I am also not a big fan of this feature. my guess is that the premature failure of the starter and battery will offset the pennies saved on the gas - especially now that the gas is under $2.

 

I read 99% thread and didn't see anyone mention the following....

When you are parking in your garage and Auto Idle Stop shuts off the engine, don't use the parking button, just turn the car off and it will go into park on its own. - This was in the manual.

Sorry if someone already mentioned this.

 

 

1. Here in LA with all the city stop and go traffic and freeways it definitely does save fuel. No question.
2. Unlike others, I am not turned off by this feature. Acura is not alone with it. The first time I drove a car with AIS it was a rental car. So many models have it now including cheaper brands. I feel it will one day be the norm to save fuel.
3. Besides turning it off in each drive I find it very easy to control with brake pressure and it’s become second nature. When traffic is stop and go, or I see a light it about to go green, or for any other tome I don’t want to use it, I just don’t put full pressure on the brakes, and it won’t engage. This has become habit.

Thats my my feelings on AIS. Of course after driving for years you can’t help to feel that starting and stopping the engine at every stop can’t be good for it, but I trust Acura and the other car manufacturers know what they are doing.

Mike

 

I forgot where I read it, but apparently the EPA city MPG test has a few parts where the AIS would enable a car to save gas vs. one without it. Only catch is that in order to obtain said MPG rating, the feature has to be enabled by default each time the car is started. If Acura were to reverse this and allow AIS to be turned off until the driver wishes to activate it again, Acura would have to accept a new (presumably lower) MPG rating. I haven't found it to be too annoying and during an avg. week of driving, it only occurs once or twice. I normally leave the air conditioner on all the time, which due to the air compressor being belt driven, the AIS is effectively disabled anyway.

 

Instead of putting the car into "Park" after the idle stop kicks in, before releasing the brake, just hit the key less ignition. The car will automatically put itself into park and the car will be shut off.

 

This place has developed a plug and play unit for many makes to disable the idle stop.

https://www.smartstopstart.com/
contact them: https://www.smartstopstart.com/contact-us.html

They don't have Acura at this time but a few requests may get them to add Acura to their other offerings. They are pretty responsive getting back to requests and they do say more makes and models to come. The more people ask for it the better chance they make it. Looks like for the cars they do support its a one minute install.

 

No one came up with a solution to this yet?
I am trying to bypass my 2018 TLX and so far I found by removing the switch it has a 4 pin connector and 1 wire is constant 12V and another is ground and the last 2 show nothing even when pressed so I assume they are Can Bus wires?
I tried to leave it unplugged and that didn't do anything, then I tried to jam the button in and that won't work either and if I put a jumper across those 2 bus wires, I'm, pretty sure that won't do squat.
The switch housing looks to be a controller of sorts as it is bulky for a switch of its use. Anyone have any more ideas to try? I think I read that someone found by accident if you do some strange combo of opening the hood, driver door open and start the car and then close the hood and door it puts it is test mode and it won't engage. Not sure of the steps but I tried them all I think with no luck. MY 2018 Jaguar was easy as there was a plug in the trunk we pulled and it worked very easy and no side effects.

There must be a way to trick the system if we can't defeat it as they do with the Jeeps where there are 2 wires on the battery that sense the draw and if you unplug 1 of them it will never engage again since it cant sense the draw.

 

Or you can just do what I’ve been doing since I got my 2015 almost 4 years ago...just push the button when you start the car. Simple.

 

Yeah your rite, it doesn’t matter since I have to push the parking brake, brake hold, LKA and the gear selector every time I start the car anyway. Just make it a long start up sequence and deal with it I guess. Or just buy another car that has mode memory and never deal with it again along with the vibration issue they can’t fix.

 

BTW: rented a Chevy Malibu in Florida; there was no way to disengage, that I could find; the people at Hertz were clueless; at least we have a manual option

 

For anyone who wants to permanently disable auto idle stop, take a look at the postings by UKBob at
https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/Discussion-ds980464
He describes the idea of disconnecting the battery state of charge (SOC) sensor from the negative end of the battery. Apparently this disables auto idle stop in many cars. I have not seen a report indicating that this works on Acuras. However, it seems very likely to work.

 

I can tell you this doesn’t work, I have tried this and in combo with other ways and nothing seems to work. I have a thread on this here as well and so far nothing works yet.

 

Regarding Temp_A-Spec's "I have tried this and in combo with other ways and nothing seems to work."

Did it have any effect at all? In the Mercedes forum (linked by UKBob) multiple people report success with that idea. All auto start stop mechanisms activate only if a long list of conditions are met. This list includes the state of the battery. If the computer can't read the state of the battery, it makes sense for it to be programmed to a default of not activating stop/start. Perhaps Acura engineers did not follow this logic. However, that would be surprising.

