New Member question

Discussion in 'Clarity' started by Edd, Nov 27, 2018.

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  1. Edd

    Edd New Member

    Have had the Honda Clarities for about 6 months. I have just noticed the engine seems to rev a little higher at highway sppeds since my dealer applied several updates couple weeks ago,

    I used to see the gear icon come up on the screen when in engine HV mode. Now a t sppeds above 55 engine seems to rev higher and no gear icon shows up that is supposed to say engine is driving the whheels.

    Any help would be appprecitaed.

    Edd

    I
     
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  3. petteyg359

    petteyg359 Well-Known Member

    Unless you're on an extreme incline, the engine should not be directly driving propulsion at 55 mph.
     
  4. KentuckyKen

    KentuckyKen Well-Known Member

    I’m not so sure of that. Mine in HV Econ will go into the direct power or mechanically coupled drive with the gear icon illuminated at highway speeds above 50-55ish mph. And I've seen it do it at 55 up to 70. With a significant SOC, it cycles through all the power flows including direct coupled. It does go in and out of direct power/gear icon on my car on the highway. And goes off on hills that require extra torque.
    What speed range does yours direct couple?
     
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  5. petteyg359

    petteyg359 Well-Known Member

    80-ish. Only comes on below 70 if I stomp on the accelerator.
     
  6. Edd

    Edd New Member

    Thank you. My fault I should have put more informatin down.

    I drive many miles a month and severel times a week I travel on the highway and go the speed limit which is 60 sometime 65 or 70. I use the hv engine mode on the highway because thats what the salesman said to do. I never hear reving noise before last week. I Never see gear sign again. Car seems to have less power. My battery is charged over half when I drive the highway because I live close by. Seems like thats important from reading here. This happens on flat or hilly sections in my mind.

    My friend says that gear sign says motor is in clutch mode. ??? I am worrying the car is not working properly. Only started after some updates done by the service department.

    6 months old and 12500 miles and no problem with reving till now after computer updates. Trying to be a little educated before taking to dealership so I know a little something. What do I say to service man might be wrong?

    Thanks

    Edd
     
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  8. Robert_Alabama

    Robert_Alabama Well-Known Member

    I'm believing you that something has changed with your car since you have had 6 months and 12000 miles to get used to how it was behaving. You could try driving your car in HV mode with a service employee and hope it misbehaves enough to show him/her the engine revving/low power. Then if they have another Clarity, drive it to see if you can show them the difference (and any difference in gear icon behavior). Beyond that, they have to be detective enough to figure out what has changed. In truth, I have never paid any attention to the gear icon behavior, so I am no help with that one. Hopefully me replying and bumping this back to the top will prompt someone who can advise more.
     
  9. dnb

    dnb Active Member

    I only use HV mode when going > 40 miles in a day. Otherwise I've had no issues going >=65mph on "Econ" Ev only mode.

    If you are swapping to the ICE a lot it might be trying to do some maintenance or something. Does it drive just fine in EV only (blue only)?
     
  10. Ghaleon

    Ghaleon New Member

    It might be obvious, but after I had the series of software service bulletins performed a week or so ago a number of settings were reset to default; among them was that Econ was no longer on. Took me a few minutes of looking at the dash puzzled by what felt off before noticing the missing leaf icon.
     
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  11. vicw

    vicw Active Member

    It continues to amaze me that after 10+ months of ownership, I keep learning new facts and details about Clarity operation. I didn't even know there is a "gear icon", and after reading this thread, I found only one mention of it in the Owner's Manual - on page 14:

    "The vehicle is cruising at a higher speed.

    ● Propulsion is provided by the engine, coupled through the gears to the transmission. This is indicated by the gear icon in the display."

    What's really interesting to me is that I had just encountered that condition a couple of days ago, and I thought it was a new problem with my car. I was driving home on the freeway, and had switched back from HV to EV to use up the remaining battery charge prior to arriving home. A few minutes later, I noticed that it had reverted back to HV, which I had never noticed it do before, and thought there was a problem.

    Thankfully, this timely thread clarified that it is a perfectly normal behavior. I'm surely glad this forum exists, and that we can all benefit from one another's experience with the Clarity.
     
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  13. insightman

    insightman Well-Known Member Subscriber

    You might enjoy taking a look at the diagrams I created for display at an electrified car meet last summer. One of them illustrates that only when the engine is connected through gears to the wheels does the Clarity PHEV realize its full 212 hp. However, if you floor it while in Engine Drive mode, the clutch will disengage and drop the car back to Hybrid Drive mode, which provides a maximum of 181 hp. So Honda's 212-hp rating is sort of bogus in my opinion.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2018
  14. It’s the weather, I noticed the same thing. Colder weather means the maximum battery capacity is slightly lower resulting in the engine working harder to keep it charged. The way my car acts now versus the summer has changed considerably. I have not had any of the software updates done.
     
  15. Miles777

    Miles777 New Member

    Thanks for the diagrams, @insightman.
     
