URGENT: Speaker/dashcam install killed my Clarity!

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Jason90405

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PXL_20211212_170954825.webp PXL_20211212_170949036.webp PXL_20211212_170936057.webp PXL_20211212_170944621.webp Yesterday I took my 2018 Clarity to a local shop to replace the factory speakers with a JL component speakers/tweeter plus install a Viofo A129 dashcam. I also put in a mini self powered subwoofer (without amp)

The resulting sound was so much worse than the factory speakers (I only replaced the front ones). The sound was unnaturally high with the treble hurting my ears. Since it was at the end of Sat, the installer told me to come back on Monday to further troubleshoot.

The Viofo dashcam was installed with the Parking Mode enabled (with the special cabling).

This morning my Clarity will not start as it gives me several errors consecutively:

Road Departure Mitigation System Problem
Hill Start Assist Problem
Brake Hold System Problem
Brake System Problem

I believe the installer probably 'killed' my Clarity due to faulty speaker electrical wiring or maybe the dashcam parking recording ate up all the electric power from the car??

I tried charging the car this morning. The charge will not start (either by the key fob or the Honda app).

The Honda dealer isn't far from my house but I'm afraid to take it there without the car installer to un-do any electrical changes he had done to my car. Even though the Clarity is still under warranty, the dealer can charge me for any repairs that's caused by external tempering.

Even though that, the car's computer may still contain history of any prior error code.

What should do on Monday morning (tomorrow)? Any idea what might have caused the problem? I disconnected the powers to the dashcam and the sub to start.

I have attached the error pictures
 
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Jason90405 said:
View attachment 14424 View attachment 14425 View attachment 14426 View attachment 14427

I believe the installer probably 'killed' my Clarity due to faulty speaker electrical wiring or maybe the dashcam parking recording ate up all the electric power from the car??
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No need to worry. If bad speaker wiring killed cars we'd see millions totaled by high schooler DIY installs every year. Aside from mounting the speakers all the shop does is connect two wires for each speaker.... it's not that hard to do right.

As other said it is almost certainly the 12v battery. The multiple warning lights is something manufacturers have been doing for a while now. Most people would ignore a simple check engine light but if you give multiple errors they are less likely to ignore them all and will actually take the car in for service.
 
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Jason90405 said:
It was the 12v battery! A simple jump start fixed it! Whew!
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This array of ominous warnings is caused by a loss of 12V power. The loss could be due to bad 12V battery, a drained 12V battery, or if it was disconnected intentionally during a repair. Once 12V power is restored, you can 'start' the car again, but these errors will not all disappear until the vehicle is driven for a short distance.
 
Jason90405 said:
Can you explain?
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Some of the fuse locations are on and have power all the time as long as the 12V battery is connected while some fuse locations have power only when the ignition is in the on position.

There are 2 different type of 12V to 5V power adapter for dashcams, type A, one 12 volt power lead , and type B, two 12volt power leads. Type A is suppose to connect to on only when ign is on location and will turn the cam on whenever the car start is started. Type b have 1 lead connect to always on and 1 lead to on when car is started. When the cam detect no power on 1 of the lead then it knows the car is off and go into parking mode and use less power.

Type B cost more than A .
Most likely the installer use the cheaper A power adapter and plugged into the always on fuse and stayed on all the time.

You can check by looking into the fuse box by the foot well and and see where the taps are tap into.
 
You got
Jason90405 said:
Wow.. thanks for your detailed explanation!

I did purchase the VIOFO 3 Wire ACC Hardwire Kit

https://www.blackboxmycar.com/products/viofo-a129-3-wire-hardwire-kit?variant=39312315613239

There are still multiple ways of connecting to the fuse locations regardless of the kit I got?
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You got the correct one. Now the question is if it was wired correctly. Do you have a volt meter to check for power? Maybe the dip switch on it is set incorrectly and it never went off?
 
MrFixit said:
This array of ominous warnings is caused by a loss of 12V power.
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Love the car, but this is just poor engineering.

I can imagine in testing a low battery voltage started spewing random ominous warnings. A tech suggested, “Why don’t we add a superseding warning in that case to alert the driver to ‘Check 12V Battery Charge State’ and use non-volatile memory to remember settings and to suppress all the random warnings?”

Either that never happened, or the response was, “Meh. Too much trouble - we’ll just let the drivers sort it out on their own.” I suspect the latter is the case.
 
Fast Eddie B said:
Love the car, but this is just poor engineering.

I can imagine in testing a low battery voltage started spewing random ominous warnings. A tech suggested, “Why don’t we add a superseding warning in that case to alert the driver to ‘Check 12V Battery Charge State’ and use non-volatile memory to remember settings and to suppress all the random warnings?”

Either that never happened, or the response was, “Meh. Too much trouble - we’ll just let the drivers sort it out on their own.” I suspect the latter is the case.
Click to expand...

To the contrary, removing superfluous things and duplicate functionality is good engineering. Why install yet another battery warning light when the same function is served by all the other startup tests failing at the same time? Your battery warning light is all of the lights.
 
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