Mine "works", but intermittently. It has difficulty communicating to my Clarity PHEV, and when it does, it only seems to change anything on the app display when a condition changes on the car. Just hitting "Refresh" doesn't do anything, on its own. If it sits in my driveway for a week, and I hit "Refresh", it doesn't.
Honda tells me the honda link I've been using for 2+ years never worked on a Clarity
So my honda link stopped letting me login, not sure why. No way to recover pw so I call the Honda Link number. They tell me that this app has never worked for the Clarity. Mine is a 2018 Touring plug in hybrid if that makes a difference.
"Sir, it has never worked on the Clarity"
I've used it for 2 plus years.
"Sir, no you haven't"
Let me speak to your supervisor
"No"
I find a youtube video
HondaLink® for Clarity Plug-In Hybrid: How to Register and Enroll
And call them back... now I'm on hold.
They hung up on me. PISSED.
Anyone else having issues with the APP? Other that it being not so handy..
"Sir, it has never worked on the Clarity"
I've used it for 2 plus years.
"Sir, no you haven't"
Let me speak to your supervisor
"No"
I find a youtube video
And call them back... now I'm on hold.
They hung up on me. PISSED.
Anyone else having issues with the APP? Other that it being not so handy..
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It work well on my 2021 touring model. It saved me once in a parking lot when I couldn't remember where I parked. It got me to within one row and three cars over.
So I'm not insane as Honda seems to be implying. This app at least now works for the Clarity.
It doesn't work well for me, but it does to some extent. The mileage is usually off, location quite a lot of time fails, state of charge is off a lot, start/stop charging works as far as I can remember. It is somewhat useful for maintenance minder items. I have not tried climate control in a long time. I could have sworn it had door unlock and lock for a little while....
Compared to our old '13 Ford C-MAX Energi it sucks, probably why Honda admits "it doesn't work".
Compared to our old '13 Ford C-MAX Energi it sucks, probably why Honda admits "it doesn't work".
Sorry, they aren't saying it doesn't work or doesn't work well. They told me it was never an option to ever even setup with a Honda Clarity.It doesn't work well for me, but it does to some extent. The mileage is usually off, location quite a lot of time fails, state of charge is off a lot, start/stop charging works as far as I can remember. It is somewhat useful for maintenance minder items. I have not tried climate control in a long time. I could have sworn it had door unlock and lock for a little while....
Compared to our old '13 Ford C-MAX Energi it sucks, probably why Honda admits "it doesn't work".
That is correct and seems to be how it was designed to work. The car communicates its current status to Honda via the cellular network whenever any of the following events occurs:it only seems to change anything on the app display when a condition changes on the car. Just hitting "Refresh" doesn't do anything, on its own. If it sits in my driveway for a week, and I hit "Refresh", it doesn't.
Car is turned off
Charger is plugged in
Charging starts
Charging ends
During charging when SOC reaches 15% milestones (25, 40, 55, 70, 85, 100)
Remote climate starts
Remote climate ends
Charge timer schedule is set
This communication of data to Honda has nothing to do with the app or our phones, i.e. your phone can be powered off, or you can be a hundred miles from your car, and the car will still communicate current status to Honda if one of these events occurs, as long as the car is within cellular range. By the way whenever the car is turned off it displays the car's cellular signal strength on the instrument panel on the same screen that it shows any timer schedules. It's where it says "TCU" which is the telematics control unit.
After the car communicates data to Honda, this data is then available via the HondaLink app which gets it from Honda through regular Internet. If the app was already on when one of these events occurs, it may not refresh the new data in the app immediately. Easiest way to check how current the data is is by looking at the "Last Updated" time at the top of the screen. If you just launched the app then whatever info is displayed is current, i.e. it's whatever was last reported by the car whenever that was. If the app is already running when one of the events occurs, you can speed up the refresh of the screen either by swiping down on the screen like with most apps, or by pressing the Refresh button that was added about a year ago, which does the same thing. If after refreshing the screen the Last Updated time does not change, then this means that the car has not reported any new data to Honda.
To get a data update from the car in between events, you have to trigger one of the above listed events. If however you don't want to start charging, or turn on climate, etc. one way to get an update is to set a timer schedule, whether you plan to use it or not. Since setting a timer schedule requires communication with the car, after setting the schedule the app will now have updated data from the car. You can then immediately disable the schedule.
I tried to reregister my Clarity with Hondalink and it now says that it's not an option for this model. Having an app was a selling point when I bought the car but now Honda just removes it.
You talked to someone who was misinformed. Not that surprising because HondaLink for Clarity seems to be somewhat unofficial. When I bought the car every indication was that we had to pay for HondaLink, but as we all have experienced we get it for free even though this was never officially stated by Honda. Also we seem to have a different version of HondaLink than the paid versions, it's what I think of as HondaLink Lite, although the additional features that I have seen listed for the paid version aren't really of any interest to me.Sorry, they aren't saying it doesn't work or doesn't work well. They told me it was never an option to ever even setup with a Honda Clarity.
Call centers like this usually have dozens of people, with a wide range of knowledge or lack thereof. Generally more toward the later as there is often very little qualification for being hired at a call center, the philosophy being that most questions are dumb dumb questions and they feel they can easily train people to answer those basic questions. Or give them a script of trouble shooting steps. Trying to get transferred to second level or a supervisor is nearly impossible in any call center. What I do is simply politely end the call, then I call right back, normally I get someone else, usually at least a little more knowledgeable. Worst case I may have to call three or more times to reach someone who actually knows something. I remember a problem that I had with my electric bill, it was I think the fifth person or so who actually took the time to escalate it and get it resolved. The first four people just gave nonsensical answers and were like talking to a wall.
