Is this happening to anyone else?

It's getting a little colder, but not that much. This morning after a 15 minute commute, with the car fully warmed up and the outside temp at 56 deg F, the car didn't auto-stop at three places it once did.

Seems glitchy.

 

Dear alter-ego: I too have been experiencing this though not quite as much as you. There were times on Monday when the car was warmed enough to get into Auto-Stop at a traffic light but the next light it initially went into Auto-Stop but about 1-2 seconds after that the RPM needle bumped up to 1,000 and the Auto-Stop was definitely not engaged. I had not removed my foot from the brake, the defrost was not on, the A/C was not on, the fan was not on max, the car's temp was warmed up, etc. Not sure but it has occurred once or twice in the last week so I will keep tabs on it.

Obviously, the car's ICE will run more in the winter to keep the cat warm to reduce emissions so maybe there is a cold spot in the valley through which you drove and it cooled down the temps of things. We'll keep tabs on it. This is the first winter for a good majority of the cars so I don't know how many others have had their car through a winter yet.

 

Get used to it. The car needs to be warm for it to autostop, and it just takes a lot longer for it to warm up when it's cold outside. The colder it gets, the more you'll notice it. Nothing glitchy, just the way it is. If you want more, go back to some of the posts in January or February and you'll find it discussed, but bottom line is that's the way it works. Wish I had better news for you!

 

A 15-minute communte isn't long enough to warm the car up at 56 degrees?

 

The exhaust yes, water temp and / or oil temp could be quiet a different story. As my name suggest i also ride an other honda vtec. A viffer (or interceptor in the states).

When it's could outside and i'm riding on the highway the watertemperature won't raise to the standard (68 degrees celsius) set by honda meaning my vtec won't engage and i'm domed to keep riding on 8 valves (the vtec on a bike works verry differetly)

So its no surprise to me the engine keeps revving. This is not only because of the cat but also the batteries. Because of the cold the voltage will drop. to spare the batteries your car even has an conventional starterengine for cold days.

 

After nearly a year I have found that there seems to be a "sweet spot" where the auto stop works better than other temps. For me its when its 70-80 outside. When the temps here in TX are in the 100's, or when it gets cold (it does sometimes), it will not work very well. As mentioned already, a lot has to do to engine temps. In the HOT weather, I think it has to do to the battery being too warm, since it does not seem to take or give a charge till the inside of the car starts to cool off.


Bob, 14k miles

 

Just to echo the thoughts provided here. I bought my HCH in February 2006 and have just over 9000 miles on it. I live in Pennsylvania - and it certainly was chilly (if not really COLD last winter). It took until May as I recall until the Auto-Stop started kicking in "right away" on my 2.2 mile commute. It has been that way since then until the past few weeks (when the morning temps have been in the 30's and 40's). That's just the way it is and there really isn't much you can do about it. I expect my winter mileage will go down 4-5 mpg due to the autostop (and oil not flowing as freely during warmup - it is impossible to get it to go into a zero fuel consumption glide when the weather is cold and you have just started up the car). My work commute will likely go down from 45 to 30 again! :-(

Eric

 

Eric - Howdy from halfway across the state. Have you thought about an Engine Block Heater for the car? I just bought one and it won't be installed for another few weeks but it should be in before the really cold spell of Winter. Anyway, it only cost $45 and if your FE drops from 45 mpg to 30 mpg then you would only have to drive 2,000 miles to cover the cost of the Engine Block Heater (see math below).

2,000 miles @ 45 mpg = 44.4 gal
44.4 gal * $2.20/gal = $97.68

2,000 miles @ 30 mpg = 66.6 gal
66.6 gal * $2.20/gal = $146.52

Money lost in winter FE is $146.52 - $97.68 or $48.84. You only drive 1,100 miles a month so it would take just 2 months of winter driving to pay for that. I know it won't make the winter FE 45 mpg but it should make it higher than 30 mpg. I've been averaging 1,100 miles a week since August when I bought the car so it will only take me 2 weeks to cover the cost of my new accessory. =)

Someone correct my math if it is not kosher. My wife took the car to Indy this weekend so I'm interested to see what her FE will be when she returns. Winter tires on wheels arrive Monday so I'll even get to see what the FE drop is with the winter tire setup. Can't wait.

 

Hi Flash,

The only thing I would be interested in knowing is how much $ is spent in electricity to run the block heater! I agree with your math as far as gas costs are concerned, but you add another "recurring" cost (electricity) by using the block heater. When you get yours, let me know how it works out. They make an electric usage meter called a kill-a-wall that you can use to determine how much energy a given appliance uses. It would be interesting to know how much the block heater uses.

Eric

 

Heh, Eric, that's a good point but how *MUCH* is a kill-a-watt device then? [Edit: Google search reveals $20-$30 per "Electric Usage Monitor."] I would say that if you drive 100 miles a day at 45 mpg then that is 2.22 gal per day and 100 miles at 30 mpg is 3.33 gal per day. If gas is $2.20 then that is $4.88 per gas at 45 mpg or $7.33 or a difference of $2.44 per day ... PER DAY. Therefore, if we find out that using the block heater consumes less than $2.44 then we are ahead of the game. If we assume that each kilowatt-hour costs $0.12 then $2.44 divided by $0.12 is 20 hours and 20 minutes. It is hard to plug in the car for 20 hours and still drive 100 miles a day in the remaining 4 hours of the day. =) I would say that plugging in the car all night long consumes far less in electricity than the loss of average FE during a winter day ([Edit: plus the cost to cover the Monitor of $20-$30]).

I will report when I get it installed though. It will arrive this week though will likely not be installed until early November.