About a month ago I was stuck in traffic at an accident site. I made the mistake of creeping forward a few feet which cancelled my autostop and it did not reactivate. Knowing I would be stuck there for a minute or two, I decided to experiment with FAS. I turned the key off for two seconds, then turned it back on. Worked perfectly. When I lifted my foot off the brake, the car started back up and I was on my way.

Same thing happened today, but with VERY different results! Lots of new construction at my street snarled traffic with a 3 - 5 minute delay at the light. I was in "S" mode (going downhill) and shifted back to "D" too late, so autostop didn't activate. I figured I'd do the FAS trick. When the light changed and traffic started to move, I let off the brake and NOTHING happened! Turned the key to start and NOTHING... then remembered to shift to "N" and the key started it fine.

Just a little scary! I don't know why the FAS activated normal autostart in the first incident, but not in the second... but I know to be more cautious in the future!

 

This is why I think Honda should have made their auto-stop algorithmgs more aggressive, or even designed a manual engine-stop button, that would essentially induce an auto-stop condition, without requiring a key-up restart. Safety consideration, such as loss of brake assist vacuum, or pressing of the accelerator pedal, would result in the engine restarting still. If you do use this method in the future though, I'd suggest resting one hand on the shifter (in N) during the duration of the stop -- when it comes time to go, use one hand to restart, the other to go back into "D", then go.

 

If I know I'll be stuck for a minute or or more, I just turn the car off. But, this only works when traffic has come to a complete stop, e.g. a severe accident. Other than that, I just accept that the Autostop isn't perfect.

 

Rarely, if I'm stopped at a light and the AS doesn't engage, I'll FAS, but sometimes I forget to shift into N before I do it. So far, it always lets me shift to N if I forget, and then I go back to D after I key back on, but I'm a little nervous about it, because I'm afraid that somehow I'm messing something up by shifting it after it's keyed off. Am I? I hope not, but if I am, then I'll stop using FAS in the future. I wouldn't want to go through what you went through, sitting there dead and not sure why.

 

www.insightcentral.net has a running discussion on a FAS mod that would allows the car to be turned off manually. I don't remember how the car comes back on but it is similar to a real autostop. Of course their mod is for the Insight but it might be adapted.

http://www.insightcentral.net/forum/...pic.php?t=3746

 

Ooooo... interesting site! I've only gotten through a few pages of it, but I see the mod they made. Seems they're also proud of some other feature or mod called "MIMA." Any idea what that is?

I'm still hesitant to do any rewiring mods on my brand new (only 2 months old!) baby, though!