High mileage Clarity owners

S

SC Clarity

New Member
Hey all, been lurking here as a guest for over a year but felt like I should post now and then! Tons of great info here.

I drive a lot and gas budget was getting out of hand even getting in the mid 20's with my wife's old Sienna. Decided to step up to an EV or hybrid since most driving is local and I can charge often at home, plus we have a large solar setup. After much research it actually came down to the Toyota RAV Prime vs. the Clarity. The pricing on the RAVs was crazy so the Clarity won out.

I picked up a 2018 Touring with 53K miles for pretty cheap from a local Honda dealer. They replaced all the tires, did all the service and I got the longest extended warranty Honda offered.

That was in March 2021. Since then I have driven 21,000 miles! Did I mention I do a lot of local driving?? Having three kids into sports and music along with multiple doc visits does that! I would say in those 21,000 miles I have needed gas 8 times. I usually get close to 3000 miles per tank. Love it!

So - who here has a high mileage Clarity and what if any issues have you noticed? I will easily be over 100K miles. We usually keep our cars long term (the Sienna has 165K miles). We do all required maintenance, stored in a garage, etc. I always charge at home on a 16A 220V charger. My workshop was already wired for 30A 220 so it was easy to add in the charger. Takes just a few hours to full charge from dead on that setup. I didnt want to push the wiring with a 32A charger.

Side question - how often do you change the engine oil on the Clarity if you're always on EV? I get the pop-up notices on the screen, but I rotate the tires, check air filters and reset it (all at home). When I check the engine oil it is still golden and clear and at most I have 2000 or so actual engine running miles. I planned on changing it at the dealer in March on the one year mark just due to age. Air filter still looks brand new. If I changed it around the 5K mark the pop-up comes up I would have maybe 300 miles of engine time! Waste.
 
SC Clarity said:
Side question - how often do you change the engine oil on the Clarity if you're always on EV?
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The recommendation is to change the oil at least once a year. I also have mostly EV miles, so the one year interval comes along before reaching any kind of mileage threshold for the ICE. My maintenance minder has triggered an oil change reminder in concert with each year point since it was new in 2018.
 
MrFixit said:
The recommendation is to change the oil at least once a year. I also have mostly EV miles, so the one year interval comes along before reaching any kind of mileage threshold for the ICE. My maintenance minder has triggered an oil change reminder in concert with each year point since it was new in 2018.
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Thanks. Since the oil still looked brand new when checked I didnt have much hesitation to keep going. I'll change it this March just to do it.
 
I have 146K on my Clarity, but it is mostly ICE operation.

My one problem was a front wheel bearing. My tires wore out quickly, with the front driver side the worst. I never noticed any looseness in the bearing, until it actually got loud. After replacing the wheel bearing (50K miles ago), the tire wear is dramatically better.

I had heard of front wheel bearing problems, but I never had noise, so I did not think it was me. Seems like excessive tire wear is another symptom of a wheel bearing problem.

My other problem is a recent deer hit, but the Clarity handled it pretty well, and I am still driving it.
 
SC Clarity said:
Thanks. Since the oil still looked brand new when checked I didnt have much hesitation to keep going. I'll change it this March just to do it.
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If you're not changing the oil each time the maintenance minder tells you to, you have potentially invalidated the extended warranty. Honda may or may not call you out on it if you have an engine issue in the warranty period.
 
David Towle said:
If you're not changing the oil each time the maintenance minder tells you to, you have potentially invalidated the extended warranty. Honda may or may not call you out on it if you have an engine issue in the warranty period.
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I know you are just stating this as a possibility, but is there any evidence, even anecdotal of someone being denied warranty because of not following the minder? Meaning even though the owner provided evidence that they changed the oil at least once a year, the dealer presented the owner with a printout showing all of the minder messages that the owner received, and the dates that they received the messages. It's theoretically possible, but seems to be mainly conjecture unless someone has first hand knowledge of this actually happening. Also engine problems are extremely rare during a warranty period anyway, adding to the unlikelihood of this actually happening. But if someone thinks it's possible and feels they would rather be safe than sorry, I can't prove that there is no risk. But for myself I think it's so unlikely that I don't worry about it and I just change my oil once a year, and would only change it more often if I were driving more gas miles.
 
