Plug-in charging system problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Eva Farkas
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SkipperT said:
Happened to mine too. Wjhmsme, I hope you don’t let this be the deciding factor if you purchase or not.
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I have decided to wait for the 2019 model. Honda can’t have it both ways - you cannot throw a malfunction indicator light (check engine light) and a message that the owner’s manual says means take your car to a dealer immediately - and at the same time say the car is not malfunctioning but protecting itself. The message should indicate an incompatible charger, not a vehicle malfunction. I also want Honda to tell me what charger to buy for guaranteed compatibility. Hopefully they get it sorted for 2019 - and lose the skirts on the rear wheels.
 
First post as a newbie Clarity owner since Feb. 22nd. Use mainly home (120 Vac) charging as I'm a tennant in a condo unit and of course, the owners will not install a 240 Vac charger. I'm in Quebec and used a few of the "Circuit Électrique" public chargers with no such issues, at least so far.
 
Eva Farkas said:
Hello everyone! I'm new to the forum, as I'm a new Clarity owner (Touring model), from Toronto, Ontario (Canada).

We received our car on Feb. 15, and 9 days later, I ran into a charging error when plugged into a 240V public charger. The green charging light on the car's plug-in port was blinking rapidly, then would eventually go out. Charger did not show a fault (I tried multiple chargers in various locations to see if this would be different, thinking, maybe it was a charger error).

This happened on a Saturday, so I anxiously waited until Monday morning to take the car to the Honda dealer. They hadn't seen this problem (car's too new on the market!). They did a "system reset", which basically means they removed the negative terminal on the battery (under the hood, not the main battery on the bottom of the car) to restore factory defaults.

The error went away, and they were able to charge normally. They release the car to me and said "let us know if there are any more problems".

Fast forward 4 days, and the error pops up again! Both times, I was a 240V public charging station (we don't have charging at home yet, as we live in a condo, and it's an uphill battle to get charging installed there).

So, I take the car back to the dealer, and they immediately get the Service Manager to talk to me. It seems that after my initial report, Honda Canada contacted the dealer the next day, to let them know this is a known problem.

Honda's explanation:

This not an error with the car. The car has a built-in protection mechanism in its software that trips if there is current fluctuation during charging. So if the current changes (even slightly, or momentarily) during the plug-in charge, the system shuts down to protect itself, throws the error, and the error message must be reset.

In other words, the power source must be "clean" (pure, uninterrupted, etc.). Honda recommends using Honda-installed 240V charging (ie. at dealerships).

HAH! That's crazy!

So, the Service Manager says, yes, that is crazy. No one can charge at the dealerships on a consistent basis. It's not practical and that's not a solution.

So, Honda is now apparently working on a "software fix" which essentially will change/remove this shutdown feature, allowing "unclean" power to charge the car. Not sure how it will work (how severe can the fluctuation be? will there still be some type of protection available?).

Apparently this is not supposed to be an issue if you are charging on a standard 120V plug-in, using the supplied cable/charger device that came with the car.

Timeline is April/May 2018 for the software update implementation, and probably will be done on a recall basis. I will be getting a call from my dealer, as I am the only one who has reported this so far.

Anyone else in this boat?
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Hello, that is the same exact thing that happened to me. I leased my Clarity back in January and have had issues charging ever since. I too have used the Honda dealer's charger, 120 volt charger at home and EvoGo. The problem has occurred on all 3 systems and the Charging System error message shows up on dash. Very disappointing because I commute 5 days a week and would love to have the maximum fuel efficiency I'm supposed to get with this vehicle.
 
Jane Ryan said:
Hello, that is the same exact thing that happened to me. I leased my Clarity back in January and have had issues charging ever since. I too have used the Honda dealer's charger, 120 volt charger at home and EvoGo. The problem has occurred on all 3 systems and the Charging System error message shows up on dash. Very disappointing because I commute 5 days a week and would love to have the maximum fuel efficiency I'm supposed to get with this vehicle.
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You may want to check out the Lemon Law in your state. Indiana has a pretty strong one and, while I'd rather not have to rely on it, it certainly makes me feel knowing it is there. Given that the malfunction indicator lights up, and the dealer cannot fix it, you might be able to get out of the lease or get a different car. Either way, it might give Honda the necessary motivation to quickly address the problem. I wish you the best - I really want this sorted out because I want to buy one!
 
As an update, of the 6 chargepoint stalls at my parking area, 2 work reliably with my clarity and one works after a few restarts. Other cars are happily charging away in those stalls that don't work for me. This morning I tried one that I knew wouldn't work again and got the "Plugin Charging System Problem, Range Limited" warning for the first time. Before it would just stop charging without giving that warning. Note that the parking brake has no effect on the outcome, yes even in the specific order as mentioned above.

Looking forward to Honda fixing this.
 
JyChevyVolt said:
I've owned the Clarity since December. I have charged at various charging stations from level 2 to DCFC. The only station that has caused problems is charge point. I've tried the phone app and that didn't work on charge point. All other charging stations have worked fine.
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Charge point works for me
 
Encountered the same issue today where I was not able to charge at 3 different Chargepoint stations. I've been charging at the same stations for 3 months without any issues until today. Power System problem message appeared on my dashboard. Brought the car to the dealer and they are aware of this issue since Jan 2018. No solution at this moment. But according to the Honda mechanic it might require a software update. In the meantime, he told me to avoid Chargepoint which is the most popular charging station in my area or to try to use Level 1 for charging which of course will take forever.

It's frustrating to say the least with this inconvenience. I am going to be discussing this with the Honda case manager tomorrow.
 
