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Originally Posted by Dale B
OK, second question, although the subject doesn't match the question:
The Civic hybrid has an "econ" button that has the purpose of allowing the auto-stop feature to be shut off. It's useful in situations where you know you'll be stopped for only a very short time, where it would be a waste of gas/battery power to restart the engine after being off for only seconds. Does the Accord have this feature? I haven't seen anything like it in looking at photos of the dash area.
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Dale,
I think your hunch is correct: the HAH's auto-stop feature is always on(at least I don't know a way to turn it off). It comes on even before a complete stop; I'm not certain of the speed threshold but certainly by 5 miles per hour, and it will re-engage if you lift your foot off the brake pedal and press again, but to keep it engaged while stopped, there needs to be continuous brake pressure as you stop and while stopped. Lift the foot, and the engine is on, using, as you note stored hybrid battery charge for the engine restart. After engine restart while stopped, you have to get above ? 5-10? miles per hour for the auto-stop to function again.
I've done about an hour total of stop and go driving in the HAH, and the hybrid battery recharge was impressive, maintaining 3-4 bars of charge (I seldom see more than 4 under any conditions; I think I'd need to ride the brakes down a mountain to get above 4). The IMA was fairly active at 5-35 miles per hour at these speeds as well, a bigger drain on the hybrid battery than the restart after auto-stop, I'm thinking. And even with active IMA and auto-stop, I've never had to use the 12v batt for engine starting, just that eerily quiet hybrid batt restart. Still gets my attention every time.
Lewis