I have been thinking about this for sometime now, and I kept reading the posts on the "Coasting" thread, seems that most people here are concerned about the forced autostop, they seem to think that the engine will not restart once you are on a forced stop, this is true if you turn the ignition key off and then back on again, this is not really a forced autostop, in my view forced autostop would have to keep all the safeguards Honda designed on the Insight.
After following a lot of the wiring schematics on the service manual, and making some notes I decided to try it, I installed it today, took the car for a drive, and it works really good.
When you are on a forced autostop, and you loose vacuum on the brakes, the engine will start by itself, it works.
If you release the clutch, the engine should restart, it works.
If you suddenly release the brake pedal, it starts, so it works.
The power steering works, since it's electric, it works even with the engine off when you exceed 7 mph.
There are two things required for FAS, one is to eliminate the spark, the other is to "turn off" the fuel injectors.
The spark can be taken care of by bypassing the fuse #7 on the fuse box, inside of the car, this is the fuse that controls the coils.
I have only gone this far, because I wanted to see if it really worked, now I know it does, hopefully I will be doing the injectors kill tomorrow or early next week, but in the meantime I mounted a switch so I can kill the engine at will.
I drove in a shopping center today, and as soon as I got in the engine still kept running, so I just pushed the switch, and it turned off.
Now, I would not recommend turning the engine off at high speed, but I feel that if we are going to try to get the most mileage we should have as many tools to do it with, and this is one more for me.
After reading my last post I just want to let every one know that by bypassing the fuse, I didn't mean to remove it, just relocate it, the fuse is still in place, just in a different location, those who are handy with wiring know what I'm talking about.
Before I hear any comments, I just did it to see if it would work, it does.
AFAIK when the ECM (Engine computer) fails to "see" the spark then injectors will also be shut down.
**But this needs to be verified BEFORE continuing with this mod.**
"Forcing" this type of auto stop _without_ shutting down the injectors can have some _very_ bad side effects due to fuel building up throughout the system. Also it would appear that the BCM will not have its low SoC or thermal limits management available in the decision. So its likely that a restart under these conditions will _require_ a key on crank of the back-up starter. Hmmm... could be VERY bad depending on the situation.
I'd also _highly_ recomend for those that will add this mod that a "dead man" switch be used (one that takes continuous pressing to maintain. In electrical terms a momentary contact type switch) thus simply removing your finger from the button will return the car to normal operation.
*** IMPORTANT***
DON"T mess with yellow wire loom air bag wires else they _may_ deploy. Serious injury or *death* can occur if your hit at the wrong angle.
Another possibility might be to interrupt the speed sensor, to make the computer think that the car has stopped. You would have a pushbutton that interrupts this signal so the car goes into autostop, and then when you release it, suddenly the car would notice that it's actually going 30 mph (or whatever). Would this bring it out of autostop or can you coast up to any speed without having it restart? I keep forgetting to try this.
Congratulationd Calpod
Heed John's warnings.
A neat way to add a switch to an automotive fused circuit is to sacrifice two fuses. The first sacrificed fuse needs to be blown out, and I know I dont need to tell anyone how to do that.
The blown fuse is sanded so that the top of the tabs rear metal is exposed.
The blown fuse is placed in a vise, which acts as a heatsink, and a holder.The two exposed metal tabs should be tinned with solder until they are thoroughly wetted out.
The second sacrificed fuse has one of the legs sanded so that it sits on top of the blown fuse bared top. They are soldered together, with a fast touch of a hot soldering iorn, as the good fuse could be damaged if it gets too hot.
A wet rag on the good fuse can help here.
The final step is to take the two wires from your switch (which should be rated for at least the amperage that the fuse was), and solder one to the good fuse the other to the second leg of the blown fuse.
This basically makes a plug in switched fuse, that can be simply removed and replaced to put the circuit back to stock. The neat thing about this is that several of them could go to the same multipole switch so that more than one could be switched with a single flip, yet they all remain protected and stock.
What I also do to finish off the adapter, is to cover the exposed metal with hot melt, to form an easy to grab insulated handle.
Here is a photo of how it looks plugged into the fuse panel. http://pages.cthome.net/genesisone/SwitchedFuse.jpg
I used and "Add a circuit" adapter they sell at the autoparts, it allows you to have another circuit, but at the same time it allows you to do all your work outside the vehicle, when you're done, just plug it in like a regular fuse and you're set.
I did not have a blown fuse, so what I did is cut up a good one, removed the tabs, then soldered the wire from the new fuse holder, from there it went to the momentary switch, after the switch went back to the fuse holder.
I'm still working on the fuel injector cutoff, all 3 injectors end up at a common wire, this is where I will install new wires going to the switch.
I just have the coil switch for now, I tried it this morning on a street where there was no traffic, at about 25 mph, I saw the light far ahead turn yellow, so I pumped the brakes, they worked fine, at the fourth time, the engine turned back on by itself.
I know this is annoying when you come to a stop and sometimes the engine still keeps on running, now I can shut it down anytime I want to, then just put the car in gear and it will start without having to use the key, I love it.
I just have the coil switch for now, I tried it this morning on a street where there was no traffic, at about 25 mph, I saw the light far ahead turn yellow, so I pumped the brakes, they worked fine, at the fourth time, the engine turned back on by itself.
HUH
With the coils(s) off how _can_ the ICE self restart
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FAS, it works!
