I am getting a little frustrated in the mornings of the past month that have been 40-50 deg and AS taking so long to engage. It's even more frustrating when I go about 3 miles and come to a stoplight, the car does go into AS, then after about 20 seconds sitting at the light in AS it decides "oops, I don't want to be in AS yet" so the engine starts back up (I know someone is going to say I probably adjusted my foot on the brake so it started back up, and I would agree if this only happened once, but it's happened at least 20 times!).

So I have been thinking (like Spinner above) about the other factors for AS to engage. I have been checking the engine temp gauge in the morning, afternoon, and evening when the first AS engages. It looks to me like it has nothing to do with engine temp because I've seen AS engage at 1 or 2 blips on the gauge as well as 6 or 7 blips. In the morning about 7am when it's about 40-45 deg, it's taking about 4-5 miles for AS to engage and looking at the temp gauge I've seen up to 5 or 6 blips before AS engaged. My regular job is only about 7 miles from the house, and about 2 miles before work I drop off my daughter at school. So the car sites for 3-3 1/2 hours, and with a cold engine around 10:30am (it may be around 55-60 by this time) I can drive 3/4 mile down the road to the post office and get AS to engage with 1 or 2 blips on the temp gauge. Then after coming out of the post office and starting the engine to go back to work, AS will engage after about 500-700 feet.

So to me if engine temp plays a role in AS, it's not a very big one. I'm sure a block heater would help with mpg and getting the engine warmed up quicker, but I still don't think it would make a difference with the factors for AS to engage (someone with a block heater please chime in and agree or disagree).

Which then got me to thinking isn't one of the factors battery temp? If the battery is too cold (or overheats) AS does not engage. Isn't that the part of the trick behind the HCH battery hack switch to make the onboard computer think the battery's temp is out of range so assist will not occur and drain the SoC? So I was thinking has anyone tried a battery heater? Maybe something in the trunk up against the battery compartment to warm that up before they start in the morning? I don't know... this is just a thought, but it seems pretty plausable. Mythbusters where are you Help us test the right conditions for an HCH to AS!