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  16. vicw

    vicw Active Member

    Thanks for the helpful diagrams, insightman. I'm still a bit confused, though, about the Engine Drive Mode. If it is used when the car is cruising at high speed, as described in the manual, it seems counter-intuitive to potentially apply maximum combined available power, since cruising puts a lower demand on power. In comparison, our old Odyssey, shut down a couple of cylinders when cruising. Also, the graphic display for the gear icon seems to show the battery as not being utilized for power, or receiving energy back from the engine while in that mode.
     
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  17. insightman

    insightman Well-Known Member Subscriber

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  18. Edd

    Edd New Member

    Thanks. So if I do not switch to HV engine mode...the gear symbol will come back??? I only switch to HV engine mode because salesman said it best to do that since I do travel on highway. I don't switch when on backroads.

    To the fellow asked about if the car drives fine when in non-engine mode...car runs normmal seems to me. I get 35 normal mode miles when cold and when not so cold got maybe 51. Car is super when not on highway seems to me.

    Only concern caused by the louder than normal high rev on highway in HV engine mode plus no gear icon. So thought maybe there was a problem.

    Thanks. You folks are helping me understand. I hope I am not a bother.
     
  19. AnthonyW

    AnthonyW Well-Known Member

    I think I have the answer to this (and a couple other questions on the forum). I will try and post tomorrow. Short answer is that it is related to temperature and the car is working as designed.


    Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
     
  20. insightman

    insightman Well-Known Member Subscriber

    HV Mode works together with ECON Mode, NORMAL Mode, or SPORT Mode. I believe HV stands for Hybrid Vehicle, but cannot document that belief. Honda's non-plug-in hybrid vehicles work to maintain a charge in the battery so that battery power is always available to provide extra power for acceleration or hill-climbing.

    The Clarity is much more pleasant to drive when there is a decent charge in the battery because the car weighs 4,059 lbs and the engine maxes out at a paltry 103 horsepower. Without battery power, the Clarity cannot accelerate or climb hills easily, hence HV Mode is there to preserve battery power for tasks such as driving on the expressway, when higher aerodynamic forces will drain the battery more quickly.

    When you switch the Clarity to HV Mode, regardless of which of the other 3 modes is in effect, the Intelligent Multi-Mode Drive (i-MMD) system will try to maintain the battery at its current state of charge (SOC) and use the internal combustion engine (ICE) to power the car and recharge the battery as necessary. When you select HV Mode, you're indicating you want to switch from primarily battery-powered travel to primarily ICE-powered travel.

    However, HV Mode doesn't use the ICE all the time. It picks from any of the three basic "drive modes," according to which it decides is the most efficient at any given moment.

    The three basic drive modes are EV drive mode, HV drive mode, and Engine drive mode. You don't get to select these modes, the i-MMD system does that. EV drive mode is when the battery and traction motor are powering the car. HV drive mode is when the battery and the ICE-powered starter motor/generator combine to feed electricity to the traction motor. Engine drive mode is when the gear icon appears to indicate the i-MMD system has engaged the Engine-drive clutch so that the ICE is mechanically connected through gears to drive the front wheels. It turns out that this direct connection is the most efficient method of powering the car in some instances, such as when the load is light at expressway speeds.

    Only in Engine drive mode is the speed of the engine proportional to the road speed. In other modes the i-MMD system runs the engine at whatever speed it deems necessary to charge the battery and respond to the accelerator pedal. When the battery charge is depleted, people on this forum report hearing the engine revs go uncomfortably high, which they call the "angry bees."

    In my experience with HV Mode, the i-MMD system doesn't manage to maintain the original SOC on long drives. The number of bars in the battery charge gauge decreases, which I find disappointing. I believe the i-MMD system should burn as much gasoline as necessary after each acceleration or hill-climb to bring the SOC back to what it was when I pressed the HV button. Rather than burn gas unnecessarily, Honda's engineers count on regenerative braking opportunities to restore the battery's SOC to its original level. That may work when coming down a long hill, but it never seems to work for me.

    HV Charge Mode is the least-efficient way to drive a Clarity PHEV because it runs the engine at high RPMs to propel the car and recharge the battery at the same time. It's main purpose is to get a charge back into the battery before the next mountain if you just used up most of the charge on the previous mountain. Honda decided to limit HV Charge Mode to charging the battery to 58% of full charge. When the battery reaches 58% of full charge, HV Charge Mode switches to HV Mode.
     
  21. KentuckyKen

    KentuckyKen Well-Known Member

    Well said, sir, well said.
    Best all in one explanation of the drive modes yet. Honda should pay you to rewrite their manual. :)
     
  22. insightman

    insightman Well-Known Member Subscriber

    Thank you. Thirty years ago I made my living as a technical writer, but there are many technical writers better than me.
     
  23. KentuckyKen

    KentuckyKen Well-Known Member

    Maybe, maybe...but they aren’t smart enough to drive a Clarity!
     
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