Questions on HondaLink

When we first did this I couldn't get connected to the car. A phone number was displayed on the app and when I called it the Honda app people were very helpful. If you see that number, call them. I know I am lacking some details but it was months ago and I forget exactly how the number came up.

 

The only number I see so far are the generic customer service numbers. I keep thinking surely there is just some step I've missed.

 

Is this a typical message when trying to set up HondaLink the first time? It's been showing this for about two hours now. The correct mileage does show at the bottom of the app so *something* is communicating properly. I should add that I haven't actually taken a trip like it suggests yet. So that might be it.

 

Did you get the code from the car display yet?

 

Adding a related HondaLink question: How often does the car sync with the Hondalink app? When I'm checking my charging status on the app, it could be an hour or two before the timestamp updates with a new charging level. And how does the car actually communicate with the app when out of range of bluetooth or Wifi -- or does it?

 

Pat, starting or stopping charging will initiate an update on your Honda Link when you open it and then at intervals after that, so your experience is normal. I think turning the car on/off without charging will too but I’ve only seen that once.
While charging I always get updates between 1 and 2 hours. I would speculate that this lag is due to the fact that Honda has to pay for the cellular packet data transmissions that the TCU (Telematics Control Unit) sends and receives. More frequent communiques would be more costly. After all this is a free service to us unlike OnStar.
The TCU communicates by cellular packet data transmissions and Honda does not offer voice capability in our Claritys. At shutdown, you will see TCU and an antenna symbol with signal strength bars on the Driver Display Interface (behind steering wheel). As long as your phone and the car can get a strong enough cellular signal and can then connect to the server Honda is using, all the Honda Link features should work no matter what the distance between car and phone.

As a side note, the TCU is connected to the CanBus and theoretically has access to virtually everything that’s going on with the car. The question is how much data is being sent to Honda when we use Honda Link? Honda’s not saying.

 

All it took was starting the car and backing out of my driveway this morning for the app to complete the connection. Looks like connection was made last night, but it just needed the car to take a short trip to push out the updated battery status, etc.

Strangely, I never had to enter any kind of code or such as it showed in some of the tutorial videos I saw. I wonder if this is because there was an actual direct Bluetooth connection between car and phone to authenticate, or if it was because my car was connected to our home wifi network? It does make we wonder about the security of the app connection process, however, as it seems that anyone who has my car VIN and home zip can also establish a connection via HondaLink, as those were the only two required pieces of info asked during the registration process.

 

The code from the car is supposed to take care of unauthorized connecting. Strange that you got it to work with out a code. I didn’t think that was possible.

 

Yes, that's what I thought as well. I wonder if Honda changed things such that a phone that already has an established Bluetooth connection to the car (I did have to enter a pairing code for Bluetooth previously) now does not need a separate code to connect HondaLink?

 

Thanks, KentuckyKen, you bring Clarity to life.

 

The odometer was not updating in Hondalink. I realized that I had turned off Bluetooth on my phone. Turned on Bluetooth and connected to the car and very quickly mileage updated. It would appear that mileage only updates across Bluetooth. Why it doesn't update with charging information I have no idea.

 

I would agree. The only time my HondaLink seems to update the ODO information is through Bluetooth. It can go for days and days without updating.

 

Bluetooth is always on on my phone and the odometer sometimes doesn't update for weeks in the app.

 

Same problem with the odometer not updating in the app.

 

It's funny, I've been really disappointed with HondaLink, but for the exact opposite reason of others here. My odometer reading seems to update regularly, and thus far the state of charge display is up to date and the "charge complete" notifications come in quickly enough.

But the commands going the other way--pre-condition the cabin or force it to start charging--don't execute at all most of the time, and if they do it takes tens of minutes to kick in. For example, I'll tell it to warm itself up, and it'll say it's working on it, but it never actually does.

I know it's got a connection to the car, since the state of charge shows, and it shouldn't be having connectivity problems, since it's outside and in a part of town with good cell coverage, so I have no idea why it's so flakey.

I also really miss the ability to unlock the doors remotely that even the cheapskate OnStar provided in the Volt--if I locked myself out of my house but had my phone on me, at least I could get into the car to use the garage door opener.

 

Maybe it just needs a re-branding: Honda(missing)Link...

Sorry, just couldn't resist...

 

Quick question on pre-conditioning using the HondaLink app or the key-fob. Does it basically just turn on the Climate system and use whatever was set before I turn off the car last? So if I have manually turn off the A/C and using the fan for example during my last drive, if I turn on pre-conditioning, all the car will do is turn on the fan?

 

There have been several posts on this but I can’t remember who first posted that it doesn’t follow your settings; it has a set of conditions for inside and outside temperatures that governs it’s settings and even whether or not it will turn on at all.
Here is the diagram of its settings:

 

For the first issue, I had a similar problem with the HondaLink app. On an iPhone, go into Settings/General/ Language & Region and set the region for you home country. Choose "United States" and it will show in miles; choose Canada and it will show in km. I don't have an Android device, but likely, it has a similar setting. These settings affect the HondaLink app display on your phone; the settings for the displays in the car itself are set from the car settings menus.

 

I have registered flawlessly with my phone with zero issues. When I went to add my wife as an additional user it does not work. Take those same credential and use them on my phone - works fine! Take my credentials on her phone, will NOT work! FWIW, my wife and I are in tech, so we know the ropes. Call Honda, the response is: "HondaLink App for Clarity only designed for one user on one phone." Can this be real?