I have a shade over 50k miles over the last three years. I have a 70-100 mile daily commute. I get about 35ish EV miles and the rest is ICE. I change the oil twice a year......basically whenever the MM tells me too. I did it this weekend actually. If you have a setup (ramps or jacks/jack stands) and tools (ratchet and oil filter wrench) it might take 15 minutes. That and I KNOW I did it and I did it correctly. It's easy peasy.
 
Aaron said:
I have a shade over 50k miles over the last three years. I have a 70-100 mile daily commute. I get about 35ish EV miles and the rest is ICE. I change the oil twice a year......basically whenever the MM tells me too. I did it this weekend actually. If you have a setup (ramps or jacks/jack stands) and tools (ratchet and oil filter wrench) it might take 15 minutes. That and I KNOW I did it and I did it correctly. It's easy peasy.
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I just bought a 2018 with 51k and my commute is the same as you described. This makes me feel good about my decision!
 
Aaron said:
I have a shade over 50k miles over the last three years. I have a 70-100 mile daily commute. I get about 35ish EV miles and the rest is ICE. I change the oil twice a year......basically whenever the MM tells me too. I did it this weekend actually. If you have a setup (ramps or jacks/jack stands) and tools (ratchet and oil filter wrench) it might take 15 minutes. That and I KNOW I did it and I did it correctly. It's easy peasy.
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I have heard enough stories about things going wrong when people take their car in for an oil change that I have always done it myself on every car that I have owned. Takes me longer than 15 minutes if I include getting set up and the cleanup afterwards, but still less time than I would spend taking it somewhere. And then hoping they didn't underfill or overfill, cross thread the drain nut, or the myriad other things that can potentially go wrong if someone is careless.

As for following the maintenance minder for oil changes, that makes sense in your situation because about 10,000 of your 16,000 annual miles use the engine. So essentially you are changing the oil about every 5,000 miles of engine use.

There are a lot of people who drive say 40 miles a day on weekdays, or about 10,000 miles per year, but rarely use gas, to the point that some of them have to decide whether they should purposely burn some gas when their tank is not empty after a year. However the maintenance minder for oil changes completely disregards EV miles vs. ICE miles and pops up an oil change message after about 6,000 miles of driving even if most of it was EV. That's why people who don't drive a lot of gas miles typically ignore the maintenance minder and just change the oil once a year.
 
We got oil change maintenance schedule from Honda Accord and it's completely ignoring EV miles, counting all as ICE.
 
Frankwell said:
There are a lot of people who drive say 40 miles a day on weekdays, or about 10,000 miles per year, but rarely use gas, to the point that some of them have to decide whether they should purposely burn some gas when their tank is not empty after a year. However the maintenance minder for oil changes completely disregards EV miles vs. ICE miles and pops up an oil change message after about 6,000 miles of driving even if most of it was EV. That's why people who don't drive a lot of gas miles typically ignore the maintenance minder and just change the oil once a year.
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I've driven in EV mode for so long that the car once started the engine for no reason with the message: 'running engine to cycle oil'

The once a year oil change is mainly because of water absorption for synthetics starting to degrade performance. If you want optimal performance you should change the oil once a year regardless of mileage. Especially if you put yourself in situations where your engine revs really high.

Having said that, if the engine is sealed well like in the chevy volt, the dexos1 standard for oil (which i think is pretty much all synthetic oils now a days) can last up to two years in the engine. I've been assuming the clarity is not as well built despite it's amazing sealed/pressurized gas tank.
 
MrFixit said:
The recommendation is to change the oil at least once a year. I also have mostly EV miles, so the one year interval comes along before reaching any kind of mileage threshold for the ICE. My maintenance minder has triggered an oil change reminder in concert with each year point since it was new in 2018.
Click to expand...
I also do an oil change once a year, plus I try to run the gas engine a little bit every other week.
Also I try to fill the gas tank at least once every three months to prevent the gas be stale and damage something.
Think of it as a lawn mower that was stored during winter and won't start in the spring because the gas left in the tank went bad.
 