 

I’d have to go look at my old post and see what the result was but I think our wire is a pass through wire from the alternator and I also got a battery not charging fault which wasn’t good.

Look for my thread on this topic here and I posted a long list of attempts and the outcomes of each method tried

 

I assume you are referring to the messages at https://acurazine.com/forums/fifth-g...eature-977159/
Message #5 says: "Next, I unplugged the 2 pin connector on the negative battery and that triggers 2 errors in the MID that says charging error and AIS not available in orange. Next, I plugged that back in and unpinned 1 of the two wires 1 at a time and they both gave the same error as well. I guess I need to find out which wire is which and add a resistor to that wire just at the right value to fools the AIS to thinking the battery is too low to engage but not low wenough to cause the charging error."
I see the point -- getting used to ignoring a "charging error" warning would not be a good thing.

 

That’s it and I also remember my Acura remote start wouldn’t work anymore and the Acura link app kept showing me a fault.
Plus we don’t know if it even charges the battery with that error or has any longer term effects on any other features for the car.

The next step step I was thinking of was to add one of those smart relays that will interrupt that battery wire or hood pin etc for a moment every time the car starts to disable the auto stop feature. That would work and they are super cheap to buy. We used to use them for the parking break truck for Navi or video to play while driving.

 

Hi all. Just wanted to comment on this issue. Acura Tech from PA .....as an ASPEC owner myself......you wont bypass this function without creating another issue within the cars communication system. Depending on where you live, try this.....just set the HVAC system to its LO setting whether the AC is on or not. The HVAC module see's this and wont allow Auto Idle to engage. There are alot of other inputs this module has to see in order to engage this function. I use it all the time. Just because its simple and you dont have to remember to push any buttons . Hope that helps .

 

II think this is wishful thinking. I live in Georgia and use the A/C in the car probably 9 months a year. It makes absolutely no difference to the auto idle stop whether the A/C is on or not. I’ve seen it engage on 95 degree days at a light, a minute after starting it with the A/C at full blast.

 

I completely understand what your saying. Yes it will engage with the AC on or not...that was what i was trying to say...as long as you have the TEMp setting on LO it will not engage. If it does still engage even with set to LO....then you have a communication issue in the car. I use this method every day. Temp setting is the key.

 

I could give you a list of criteria that has to be met in order for the system to function. Distance the car is driven......Battery internal resistance and temp......if the steering wheel is moved even 3 Degrees in either direction before stopping it wont engage .....if seat belt is unbuckled......if the HVAC system does like the difference in humidity from the cabin to outside air, it wont engage. On and on it goes......

 

It’s been a month now and I can confirm that installing a S-VCM module kills the IAS. I haven’t seen IAS trigger since and I see the IAS not available message every time I stop. I’m super happy about this as I didn’t think this would work since I seen so many people using the resistor based VCM Muzzler and it didn’t help.

the only other thing I have installed is a Sprint Boaster set to Race 9 and sometimes Sport 9 and I doubt that is inhibiting the IAS.

 

I'm also not a fan of the auto-idle stop. In fact, if I've said, "I HATE, HATE, HATE this stupid feature!" once, I've said it a gazillion times. And after these last two weeks I like it even less. I have a 2017 TLX SH-AWD. Apparently, after the battery gets a little age on it, the vehicle will just die when the auto-idle stop engages. It's happened to me four times in the last two weeks. The first three times the car would restart after pressing the auto-idle stop toggle button. But, not last night. Last night I got nothing--just a bunch of flickering lights and a clicking starter. When I talked to the dealership this morning to schedule an appointment, the technician said since the spring they've been seeing more and more of this very same complaint. He said the feature seems to inhibit the battery from maintaining a full charge. The solution? A new battery. At $270 (labor not included)! I checked AutoZone. Their battery is only $195 but they couldn't install it. <sarcasm font on> Imagine that. <sarcasm font off> So. . .I'm off to the dealer to have get that gold-plated battery installed.

 

This is consistent with exactly what happened to many of us forum users whose batteries started failing. Eventually every TLX driver will go through this. Thanks for contributing your story.

But the AutoZone thing is odd. I went to my local AutoZone for a Duralast Platinum AGM that they had in stock for $195 (must be what you found). They dropped it into my TLX there and then while I watched over his shoulder. Nothing special. No security code required to drive it, although I think I needed to request a code from Honda to unlock the NAV system. Drove away and never had another AIS issue. I would try a different AutoZone. Batteries+ will also drop batteries in for you while you wait if you can find an AGM there.

 

Hopefully, as people see more reports like this, the message will get back to manufacturers that potential customers are going to shop for other brands unless this wonderful "feature" is eliminated.
For now, there are still a few choices of vehicles without auto stop-start. An excellent source of information is
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/findacar.shtml
For each brand/model it specifies whether it has auto stop-start.
Based on this, I have dropped my interest in Acura and will likely purchase Lexus.

