URGENT: Speaker/dashcam install killed my Clarity!

Discussion in 'Clarity' started by Jason90405, Dec 12, 2021.

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  1. Jason90405

    Jason90405 Member

    PXL_20211212_170954825.jpg PXL_20211212_170949036.jpg PXL_20211212_170936057.jpg PXL_20211212_170944621.jpg Yesterday I took my 2018 Clarity to a local shop to replace the factory speakers with a JL component speakers/tweeter plus install a Viofo A129 dashcam. I also put in a mini self powered subwoofer (without amp)

    The resulting sound was so much worse than the factory speakers (I only replaced the front ones). The sound was unnaturally high with the treble hurting my ears. Since it was at the end of Sat, the installer told me to come back on Monday to further troubleshoot.

    The Viofo dashcam was installed with the Parking Mode enabled (with the special cabling).

    This morning my Clarity will not start as it gives me several errors consecutively:

    Road Departure Mitigation System Problem
    Hill Start Assist Problem
    Brake Hold System Problem
    Brake System Problem

    I believe the installer probably 'killed' my Clarity due to faulty speaker electrical wiring or maybe the dashcam parking recording ate up all the electric power from the car??

    I tried charging the car this morning. The charge will not start (either by the key fob or the Honda app).

    The Honda dealer isn't far from my house but I'm afraid to take it there without the car installer to un-do any electrical changes he had done to my car. Even though the Clarity is still under warranty, the dealer can charge me for any repairs that's caused by external tempering.

    Even though that, the car's computer may still contain history of any prior error code.

    What should do on Monday morning (tomorrow)? Any idea what might have caused the problem? I disconnected the powers to the dashcam and the sub to start.

    I have attached the error pictures
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2021
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  3. petteyg359

    petteyg359 Well-Known Member

    Everything still depends on the 12-volt battery to function, including charging the bigger battery. Get a trickle charger (i.e. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00068XCQU), get the 12v battery charged, then find out what drained it.
     
    Daniel M W and Robert_Alabama like this.
  4. Random.Clarity

    Random.Clarity New Member

    No need to worry. If bad speaker wiring killed cars we'd see millions totaled by high schooler DIY installs every year. Aside from mounting the speakers all the shop does is connect two wires for each speaker.... it's not that hard to do right.

    As other said it is almost certainly the 12v battery. The multiple warning lights is something manufacturers have been doing for a while now. Most people would ignore a simple check engine light but if you give multiple errors they are less likely to ignore them all and will actually take the car in for service.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2021
  5. Jason90405

    Jason90405 Member

    It was the 12v battery! A simple jump start fixed it! Whew!
     
    StickWare likes this.
  6. MrFixit

    MrFixit Well-Known Member

    This array of ominous warnings is caused by a loss of 12V power. The loss could be due to bad 12V battery, a drained 12V battery, or if it was disconnected intentionally during a repair. Once 12V power is restored, you can 'start' the car again, but these errors will not all disappear until the vehicle is driven for a short distance.
     
    TomL likes this.
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  8. Jason90405

    Jason90405 Member

    Thanks all for the reply! All is good.. though the lane change warning system got turned off as the result.
     
  9. megreyhair

    megreyhair Active Member

    The dashcams' was properly using the always on source from the fuse box and drained the 12V batt out.
     
  10. Jason90405

    Jason90405 Member

    Can you explain?
     
  11. megreyhair

    megreyhair Active Member

    Some of the fuse locations are on and have power all the time as long as the 12V battery is connected while some fuse locations have power only when the ignition is in the on position.

    There are 2 different type of 12V to 5V power adapter for dashcams, type A, one 12 volt power lead , and type B, two 12volt power leads. Type A is suppose to connect to on only when ign is on location and will turn the cam on whenever the car start is started. Type b have 1 lead connect to always on and 1 lead to on when car is started. When the cam detect no power on 1 of the lead then it knows the car is off and go into parking mode and use less power.

    Type B cost more than A .
    Most likely the installer use the cheaper A power adapter and plugged into the always on fuse and stayed on all the time.

    You can check by looking into the fuse box by the foot well and and see where the taps are tap into.
     
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  13. Jason90405

    Jason90405 Member

  14. megreyhair

    megreyhair Active Member

    You got
    You got the correct one. Now the question is if it was wired correctly. Do you have a volt meter to check for power? Maybe the dip switch on it is set incorrectly and it never went off?
     
  15. Love the car, but this is just poor engineering.

    I can imagine in testing a low battery voltage started spewing random ominous warnings. A tech suggested, “Why don’t we add a superseding warning in that case to alert the driver to ‘Check 12V Battery Charge State’ and use non-volatile memory to remember settings and to suppress all the random warnings?”

    Either that never happened, or the response was, “Meh. Too much trouble - we’ll just let the drivers sort it out on their own.” I suspect the latter is the case.
     
    Robert_Alabama and MrFixit like this.
  16. petteyg359

    petteyg359 Well-Known Member

    To the contrary, removing superfluous things and duplicate functionality is good engineering. Why install yet another battery warning light when the same function is served by all the other startup tests failing at the same time? Your battery warning light is all of the lights.
     

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