Multiple System Warnings

Nothing in the Electric Powertrain looks unusual to me (except for the 55.0 aH capacity reading).

 

Got the car back new battery and all.

The service manager asked the tech for more details on what was wrong. He said there was a sensor in the battery pack (possibly voltage related) that their testing revealed was bad - and when that happens they don't have a choice but for Honda to replace the whole battery.

Not a very detailed explanation but hope that helps.

 

Thanks for the update.
If you are so inclined, it would be interesting to monitor you battery capacity occasionally going forward.
In some ways, maybe you are lucky to get a new battery for your ~3 year old Clarity.

 

My car is also having the multiple warning lights; dealer says it is not the battery but the camera ($1600). Anyone else get this result?

 

Perhaps your dashboard fireworks are different than the ones some of us have seen when the battery is weak. Did your dealer read OBDII codes that identified the camera as the culprit?

Is your battery new? If it's old, why not replace it first and hope the dealer (and the code) is wrong?

 

Yes, I brought the car to my local mechanic, who ran the codes; the dealer did the same thing and both showed "camera failure." However, a third mechanic showed "Adaptive Cruise Control System" failure. I had them test the Battery and they said it shows up as good.

 

Which camera?

Years ago drivers were capable of safely operating their vehicles with no cameras whatsoever.

 

So back to your 12v battery, I'd disconnect the negative lead. Wait 10 seconds or so, then re-attach. Some in the forum call this rebooting the car. But I'd certainly try this simple deal before going forward. The last time I had a weird warning, I pro-actively replaced using the dealer a brand new Honda 12v battery at 40K miles. Turned out not to be the 12v battery, but it was worth a shot.

If you do this, expect scary warnings until you drive the car 3-5 miles or something. The warnings all vanish after the reboot when you just drive around a bit.

In my case the charger failed which was unexpected. $4600 repair covered under warranty. And now I have a new 12v battery whether I needed it or not...
(oh and I don't mean to imply your issue is similar to mine at all. My meaning is just minimally disconnect the 12v for a test, if you have not already done so.)

 

So aren't the only cameras are on the right side mirror and rear of the car and used for video display only? How or why would either camera failure cause multiple warnings? I would assume that the display would just be black when trying to view from one of them, no other systems would "fail". In other words, the radar unit I can see causing this, the camera doesn't make sense at all to me. I might try cleaning the Honda emblem over the front radar unit...

 

I believe there is a front camera as well and I bet that is the camera that is having an issue. The camera is at the middle top of the windshield, where the rearview mirror mount is. You will see it if you look from outside. That camera is used for lane assist and maybe it use for ACC as well.

 

I wonder if we will see an uptick in the "multiple warning light" events now that the original 2018 Honda Clarities are reaching their five-year mark when a lot of 12V batteries will be getting to the end of their life cycle. I was still on my original 12V and last month the multiple warning lights happened to me, very similar to the old posts in this thread. I decided to replace the 12V, and after the first few minutes of random warnings, it was all fine and now has been fine (no warning lights) for a month. It could be that just disconnecting the battery was all I needed to do, but I felt it was time for a new 12V anyway, instead of risking it.

 

Battery failure at the five-year mark is not a certainty. The multiple warnings are false alarms. The risk of a failed 12V battery is minimal.

Replacing a battery prior to failure is an option. However, replacing a battery that might last 6-8 years, every 3-4 years, will have an owner spending twice as much as necessary over time. An alternative which I’ve utilized for many years, is to carry a jump pack, or jumper cables, and use the battery to the point of failure. This practice has shown that 12V batteries, that actually start an engine and sometimes sit idle for months, typically last for 7-10 years, in my experience.

Of all the warnings, the one that fails to display is, Low 12V Battery, which is almost always what caused the warnings in the first place. In a traditional vehicle a weak battery would announce itself to the owner with a slower than normal cranking sound on one or two occasions before failing completely.

In my opinion, the time for a new battery is when the old one fails.

 

It turns out the 12V battery was not the cause of my five warning lights! On 6/17/2023 I wrote the post above, confident that my new 12V had fixed the problem. But a few days later, the warning lights were back. So I finally took it to the dealer (Sport Honda in Silver Spring, Maryland) and they said my right parking brake actuator had failed! (Don't ask me what that is -- I know I should learn.)

They replaced that part six weeks ago and I've had no problems since. It was a $750 repair but my Zurich extended warranty covered it.

Tech at my dealer said "the systems are so interconnected on a Clarity, one problem will lead to lots of warning lights." Not so helpful for self-diagnosis, but I'm impressed my dealer got the diagnosis right on the first try.

 

Thanks for reporting back !
I do agree with the basic principal that 'the systems are so interconnected', but I also believe that the designers could have done a better job of parsing the interconnected warnings and presenting a more meaningful display to the driver (and the technicians at the dealers).

 

I have been having the multiple warning lights for a good 9 months now. Tomorrow I have my appointment with the dealer to get the recall done and to investigate the multiple warning lights. I hope that its not the $1600 camera repair; but it looks like that is most probably the case. My 12V battery is virtually new, so I doubt that is the issue.