Hi,

I am new to the forum but have been following the discussions for a few weeks. I purchased an 06 HCH (built 10/18) and have been very please witth the car. I have been getting about 45 mpg which is more than I would have expected given the very hilly terrain that I drive each day. However, on to my quesiton. Last week I noticed that the car was not consistently auto stopping. However, after a few days of irregular auto stops, the feature is no longer functioning at all. Has anyone else seen this problem. The only other issue I have noticed with the car has been that the mpg indicator for both trip A and B, will jump around a good bit, as if it is weighted towards the FE measured over the last few miles. Has anyone else seen these problems? I did notice an earlier post regarding erratic mpg readings, so that may be the same issue.

Jeff

 

Hi Highway!

Did the temperature dramatically decrease since last week (i.e. how cold is it)? How long is your commute? Is the car warm (what does the temperature gauge show you)? There are several factors that can influence the auto stop. Where I am, it is very cold now and it takes about ~4 miles before the car is warm enough to auto stop. Do you have your front defrost / heater on?

Thanks,
Stephane.

 

Auto stop is disabled if the windshield defroster is on, so check the air circulation setting. And with colder weather it takes longer for the engine to warm up to the point when AS kicks in.

 

Auto Stop feature works on the '06 Models with the defroster on as long as the fan speed is not over 2 or even 3 sometimes. I believe that the fan speed goes up to 7 or 8. Auto Stop will not work if the battery is low as well.

 

Ok,

as per the manual, auto stop will engage when:

1- engine coolant is near normal operating temperature
2- The shift lever is in D or N
3- You are not pressing the accelerator pedal
4- You are pressing the break pedal
5- The IMA battery is charged enough to operate the system
6- Fan speed is set to low either in manual or auto mode
7- Outside temperature is between 10-100F
8- The front window defroster is off

So, the possible culprits at this time of the year would be 1,5,6,7 and 8. Check to make sure that these conditions are met (if at all possible). If they can't be met, the auto stop might not engage.

Cheers,
Stephane.

 

Mine actually works if the front window defroster is on. Maybe I am just the lucky one.

 

Adam,

yeah, I agree, those guidelines are 'flexible'. We got 0-5F weather this week and the auto stop still worked. Althought, not 100% (closer to 95% after the car got warm). When the engine got cold, the auto stop disengaged and the motor started up.

Cheers,
Stephane.

 

Regarding fan speed, it only matters if the A/C or defroster is on; the actual fan, just blowing regular air, can operate at any speed without disabling auto-stop.

Anyway, as the others mentioned, the car is likely not warm enough to engage auto-stop.

 

Thanks for the quick feedback. I'm pretty sure that I have had the front defroster on for the last few days, though the fan speed has been low. I'll turn the defrost setting off and verify that autostop works on the drive home this evening. I must have read through the manual a bit too quickly after taking delivery of the car. I'll take a closer look to make sure I haven't missed other important details. However, what about the problem with the mpg display being weighted to the last few miles of driving. Did I miss something there as well?

Jeff

 

Yes, some (but not all) 06 owners have reported this problem and one has talked to Honda about it. See this thread for more info.