Having same Clarity 240 charging problem!

M

Mary Bathurst

New Member
Bought my Clarity on March 29, 2018 from Honda of Illinois in Springfield, IL (first one sold in the city). Have never had an issue with the 120V charger. Hired an electrician and he installed a 240V plug and I purchased a $200+ charger thru Amazon. Had the same charging problem as described by Ms Farkas. Car would begin charging and all lights shown or blinked appropriately, both on the wall unit and at my car. Then after about 30 minutes, a “FAULT” light came on the wall unit part of my charger and the green “charging” light on my car had gone out but there was no charge when I turned on my car. I sent back one charger and the second charger did the same thing! The dealership where I bought my car doesn’t even have a 240 plug-in and just said it had to my my charger or my electrician. I drove to a St Louis dealer this morning, they plugged in my car with my charger and it charged perfectly in an hour and a half. They said it had to be the electricity in my home! I called my electric company and after they tested our circuitry, they searched the Internet and found your forum and sent me the link! I guess I have to go back to the dealer now??? I’ve now spent $1000 between my electrician and the charger cable and can’t get anybody to help me make it work!!, anybody know how to contact Honda corporate? Since the dealerships have turned me away thinking my problem is solved, I’m sure I’m not on anybody’s radar! Suggestions PLEASE!
 
Did the electric company actually test the 240V outlet installed by your electrician? It's possible that there may be some kind of ground fault or something else incorrect with the outlet, causing the 240V EVSE you purchased to show a fault. These devices are supposed to detect if there isn't a proper ground, plus some other safety checks to determine if it is safe to pass such a large current. Or it very well could be a problem with that particular EVSE itself such that both units are actually bad. What EVSE did you order from Amazon? For $200 it doesn't sound like one from the more reputable manufacturers. Since it seems like it is still relatively recently that you placed the order, perhaps you can return this EVSE to Amazon and try a different model?
 
I agree with Kendall - sounds more like a EVSE problem than a Clarity problem - send it back to Amazon.

In reality I think the Clarity charging problem has been somewhat blown out of proportion - if you read through the threads you'll find that almost every issue being reported is related to Chargepoint Level 2 charging stations. I've used 8 public charging stations of which 3 were Chargepoints. No problems with the 5 non-Chargepoint but 2 of the 3 Chargepoints didn't work.

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I'm also having issues with the Chargepoint at work with my new Clarity PHEV. 90% of the time, no issues, but some days it recognizes the car but just keeps saying "waiting for vehicle". I've never gotten an error message. Typically it works for other cars, just not my Clarity.

I tried locking/unlocking, parking brake, windows up and down, driving around lot for a few minutes, calling Chargepoint, calling Honda, etc. It's definitely not the timer (made that mistake only once!) ALWAYS works with 120v at home and I've never had an issue with a non-Chargepoint device, but I have only used a couple.

Very annoying, especially because it is so unpredictable when it will work vs not work.
 
We had a 220v outlet installed in the garage when we built our house. Hung a Siemens Versicharge EVSE nearby and plugged it in with absolutely no problems.
ChargePoint - 2 (1).webp
ChargePoint - 1 (1).webp

Am fortunate to live in a city with over 1,000 public charging stations and have used a few of them (more out of curiosity than need). As the following screenshot show, I've not had an issue with any of them.
ChargePoint - 2.webp
ChargePoint - 1.webp


The first place I'd check is the fuse box. The breaker should be a 50 AMP combination like this:
2018-04-25_09-01-42.webp
 
As a data point, we replaced a new GE charger at work twice before we got one that worked reliably. The defective ones exhibited similar behavior as the OP described. Would start charging then display fault and stop. Had this problem on both Volt and Clarity. So I would not give up on the possibility of having multiple defective chargers.
 
