Battery Capacity Test Results

C

Central Penn

New Member
At the suggestion of the good people on this forum, I had the dealership run a battery capacity test for an unsold Clarity that was manufactured in May 2018. They just sent the results and I was surprised at how extensive they appear to be. I thought I'd share them in case they were of interest to anyone. Also, one thing that jumped out at first glance was the "Failed" on an item on Page 5 -- exactly how concerned would you be about that? I haven't yet really delved into the report, but I'd be interested in hearing any thoughts you may like to share about it.
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Central Penn said:
At the suggestion of the good people on this forum, I had the dealership run a battery capacity test for an unsold Clarity that was manufactured in May 2018. They just sent the results and I was surprised at how extensive they appear to be. I thought I'd share them in case they were of interest to anyone. Also, one thing that jumped out at first glance was the "Failed" on an item on Page 5 -- exactly how concerned would you be about that? I haven't yet really delved into the report, but I'd be interested in hearing any thoughts you may like to share about it.
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I would not be too concerned, I had them run mine shortly after purchase (and finding this group) and it appears that I missed that line item, however, mine said “fail” as well and we have had no problems and now have 11,300 miles on it with 4,000 HV, and the balance electrons only. Hope this helps
 

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clarityowner12 said:
I would not be too concerned, I had them run mine shortly after purchase (and finding this group) and it appears that I missed that line item, however, mine said “fail” as well and we have had no problems and now have 11,300 miles on it with 4,000 HV, and the balance electrons only. Hope this helps
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@clarityowner12 out of curiosity, how do you track your HV vs. EV miles?

Thanks

J
 
I’ll chime in with a total WAG on this. The Battery Charger VAC low “fail” could possibly mean the line voltage from the EVSE. I guess this because isn’t the only AC associated with the onboard charger coming from the grid through the EVSE? Could it be that it’s very sensitive to low AC voltage which might explain charging problems on public EVSEs?

@Central Penn, have you had the update installed for the charging problem (SB 18-097)?

Could some of you EEs or electrical geniuses help us out with what this means. I freely admit I don’t know squat about any electrical stuff in use after the Leyden jar was invented.

And on a lighter note, I see that your Reactor Temperature is a mere 91 F. Thank goodness; no mushroom cloud or Chernobyl event for you!

And the battery Bolts are interesting and seem to indicate good cell balancing, and can be used to calculate the capacity, but what do I know about electricity? Not much!
 
KentuckyKen said:
Could some of you EEs or electrical geniuses help us out with what this means. I freely admit I don’t know squat about any electrical stuff in use after the Leyden jar was invented.
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I am a very long way from being an electrical engineer. However, just as a matter of common sense: If both vehicles got a "Fail" on a certain test, perhaps that is normal for the Clarity PHEV. Keep in mind there are three types of Clarity, and it may be that the one test that fails is intended for the Clarity Electric (BEV) or the Clarity Fuel Cell.
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KentuckyKen said:
I’ll chime in with a total WAG on this. The Battery Charger VAC low “fail” could possibly mean the line voltage from the EVSE. I guess this because isn’t the only AC associated with the onboard charger coming from the grid through the EVSE? Could it be that it’s very sensitive to low AC voltage which might explain charging problems on public EVSEs?

@Central Penn, have you had the update installed for the charging problem (SB 18-097)?
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Interesting thought. I'm not sure if the update has been installed, but I will find out when the dealership opens later today. Thanks.
 
Pushmi-Pullyu said:
I am a very long way from being an electrical engineer. However, just as a matter of common sense: If both vehicles got a "Fail" on a certain test, perhaps that is normal for the Clarity PHEV. Keep in mind there are three types of Clarity, and it may be that the one test that fails is intended for the Clarity Electric (BEV) or the Clarity Fuel Cell.
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I hadn't considered this, but it's certainly possible. Thanks.
 
clarityowner12 said:
I have kept EVERY fuel receipt since delivery, and I’ve tracked HV fuel efficiency to be close to 45 mpg (that’s at around 75-80mph consistently)

So, I add every gallon up and multiply by 45 to get a pretty good estimate
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@clarityowner12 That's impressive! I'm still looking for something a bit more automated. I've seen some of the other posts with different methods but I'm going to try to put some brain power on this. I really wish Honda would have taken the simple step of exposing this info to the driver.
 
