Plug-in charging system problem

[Eva Farkas]

Eva,

I've used a dozen different public 240 L2 stations with my Clarity so far, and have never run into this 'charging system problem' fault.

FYI. However, I encountered a different charging issue with one specific public charging stations, where the station would report the car drawing little power and it would stop charging (assuming full charge) when the battery is nowhere close to being fully charged. Remote starts from the HondaLink app would restart charging, but often stop shortly. That was a station part of the ChargePoint network and after the station owner did some tune up work on the charging stations it's working fine now.

So far my take is that the Honda Clarity may be more susceptible to station-side charging issues than other cars.

BTW. How are you clearing the fault code? Are you unplugging the battery neg-terminal or did you get an OBD-II scan tool and clear it from your phone?

Hi ilun. Thanks for the feedback! I've cleared the fault code once by removing a particular 10amp fuse (red) that the service tech at the dealer showed me. This clears the error (I assume it's similar to removing the negative battery terminal, but may not touch ALL onboard electrical systems (such as radio settings, etc.)).

I haven't had a issue in a few days, with charging at several 240V L2 stations (public). I'm consistently charging at the same spot (there are 3 chargers there) during work hours, and had no errors yet at that location. Charging elsewhere seems to be inconsistent, but I have had the error issue crop up at 2 different Ikea stores (we have 2 L2 chargers in all the Ikea stores here in Toronto, as well as 2 DC Fast chargers - all free to use!). Makes me wary of Ikea charging now, which is a shame, as it's close to my house.

Fingers crossed for continued faultless charging. And hopefully a "fix" from Honda soon. Of course if that doesn't "work" on my car, I will insist on a pilot connection replacement.

To be continued.....

 

[jsm]

Hi ilun. Thanks for the feedback! I've cleared the fault code once by removing a particular 10amp fuse (red) that the service tech at the dealer showed me. This clears the error (I assume it's similar to removing the negative battery terminal, but may not touch ALL onboard electrical systems (such as radio settings, etc.)).

I haven't had a issue in a few days, with charging at several 240V L2 stations (public). I'm consistently charging at the same spot (there are 3 chargers there) during work hours, and had no errors yet at that location. Charging elsewhere seems to be inconsistent, but I have had the error issue crop up at 2 different Ikea stores (we have 2 L2 chargers in all the Ikea stores here in Toronto, as well as 2 DC Fast chargers - all free to use!). Makes me wary of Ikea charging now, which is a shame, as it's close to my house.

Fingers crossed for continued faultless charging. And hopefully a "fix" from Honda soon. Of course if that doesn't "work" on my car, I will insist on a pilot connection replacement.

To be continued.....

I just experienced this problem. I was at the mall in Richmond Hill where there are 2 ChargePoint chargers. One just said waiting for car - the car wouldn’t accept the charge. I moved to the other one and the charge started but stopped after 5 min. I could restart the charge remotely via the HondaLink but kept stopping. When I got back to the car I saw the message that Eva described. Charging at home with L1 charger is fine. A volt was parked beside me charging happily.



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[AlanSqB]

As mentioned upthread, when this happens, try activating the parking brake and closing/locking all the doors.

It should not make a difference, but it is supposed to have helped in a similar case.

 

[Eva Farkas]

I just experienced this problem. I was at the mall in Richmond Hill where there are 2 ChargePoint chargers. One just said waiting for car - the car wouldn’t accept the charge. I moved to the other one and the charge started but stopped after 5 min. I could restart the charge remotely via the HondaLink but kept stopping. When I got back to the car I saw the message that Eva described. Charging at home with L1 charger is fine. A volt was parked beside me charging happily.

jsm, I'm very sorry to hear you're having the same problem (but glad to know it's not just me....I thought I was going crazy!). Did you get the error on the driver's instrument panel?



I think you mentioned you did get a message. Just wanting to compare if it s the same as mine.

Also, after plugging into 120V at home, did the error clear by itself?

 

[Danny Pham]

Glad I'm not the only one. I got these error 4 times in the last 3 months of ownership. Each time, I just dropped it off at the dealership, let them take care of it, and walk to work since work was only a mile away! Each time the dealership doesn't know what's going on to cause the error and wants to blame the faulty chargers I've been using (chargers work fine for everyone else! Ahaha). I use public charging systems every weekday since I live in apartments and don't have my own EVSE to charge the car.

 

[jsm]

jsm, I'm very sorry to hear you're having the same problem (but glad to know it's not just me....I thought I was going crazy!). Did you get the error on the driver's instrument panel?

