Is anyone else having issues with the Auto Idle Stop feature working consistently? When I first got the car it was turning off regularly when I was at a stoplight. Now its only happening about 10% of the time. I am not sure if I am doing something wrong, but I have confirmed the button is still turned on.

 

 

Too bad you can't disable it permanently. Auto start/stop is stupid IMO. Saves very little fuel and causes additional wear to the crank bearings. It's yet another gimmick to attempt to meet government regulations and make consumers think they're saving fuel at the expense of increased wear to the engine and components. I turn my engine off if I know I'll be stopped more than a minute. But start/stops in traffic jams or 15 second red lights? Not a good idea.

 

To answer OP, I find it inconsistent as well. It sometimes comes on and sometimes doesn't. Glad I am not the only one. In terms of the above, cant you disable it permanently by hitting the button to the left of the electronic gear shifter (it has an "A" with an arrow circling the letter)?

 

I've heard you can. Sorry, I'm ignorant on the RDX but according to what I've read on the board, you can disable it but it resets each time you drive the car. So you'd need to push it every time you get in to drive. Sort of like disabling the traction control system.

When I purchase my next vehicle I'm specifically looking for something that either doesn't have it, or can be disabled permanently.

 

 

Not a gimmick as much as it's the government deciding that it's a good technology (whether that's true or not is another matter). 'Big Brother' is kind of forcing it's use by awarding CAFE credits based on whether or not a vehicle has idle S/S and what type it is.

No start/stop = no CAFE credits
S/S that can be turned off and remembers it's been turned off = a little bit of CAFE credit
S/S that can be turned off but defaults back to on = more CAFE credit
S/S than cannot be turned off at all = maximum CAFE credit

Be happy you're not buying a GM product since most of their vehicles fall into the last category. At least Acura put the 'S/S off' button right between the start button of the transmission selector where it's real easy to get to.

 

 

 

Thanks for the updates guys. I am glad I am not the only one where the idle stop is not working well. It's not a huge issue but it's odd that it worked more regularly the first week or two I had the car and now does not seem to be kicking in as much.

 

In addition to not depressing the brake pedal hard enough there are a litany of reasons why idle stop will not kick in. They're listed on pages 430-431 of the owner's manual.

 

I'm ambivalent towards it. I'll take the fuel savings as even the most efficient powertrain gets 0 mpg idling while stationary. It is intrusive as it is very noticeable / not smooth when the engine restarts. A definite bump and shake. Also I hate the way it fires the engine back up needlessly when I come to a stop to park.

 

I’ve gotten used to just hitting the stop/start button when I stop to park, and the engine won’t restart. With the electronic controls, there is no need to select park.

 

 

 

I find if I put the AC on auto, the auto s/s works consistently. However, I find if I turn off the AC and just leave it on fan, the auto s/s doesn't work consistently. I don't know why. I would expect that it would turn off the engine more because it's not putting load on the battery, but its not.

 

Someone on their Honda Pilot has it permanently disabled. This might work for the RDX too.

https://www.piloteers.org/forums/114...top-start.html

 

I had this on my recent BMW and it was much more noticeable than the RDX. Compared to BMW I could hardly notice the Acura auto engine off.

 

I'm curious, how does the car get moving with any degree of response when you accelerate from a stop light? The amount of time it takes to let your foot off the brake and press the accelerator is less than it is for the car to restart isn't it? So do you have some sort of delay? And what about connection to the torque converter? For a normal car without s/s you have to disengage the TC prior to starting the car. That seems like it would cause an additional delay since it would have to reengage the torque converter when it restarts.

 

Personally I have developed into a two button pusher every time I get into the vehicle - the button to start the engine plus the button to turn off the auto start/stop. It is really not too burdensome to do that once you get into the habit. I suppose if I get into a horrendous traffic jam I might use it rather than burn the fuel at a very prolonged stop. I wonder if there are any published studies how the average mpg is affected in typical city stop and go traffic when the start/stop is engaged.

 

I've seen a few of them - with wildly different claims depending on the motives of the author.

One actually claimed as much as 30% fuel savings, but once you dug into how that was calculated it was only measured while in stop-and-go traffic which consisted of only 2% to 3% of the total drive time - so 30% of 2% is actually 0.6%. Applying this "30%" fuel savings to the real world would mean that a car that would otherwise get 24 MPG can improve that to as much as 24.14 MPG.

Statistics can (and are) manipulated to prove whatever the author wants so it's critically important when reading them to determine how the numbers are derived to see what's really being measured.

To me S/S technology is a 'feel good' and 'looks good on paper' approach but when it comes down to it the cost far outweighs any benefit and I'll turn it off without feeling the least bit guilty.

 

 

 

QFT. As I approach senescence and decrepitude, I find myself in "mosey along" mode more often than I would ever have imagined in my youth. Auto Engine Idle Stop works just fine when I'm in that mode, and is a quick and handy off switch away when I'm not.

 

Split decision in my household. I like it and my wife hates it. Somewhere I saw that you can disable the dash panel indicator that comes on when you press the engine stop button by changing the vehicle settings. It keeps the indicator from coming on if it bothers you but there is no way to disable the engine stop function without manually pressing the button to turn it off.

 

 

I did what you suggested and turned the Heating/Cooling unit to Auto and that did it. Since doing that every time I have come to a top the car shuts off which is what I wanted since I do mainly city driving and hit many stop lights. Thanks!

 

Personally with the long lights of Raleigh, I really like this feature. It's definitely helped me save some fuel versus my 14 MDX in those situations. I too like how it gets silent when in use.

 

Did anyone else observe car restart when the car ahead starts moving (using the radar)? I kept my foot firmly on the brake and saw this happen a couple of times....

 

 

The camera can read speed limits.. I am sure that it can also read the traffic lights

 

I'm pretty sure the displayed speed limit is from the navigation database. The limit on my street went from 50 mph to 45 mph about a year ago but the higher limit still displays in my RDX.

 

The car restarts after 1 minute regardless of the surroundings.
This makes it even more useless for me with the 3-minute red lights where I live.
All that wear and tear to save gas for 1 minute?

I always disable it at startup just as I did in my TLX.

 

I am pretty sure that the camera up in the windshield reads the signs and displays the appropriate speed. I believe that is how it is advertised.

 

Auto Start/Stop is actually pretty important. You only have to turn off the engine for six or seven seconds for it to be worth it

 

 

Yeah, the speed limits are stored in the navigation database.

 

If it does it's not working. MI has recently changed the limits on some rural highways from 70 to 75 and signs have all been updated. RDX still shows 70 as the limit so it is not reading the signs - has to be coming from the NAV data base.