Honda Vezel Warnings Part 2 (Duel Clutch)
This post is about the worst nightmare of a Honda Vezel Hybrid model owners. The duel clutch issue is reported in honda vezel models that comes with hybrid fuel system. Normally the HR-V or RU1 and RU2 models are not vulnerable for this issue because they have the traditional CV-T system instead of the dual clutch or DCT systems which have been recalled several times.
Actually not only the Vezel, but according to the news Honda Fit GP5 is also vulnerable to this problem and till today Honda has not been able to give a permanent solution to this problem.
According to my knowledge what happens with this is that when the vehicle travel too much, specially in the sport mode and heavy traffics, the engine keeps running and it get heats the clutch system. There is a special dot 4 type fluid used to cool the clutch system normally called as dual clutch oil in Sri Lanka. This fluid is not thick and can be vaporize. So if the vehicle is traveling lot under heavy traffic and sport mode, the clutch oil level will reduce and at some point vehicle will show an error message like below.
Normally what Honda Agent in Sri Lanka advice to do at this point is ASAP you saw this error stop the vehicle, engine and let it coll down for an hour, then the first thing you should do is go to the agent and check vehicle, change the duel clutch oil immediately. But what we observe is people try to finish their travel and then go to the agent as in a normal situation.
As precautions what you can do is with every 5000km vehicle service (the one you change engine oil) you should change the duel clutch oil as well.
Though the Honda company recommend to change this at 40000km limit, which is recommended for Honda Vezel users in Japan under Japanese whether conditions, due to hot whether in Sri Lanka Honda Agent recommend to change this once every 20000km limit reach. Comparing to the spending ofLKR 500,000/- to replace the whole unit after the breakdown, changing the clutch oil will only cost LKR 3000/-