 

Update: I didn't have to purchase that gold-plated battery. It was still under warranty so (woohoo!) no charge for the replacement. In another couple of years I'll probably have to replace it again but, at least, for now I still have a few coins in my pocket.

 

Unfortunately, I think Acura's hands are tied. And most likely a lot of other manufacturers. This auto-idle stop debacle is a result of the US' Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards regulation. In theory, it's supposed to improve the average fuel economy of cars and lightweight trucks. From earlier posts I can't really see the huge benefit, but so long as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has their hands in it, I think we're just stuck with remembering to push that toggle button to the off position. <sigh>

 

Here’s the solution for the auto idle stop problem. I had the idlestopper installed and now it turns the idle stop system off at startup. I can still use if I wish by pushing the idle stop switch back on, it just defaults the system to off which is the way it should have been from the factory. I know this is an older thread but never hurts to update when there is a solution to an unresolved issue.http://www.idlestopper.com

 

Haven’t heard about this mod so far. The instructions does look promising for a DIY gig. Thanks for sharing this !

 

We just picked up a CPO 2019 A Spec AWD for my wife and the first thing I did once we were home was order the Idlestopper- Turn Off Auto Idle Stop System Automatically | Idlestopper I'll report in once it arrives and I install it.

 

As of this comment, I have had to replace three starters and 2 batteries on my 2015 SH-AWD V6 TLX. Just turned over to 102,000 miles. First starter was replaced in January 2023 after years of battling the stop/idle battery drainage issue. Battery was also replaced at the time.

July 2024, the starter went out again. Car would not start, no click and would not turnover. Just dead. Went back to AutoZone and the guy was cool enough to give me a replacement aftermarket starter. Around August, I started noticing every once in awhile when starting the car, the starter would make an awful cranking metal on metal noise before eventually starting. The noise increased at every start leading into October.

November 2024, starter went out again. Only this time after the issue began when I couldn’t get the car to start and battery drained (my guess is after so many tries), I jump started it and it worked. Starter turned right over. Drove home and the following morning, had to use jumper cables again. This time the jump did not work. The starter made the nasty grinding/cranking metal noise and then nothing. In addition, I took the battery to AutoZone for a check up. Of course, it was fried. I later learned the battery I was using was not intended for TLX model with stop/idle function. Hoping it would solve me issues moving forward, I purchased the correct battery.

December 2024, just got my car back 3 days ago. Same song and dance, autozone replacement starter (free). The day after getting the 3rd starter replaced, the loud clicking cranking metal on metal noise kept occurring at first try. The second start attempt went fine w/no loud grinding metal on metal noise. This happened 4-5 more times until this morning when it went out. Same thing only after again hearing the cranking metal on metal noise, the starter made a loud winding noise. Makes the same noise now when I press the start button. which tells me, starter went out. Again.

I’ve read many forums trying to identify the issue. Acura dealership would not cover 3rd replacement under the extended warranty bulletin because they said they needed the OEM starter and mine had the aftermarket (I told them this several times before towing the car to them). I eventually had the car towed to my regular mechanic. Point is, after Acura ran diagnostics, they only pointed to the starter/valve adjustment being needed.

I live in Midwest where yes, it’s getting colder but not certain weather is the main underlying issue here as this cranking noise has been happening since summer months. Also, I’m sure autozones aftermarket starters are crap.

Anyone experienced anything similar? The car is not covered any warranty and u prefer not to take it to Acura now that I know they will not help me without me paying an arm/leg.

can anyone help a brotha out? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

max

 

The idlestop issue resulted in Acura extending the idlestop software/starter/valvevlearance warranty to 10 years unlimited miles, but understandably it won't cover aftermarket starters. Do you know the inservice date of your 2015? if within 10 years you can at least get the software updated under warranty.

If you do get a OEM starter, installed by someone who has the iHDS software to reset the starter-counter in the car, then at least the OEM software will account for the expected strength and wear curve (software does count the starts after an install).

 

I also have 2015 TLX SH-AWD V6 TECH with 90k miles. I had similar issues with idle stop/start. I worked directly with my Acura dealership. They applied a firmware update about 2 years ago which surprisingly took care of it. I haven’t had an issue since.

BTW, I bought in the first wave in Oct 2014. My car is now 10 years old and still love the naturally aspirated V6 with the SH-AWD. It’s been very reliable and a fun to drive daily driver. I’ve been getting the itch for a new car and have been eyeing the 25 TLX Type S. However, they are impossible to get which is a whole different story. Not happy with Acura in this regard. They really messed up with converting the Ohio plant to handle both gas and EVs. Lame!!