Hi GoNavy:

___With every automobile, there are compromises. In the type of stop and go you describe, you simply have to work the problem. I travel from one side of the Chicago tollway system almost to the other and like most in my area; I have been stuck in the occasional 5 - 7 mile crawl and it happens on a more frequent basis then you may know. With that, now comes your stop and go traffic - hypermiling techniques. You build the largest buffer you can and do not let that car stop moving. I don’t care if 20 cars fill in that buffer ahead of you; you keep rebuilding it so that you can crawl at a speed of 10 - 20 or so miles per hour. If you piss someone off, so what! They are only going to be 10 - 20 cars ahead of you after the traffic dissipates 5 miles down the road anyway. Once traffic is actually stopped, then you had better be in neutral, that ICE had better be shut down, and you had better be coasting into that bumper in front of you. If while in this bumper to bumper nightmare you have a downhill slope of any type, you had better have that car in Neutral, the ICE shut down, and you had better be crawling in a slow 2 - 12 miles per hour coast trading away whatever potential is available to you for that long slow crawl. While accidentally stuck on some guys bumper in that stop and go traffic nightmare with your ICE shut down, if the bumper in front of you moves 8 feet, YOU STAY EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE AND LEAVE THE ICE SHUTDOWN! Let him move 20 - 100 ft. before you start her back up and begin moving forward again. You might actually save 3 IMA starts per 100’ with this one technique alone by the description posted. If you do not use some of these techniques, you had better get used to sub par FE no matter what car you own and what traffic you encounter. Wishing for, hoping for, wanting a better, etc. sure but that isn’t in the cards for the IMA equipped Honda’s right now. There are guys hacking the Insight’s ECU for higher mileage today and do you know what? I haven’t read of a single ECU hacked/modded MIMA owner knocking the hell out of Rick Reese’ or my lmpg’s no matter how few tanks have been traversed with the mod to date. You are not driving an HSD equipped Toyota or an eCVT equipped Ford in this kind of traffic so move on and work the problem when in those traffic snarls that make the average driver in all of us scream.

___Bluntly. It can be done, it is done on a daily basis, and it will continue to be done for higher FE then you ever thought possible. You just have to think farther ahead then the traffic surrounding you and force what isn’t made up because of some locked down logic or capability thought up by a group guys and gals sitting behind their computer screens running a sim set. This is how you murder EPA estimates day after day. This includes not only beating the EPA test(s) but beating the guys and gals that actually designed your car. If you have a traffic problem, work around it. 85% of the time, it will help. The 15% of the time you guess incorrectly are lessons learned from which you can improve your chances of success the next time you get stuck in a similar situation.

___Sdhybrid, 10 IMA starts per mile is about the going rate I would use in the Insight on a particularly nasty 5 + mile stretch of I294/I94 here in the Chicago area in the evening rush. If the autostop logic was not made up, it was forced autostop. I would lose 1 of 20 bars off the SoC meter every 10 - 15 starts and when in that kind of traffic, regen was the last of my concerns until I saw 17 or less bars. When traffic speeds pick back up, you would be surprised how fast your SoC will be pulled right back up as well. In regards to IMA starts, they were designed exactly for this and not only is your automobile already warm, the pistons, cylinders, and rotating parts (bearings and sleeves) already have a nice coating of lubricant that has not had the chance to drain away for hours on end as they do when you park for the night. An IMA start consists of an ~ 400 millisecond spin up to ~ 1,000 RPM before light off instead of a lugging 150 RPM light off that most non-hybrid’s have to contend with. You do not have to worry about startup wear and tear in heavy traffic given the car is already up to temp and IMA starts are extremely smooth and non-destructive. I am sure you have already noticed this many times. Just wait until that 0 degree day sometime in your future when the smallish 12V battery and starter engage for the first time. You will think something just exploded under the hood by comparison Warm IMA starts are nothing in comparison to even a cold IMA start but just imagine what kind of wear and tear is created from lugged 150 RPM non-hybrid startup? Just thinking about it makes me cringe.

___A few other tips. I let the idle steady out before forcing an autostop myself. I do not have an explanation as to why this helps but emissions wise, I think it is the right thing to do? Another tip I should mention here only pertains to the NAVI equipped Accord’s. Do not force an autostop and reboot too quickly. I lost my Average and Trip distance data in the TC display once last month when forcing an Autostop at a light by rebooting to quickly. The car didn’t actually shut down and when I turned the ignition back to Ignition II, the Accord was idling away and my average went from 48.x something to 6.x and my range data went from 350 + miles to 0 miles in the blink of an eye. Since your AH’s NAVI TC has a sub-routine for autostop logic programmed into it, this may not happen to you but just in case, I do a 1, 1000, 2, 1000 before booting her back up now.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net