HGTZ said:
Also I try to fill the gas tank at least once every three months to prevent the gas be stale and damage something.
Think of it as a lawn mower that was stored during winter and won't start in the spring because the gas left in the tank went bad.
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So this is where the clarity's advanced gas tank makes a huge difference. The clarity is not like a lawnmower. The gas won't go bad. It is pressurized and sealed (why you can't open it without venting the excess pressure first). While I probably would try to use the gas up within two years as that's the minimum (as in lasts at least two years) shelf life for properly sealed gas. It can apparently be up to TEN YEARS.. but again I would do about two just to be safe.. and also to maintain your engine.

Now a warning. constantly topping up your gas every three months might actually be doing more harm than good depending on how much gas you used and need to replace as every time you open and fill the tank you are introducing more water and allowing the volatile elements to be vented. I would not open or fill the tank until it's at least a half or a quarter tank if you don't use that much gas.
 
Thanks for the advice!
I wait until the gas tank is almost empty before I fill up.
I didn't know about the pressurized gas tank.
Thanks
 
SC Clarity said:
Hey all, been lurking here as a guest for over a year but felt like I should post now and then! Tons of great info here.

I drive a lot and gas budget was getting out of hand even getting in the mid 20's with my wife's old Sienna. Decided to step up to an EV or hybrid since most driving is local and I can charge often at home, plus we have a large solar setup. After much research it actually came down to the Toyota RAV Prime vs. the Clarity. The pricing on the RAVs was crazy so the Clarity won out.

I picked up a 2018 Touring with 53K miles for pretty cheap from a local Honda dealer. They replaced all the tires, did all the service and I got the longest extended warranty Honda offered.

That was in March 2021. Since then I have driven 21,000 miles! Did I mention I do a lot of local driving?? Having three kids into sports and music along with multiple doc visits does that! I would say in those 21,000 miles I have needed gas 8 times. I usually get close to 3000 miles per tank. Love it!

So - who here has a high mileage Clarity and what if any issues have you noticed? I will easily be over 100K miles. We usually keep our cars long term (the Sienna has 165K miles). We do all required maintenance, stored in a garage, etc. I always charge at home on a 16A 220V charger. My workshop was already wired for 30A 220 so it was easy to add in the charger. Takes just a few hours to full charge from dead on that setup. I didnt want to push the wiring with a 32A charger.

Side question - how often do you change the engine oil on the Clarity if you're always on EV? I get the pop-up notices on the screen, but I rotate the tires, check air filters and reset it (all at home). When I check the engine oil it is still golden and clear and at most I have 2000 or so actual engine running miles. I planned on changing it at the dealer in March on the one year mark just due to age. Air filter still looks brand new. If I changed it around the 5K mark the pop-up comes up I would have maybe 300 miles of engine time! Waste.
Click to expand...

I'm at 78K miles, origainal owner from 2/2018, and found a general way to know when to change the oil. I take a pic of all the gas receipts, later put in a spreadsheet. See my total gallons X 41 miles per (base on what type of driving I do) and now I have an average how many miles was with gas.
 
alter said:
The gas won't go bad. It is pressurized and sealed (why you can't open it without venting the excess pressure first). While I probably would try to use the gas up within two years as that's the minimum (as in lasts at least two years) shelf life for properly sealed gas. It can apparently be up to TEN YEARS..
Click to expand...

Where did you hear the 10 year figure?
 
alter said:
I've been assuming the clarity is not as well built despite it's amazing sealed/pressurized gas tank.
Click to expand...
You assumed a Chevrolet is better built than a Honda from Japan? I've had great luck with Hondas since my 1986 CRX, but my 1959 Chevy broke a valve spring in 1968 after just 40,000 miles!
 
Landshark said:
Where did you hear the 10 year figure?
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I saw someone test out some sunoco 94 racing fuel (that is sealed in these large cans) that had been sitting for 10 years to see if it would still run a motorcycle engine and apparently it was just fine (coloour was fine and everything). It was on youtube, and I can't really find it now, though while trying to look for it I did see several examples where really old, clearly bad, fuel still seemed to run things like snow blowers and lawnmowers so who knows.. i don't think I would trust brown fuel in my car.
 
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