Do you think this is a Honda programming oversite...

I come to a stop, Auto Stop kicks in, with my foot on the brake I now shift to Park and the engine restarts . To get around this I turn off my car before putting it in Park. I see no need for the car to restart until my foot comes off the brake unless the Hybrid Battery is Low.

What are your thoughts...

 

Others here have noticed this irritation and complained about it. It's a dumb thing for the machine to do, and although there's probably some reason they wound up doing it like that, there are certainly others who try to save gas by turning it off while in Auto-Stop before shifting, as you do. Personally, I turn everything else off- fan, radio, lights, etc., while in AS, and then shift to park and turn the key as quickly as I can. But your way may be better for FE.

 

Yeah, I've had my hybrid for a little over a week and notice this every time I get to work/home. I was wondering if there was anything for me to do so that this wouldn't happen, but I guess manually shutting it off prior to putting it in Park is the best oprion.

Shawn

 

I (almost always) shift to neutral and then turn the key to the off position. Then place the shifter in Park, and then remove the key. It prevents the dreaded restart when shifting into R.

The vehicle was engineered this way. Auto Stop only works in Drive and Neutral. In theory, (if the auto stop worked in Park) one could leave the vehicle in Park, 'auto stopped', (key still in the ignition obivously) and not realize it....

 

I'm sorry but I have a stupid question...

I want to try and avoid these problems before I get my car (should be here in a few more weeks).

What is autostop, how does it work, what is the purpose of it?

Thanks in advance for taking the same to answer a silly question.

-Morgan

 

MWAMAC: Auto Stop (or AS) is what we call it when the engine of the HCH turns off as you brake to a stop. When you take your foot off the brake, it comes back on again. Instead of sitting there idling and burning gas, the huge battery capacity lets the car shut down and then reignites the engine really quickly. The point is to save gas. It works great at traffic signals (the car is so quiet and vibration-free- it's amazing), or in traffic jams.

However, it takes a little getting used to. For one thing, it won't work if the engine isn't warmed up. It won't work if you have defrost going. If you release the brake and then roll a bit, it won't re-engage. You'd have to get up to at least 10 mph and brake again for AS to come back on. (this prevents you from creeping up at signals or in traffic jams). And as Nova Scotian has pointed out, shifting out of Drive when you're auto-stopped will turn the engine back on, even if you shift to Park. It seems perverse- turning the engine back on to shift into Park. But there you go- it's an idiosycracy.

Good luck with the new car!

 

Oh ok, I was aware that the battery took over and the engine cut off at stops, just wasn't aware it was called AS (still learning!)

It does seem silly for the engine to restart when you are trying to park your car and turn it off. So is it not okay for the engine to run for the few seconds between putting the car in park and taking the keys out of the ignition? Is that why you find ways around it (putting it in neutral, ect.)?

-Morgan

 

re: stop and go and AS re-engaging.

2005 and earlier HCH's operated in the way listed above. It would only AS one time, unless you got back up to 10mph. The HCHII (2006) will AS up to 3 times consecutively without getting back up to speed. In other words AS is programmed a little more agressively on 2006's.

 

Either way does not hurt the car. Remember the engine was designed to turn on and off often. I've never 'worked around' this for 55K miles and my car has no problems resulting from it. Some people will come to a stop, have the AS engage, turn the key off, put it in Park, then remove the key. For me, that's a lot of steps just to get out of the car, so I don't bother.

 

back to the original question of why it starts up when you shift to park. I think it has to do with you haveing to go through the reverse gear setting to get there. So honda did it so when you wanted to get into reverse from autostop it happened without hesitation.

Just put it in N and turn it off then put it in park to remove the key.