienced all of these, and have had the car in to the dealer 4 times in less than a month of ownership. Inconsistent, intermittent issues are often the hardest to get companies to address because they aren't easily replicated, but if we all submit cases describing the same issue, they can't continue ignoring it or punting to some software update that is "coming soon."

Borrowing directly from Ken and the HV range thread (thanks guys!), here is the link for opening a case online:
https://crrs.secure.force.com/service/hondaownerw2c

It is easy to do and they do actually respond to them. I have opened a case both online and by phone, and though the agents are still just giving the same spiel about a software update, they are at least polite, interested in learning more about the issue, and seem like they are passing word on to engineering.
 
Just wanted to say that the bank of chargepoint chargers that used to fail consistently for me have all started reliably working within the last few weeks. Not sure if chargepoint made a change or Honda made an OTA update (likely chargepoint) but I'm happy now.
 
Just wanted to add that I have now called ChargePoint on 3 occasions with minor problems/questions on my home CP charger and they gave me great support from customer service each time. They definitely stand behind and support their products. They were even willing to put me in touch with one of their technical engineers. Now if we could only get Honda to do this (other than Honda Link support).
 
ClarityNow said:
Just wanted to say that the bank of chargepoint chargers that used to fail consistently for me have all started reliably working within the last few weeks. Not sure if chargepoint made a change or Honda made an OTA update (likely chargepoint) but I'm happy now.
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I hope Honda isn't doing OTA updates. That sounds wrong.
 
Has anyone here tried a Tesla level 2 charger before? I tried one today and got a charge error on the charger - no indication on the Clarity.

geo
 
K8QM said:
Has anyone here tried a Tesla level 2 charger before? I tried one today and got a charge error on the charger - no indication on the Clarity.

geo
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I think the problem was that I had added a partial charge about 20 minutes earlier with a lot of downhill in between. Tried an hour later with no issue.

geo
 
I’m at Shenandoah National Park and they have a Tesla that is J1772 on one side and DC fast on the other.

Worked perfectly on the second try and by the time we got back from our hike to Stony Man overlook we had a full charge. If you look closely you can see the lode in the photo.3477A2C8-8E5C-471B-AAFF-386BB9A58BEE.webp

geo
 
ClarityNow said:
Just wanted to say that the bank of chargepoint chargers that used to fail consistently for me have all started reliably working within the last few weeks. Not sure if chargepoint made a change or Honda made an OTA update (likely chargepoint) but I'm happy now.
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Fantastic! For my own knowledge, did you happen to report those stations in the ChargePoint app previously, or was that just a general observation? We've been sharing the Clarity charging issues found in this community with our team consistently, so either way I'm happy they're back up for you. - Rochelle

KentuckyKen said:
Just wanted to add that I have now called ChargePoint on 3 occasions with minor problems/questions on my home CP charger and they gave me great support from customer service each time. They definitely stand behind and support their products. They were even willing to put me in touch with one of their technical engineers. Now if we could only get Honda to do this (other than Honda Link support).
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Great news, and thank you for sharing!
 
So far, I've been charging my Clarity from my Siemens Level 2 charger at home, exclusively, with no problems in the first 5 months. I've been following this thread closely over the months, and became quite apprehensive of using any public chargers, and especially concerned about ChargePoint, given the issues that had arisen.

Active participation in the forum by ChargePoint is very encouraging to me, showing that you are engaged, and diligently working to provide reliable support for Clarity owners, and based on recent posts, it seems that positive results are happening.

All too often, corporations or corporate reps are reluctant to expose themselves, or their companies, by participation in customer forums like this, so it is a pleasure to see you take a positive approach to customer issues this way. Based on that, I am now much more likely to use ChargePoint in the future, when the opportunity arises. Thank you.
 
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