First major car issue (bought in Sept18). This morning in driveway, start car, take off parking brake, can't push the Reverse gear button. (yes, I waited till car said Ready to Drive and yes, had foot on brake pedal) It goes into Drive, Neutral and Park, but not Reverse. Feels like the button won't depress but that might be my imagination (mechanical vs software or both). Turned car off. Waited. Turned car on. Same thing. Raised and lowered parking brake, no difference. Thankfully we have our old CRV. We'll need to call and have car towed I suppose. Anyone else face this issue? Can you hear me cursing?
won't shift to reverse!
- Thread starter Breezy
- Start date
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KentuckyKen
Well-Known Member
Sorry to hear about your electronic gremlins (if it’s not just a bad switch). You might try doing a hard reset by disconnecting the neg terminal of the 12 v battery for a few minutes. No guarantee, but it’s worth a shot to avoid the tow and time at the dealer. And it gives you something to do instead of grinding your teeth.
Yeah, was wondering about a hard reset...we'd better carry a wrench in the car as someone in the forum (maybe you, KentuckyKen) advised. Even if that gets it to work, it shouldn't have happened. If you were me, would you bring it to dealer anyway? (Unfortunately I won't be with car again till Friday to try this).
MNSteve
Well-Known Member
This will sound counter-intuitive, and it's my own personal opinion only . . . but I would not do the hard reset.
If you do, and the problem goes away, then you're left with a problem that went away. You can't really take it to the dealer and expect that they will find anything because there will be nothing to examine when you get there. I would temper this decision slightly by factoring in the confidence level you have in the service department at your dealer . . . if they have shown evidence of cluelessness in the past, maybe it's not worth the effort to present them with a problem that they can actually observe.
I would also try to investigate how sure I was about the button travel. If this is indeed a defective switch in the mechanical sense, then a hard reset isn't going to help. You should be able to compare how far the other buttons move when you push them with what is happening with the Reverse button.
Good luck, and please let us know the outcome.
KentuckyKen
Well-Known Member
It would worry me that it might repeat and since I’m retired with plenty of time on my hand, I’d take it to the dealer just to be sure. Also, even if fixed by reset or by itself, I’d at least take it in to see if any diagnostic codes showed up.
Make sure the tow guy knows to tow it with all 4 wheels off the ground.
The wrench idea was a good one but not mine.
True, MNSteve. I spoke to the {clueless} service rep and asked him to research this with his mechanics and with Honda central and let me know what he finds out (ahead of me having the car towed). He claims no one knows anything. Plus he wasn't even familiar with Clarity to know it's push button transmission. (asked me if it was). I will keep everyone posted. Pretty sure I'll just have it towed in. (with proper kind of flat-bed towing)
MNSteve
Well-Known Member
Sigh. There is no good answer here. My guess is that it's a mechanically bad switch. Things break.
This is the one aspect of Clarity ownership that disappoints me. I love the car, but if anything ever goes wrong with it, I will be in a world of hurt. My dealer delivered the car with a dead battery but they were very proud of the full gasoline tank. They seriously have no clue, and in a sense I cannot blame them because this is the land of big gasmobiles and manly pickup trucks. This is such a recurring theme here in the forum; yes, there are some good dealerships but they seem to be a small minority.
fotomoto
Active Member
Does the car move in Drive?
A false start (wind up in accessory mode not in Ready) is a somewhat common issue with my CMax. Everything works except motivation. The cause is pushing the start button too quickly before the brake pedal switch activates.
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Makes me think of other things you probably have already checked:
1. Press "D" , drive forward a few inches, stop, then press "R".
2. See if any unplanned indicator messages such as "Brake Hold" are appearing on the dash.
3. Press a bit harder on the Parking Break lever. (For me, needs a bit firmer press than the other buttons).
KentuckyKen
Well-Known Member
Since @Breezy has had his Clarity since Sept., I think it’s safe to say he knows how the brake and R button work. However @fotomoto’s post about it might have been in that “in between” mode (not Ready and not Access) has some serious merit. But just turning off and restarting should have taken care of that and it sounds like the problem is persisting. Any other problems I’ve had in starting/shifting have always been accompanied by warning/advice visual and auditory cues. I also like the idea of driving forward a little bit and turning off to see if it’s a sensor/drivetrain issue. In any event i agree that a persistent and/or totally unexplained problem like this deserves a dealer visit (and a prayer that they have a clue).
Sorry @Breezy is having problems, but he will end up teaching us all something about the Clarity.
Sorry @Breezy is having problems, but he will end up teaching us all something about the Clarity.
It can be odd how something can be a habit, and then we forget how to do it when trying to think about it. As @bpratt said, it's possible you forgot to pull up on the R button rather than pushing it down. Your original post seems to support that possibility ("Feels like the button won't depress but that might be my imagination (mechanical vs software or both)."). Don't be embarrassed if that's the case. About a quarter of the time I forget which way to push or pull the parking brake button to set it, even though when I'm not thinking about it at all I do it correctly.
KentuckyKen
Well-Known Member
Amen! If I had a nickel for every time I pushed instead of pulled and pulled instead of pushed the parking brake dohicky, I’d be a millionaire.
Is there any possibility that a foreign object has gotten into the switch? Jelly toast if you are a young parent, or chunk of an egg McMuffler? If you feel like the switch won't pull back, and if you have an air compressor or some canned air, you might try blowing into and around the switch. It can't hurt and it might help.
No that is not what I meant--didn't push the button down rather than pulling it back--and we know how to operate the car, as KentuckyKen said above.
We found the problem. Thankfully it's not faulty software or hardware. It was
....drum roll....
a STINK BUG was lodged underneath the button and the button literally would not move. We're relieved that we found this before getting the car towed (took some gymnastics to investigate, you wouldn't particularly notice the bug sticking out). Note that we'd tried a number of the things others mentioned: yes, the car moved forward in Drive, yes it would go into Neutral and Park. Just couldn't push that R button.
Is this a design flaw that a bug under the button could mess with shifting? At least we know it's possible now. Wouldn't have happened in our manual trans CRV.
....drum roll....
a STINK BUG was lodged underneath the button and the button literally would not move. We're relieved that we found this before getting the car towed (took some gymnastics to investigate, you wouldn't particularly notice the bug sticking out). Note that we'd tried a number of the things others mentioned: yes, the car moved forward in Drive, yes it would go into Neutral and Park. Just couldn't push that R button.
Is this a design flaw that a bug under the button could mess with shifting? At least we know it's possible now. Wouldn't have happened in our manual trans CRV.
yes, you win the prize...see what I just posted about the stink bug.
Glad thats all it was!