My clock also runs slow.

 

Honda considers 2-3 minutes lost over a month period to be normal.

My 2006 has been doing it since day one.

 

what clock? My E does not have one???

 

LX models don't have a clock built into the radio?

 

I lose about the same. To me this is normal. I don't think I can remember 1 car radio stock & aftermarket that has not lost time for me. To sleep easier at night, I figured the clock would pause while I was turning the key to start the car. (like I was interrupting the flow of electricity to start the vehicle) ....Thats my story & I'm sticking to it...this is just my opinion:grin:

 

The reason this happens is the temperature variances. The clock uses a small tuning fork-like object to keep track of time. Temp changes affect how much faster (or slower) the vibrations in this fork are, hence how much the time is sped up or down. They have a neat video about it on youtube.

 

I seem to be loosing time more and more every day:shock: what I would like to know how do I get to all of the time I have saved???it's comming to the point that I might need to start getting it back.(and my e looses about 3 min a week possiably more)are our E's sucking the life out of us when we thought we were having a good time???:razz:and what ever happened to the quartz thing that was never off???

 

That's what the tuning fork thingy is.

 

I've never owned a car that lost time in the clock as quickly as the E does. It's a pain in the arse. Why Honda couldn't fix this in the E over time is beyond me.

 

Instead of buying the Element you should have bought a Rolex.
Although I hear they don't keep good time either.
Once you retire you wont care what time it is. :grin:

 

I have a $20 casio watch that keeps perfect time :grin:

 

Just for the record, both of our 'E' clocks are slow, too. But mine doesn't lose time quickly, it's kinda slow at slowin' down.

 

my '06 also looses time. has since it was new. looses a couple of minutes in about a month or two.

 

My '07 looses about 6 min every six months... not a big deal.

My '07 Timex Ironman keeps perfect time and still has its original battery. Can't drive a Timex..

 

Same problem with my 2008

 

The problem with clock displays like the radio is that the clock function is incidental to the main function. So the frequency of the electronic tuning fork Protagonist was talking about is determined by its main purpose, a frequency reference for the radio. That's going to be slightly "off" for a clock, since the math used to divide the frequency into seconds will be "good enough", but never precise.

It's an electronics design decision - instead of incorporating a separate frequency reference for the clock, they "mooch" an existing frequency in the radio. This saves a few pennies in manufacturing. The fact that everybody's clock is inaccurate by a similar amount is a pretty good indicator that this is the problem. It's designed to be a good radio, and a so-so clock.

If it was a dedicated clock it would be another issue. The frequency reference would then be mathematically accurate for converting directly into seconds.

 

Since I started wearing a quartz-controlled clock with DST correction on my arm, I've never relied on another clock. Mostly, I'm only concerned with time accuracy when I'm going to be late; I can't remember the last meeting where I was the last to arrive, or one that started when scheduled.

The only reason most "digital" devices have clock displays is to highlight the fact that they are still working.

The only one that I know is accurate is my PC, which is synched to NIST whenevr it is powered up. I set my watch to match it a year ago; they're still within a few seconds of each other.