View attachment 686

I think you mentioned you did get a message. Just wanting to compare if it s the same as mine.

Also, after plugging into 120V at home, did the error clear by itself?

Hi Eva, yes I had exactly the same message. When I plugged it into 120 the error message did go away.

Interestingly, I did go back to the mall where I had the problem this evening and tried the “emergency brake and doors locked” approach and I was able to charge with no errors. Strange, but good.



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[AlanSqB]

This is very odd. It has to be something the car is doing as there is no provision for "door open" or "parking brake" checks in the J1772 protocol. I tested the best I could here at home, but could not replicate the issue. I'll be on the lookout for some more ChargePoint chargers to try out as the ones nearest my house are perpetually out of order.

 

[Eva Farkas]

This is very odd. It has to be something the car is doing as there is no provision for "door open" or "parking brake" checks in the J1772 protocol. I tested the best I could here at home, but could not replicate the issue. I'll be on the lookout for some more ChargePoint chargers to try out as the ones nearest my house are perpetually out of order.

I think the locked doors and parking brake set are coincidental. The problem seems idiosyncratic, therefore introducing certain conditions, such as doors locked, etc. may or may not APPEAR to effect a change, but likely, if you repeated the same actions 100x, you would find a random array of success vs failure.

The more people that report having this same experience (thanks guy!), the more I'm starting to think there may be something systemically wrong. Either a hardware issue with the pilot, or a software issue that is appears randomly (unknown condition(s) causing it to appear). Sigh. I don't think this is an easy fix for us or for Honda.

 

[AlanSqB]

It’s happening frequently enough that it has been reported ChargePoint recommends it when users have called with charging errors so it seems more than incidental.

 

[prestoOne]

Glad I'm not the only one. I got these error 4 times in the last 3 months of ownership. Each time, I just dropped it off at the dealership, let them take care of it, and walk to work since work was only a mile away! Each time the dealership doesn't know what's going on to cause the error and wants to blame the faulty chargers I've been using (chargers work fine for everyone else! Ahaha). I use public charging systems every weekday since I live in apartments and don't have my own EVSE to charge the car.

So they don't know what is causing the issue but blame someone else.
Good luck in getting those guys to accept responsibility for not knowing something or making a mistake. If they don't know they likely do a lot of guessing too.
If you are around Toronto and drop me a line with the dealer I will be sure to avoid them.

 

[wjhmsme]

I was test driving a Honda Clarity and decided to check out a free, public L2 charging station. I plugged in and it started charging for a few seconds, then stopped. I tried again, same thing. Figuring the charger was out of order, I decided to go elsewhere. I had the check engine light and the exact same message pictured in Eva's March 12, 2018 post. I took it back to the dealer, they ahd never seen it before since they have not sold many Clarity vehicles yet. They gave me another, and the same thing happened at the same charger. The engine code is P0D3D. Apparently there is discussion on the service manager forums about P0D3D and/or P0D28 being thrown. I cannot find a definition for P0D3D, but P0D28 say Charger Input Voltage high - which makes sense with the dealer explanation that Eva received. Also looking in the PlugShare app, it appears that the charger I went to is a bit wild on voltage and amps - a user posted that his Tesla session started off with 30A (no starting voltage listed) then dropped to 202V and 22A. Again, this backs up the story that the car was protecting itself. I appreciate that the car wants to protect the batteries and charger - but it should send that message via dash and/or lights at the charging port - NOT throw an engine code that the dealer has to reset or get into the fuse box, etc. I want to know what code is thrown before blindly resetting it. Since this is NOT a malfunction of the car, the malfunction indicator light should not go on, just a message to charge elsewhere. I returned the 2nd car back to the dealer and asked when the 19 model year is coming out. I LOVED the Clarity and desperately want to buy one - it drive like a dream the entire time I had it (they gave me the loaner for a 24hr test drive) and I really hated returning it. I was and still am extremely disappointed that the engine codes were thrown, I may wait until 2019 or if they get it together and issue a proper fix and proper messages, I may take the plunge yet this year. My hope is that they fix it on 2018 and then the 2019 model gets the same fix from the start and it loses the rear fender skirt as well.

 

[bpratt]

I cannot find a definition for P0D3D, but P0D28 say Charger Input Voltage high

I wonder what would be considered high voltage. The connection in my garage runs between 248 and 250 volts but I have never had a problem charging the car.

 

[loomis2]

wjhmsme, if you install your own 240 volt charger at home you may never go to a public charger and never see that code again. I don't know what your personal situation will be with charging, but if you do intend to charge at home then to completely write off the car because of that experience may not be entirely realistic. We have had electric cars at our home since 2013 and I have never once used a public charger and I have never had an issue with our home charger.

