18-097, charging problems .. pros/cons

I don't think it's "poor quality power". From what's been posted here, non-Clarity owners are not having a problem charging at the same chargers that are tripping up the Clarity. I think it's just a case of the Clarity being unduly picky. I haven't seen anyone report any negative ramifications of having the update installed. Although I seldom charge outside of my home, I plan to have the update installed the next time the car is communing with the service department.

 

a level 2 charger near my home worked fine for about 3 months. Then it started giving charging interrupted notifications after a few minutes of charging. But a tesla charges at the same charger with no problems. I'm considering the sb but also aware that the charging time could be longer after the update accordind to the experience of some who had the sb installed.

 

I don't remember reading that anyone has experienced the longer charging times Honda warns about (I'm counting on being corrected if wrong). I believe (with no experience to verify) that the charging times would only be extended if the Clarity halted charging after detecting what it considers to be a power-line defect and then restarted multiple times. Without the SB update, it just stops after detecting a power-line defect and doesn't restart.

 

I was frequently having the charging problem at home with my Juicebox. I had the update done and have never had the problem since. I did not notice any change in charge times (approx. 2hours, 10 minutes from 0 to full). I agree that it was just a matter of the Clarity being overly picky!

 

I had the update applied and still have not been able to fully charge. Is there an update that allows the clarity to restart charging on it's own? I was under the impression I had to restart it myself using the app. I can't do this at work because I work in a place that doesn't allow cell phones inside.

 

From this post and your other post it sounds like the dealer didn't apply all of the updates or didn't do them correctly.

 

Interesting....I will take it back then.

 

Thanks for the info....i think someone on the forum posted they experienced a longer charge time after the sb. I mostly have the problem at one charge station. The other one i tried had a the charging interruption a couple times but now seems to be working.

 

I have the software updated for a month now and have not experienced any charging stop or longer charging time since. I charge at work at Charge Point stations and experienced it once or twice a month before the update.

 

I had the same experience that going to the dealer for the SB18-097 update has not fixed my problem charging at a public level 2 charger at work. Is there anyway to confirm whether the update was correctly performed? (Besides going back to the dealer.)

 

I don't think that there is any customer-accessible information on which software updates have been applied.

And the problem is . . . if the dealer didn't manage to apply the fix correctly the first time, there's no reason to believe any information they provide about its status. I consider this to be a huge problem for Honda - their support for the Clarity is pathetic, both at the local and national level. I have zero confidence in my local dealer to correctly service the car beyond a simple oil change. Based on what I read on the forum, this is a widespread problem. I have evangelized my purchase of a plug-in hybrid to many people, and exactly one of those has even heard of the Honda Clarity - there's no marketing from Honda.

I realized when I bought the car that I was essentially signing up for a beta-test program, but I expected better support from Honda.

 

I could not have said this better myself. I have minimal faith in dealerships in general. Add to that my already below average experience with my Honda dealer vis a vis the Clarity and I struggle to believe they know what they are talking about. As a matter of fact when I did take it in for the updates after my first "no range" mil experience they spent the day on the phone with Honda trying to figure out what they were doing. Not a good sign for a brand new car.
Having said all that I do believe they applied the updates and that they applied them correctly (how do you not apply an update correctly?). I just don't think the update is the fix.

 

I’d go back to the dealer and tell them the update was not applied correctly or to completion. There have been posts where the dealer did the update but upon returning and having it hooked back up to the i-HDS, they found it wasn’t updated. As everyone has mentioned, the dealers and technicians are woefully inexperienced with the Clarity.

 

As Ken said, this can be an issue.

I haven't observed the actual process of applying the updates, but I suspect sometimes this is a multi-step process. Compare it to updating your computer workstation - in some cases a reboot is required after "installing" the update. We know that in some of the Clarity updates that installation of actual parts is required, so it's very easy for me to envision a situation where a clueless technician performed only part of the update process.

 

My dealer's wonderful service department (thanks to the manager, Brad) decided the updates were taking too long to install with their old computers and bought new computers to speed up the process. I was surprised Honda didn't supply the computers they use for service.

 

They probably just upgraded to XP.

 

What next? Installing Level 2 chargers or maybe even an 110v outdoor plug.

 

My dealer's wonderful service department (thanks to the manager, Brad) has installed a trio of Leviton Level 2 chargers outside, next to the service bay door.

 

I haven't yet had occasion to explore the capability of the service dept other than having them order and install the winter tires. The tires are still on the rims so I guess they did that OK. This is my first Honda so I don't have any previous experience with them. However, my neighbor a long time customer thinks they are wonderful so we shall see.