Honda owners left baffled after glitch leaves the clocks on their car stuck 20 years in the past

Owners of older Honda cars have been left baffled, after a technology glitch caused the clocks in their cars to get stuck 20 years in the past, displaying the year 2002.

People driving Honda vehicles from 2004 to 2012 seem to have been hit by the issue, with dozens taking to social media and Honda forums to complain.

It appears to be isolated to models equipped with navigation systems, causing the clock to switch from 2022 to 2002 every time the engine is started. 

Honda UK told MailOnline it is currently investigating the issue to ‘decide the appropriate countermeasures’ and said customers should contact their local dealers if they are experiencing the issue.

Honda US told the CR-V Owners Club forum that it was unlikely there would be a fix until August 2022, after which point it would ‘auto-correct’ back to 2022.

Owners of older Honda cars have been left baffled, after a technology glitch caused the clocks in their cars to get stuck 20 years in the past, displaying the year 2002

Honda hasn’t confirmed which models are affected, but social media users have suggested the 2008 CR-V (pictured) is among those having clock problems

Customers in the UK, US and Canada have reported similar issues, which they have put down to anything from GPS not working, through to a bug in the system.

The issue first appeared on January 1, when the clock was supposed to switch from 2021 to 2022, but instead reverted back 20 years to 2002. 

Users attempting to reset the clock on the navigation system found it was frozen, and they couldn’t change it. 

A spokesperson for Honda UK told MailOnline: ‘We are aware of an issue which affects the clock function on certain older Honda vehicles. 

‘We are currently investigating the issue to decide the appropriate countermeasure, and in the meantime, we would encourage affected customers to get in touch with their local Honda dealer.’

When pressed on the cause of the issue the spokesperson restated they are ‘currently investigating this issue to decide possible countermeasures and have no additional details to share at this time.’

Some owners have had a better response from the vehicle manufacturer, with the Honda US team stating: ‘We have escalated the NAVI Clock Issue to our Engineering Team and they have informed us that you will experience issue from Jan 2022 thru August 2022 and then it will auto-correct. 

‘Please be assured that we will continue to monitor this and will advise you if a fix is available before that time.’

User bobdivepros said on the CR-V owners club forum that when trying to change the time it beeps, but doesn’t make any adjustments.

‘All my radio presets are still there and the navigation system seems to be working fine. Just called my local Honda dealer and they said that I was the third caller today with the same problem,’ the user reported. 

Also on the CR-V forum, user masseur wrote: ‘Both our 2009 and 2012 CRV’s have the same problem with the clock showing wrong time. We are in the UK and our local Honda dealer/garage haven’t got a solution to fix this glitch.’

Twitter users have also reported issues with their Honda clocks, including J-Triumf, who tweeted: ‘I was wondering why my car’s clock has been acting weird these past few days, apparently it’s a widespread issue with Honda navigation units.’

Cyber Security Times suggests it may be the result of the Y2K22 bug, which also led to issues with Microsoft Exchange, freezing emails. This has since been fixed. 

Microsoft Exchange 2016 and 2019 servers use a malware scanning engine that makes use of a signature file storing dates in the 32-bit integer format int32.

The largest possible number that can be stored in 32 bits is 2147483647, but while dates in 2021 were stored in the format 2111231XXXX – which is December 31, 2021, 2022 was stored as 2201010001 for a minute past midnight on January 1, 2022.

Customers have been urging Honda to get the issue fixed, taking to social media to report the problem directly to the car firm 

Some users hinted at the problem being linked to the storage of larger integer values required for 2022, including Sumner Hushing, who called it ‘time-critical’

This is larger than the maximum allowed by int32 and led to a series of time validation errors in Exchange servers, causing mail not to be sent out.

Microsoft quickly released a fix in the form of a script file that tricked the server into thinking it was December 33, 2021 – but the software giant is working on a longer-term solution. 

However, Honda hasn’t confirmed or denied whether its vehicles are affected by the Y2K22 bug, or how the date is stored within the entertainment system.

Some experts suggest that Honda saying it will resolve itself in August makes the Y2K22 bug an unlikely source.

Time in the vehicles also seems to reset when the engine starts, getting stuck at either 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, or other times based on the model.

Honda says it is working on a fix, to try and resolve the problem before August 2022.