Filled up with diesel

If it were me I'd start the engine and keep it running until all of the diesel is burned out.

 

There are about 25 Honda Clarity engines listed on Ebay: Here's the most expensive:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/403873164960

and here's the cheapest:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/334365410409

Probably would be fun to change out though...

 

Sorry, but I an very skeptical of this report...
A simple web search confirms my suspicion that is is not really possible to put diesel into a gasoline vehicle.
Here is a quote from a web page that describes why:

"The nozzle of a diesel fuel pump is larger in diameter than the opening on a gasoline tank. You won’t be able to insert the nozzle of a diesel pump into the fuel neck of your gasoline car, no matter how much you try. "

The opposite is possible (putting gasoline into a diesel vehicle), but you won't get diesel into a Clarity !

 

We need to hear the full story on this one.

 

It doesn't really fit, but I think you may be able to hold it at the entrance and pour it in. The only way I can see somebody actually doing this, inexperienced or not, as if they learned to drive in a state where there's no self-serve (e.g., jersey), have never actually pumped their own gas, and saw the green handle and thought that's with what you needed for a green car. Sounds pretty far fetched but possible I guess.

If the tips of the spark plugs are missing they may still be in the cylinders, I'm probably would have scored them

 

Of course, in the case of a PHEV, the number of miles on the engine won't match the number of miles on the car. It's too bad Honda decided not to track the number of EV miles driven!

 

Visions of the Orange Mocha Frappuccino scene from Zoolander come to mind.

 

I don't know whether to applaud or SMH at the "problem solving" Lil JCA did kind of the opposite -- not Clarity related, but she came home one evening and announced that she stopped to get gas in the Civic, but the station was all out. Hmmm... The next day she came home again and had stopped at a different station that was also "all out". Now I was starting to get concerned that maybe there were shortages (it had been a few months since I'd gotten gas in the Clarity) or a problem with her card, or whatever. It was late and she had something else urgent to do, so I took the car in a different direction and was able to find a station to fill up.

A couple weeks later I hopped in the car with her and said "um, let's get gas at one of the stations that was out and you can show me what you did" -- apparently she forgot or didn't ever realize how to hook the nozzle all the way in for the gas to start (this may be part of the vapor recovery system here). Seriously, you jump right to "all the stations I stop at are all out of gas"? And I had made her get gas several times while teaching her to drive, but apparently that wasn't enough!

They do grow and learn from this stuff though -- a year and a half later, she's doing well away at college, and over the summer a lifeguard and in charge of practices and more on a swim team, etc. Both of those require a lot more problem-solving than getting gas, so there's hope!

Good luck bringing the Clarity back in service. It's possible to run EV-only most of the time (keep it in Econ mode and don't press past the detent), but it's not guaranteed as the car will do a "system check" occasionally.

 

Just going back to the original question, you could drive the car like a BEV. The problem is that you would have to drive it gingerly and always in Eco mode. That's because if you hit the accelerator hard, the engine will try to start regardless of mode and I'm not sure what would happen then. In my case, I have a Subaru sitting (mostly) unused in the garage so for my needs, a 48 mile range BEV is all I need 95% of the time. Thus, if the OP has another vehicle, it might be worth saving the $18K and just driving Clarity as an EV until the traction battery dies.

 

18K is almost the price of another clarity. So I don't know if putting in an engine would be a good idea. Unless the used ebay ones are cheap

 

I guess a few Ks are not too bad.
The car does have a lot more electrical stuff then a regular car. Hope he is comfortable with the extra election connections etc. I found most mechanics are very bad with electrical stuff

 

My 2018 has about 42K miles but only about 5K in hybrid miles. Every time I change the oil, what comes out looks like new. If that engine was in a Clarity that was used similarly, it's barely broken in.

 

So was there any "programming" / dealer actions required, or just drop it in plug and play?

 

Any comment on the car from your mechanic?