Autostop/idling in crawling traffic question

merigayle · 05-13-2006, 04:35 PM

I rarely drive in traffic, I walk to work every day. Yesterday I needed to go somewhere and was in bumper to bumper crawling traffic. My car did not go into idle stop most of the time, how can i maneuver it to idle stop when in stop and go traffic? It killed my mpg's. No AC on or anything.

spacebug · 05-13-2006, 09:52 PM

I've found that after the initial auto stop I sometimes need to reach around 10 mph so it'll auto stop the next time in traffic. I've only had my 03 for a few weeks, so I'm just getting used to it. Hope this helps.

Tzepish · 05-13-2006, 10:33 PM

I've noticed that if I press on the brakes about rhee times while in a single autostop session, it just boots me out of autostop.

Which is lame because I obviously want my car turned off if I'm pressing on the brake. The only way to get it back on is to go into first and give it some gas before going back into neutral and braking again (I don't think you quite have to reach 10mph, though).

merigayle · 05-13-2006, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tzepish

I've noticed that if I press on the brakes about rhee times while in a single autostop session, it just boots me out of autostop.

Which is lame because I obviously want my car turned off if I'm pressing on the brake. The only way to get it back on is to go into first and give it some gas before going back into neutral and braking again (I don't think you quite have to reach 10mph, though).

Oh! I should also mention i have the CVT.

goat961 · 05-13-2006, 10:36 PM

also, if the brake vaccuum is depleted it will turn the engine on as a safety precaution. when you sit in traffic you move about 10 ft then hit the brakes... which depletes the vaccuum pretty quick.

useing the parking brake can help you avoid this- but it also won't make your brake lights go on.

also there's a few tricks that you'll find that will trigger auto stop. hitting the brakes harder tends to trigger it more readily, and as mentioned being over 10 mph helps.

personally, sitting in traffic on a downward slope is pretty nice. you get into autostop once then never get out of neutral useing the ebrake as necesary (and i stress that this may be dangerous because your brakes don't go on)

edit: you beat me with the cvt post.... so i'm not sure how much of that is helpful

jbrasure · 05-14-2006, 02:39 AM

If you come to a stop, and autostop kicks in, and then you start to move again, then autostop won't kick in again unless you exceed a certain speed. I think it's either 7 or 9 MPH, but I can't remember the exact number.

In short, try to drive in spurts, and exceed 9 MPH during each spurt.

James

merigayle · 05-14-2006, 07:03 AM

Someone actually honked me in traffic the other day because i did not want to creep up another 15 feet!!! sheesh. People are always in such a rush. I figured it was a mph deal. So hit the gas, slam the brakes?

Rick · 05-14-2006, 02:22 PM

I should throw in here that this is something that has been addressed with the new Civic hybrid. First off the brake pedal you press is no longer connected to a hydraulic master cylinder, it's a sensor which tells another module how much pressure to apply to the brakes, and this way they simulate a consistent brake feel no matter what the regen is doing. It is not vacuum assisted so you can sit there pumping the brake pedal all day long and it won't come out of auto stop!

Secondly the auto stop routines have been revamped. You get three auto stops in a row, and this starts over again once you reach 8mph. The first auto stop is pretty typical like the Insight's, the second if you don't get up to 8mph waits a few seconds then turns the engine off once you've completely stopped, which is good because you can creep again some without using up an auto stop. The 3rd waits a bit longer, but once you've been stopped for probably 10 or so seconds it shuts off. It's a major improvement, and in stop and creep traffic like that it works very well, though it's not perfect because you will run in to situations where in heavy creep and stop traffic the engine will stay running. If it only had maybe a 15 second ultimate time out no matter what it would be almost perfect.

With the 5 speed Insight I had you could just stall the engine, and with some fancy foot work sometimes could trick it in to auto stop, and it would restart when put in to gear. With the CVT about the only option you have is to put it in to neutral and turn the key off. The one thing I really miss about the 5 speed is you didn't have to have your foot on the brake to be in auto stop.