Took mine (Clarity PHEV) into the dealer today when it wouldn't charge on the Chargepoint at work two days in a row but charged fine at home (110/120) - no error message, just not telling the charger to send juice. They of course couldn't find anything and it charged fine on an EV-branded level 2 charger (at the Ford dealer down the road, HAHA). Technician said that there isn't much on any of the internal Honda service message boards about the PHEV, but a bit about the BEVs having issues, but they have a fix soon to be out for that.

Interesting, every time it hasn't charged, I haven't been the first to work and had to wait for someone else to charge first, then have issues after they move. I don't think it's ever happened when I've been the first to charge. Maybe just a coincidence, but interesting. We'll see if it behaves tomorrow after being at the dealer and working fine today.

Another coworker had trouble getting her new Prius Prime to charge after mine yesterday (same issue it sounds like), so maybe it's not just a Honda thing (but a Chrysler Pacifica and Chevy Volt charged fine that morning) but a Chargepoint thing.
 
Mary, if you have not solved your problem yet, another step in the trouble shooting process could be to have someone else with a plug-in vehicle try to charge at your home charger.
 
Cay said:
Took mine (Clarity PHEV) into the dealer today when it wouldn't charge on the Chargepoint at work two days in a row but charged fine at home (110/120) - no error message, just not telling the charger to send juice. They of course couldn't find anything and it charged fine on an EV-branded level 2 charger (at the Ford dealer down the road, HAHA). Technician said that there isn't much on any of the internal Honda service message boards about the PHEV, but a bit about the BEVs having issues, but they have a fix soon to be out for that.

Interesting, every time it hasn't charged, I haven't been the first to work and had to wait for someone else to charge first, then have issues after they move. I don't think it's ever happened when I've been the first to charge. Maybe just a coincidence, but interesting. We'll see if it behaves tomorrow after being at the dealer and working fine today.

Another coworker had trouble getting her new Prius Prime to charge after mine yesterday (same issue it sounds like), so maybe it's not just a Honda thing (but a Chrysler Pacifica and Chevy Volt charged fine that morning) but a Chargepoint thing.
Click to expand...

How frustrating! Next time you're at the station, give our 24 hour driver support line a ring, hopefully, they can help you get charging! 1-888-758-4389 Or, if needed they can get the right folks in touch with the person responsible for the ChargePoint station at your office and take it from there. :)
 
I am having similar issues also. Seem like level 2 charger (juicebox) is not charging it past 13.56 KW. The car is usually drained to 0 each day, and when we operate the next day, EV estimate is always around 40-43 (missing a few ticks in battery gauge). Hondalink app in Android shows battery is charged to 100% each morning, but when I turn on the car and check the energy level, it's always about 80-90%.

There are two instances where juicebox thinks it's got unplugged event thou we didn't. There's an instance on 5/9 where it only charged 4.51 + .45 for the night... Will be taking it to dealer and see if they know what's up.

upload_2018-5-14_15-55-25.webp
 
Cay said:
Took mine (Clarity PHEV) into the dealer today when it wouldn't charge on the Chargepoint at work two days in a row but charged fine at home (110/120) - no error message, just not telling the charger to send juice. They of course couldn't find anything and it charged fine on an EV-branded level 2 charger (at the Ford dealer down the road, HAHA). Technician said that there isn't much on any of the internal Honda service message boards about the PHEV, but a bit about the BEVs having issues, but they have a fix soon to be out for that.

Interesting, every time it hasn't charged, I haven't been the first to work and had to wait for someone else to charge first, then have issues after they move. I don't think it's ever happened when I've been the first to charge. Maybe just a coincidence, but interesting. We'll see if it behaves tomorrow after being at the dealer and working fine today.

Another coworker had trouble getting her new Prius Prime to charge after mine yesterday (same issue it sounds like), so maybe it's not just a Honda thing (but a Chrysler Pacifica and Chevy Volt charged fine that morning) but a Chargepoint thing.
Click to expand...
One of my colleagues reported a similar problem with a Chargepoint station. Our work site has 3 poles that can each service 2 cars. Sure enough, I also found one of the service units wasn't capable of charging but the one next to it worked. My guess is there's something wrong with the Charge Point EVSE and you should report it to them.
 
