question about idle stop and heat

[ikhoudvanu199]

ok, after searching the site for quite some time, looking over all the FAQs, manuals, and searching the topics...i cant find an answer to my question

so here goes: since its winter, im running heat in the car to keep myself warm...now im wondering how idle stop interacts with the heater, since everything ive read talks about the a/c...i ran the climate control on auto my 1st day, then after reading all about it...have been running the a/coff econ mode

now im wondering...assuming the temp in the car matches the setting on the climate control, the engine is warmed up, etc...will the engine go into idle stop when im at a light? i havent noticed it happening, so im not sure if im doing something wrong or what?

thanks in advance

[Rick]

It depends on the ambient temperatures. Below a certain temperature (I'm not sure exactly what that temp is) the engine will not shut off no matter what in order to keep the catalytic converter hot enough so it keeps working and emissions levels are maintained. If it's above that temp it depends on the climate control, but I don't believe it shuts off if you have it on. The trick is to turn the climate control off before you slow down more than ~20mph and it should auto stop. From there you can turn the climate control back on, the engine won't restart and you can get a little heat from what's in the heater core, but it will get cool rather quickly.

[b1shmu63]

I can't say with certainty, but it does seem that the IMA system keeps track of the 12 volt load. If you have a stereo running, fan running, lights on, you may find the engine won't idle stop. If there is a heavy load on the 12 volt system it is probably more efficient to have the engine idling, especially in the cold.

[ikhoudvanu199]

thanks for the insight(no pun intended, i swear)

if anyone else has any ideas, id love to hear em...anything i can do to save gas

o, and just so u guys know...since the dealer filled up the tank, ive only used up about half of it...and have drivin over 260 mi!! im so amazed by this...its great!

[Lee]

My experience these last few weeks is that the Insight (’06 CVT) will idle stop at ~0 degree F. However the battery needs to be fully warmed up. It has been taking about 20 minutes of driving till the IMA stops acting funny from the warm up cycle. During warm up there are 3 or 4 bars of charge while running at a constant speed (SOC within 2 or 3 bars of full). The bars go away if you accelerate just below the assist threshold. However it seams that using heavy assist helps to warm the battery pack and with the forced charging the SOC dose not suffer. Several times I have dropped off the freeway and there is no braking regen due to the battery being full. However if I keep driving using lots of assist and the warm up cycle turns off the SOC can drop to half pretty quickly.

With the battery up to temperature, lights, radio on and hitting the climate control off before stopping the car will auto stop at these temperatures. Turning the climate control back on (econ / a/c off) while waiting for the light has no effect to the auto stop. The temperature of the air will start to cool off fairly soon though.