Do the wipers stop working when the battery hits zero?

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ExNASATerry

New Member
My wife was driving our new Clarity PHEV. She had run out of electric range, and it started raining. She called me on her mobile to say the windshield wipers wouldn't work! They just pulsed a bit (like they were trying to work) and lay there. I suggested she try HV Charge mode. She did, but said it took a few minutes of driving for the wipers to work again.

Seriously? Do we have a problem with our car, or is this some kind of massive oversight on Honda's part?
 
You have a problem with your car. Any failure of the wipers to work would result in a safety recall if it were systemic.
Take it to the dealer.
 
Well this is interesting. I’m 95% certain I have driven in the rain with zero EV range before as some of our frequent long road trips result in zero EV range at times. But I never honestly made a mental note of this.

Obviously something dealer needs to know about. Bring it to them with zero EV range and duplicate the problem....
 
To expand on this, the traction battery charge level should have no influence on the 12 volt accessories, including lights, blower motor and windshield wipers.

It's very possible that there's a poorly installed fuse or faulty fuse in the circuit that coincidentally acted up when the battery got depleted.

I had this happen with a new car several years ago. In my case, the wipers seemed to fail when it was very cold out. The dealer replaced the fuse with a new one and the problem was solved.
 
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ExNASATerry said:
My wife was driving our new Clarity PHEV. She had run out of electric range, and it started raining. She called me on her mobile to say the windshield wipers wouldn't work! They just pulsed a bit (like they were trying to work) and lay there. I suggested she try HV Charge mode. She did, but said it took a few minutes of driving for the wipers to work again.

Seriously? Do we have a problem with our car, or is this some kind of massive oversight on Honda's part?
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Doesnt need rain
ExNASATerry said:
My wife was driving our new Clarity PHEV. She had run out of electric range, and it started raining. She called me on her mobile to say the windshield wipers wouldn't work! They just pulsed a bit (like they were trying to work) and lay there. I suggested she try HV Charge mode. She did, but said it took a few minutes of driving for the wipers to work again.

Seriously? Do we have a problem with our car, or is this some kind of massive oversight on Honda's part?
Click to expand...
Next time the car is down to 0 EV miles try the wipers and see if it happens again. Can't draw much of a conclusion from just one incident whether it was related to EV charge, which seems highly unlikely even if the evidence from the one incident gives that appearance. In fact I suggest try the wipers quite often as you don't want to wait until it is raining to do more experimentation. The more data you get as to when it happens will be helpful to the mechanic assuming it repeats itself and you wind up taking it in.
 
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I had experience that after a car wash, somebody laid-down the wipers in the wrong way. The wiper arm with a bend should be above the straight one.
Well, they were stuck no matter in EV mode or not, until I rearrange them.

Would you spray some washer fluid and see if it's working now?
 
Bummer I am past the edit deadline for my previous post, I started to type "It doesn't need rain to test" then I reworded it as "don't wait until it is raining to do more experimentation" and somehow it got duplicated.
 
I would assume the wipers run off 12volt as do most of the other accessories in the car (?). Now, if the 12v battery was low on charge...
 
ryd994 said:
I had experience that after a car wash, somebody laid-down the wipers in the wrong way. The wiper arm with a bend should be above the straight one.
Well, they were stuck no matter in EV mode or not, until I rearrange them.
Click to expand...

The first time I washed my Clarity I realized I had no clue which wiper should be on top. I guessed and then turned them on, I had guessed wrong but it didn't matter, the wipers reoriented themselves properly and then started working normally.
 
Mowcowbell said:
I would assume the wipers run off 12volt as do most of the other accessories in the car (?). Now, if the 12v battery was low on charge...
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While driving, actually anytime in Ready mode, the 12V system is powered by either the traction battery or electricity generated by the gas engine. Only in ACC or ON mode is the 12V battery supplying power. Or while starting the car although even then it's only momentarily to start up the electrical system, the engine is cranked by the traction battery.
 
It’s funny how members immediately went into analytical trouble-shooting mode (a good thing!). But in this case @css28 has it right; wiper failure under any circumstance is a serious safety issue and has to be fixed by the dealer ASAP. Further, if the dealer can’t fix it right away, a safety complaint should be filed with the NHTSA safercar site so that if it’s a problem with multiple cars Honda can be forced to do a recall. It probably isn’t, but wiper failures are serious and should not be a DIY fix.
 
T
Sandroad said:
It’s funny how members immediately went into analytical trouble-shooting mode (a good thing!). But in this case @css28 has it right; wiper failure under any circumstance is a serious safety issue and has to be fixed by the dealer ASAP. Further, if the dealer can’t fix it right away, a safety complaint should be filed with the NHTSA safercar site so that if it’s a problem with multiple cars Honda can be forced to do a recall. It probably isn’t, but wiper failures are serious and should not be a DIY fix.
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I don't think anyone implied that they don't think it's serious to not have working wipers or wipers that can fail unexpectedly. The OP stated that it happened for a brief period then they started working again, that's going to likely make it difficult for a mechanic to solve unless there were codes stored, or if they somehow otherwise detect a problem. Not knowing the OP's plans on what their next step is I suggested don't wait until it rains to try the wipers again, try them repeatedly to see if the problem reoccurs, especially at 0 EV since the OP thinks that might have had something to do with the one time occurrence. When they do go to the dealer, which I agree should be as soon as possible, this will provide additional information to the mechanic. Especially if it reoccurs at 0 EV as that would really be helpful to the mechanic as they would now have a way to duplicate it.

I agree it is definitely not a solve it yourself situation and should not just be ignored or hope that it goes away, even if it can't be duplicated they still should take it to the dealer.
 
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I would add that if the wipers are on in the intermittent setting, they will change their frequency automatically when you stop moving. So if they are on intermittent but the intermittent setting is rolled all the way to continuous, they could change their frequency at stops so drastically that the driver might think something was wrong if encountering lots of traffic lights or stop and go traffic.
 
Well, the problem has not re-occurred. I suspect the wipers were stuck (maybe from the windshield washing fluid at the gas station) and it took a while for the rain to soften the "stickiness" to the point where they worked. Going into HV Charge mode was probably coincidental.

I hope.
 
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