Clarity PHEV issue

  • Thread starter Thread starter Allen Young
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 10
  • Views Views 3K
Allen Young

Allen Young

New Member
I'm currently experiencing an issue with my car. When I press the gas beyond that point and HV engages, it will never disengage, ever, no matter what I do, in other words, it never engages back to EV. If I engage the HV manually with the HV switch, I can switch back to EV mode with ease, no problem.
One, has anyone experiencied this, and can anyone test this? I reported this issue to Honda.
 
What I'm finding that other owners have the same issue. I hate this design. It should be automatic. someone said they restart their car to fix it, much like Microsoft products :)
 
At lunch today I took a 2 mile 7 minute drive at about 70 degrees. I forced the ICE to start with a rapid acceleration at the beginning of the trip and it shut off just before the end - obviously at a 7-0 degree start that was plenty of time for the ICE to warm up. I don't know if the temperature or the slow speed driving changes the ICE behavior in that situation or not.
 
Allen Young said:
I'm currently experiencing an issue with my car. When I press the gas beyond that point and HV engages, it will never disengage, ever, no matter what I do, in other words, it never engages back to EV. If I engage the HV manually with the HV switch, I can switch back to EV mode with ease, no problem.
One, has anyone experiencied this, and can anyone test this? I reported this issue to Honda.
Click to expand...

Never is a long time, how long did you give it?

It will run the engine until it is warm at minimum, and if you are at higher speeds it will probably run it a bit longer.

As a specific test, I pushed past the detent on a cool evening (probably 26F), and it went back to EV mode just fine after 10 to 15 minutes or so (didn't time it).
 
I took a friend for a test drive today and pressed the foot feed past the indent so the ICE turned on. The ICE would not shut off as in this post despite turning HV mode off and being in the econ setting. I pulled off the road, turned off the car and upon restart the car was all EV for the rest of the drive. The outside temp was 34F so the engine was definitely cold.
 
It's a feature. The car is only a PHEV, so it won't act like a BEV. It's clear from the way the system is set up that Pure EV until the battery is depleted is not part of the Honda algorithm. I have a feeling that you're only going to experience relatively Pure EV if you operate the vehicle within certain parameters. Once the ICE is engaged, it'll run until the engine hits a preset temperature. You can sometimes override that by rebooting, but even that doesn't always work.
 
As a reminder, a gas engine should not run if it doesn't run to temperature regularly. This prevents water build up and damage to the engine from oil sludging. If the engine only runs for 30 seconds after it starts for the first time and it does this several times a week without warming up, this is a good way to rapidly destroy the engine.

Here is an example:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/lisa-sweeney-ford-fusion-hybrid-sludge-1.3779293

The ICE will turn off after the engine gets warm enough. If you want to avoid this, don't push past the detent, or just not worry about it and let the engine start. Drive in Sport mode and have fun.

Thankfully, the Clarity PHEV can run in EV mode (Econ mode not pushing past detent) down to around 0 F before the engine will start due to cold, so unlike a Hyundai PHEV that has to run the engine for heat, the Clarity can be run like an EV most of the time.
 
I frequently drive just slightly past the EV range, usually within a mile or two, which means that the ICE is only on for a couple of minutes before I park and turn off the car. With the potential for 'oil sludging' I guess I should anticipate when this might happen and activate HV charging before the EV range runs out. How long should the engine run to be thoroughly warmed up?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top