I have a new 2004 HCH, manual transmission, which now has ca. 1400 miles on it. It works great, handles beautifully, gets superb mileage in largely short-distance driving. The IMA, regenerative braking, and Auto-stop work nicely.
But...
Beginning at about 500 miles, a problem arose with the auto-stop. Occasionally, and by now nearly a third of the time, when I'm stopped, standing in neutral and/or with the clutch pedal depressed, and the auto-stop has kicked in, the engine does not always start up when I shift back into gear. It's as if the engine has stalled. This is, of course, a bit annoying to say the least when cars behind you in traffic expect you to pull forward! I've found that occasionally the engine will start if I depress the accelerator, or release the clutch with the car in gear, or both, whereupon the car then lurches forward. But this doesn't always work and I have to use the ignition restart. I have the sense that this happens more often when I'm on an incline, but I really haven't determined that definitively.
I finally took it to the Honda dealer, where the technician took a ride with me to see exactly what was happening. The Perversity Principle being what it is, the car displayed no problems while the tech was with me. Nonetheless, they put it through the computer diagnostics and, not surprisingly, found no problems. They suggested I bring it back in when it happens again. I pointed out that the problem arises sporadically and unpredictably, so even if I could run back there arbitrarily, they still might not see it. They had nothing to suggest, clearly a limitation of relying only on computer diagnostics and not going in and probing around.
Perversity Principle example number 2: it happened four times on the drive back from the dealer!
Does anyone have any insight (no pun intended!) on what might be the problem and what to do about it?
Thanks.
But...
Beginning at about 500 miles, a problem arose with the auto-stop. Occasionally, and by now nearly a third of the time, when I'm stopped, standing in neutral and/or with the clutch pedal depressed, and the auto-stop has kicked in, the engine does not always start up when I shift back into gear. It's as if the engine has stalled. This is, of course, a bit annoying to say the least when cars behind you in traffic expect you to pull forward! I've found that occasionally the engine will start if I depress the accelerator, or release the clutch with the car in gear, or both, whereupon the car then lurches forward. But this doesn't always work and I have to use the ignition restart. I have the sense that this happens more often when I'm on an incline, but I really haven't determined that definitively.
I finally took it to the Honda dealer, where the technician took a ride with me to see exactly what was happening. The Perversity Principle being what it is, the car displayed no problems while the tech was with me. Nonetheless, they put it through the computer diagnostics and, not surprisingly, found no problems. They suggested I bring it back in when it happens again. I pointed out that the problem arises sporadically and unpredictably, so even if I could run back there arbitrarily, they still might not see it. They had nothing to suggest, clearly a limitation of relying only on computer diagnostics and not going in and probing around.
Perversity Principle example number 2: it happened four times on the drive back from the dealer!
Does anyone have any insight (no pun intended!) on what might be the problem and what to do about it?
Thanks.