I suspect the "Fail" on the result of the Low AC voltage test is the result of the charging issue software update. It is likely that the Clarity was too sensitive to under voltage conditions and it triggered the charge stopping that people reported with some EVSE's. The update likely fixed the issue by allowing a wider voltage input range, but the test software still checks at the original low voltage trigger value. They updated the car, but not the test software :oops:
 
DucRider said:
I suspect the "Fail" on the result of the Low AC voltage test is the result of the charging issue software update. It is likely that the Clarity was too sensitive to under voltage conditions and it triggered the charge stopping that people reported with some EVSE's. The update likely fixed the issue by allowing a wider voltage input range, but the test software still checks at the original low voltage trigger value. They updated the car, but not the test software :oops:
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KentuckyKen said:
I’ll chime in with a total WAG on this. The Battery Charger VAC low “fail” could possibly mean the line voltage from the EVSE. I guess this because isn’t the only AC associated with the onboard charger coming from the grid through the EVSE? Could it be that it’s very sensitive to low AC voltage which might explain charging problems on public EVSEs?

@Central Penn, have you had the update installed for the charging problem (SB 18-097)?
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For what it’s worth, when the service department ran the VIN, only two SBs came up: SB 18-090 and SB 18-096. Both were completed the same day as the battery capacity test, but nobody seems to know the order of completion. There was no mention of SB 18-097 (or others I’ve read about).

I’m not extremely concerned about the “failed” item at this point. It’s really more of a matter of curiosity. Thanks again for your thoughts.
 
FWIW, the SB 18-097 for charging problems will not be installed unless you complain about having problems with public chargers. Honda doesn’t reimburse the dealers for this update unless it’s due to a customer complaint.
 
Thanks. That's good to know. I've been sorting through some of the other threads regarding SBs and wondering why only two came up for this particular vehicle. Is this typically also the case with the various other existing SB updates -- that we need to specifically ask for and justify them to the service department?
 
Wow, a 1 year old unsold Clarity - unheard of where I am located - they are snapped up quickly....

Where in the test lines, does the charge capacity show ?
Or in other words, the battery charge numbers that Honda goes by to determine if it's replacement time ??
 
Central Penn said:
Thanks. That's good to know. I've been sorting through some of the other threads regarding SBs and wondering why only two came up for this particular vehicle. Is this typically also the case with the various other existing SB updates -- that we need to specifically ask for and justify them to the service department?
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ASFAIK, only the 18-097 has to be requested. All others should be installed automatically. Note that some SBs have been superseded by newer ones so not every one in some older posts are current.
 
4sallypat said:
Wow, a 1 year old unsold Clarity - unheard of where I am located - they are snapped up quickly....

Where in the test lines, does the charge capacity show ?
Or in other words, the battery charge numbers that Honda goes by to determine if it's replacement time ??
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Second image, 7 lines from the top, 55.1Ah.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
If I remember correctly there is a status code when the multi phase voltage from the genset is below a certain voltage. If vehicle was plugged in and ICE wasn't running, I would suspect that the "Low VAC" alarm would be set because genset was off. From my experience these types of tests can be run with genset on or off depending on what you are testing for.
 
4sallypat said:
Wow, a 1 year old unsold Clarity - unheard of where I am located - they are snapped up quickly....

Where in the test lines, does the charge capacity show ?
Or in other words, the battery charge numbers that Honda goes by to determine if it's replacement time ??
Click to expand...

Check the Dallas/Ft Worth market in autotrader. There are at least a dozen unsold 2018 Clarity PHEV's. Noone in that market seems to be interested in selling or buying them.
 
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