[BadWolfOdyssey]

Firstly, Hi. I created an account just to be able to post my solution this auto idle stop issue. It worked for me on my odyssey and I felt I needed to share. Apologies for the long intro as I feel it’s important to see how I got to this point. Feel free to skip to the procedure - I probably would D.

History: I purchased an elite in June, AIS worked for a day and stopped for about 2 weeks. Then mid-July it started working. My son had messed with the cabin control and I had been in the engine bay for adding washer fluid that day. It worked flawlessly when conditions were met till end of October when I took it in for a service. The entire winter it was not working and after 2x 6.5 hour drives, I decided it must be broken like others have reported. I read through the manual a couple times and came to the conclusion I must be hitting the interior cabin humidity. I left it in the sun a few days to see if that would help clear any cabin humidity. Turns out it was not that. I read the manual again and read about the safety of it not working while the hood was up. This got me thinking, it went in for an oil change, and what do mechanics sometimes do? They start the car with the hood up, do a final check and close up and drive the car out the lot for me to pick up. So, I decided to try the method I will mention below. Well, it at first appeared not to solve it but turns out the van was not warm enough to trigger. 2 days go by and no driving due to snow storm. First trip out, get kids from school and head off, van chimes for software update and suddenly AIS is working. What?? So now I don’t know if what I did or the software update fixed AIS. Anyways a couple days pass and I tried something I was curious about regarding the safety features and then AIS is no longer working again. I traveled this one route many times and I know it works on this route. So I try my procedure again, take the van out immediately and come to a stop. Bingo! Shutoff – procedure seems to work.

Procedure to try fix AIS:

1. Take your van out for at least a 15 min trip and be sure it’s warmed up. If you have the message popup activated, confirm that is says unavailable when you come to a stop.
2. Park somewhere safe, shutoff the van. Open the door and pop the hood.
3. Get out and open it up and prop it up on the kickstand.
4. Get back to the seat, start the car, close the door, confirm the message center says hood open.
5. I got out the van, looked at engine and then went back and shut it off. I think I left the door open and leaned in to turn off, and then returned to shut the hood. (not sure if door open/close played a role yet)
6. Get in, close the door and start normally.
7. Take it out for a drive, and AIS should work instantly, assuming all conditions are met.

Theory: I believe there may be a logic flaw in the AIS safety shut-off system. From what I can deduce from the manual, the hood and driver’s door have some safety features that de-activates the system. Where the flaw is, I believe, is there is no logic to re-check that the safety conditions are met and to reactivate AIS. So you have to trigger the safety (start engine while hood open) and then complete the correct software steps to reactivate the system (shut off engine, close hood). This is probably why it begins working again for a few after services as the safety got reset accidentally/correctly. I'm not saying this theory is true, it's just my best guess as to what is possibly happening.


Conditions that might cause it to stop working: I theorize 2 conditions that I believe may have caused mine to stop working. I can’t confirm as I’m not 100% sure that this is what exactly happened and I have not had time to test these theories and see if either does indeed cause it to stop working.

1. Start the van with the hood open, close it and drive off. (what I think happened after the oil change)
2. Come to a stop have AIS in activation mode (engine off green icon lit), open driver’s door and pop your seat-belt. (what I think caused it the second time when testing that safety and what then confirmed the procedure above worked for me)

Experiment time: I would like others who are convinced they are meeting the requirements for AIS to activate to give this a try and report back if it worked. If it does not, thanks for trying.

Thanks for reading. I do hope this procedure works for you as it did for me.

 

[garysdickinson]

Your fix worked! Excellent detective work!

Thanks Gary Dickinson

 

[graham3741]

Tried it, and it worked. Good Job!

 

[Verrous]

Im going to intentionally try to disable mine tomorrow. I hate auto idle stop and want it off by default. I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

[Dopey]

Honda should fix it permanently through the next software update

 

[Our Odyssey]

So are you telling me there is no way to manually disable this other than what you've described? All my current VW / Audi company vehicles come with a defeat switch - just tap the switch and the AIS is turned off. It comes back on the next time you shut off then restart but at least its an easy 'off'.

 

[Verrous]

So are you telling me there is no way to manually disable this other than what you've described? All my current VW / Audi company vehicles come with a defeat switch - just tap the switch and the AIS is turned off. It comes back on the next time you shut off then restart but at least its an easy 'off'.

oh you can disable it with a simple button press right next to the push-button gear selector. But like your audi it has to be done EVERY time. There's no reason it shouldn't remember its state like most of the other options performed by the dedicated buttons on the dash.

