Has anyone seen this issue of high oil levels in Clarity in very low temperatures? This problem has been plaguing CRV and Civic in low temperatures, and their sale has been suspended in China, and their is no fix at present besides changing oil more frequently. In US a possible class action suit is under preparation. Since Clarity also uses similar if not the same earth dreams engine, its not a stretch to think that this issue is also present in Clarity. While most people here are driving Clarity in EV mode, has anyone checked their oil levels routinely in winter time.
Didn’t get mine till end of real winter so can’t answer that but here is an interesting quote from the article you so kindly shared: “The automaker says the cold climate and short trips cause condensation and excess fuel vapors if the engines don't have time to reach temperatures that would normally burn off the contaminants. Honda says excess fuel builds up and stays in the oil pan where it would normally evaporate and recycle through the combustion chamber of the engine.” This is another confirmation of the common sense that you should not try to stop the ICE when it comes on but should wait until it has reached operating temperature. If it comes on, just let it run it’s course for the 5 to 15 min it takes for it to turn itself off. Your engine will thank you.
Good advice, K.K. I just checked my oil for the first time since I bought the car in January. I must admit I had a terrible time with the dipstick on the Clarity. I've not had a weird experience like that with any previous cars. While the dipstick was easily accessible, every time I inserted and removed it from the cold engine, I saw oil showing to the very top of the plastic portion, which is about 11 mm above the top notch in the recessed area of the stick, which I assume is the desired FULL level. I extracted some oil, but kept getting the same result, on many, many attempts. I finally put the stick in to the point where edge of the top rubber seal just about disappears, and got consistently clean readings, about 1/2" below the FULL line. The distance from that seal to the stop is also 1/2", so I "think" I have it to a proper level. I'll give close attention to it in the future, especially during the winter months. The engine has had little use so far, and the oil looks pristine light amber colored. If anyone has any expert advice on the Clarity dipstick, I will appreciate hearing it.
I was always taught that checking oil should be done with the engine warm (but turned off); you want to pull out the dipstick, wipe it off, and then insert it all the way and pull it straight out again to get an accurate reading. The first reading (pre-wipe) is going to always show full, unless you basically have no oil in the engine at all.
I did have a cold engine, true. I measured, wiped, remeasured over and over and always ended up with oil showing on all of the plastic tip, but not above it, even after I extracted some oil. When I put the dipstick in 1/2" short of being fully seated, I then saw a clean edge of oil 1/2" below the Full mark. It almost seems that when the dipstick is fully seated, it must touch something that causes oil to be wiped onto it above the actual oil level. I'm not sure what to make of it. I'm curious if any other Clarity owners have observed that kind of oddity on their checks.
I did some more oil level checking this morning. I found that if I was very diligent with inserting and pulling the dipstick slowly gently and as straight as possible, avoiding any rotation, I was usually able to get a credible measurement on one side of the stick, but the other side was invariably covered with oil to the top of the plastic tip, for reasons unknown to me. The clear amber color of the oil on top of the light orange plastic makes the task difficult for me, but maybe it will be easier when the oil is dirtier. This was still on a cold engine, so I plan to follow lordsutch's advice and recheck it on a warm engine right after I run it again.