Eva Farkas said:
Hello everyone! I'm new to the forum, as I'm a new Clarity owner (Touring model), from Toronto, Ontario (Canada).

We received our car on Feb. 15, and 9 days later, I ran into a charging error when plugged into a 240V public charger. The green charging light on the car's plug-in port was blinking rapidly, then would eventually go out. Charger did not show a fault (I tried multiple chargers in various locations to see if this would be different, thinking, maybe it was a charger error).

This happened on a Saturday, so I anxiously waited until Monday morning to take the car to the Honda dealer. They hadn't seen this problem (car's too new on the market!). They did a "system reset", which basically means they removed the negative terminal on the battery (under the hood, not the main battery on the bottom of the car) to restore factory defaults.

The error went away, and they were able to charge normally. They release the car to me and said "let us know if there are any more problems".

Fast forward 4 days, and the error pops up again! Both times, I was a 240V public charging station (we don't have charging at home yet, as we live in a condo, and it's an uphill battle to get charging installed there).

So, I take the car back to the dealer, and they immediately get the Service Manager to talk to me. It seems that after my initial report, Honda Canada contacted the dealer the next day, to let them know this is a known problem.

Honda's explanation:

This not an error with the car. The car has a built-in protection mechanism in its software that trips if there is current fluctuation during charging. So if the current changes (even slightly, or momentarily) during the plug-in charge, the system shuts down to protect itself, throws the error, and the error message must be reset.

In other words, the power source must be "clean" (pure, uninterrupted, etc.). Honda recommends using Honda-installed 240V charging (ie. at dealerships).

HAH! That's crazy!

So, the Service Manager says, yes, that is crazy. No one can charge at the dealerships on a consistent basis. It's not practical and that's not a solution.

So, Honda is now apparently working on a "software fix" which essentially will change/remove this shutdown feature, allowing "unclean" power to charge the car. Not sure how it will work (how severe can the fluctuation be? will there still be some type of protection available?).

Apparently this is not supposed to be an issue if you are charging on a standard 120V plug-in, using the supplied cable/charger device that came with the car.

Timeline is April/May 2018 for the software update implementation, and probably will be done on a recall basis. I will be getting a call from my dealer, as I am the only one who has reported this so far.

Anyone else in this boat?
Click to expand...
Yes, error in charging is now a known issue with no resolution date being provided by honda. I was told that they would probably handle it like a recall... I've owned the car for 17 days and it's been in the shop for 7..so far... HONDA ARE YOU LISTENING? Great car.. Volt killer in many ways.. Many things to improve, but this will stop sales if you don't get ahead of it . Now.
 
JimW said:
To add to my earlier post, the "many reports of charger problems" comment was not related to the Clarity. Most were Nissan Leaf, and most from 5+ years ago. The consensus seems to be that chargers (the device in the car) and EVSE control circuitry have gotten more robust and interoperable since then, and there are not many incompatibility problems these days. A problem usually means either the car or EVSE are defective.
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I was told yesterday by Hall Honda in Virginia that this IS a widely reported Honda clarity charger defect. I still have the voicemail This is real. I have a 17 day old car that the dealer has had for 7 days
 
BobinVa said:
Yes, error in charging is now a known issue with no resolution date being provided by honda. I was told that they would probably handle it like a recall... I've owned the car for 17 days and it's been in the shop for 7..so far... HONDA ARE YOU LISTENING? Great car.. Volt killer in many ways.. Many things to improve, but this will stop sales if you don't get ahead of it . Now.
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In March, a dealer in Indiana was telling me Honda has said that a fix would be rolled out in April/May of this year. I don’t know if this is just a software fix or if any hardware will be changed. If it is just software it should be quick and easy.
 
ilun said:
Eva,

I've used a dozen different public 240 L2 stations with my Clarity so far, and have never run into this 'charging system problem' fault.

FYI. However, I encountered a different charging issue with one specific public charging stations, where the station would report the car drawing little power and it would stop charging (assuming full charge) when the battery is nowhere close to being fully charged. Remote starts from the HondaLink app would restart charging, but often stop shortly. That was a station part of the ChargePoint network and after the station owner did some tune up work on the charging stations it's working fine now.

So far my take is that the Honda Clarity may be more susceptible to station-side charging issues than other cars.

BTW. How are you clearing the fault code? Are you unplugging the battery neg-terminal or did you get an OBD-II scan tool and clear it from your phone?
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I too have the same problem. There are 3 different charge point charger stations near my home. 2 of them have the same issue. I can plug in and charge for about a minute, then the charger indicates the car disconnect the charging. I tried closing doors and applying parking break, neither works. But the 3rd charging station never had any issue. I am going to report this to the dealer. But don't think they would be able to help much.

I too lived near Toronto. These 3 stations are in the 404 and highway 7 area . If any clarity owners are interested , we can run a test to find out if your clarity have the same problem.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Inside EVs mobile app
 
I've charged my plug in Clarity for a total of three times now using a level 2 Chargepoint home charger (dedicated line) and it was fine until now. I just tried to plug it in again today and it tripped my breaker - not once but three times. I opened all the doors and closed them all - it doesn't trip the breaker anymore but it also doesn't charge. I plugged in my 120V Honda charger and the lightbulb in my garage goes out (not dedicated). I live in the Toronto area as well if it matters but it seems like its a general issue.

I'm hoping to bring it to the dealer tomorrow hopefully but I guess we will see if it changes anything.
 
I'm now getting this error on a charger I have used approximately 30 times previously (there were 1 or 2 random times when charging stopped before but I was able to restart it successfully). I tried reconnecting my car multiple times and the adjacent charger without success (BTCPower brand charger). Hopefully I can still charge at home on my 240v Juicebox.
 
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