 

[SkipperT]

I was test driving a Honda Clarity and decided to check out a free, public L2 charging station. I plugged in and it started charging for a few seconds, then stopped. I tried again, same thing. Figuring the charger was out of order, I decided to go elsewhere. I had the check engine light and the exact same message pictured in Eva's March 12, 2018 post. I took it back to the dealer, they ahd never seen it before since they have not sold many Clarity vehicles yet. They gave me another, and the same thing happened at the same charger. The engine code is P0D3D. Apparently there is discussion on the service manager forums about P0D3D and/or P0D28 being thrown. I cannot find a definition for P0D3D, but P0D28 say Charger Input Voltage high - which makes sense with the dealer explanation that Eva received. Also looking in the PlugShare app, it appears that the charger I went to is a bit wild on voltage and amps - a user posted that his Tesla session started off with 30A (no starting voltage listed) then dropped to 202V and 22A. Again, this backs up the story that the car was protecting itself. I appreciate that the car wants to protect the batteries and charger - but it should send that message via dash and/or lights at the charging port - NOT throw an engine code that the dealer has to reset or get into the fuse box, etc. I want to know what code is thrown before blindly resetting it. Since this is NOT a malfunction of the car, the malfunction indicator light should not go on, just a message to charge elsewhere. I returned the 2nd car back to the dealer and asked when the 19 model year is coming out. I LOVED the Clarity and desperately want to buy one - it drive like a dream the entire time I had it (they gave me the loaner for a 24hr test drive) and I really hated returning it. I was and still am extremely disappointed that the engine codes were thrown, I may wait until 2019 or if they get it together and issue a proper fix and proper messages, I may take the plunge yet this year. My hope is that they fix it on 2018 and then the 2019 model gets the same fix from the start and it loses the rear fender skirt as well.

Happened to mine too. Wjhmsme, I hope you don’t let this be the deciding factor if you purchase or not.

The code will “self clear” and go into historic after 4 run cycles. Mine tripped on a Sunday evening, was visible on the dash until it disappeared one morning before my appt on Thursday to get the code cleared and car examined.

I should mentioned that I charged the car on my home L2 EVSE every evening after the code set WITHOUT any issues.

-Skip


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[ClarityNow]

I've got a car in the US and am having charging issues. There is a pool of 6 chargepoint stations where I park my car for work. On day 1 with the car the charger worked and I got a complete charge. Ever since (the next 3 days) I've been unable to get any of the chargepoint stalls to work for me. The 120 works fine at home, but the 240 chargepoints will stop charging after a minute if they start at all. The terminal just says "car stopped charging" even though the car is only 55% full. I don't get any kind of error message on the dashboard like you all do. The other cars there are happily charging away. I've tried locking the doors and setting the parking brake before plugging in. It doesn't help.

 

[AlanSqB]

Did you check to see if your charge timer is set? You can hold down the charge button on the fob to manually initiate a charge. Maybe try that while it’s plugged in to see if it will start.

 

[ClarityNow]

Did you check to see if your charge timer is set? You can hold down the charge button on the fob to manually initiate a charge. Maybe try that while it’s plugged in to see if it will start.

No timer is set. For instance today it charged for 10 minutes and then stopped. I hit the "Start Charging" button on the phone and it starts for another minute or two and stops again.

 

[AlanSqB]

Sorry to hear that. I keep looking for a station that will do this so I can try to troubleshoot but I haven’t found one yet.

 

[JimW]

I've got a car in the US and am having charging issues. There is a pool of 6 chargepoint stations where I park my car for work. On day 1 with the car the charger worked and I got a complete charge. Ever since (the next 3 days) I've been unable to get any of the chargepoint stalls to work for me. The 120 works fine at home, but the 240 chargepoints will stop charging after a minute if they start at all. The terminal just says "car stopped charging" even though the car is only 55% full. I don't get any kind of error message on the dashboard like you all do. The other cars there are happily charging away. I've tried locking the doors and setting the parking brake before plugging in. It doesn't help.

Our GE station at work was doing the same thing for both my Clarity and a Volt. It was a problem with the charger. GE/Chargepoint has replaced it twice.

 

[K8QM]

I've tried 8 public level 2 chargers at 6 locations with no problem at 5 of them. At the three ChargePoint stations I've tried only one one of them would work - no error message on the dash or the charging station, just no current flow even though the charge level of the car was below 50%. I wonder if some of these issues are due to stations not being used on a regular basis and problems going unreported.

geo