 

[byron]

I brought my Touring in on March 29th for a fix and AIS worked flawlessly. For three days. I'm going to try your solution now. I recall opening the hood to fill the windshield washer fluid. It may be that.

 

[byron]

Bad Wolf, your fix worked. I printed out your post and just delivered it to the Service Manager at Honda City Maintenance here on Long Island. He had looked at my car the other day with the mechanic and tried charging the battery, thinking that might be it. I really don't think either one of them realized what they had done to fix it. I gave him the printout.

The people at "Honda Central" or whatever it's called should come up with a software or other fix for this. I put a copy of your post in my glove compartment in case it happens again.

Now I'm afraid to refill my windshield washer fluid!

 

[sidneyj]

Im going to intentionally try to disable mine tomorrow. I hate auto idle stop and want it off by default. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Me too!! This is the most annoying feature ever invented. I wonder if a simple fuse removal would do the trick? Keep me posted. I'll do the same.

 

[Verrous]

I tried the following:
1. Open hood
2. Start car
3. Close hood
4. Put car in d and drive 30 feet or so
5. Press on brake pedal hard enough for auto idle to engage.

It did not but I did not get any warning that it could not.

The next drive auto idle worked just fine.

I’m going to try it again with a longer drive I know always triggers the idle.

Im going to intentionally try to disable mine tomorrow. I hate auto idle stop and want it off by default. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Me too!! This is the most annoying feature ever invented. I wonder if a simple fuse removal would do the trick? Keep me posted. I'll do the same.

 

[Accord07]

Kudos to OP for such detective work! I am able to replicate the results on my van, where AIS has been working on and off since last June.

Now that OP has found a way to get AIS enabled consistently, someone will come up with and market a solution to disable it permanently.

 

[BadWolfOdyssey]

Thanks all for your kind words. I'm glad this is helping people restore their AIS. When I find time, I'll try figure out what might cause it to stop working. I'm not 100% certain the 2 options mentioned caused it to quit, but my best guess as to what might have occurred at this time.

 

[Dougs_Ody]

Thanks for fix. Worked first time on our Odyssey. Been having this issue for about 6 months. I’m neutral on the AIS feature overall but it was bothering me that it wasn’t working just because it meant something was not quite right with the van.

 

[moorejr]

The fix also worked for me.

 

[EsquireKnight]

1. Take your van out for at least a 15 min trip and be sure it’s warmed up. If you have the message popup activated, confirm that is says unavailable when you come to a stop.
2. Park somewhere safe, shutoff the van. Open the door and pop the hood.
3. Get out and open it up and prop it up on the kickstand.
4. Get back to the seat, start the car, close the door, confirm the message center says hood open.
5. I got out the van, looked at engine and then went back and shut it off. I think I left the door open and leaned in to turn off, and then returned to shut the hood. (not sure if door open/close played a role yet)
6. Get in, close the door and start normally.
7. Take it out for a drive, and AIS should work instantly, assuming all conditions are met.

Thank you so much! I tried this and it works perfectly. I deviated somewhat in step 4, and closed the door first and then started the car, which doesn't appear to have an effect on the results. Not having AIS was annoying me.

 

[Curl]

Thanks for the info. I have been posting under Trouble with Auto Idle Stop. My post today explains where we are in the process to solve this problem too. How long has your fix stayed working?
I have been in 5times and now have a CASE number with Honda Corp. New battery on my fourth visit! But no fix on 5th visit. Fixed on the second, third, and fourth visits! But didn’t last. Fixed itself after driving from coast of NC to TN after our fifth visit to dealer did not fix. Made us laugh.
But I think you are onto something! It’s drawing down our battery somehow, but ours came back with the three day drive to Oklahoma! Will see how long it lasts this time.

 

[doeroo]

Thanks so much! It now works. I have been struggling with Honda dealership whenever I change engine oil but, the dealership just says that it works but, there are many criteria for AIS to work. I hope that Honda reads this solution and fix it through the SW update.

 

[c2619350]

Thanks a lot. It now works, too.

 

[Accord07]

Worked for two days and then it got disabled again, no idea what sequence of events made that happen. I went through OP's procedure again, this time I pressed the hood release but did not bother to actually prop it up: if I did this while the engine was running it made no difference, but starting the engine while the hood was released but not propped up did the trick - stop the engine, release the hood, start the engine (and instrument cluster showed the hood was open), stop the engine, close the hood. I am curious to find out how long it will take before it stops working again.