My auto idle stop didn't work at all during an hour drive last night. The outside temp was about 40 degrees and I had the heater on some of the time. This is the first time this has happened... Is this normal? It's my first winter here in MA with my new Insight. Other than turning off the heater, the ignition, or putting in one of those blocks---is there anything else I should try?
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2000 Insight 5spd with 290,000 Km
Daily driver (previously used for autoslalom & track lapping)
Collision avoidance and Track driving instructor
Releated question: Would a block heater prevent the auto-stop from being disabled? Thought I heard the cat. converter needs to warm up to.
Last winter, I found that the block heater dramatically reduced the time to auto-idle stop.
The last light before the highway is about 6 miles from my house. Once temperature dropped below -5 C, the car would not auto-idle stop there.
Whith the block heater running 2 hours before I leave in the morning, Auto-idle stop sometimes even kicked in at the stop sign at the end of my street (1/2 mile).
The block won't prevent it from being disabled, it just keeps the engine & surroundings warmer, so that it stays working to lower outside temps. But if it gets cold enough (as it has here this last week) autostop stops working.
This is strange. Once my car gets up to temperature, my idle stop ALWAYS kicks in as long as I don't have any of the disabling features turned on. I often drive in the winter without the heater on at all (unless it's below -15 or so), which may have something to do with it...
Armin, regarding your block heater. Have you noticed any significant impact on your electricity bill? And it is a Honda heater available at the dealer? What is the wattage?
Sometimes the auto-stop will not work if the cabin heater is running. The car does not think it has enough engine heat to warm the cabin, so it keeps the engine running. I could be wrong, but I had heard that 40 degrees is the magic number below which idle-stop no longer works, but this temperature is measured under the hood near the front of the engine compartment, so it depends on airflow and engine compartment temps. Maybe you tried this, but I usually need to turn off the climate control before stopping for auto-stop to kick in.
You can also try either blocking part of the the radiator/condenser, blocking the air intake openings in the fascia, installing the warm air mod (described elsewhere on this board), or some combination of the above. Be careful with any of these, though, since you could overheat the engine or cause other problems if you overdo it. The idea is to increase the engine compartment temperature and the intake air temperature. If the fan turns on or you get check engine light you've blocked too much airflow.
I'm a little confused. You are running a block heater for 2 hours to get auto stop at idle to work?!?!?
I'm willing to bet that is false economy...that is to say, you are wasting more energy running the resistance heater than you will ever save because of idle stop.
Some of us on another tread have used various methods to observe the fuel consumption at idle. It's almost trivial. Guess it depends on how much you sit stopped in traffic...
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auto idle stop