DVoran said:
One of my colleagues reported a similar problem with a Chargepoint station. Our work site has 3 poles that can each service 2 cars. Sure enough, I also found one of the service units wasn't capable of charging but the one next to it worked. My guess is there's something wrong with the Charge Point EVSE and you should report it to them.
Click to expand...

Hi Dvoran,
Please give our driver support team a call also so they may help with the station at your office as well.
ChargePoint said:
How frustrating! Next time you're at the station, give our 24 hour driver support line a ring, hopefully, they can help you get charging! 1-888-758-4389 Or, if needed they can get the right folks in touch with the person responsible for the ChargePoint station at your office and take it from there. :)
Click to expand...
 
ChargePoint said:
How frustrating! Next time you're at the station, give our 24 hour driver support line a ring, hopefully, they can help you get charging! 1-888-758-4389 Or, if needed they can get the right folks in touch with the person responsible for the ChargePoint station at your office and take it from there. :)
Click to expand...


Oh, I have, several times! They have reset it several times to no avail. I was told that it was my car, not the charger, because the charger was recognizing my car. Honda thinks it's the charger, not my car. It has worked since I took the car to the dealer...until today. This morning, around 11 am, I went to charge at the same Chargepoint at work and everything seemed to be fine...until 45 minutes later when I got an alert on my phone that my car was "drawing very little power". But the Hondalink app said the car was only 75% full. I walked out to the car and tried 3 more times unsuccessfully to get it to start charging again before giving up. Same issue as always - it just keeps saying "waiting for car". I even drove around the parking lot, came back and tried again. No dice. It might be coincidence, but I've never had it fail before 9am in the morning, issues always happen when I try to charge later in the day, particularly if another car has been at the charger before mine.

Now it's happily charging at home on 110/120.
 
ChargePoint said:
Hi Dvoran,
Please give our driver support team a call also so they may help with the station at your office as well.
Click to expand...

And then today at another ChargePoint at another of our campuses, my car had 39% battery life. I plugged it in and it immediately started charging. Then no sooner did I get halfway across campus, I got a notification that my car had stopped charging. Chargepoint said the car was charged. Meanwhile, it had only gained 1 kWh. I restarted it twice and same thing happened, although this time it was immediate - started charging, charged for 1-2 minutes, then blinking green light, then stop charging. I had to get to a meeting, so I left it be, will try again/call Chargepoint at lunch.

This is getting VERY frustrating!
 
I used three different Chargepoint stations in the past week over a 900 mile stretch of the country and all three worked with my Clarity PHEV without issue.
 
Just had an issue with a Volta charger... Green light was on when we walked away, came back an hour later and light was off and charge level didn't increase.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
 
same issue with a Charge Point station,after charging for 2 months with no isues,today it didnt want to charge,it kept showing : "waiting for the car",so I came home where 110v charger started rightaway
 
There is a car update people have been getting that seems to solve charging issues. I can't find which thread it is at the moment.
 
ab13 said:
There is a car update people have been getting that seems to solve charging issues. I can't find which thread it is at the moment.
Click to expand...
Took mine to the dealer last week for 8k oil change and overall service. They said there were no updates for the car and reaffirmed it when I expressed my disbelief that Honda wouldn't bother with an update 10 months after releasing a totally new model that has some quirks that could be resolved with software (like the predicted gas range not being realistic).

In general, it's been charging well on the Chargepoint at work, although I've had a couple cases where the charger tells me the car is done while HondaLink tells me car is still charging. Another time Chargepoint said full battery, Honda said 50% and car wouldn't charge any further. Told this all to dealer and they had no ideas and said there is nothing coming down from corporate related to this issue and that they had looked on all the internal Honda service boards. Today it took three tries to get my car to charge on the Chargepoint, although eventually, it did.

So, issue is less bothersome, but still not resolved. One of my coworkers has had some similar issues with her Prius Prime at same charger.
 
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