As mentioned in my other message the data is updated only when certain events occur. I have reasonably good cellular connection in my garage, and it is extremely rare that the car is unable to communicate to Honda when one of these events occurs. However doing anything initiated by the app, like starting charging, turning on climate, setting a timer schedule etc. is not as reliable, it works about 90% of the time but the other 10% I get an error that it failed to communicate with the car. My guess is that the TCU is at lower power while idle, so it's a little harder for Honda to "call" the car. Whereas when the car initiates the call it uses higher power so it almost always gets through. Sometimes if I try again right away it works. Although I have to close and reopen the app first, because if I get a connection error and then try again immediately without closing the app, then I get an instantaneous connection error which is way too fast, i.e. it's obvious that it didn't even try and the app is now stuck in error mode. If I close the app and reopen it again and then try again it sometimes works, other times I have to wait thirty minutes or so, but usually by then I just grab the fob and do whatever I'm trying to do manually. And then when I do manually start charging or whatever the car successfully communicates and the app is updated.It doesn't work well for me, but it does to some extent. The mileage is usually off, location quite a lot of time fails, state of charge is off a lot, start/stop charging works as far as I can remember. It is somewhat useful for maintenance minder items. I have not tried climate control in a long time. I could have sworn it had door unlock and lock for a little while....
Compared to our old '13 Ford C-MAX Energi it sucks, probably why Honda admits "it doesn't work".
The data that is communicated when any of the events occurs is:
SOC
EV miles
HV miles
Charge status (i.e. whether currently charging)
Timer schedule (if a schedule is set)
Whether the charger is plugged in or not (indicated by highlighted "Start Charge" button.
Remote Climate Status
Car location
Note that odometer is conspicuously absent from this list. That is because the odometer reading for some really stupid reason is communicated directly to the phone via Bluetooth, which is a hit or miss proposition which is why the odometer reading in the app often lags behind actual. There is no rational explanation that I can think of why the odometer reading isn't included in the other data that is sent via cellular. Note that you can have perfect Bluetooth connection for phone calls, media etc. however HondaLink for some reason really struggles to communicate with the car via Bluetooth.
I tried to register the car on the honda link website, that tell me that the clairty isn't supported. So Idid a new account in the app, which involved a 'take over' which is going to take 2 days. First step is complete however.... What a PITA...You talked to someone who was misinformed. Not that surprising because HondaLink for Clarity seems to be somewhat unofficial. When I bought the car every indication was that we had to pay for HondaLink, but as we all have experienced we get it for free even though this was never officially stated by Honda. Also we seem to have a different version of HondaLink than the paid versions, it's what I think of as HondaLink Lite, although the additional features that I have seen listed for the paid version aren't really of any interest to me.
Call centers like this usually have dozens of people, with a wide range of knowledge or lack thereof. Generally more toward the later as there is often very little qualification for being hired at a call center, the philosophy being that most questions are dumb dumb questions and they feel they can easily train people to answer those basic questions. Or give them a script of trouble shooting steps. Trying to get transferred to second level or a supervisor is nearly impossible in any call center. What I do is simply politely end the call, then I call right back, normally I get someone else, usually at least a little more knowledgeable. Worst case I may have to call three or more times to reach someone who actually knows something. I remember a problem that I had with my electric bill, it was I think the fifth person or so who actually took the time to escalate it and get it resolved. The first four people just gave nonsensical answers and were like talking to wall.
I don't doubt that you found a place on the website that has contradictory information. However on hondalink.honda.com when I click Vehicle Compatibility and enter Clarity Plug-In it lists the features that we get.I tried to register the car on the honda link website, that tell me that the clairty isn't supported.
Also while I have never had any major problems with HondaLink, many people who have were able to get help from HondaLink support. Seems like some people had to have their account reset and that fixed it, sometimes it took a couple of phone calls. If I understand correctly you only called once and only talked to the person who gave you wrong information. It's possible that someone else at HondaLink support may have been able to help you. But since you have already started a different route it's probably best to let that play out and hopefully that fixes it. If it doesn't then I would recommend call HondaLink again, hopefully you will reach someone who actually knows something about it.
I hope this works for you! I just checked our VIN on the Honda Link website and it is compatible with our '18 Touring at least. I have my password stored by Google (gulp) I've forgotten it....I tried to register the car on the honda link website, that tell me that the clairty isn't supported. So Idid a new account in the app, which involved a 'take over' which is going to take 2 days. First step is complete however.... What a PITA...
I notice that now on the HondaLink site it does indicate that it's free for Clarity, although it doesn't state it in those exact words. When you look at other cars on the site some of them like the Accord and the Insight have basic and advanced versions of HondaLink, it says the basic version is complimentary, and includes things like vehicle guides and recall notifications. Then it shows prices for the advanced versions which have more features like Find My Car. Some models like the CR-V only have the basic version, no price is listed which implies it is free. Clarity is unique because it has quite a few advanced features but also no price list which implies that it is free.
I would gladly pay money for HondaLink if it were responsive, reliable, all the features actually worked, and it didn't randomly log you out and require a support call to get back in.
With its current dilapidated state, it would be a scam to charge money for it. So in my mind, they have two choices: either fix it and charge money, or keep it in its semi-working state for free. Charging money for a broken product isn't gonna fly.
That said I do rely on the climate control feature, and it works like 98% of the time.
With its current dilapidated state, it would be a scam to charge money for it. So in my mind, they have two choices: either fix it and charge money, or keep it in its semi-working state for free. Charging money for a broken product isn't gonna fly.
That said I do rely on the climate control feature, and it works like 98% of the time.
Do you start climate manually using the app or do you use scheduled climate?That said I do rely on the climate control feature, and it works like 98% of the time.
On 4/25 they got my Honda Link going again. Took a lot of phone calls but it works again.
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