Decided to try FAS a few times today on large, long inclines. My question is:

How do I get it to NOT rapidly decellerate when you turn the engine back on?

Every time I restarted the engine, the car did a bucking decelleration.. kind of like the regenerative breaking kicked on for a moment.

Yes, I was doing this while the car was in neutral

 

martyllian, my hch does this too when i restart the engine after FAS. Except, my car's "bucking deceleration" is not nearly as bad since I was only going at 35 mph. (felt like shifting from D to S gear at 35 mph on a downgrade).

I guess from your description of "long, large hills" that you may have been going at a much faster clip when you turned your engine back on - the faster the speed, the larger the "bucking deceleration." I'd recommend not turning the engine back on unless you are at 40 mph or below to be more gentle to your transmission and not experience such a harsh "bucking deceleration."

on another point - i sometimes have to drive on steep descents, and i'm afraid to use FAS there because of how quickly power brakes might be used up. Are non-powered brakes sufficient to brake a car down a hill, or do you just have to push harder on them?

 

Ahhh, glad to see it isnt just me. I kept having to turn the engine back on after I got down to 40, as I almost always got one of those "Gotta pee!" drivers on my bumper.

(You know the type, they ride your bumper and fishtail back and forth behind you. reminds me of someone who has to pee really badly)

 

haha yea i know that type of driver. except i never thought of them as "gotta pee" drivers

if you don't like how the car jerks when you turn the engine back on in neutral at 40 mph, simply wait until the car slows to 35 or even 30 mph for a gentler transition.

 

Yep. It gets better and better every 2-3 MPH in my experience once you drop to 40 MPH. Anything above that is too jerky for me to be comfortable with, so I'll never use FAS on the freeway or some such place.

 

Its interesting. Some people get bucking but in my car I've restarted at 50 or so with absolutely no bucking of any kind. I have an 03. Maybe they modified the cvt in later models or something.

Also, it can not be said enough. Be careful with FAS don't do it if you have to do any braking. Don't do it around other cars just incase you have to react to someone doing something unexpected.

 

Josh I don't see where you say which tranny you have. I assume it is a CVT?

 

I have the same problem with bucking or hesitating when I try FAS and reingage with the cvt in neutral. I thought my car was just weird.
I usually restart the ice at 25-30mpg and get a noticable hesitation. Since I don't like that pull on my tranny, I've pretty much resolved to just stick to neutral coasting- which I've been doing alot of lately. (colder and rainey here, ugh)

either way- I don't think it's really an option at highway speeds anyhow- you slow down too fast from wind resistance.

 

cvt, yes.

 

Unless you're using Xcel's DFAS, which I can say by trial works wonders. I'll only ever be in the position to use it in the rarest of instances though.