I've noticed that. I agressivly would restart and found that the battery drained pretty quickly because I would be shutting the engine down for the coast to lights and would get no regen.

I think its best to not force an autostop if your battery is below half. Whats your opinion?

 

Hi Tbaleno:

___If your pack is low, you should definitely grab regen w/out a forced autostop or if you do not have a longer highway cruise coming to bring her up slowly. A normal autostop usually comes after most of your heavy regen is complete anyway so there is that take on it as well. You have some fuel cut during regen so it isn’t that you are losing a lot of fuel but you are losing momentum in a hurry which hinders your overall FE in a very big way .

___Your best bet imho is try not to let the pack drop by more then 2 bars from full and you can allow autostop or force one whenever you deem it necessary.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

 

Heh. there is no way I can keep the bar above 2 bars from full. Most of the time I'm driving around at between 1/3 battery and 1/2 battery charge. I have a lot of stop lights and minor hills and I have to keep the speed up to about 35mph minimum. I haven't taken the complete plunge and still feel an obligation not to obstruct the other drivers.

Maybe I just need a few more battery packs installed in my car for my driving style

 

My battery guage shows 2 bars from the top when it's normally full (Where hidden charging stops)

If reboots cause it to loose 2-3 bars from that point I'll roll for a greater distance and let the space in front icrease, or lastly let it run while in N.

I'm not sure about the obstructing other drivers part though.

 

If you accel from 0-10 and then come to a stop after doing so the auto-stop feature engages.

 

Wife and I have been on vacation in Kauai the last couple of weeks (I noticed two Prius and one Insight while over there; regular unleaded was at $2.64 - $2.69 as well). We rented a car from a company that "features fine GM cars" so naturally I was forced to drive a compact ICE. I was looking forward to getting back home and driving my HCH.

While there I read in the forum about the HCH shuting down the A/C while in autostop if you have the climate control set to automatic. (With the Texas summer heat starting, I had been running the A/C full-bore the last week I had driven the car.) So when I started my HCH yesterday morning for my drive to work, I placed the climate system in "auto" with both Econ and A/C selected.

After stopping at the end of my alley, I pulled out into the street and made my way fo my first stop, one of those beautiful Texas 4-way stops. My car seemed to stop running when I stopped! What could be wrong? Could something have happened these past two weeks while it was sitting in the driveway?

I went through the intersection to my next stop - also a 4-way stop. Again the fan cut off, the engine seemed to stop. What could be wrong? Could my new HCH be broken?

It wasn't until I was 100 yards past this second stop that I realized my HCH was supposed to be doing this... the engine stops running (while in Econ mode) when you stop. The car was working perfectly!!

I'm a little embarassed to tell you that I had forgotten about the auto-stop feature, but just wanted to let you know that even after three months of ownership I am still getting used to hybrid operations. Maybe after owning and driving the car for 2 or 3 years, as some of you have, forgetting how the car operates won't happen. I can't wait.

 

Yea, with the AC set as you described the whole car "just goes completely dead" in autostop. I guess it does this so the condenser stays cold reducing compressor load.

The next time you have first time passengers who are curiously skeptical about hybrid cars, set the AC up that way but don't tell them about it.
Be sure the temp control is set for cold so the fan blows at high speed so the effect is maximized.

Try to hide your grin as you see the look on their face at the first stop light. Or worse, briefly look shocked yourself.
Priceless.

 

Another autostop question:

Whenever I'm at my destination and stop my HCH CVT, the autostop engages and the engine shuts off--but then the engine turns back on when I shift to park (without lifting my foot off the brake). Any idea why it does this?

I generally turn the key right off, so it doesn't use that much gas anyway, but it seems like kind of a waste--why doesn't the HCH just stay off if you're stopping for good?

If there's no good reason, is it bad for the car to shut it off in N or D, then shift to P?

(For that matter, I notice that the manual says nothing about using N while the car is in motion--does anyone here have a good sense of how much wear & tear it adds on the CVT to coast in neutral, then shift back to D, while driving? I know a lot of hypermilers recommend doing so, but given the comments I've seen elsewhere about CVTs needing replacement after 50-100K miles, I'm loath to stress mine more than necessary...)

 

Rocky, I will answer the one question for you which I know to be true:

It *WILL NOT* hurt the car in ANY WAY to turn it off while it is in N or D and then shift to park.

I will provide an EDUCATED GUESS on the reason it restarts when you shift from D to Park:

The computer is programmed to restart the engine with any gear change, to make sure you have the power to "GO" when you want or need to. It has no way to know your intention is to shift from D to Park; it only knows that you changed gears....

 

Anyone know if the new HCH will be able to creep with just the IMA, or will it only do 'EV' mode at low speeds after getting up to speed with the ICE?