Idle issue?

[wictech]

Fenrir,
AC? I live in Richmond, VA. It was like 60F when I took that video last night. No point to have AC on.

[Fenrir]

Originally Posted by wictech

Fenrir,
AC? I live in Richmond, VA. It was like 60F when I took that video last night. No point to have AC on.

If you have the heat on, the car will run the AC. AC doesn't necessarily mean cold air. That's the AC compressor kicking on there, so not sure what else to tell you.

[RoryTate]

Blatantly stolen from an Outback forum:

[fistpoint]

Originally Posted by RoryTate

Blatantly stolen from an Outback forum:

And in many vehicles you can disable this from happening using programming codes entered by the radio and/or A/C buttons.

Disabling allows it to still work as intended, only now you have the option of turning off the compressor by pressing the button...how it should have been from the start.

[whtchocla7e]

Ok wait, so everytime I use the "Windshield" knob option to keep my windows clear, the the ac compressor is running...? Now I know where the poor mpg comes from.. and why I hear something kick in every few mintues.. I don't like this silly design.

[RoryTate]

Originally Posted by fistpoint

And in many vehicles you can disable this from happening using programming codes entered by the radio and/or A/C buttons.

Yes, quite true. Now has anyone figured it out how to do it for these cars yet?

Originally Posted by whtchocla7e

Ok wait, so everytime I use the "Windshield" knob option to keep my windows clear, the the ac compressor is running...? Now I know where the poor mpg comes from.. and why I hear something kick in every few mintues.. I don't like this silly design.

Yep. A majority of manufacturers are doing it this way these days. If you know how to disable this 'feature' (as referenced above), it isn't so bad.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by whtchocla7e

...Now I know where the poor mpg comes from.. and why I hear something kick in every few mintues.. I don't like this silly design.

Not sure I'd attribute poor MPG to this. Even during the hottest part of the Atlanta summer I was getting over 30MPG in mine. It did go up slightly (maybe 1 or 2 MPG) once I was running without A/C, but that could also be attributable to switching to winter blend fuel.

[Spd229]

Beginning to notice my drls going out when I rough idle.

May have been doing it all along, but having cars I can see my reflection in is making it more apparent.

[fistpoint]

Originally Posted by Spd229

Beginning to notice my drls going out when I rough idle.

May have been doing it all along, but having cars I can see my reflection in is making it more apparent.

All cars lights dim when the idle dips below a certain point(close to stall). A weak battery can also cause this. That's not an issue more so than a symptom of another problem, in this case the idle dip.

When my compressor cycles on my car I notice the lights dim for a split second. My battery was recently determined to be on the weak side according to the guys who changed my oil. So, normal and expected.

[driftartist]

Yeah the added resistance or idle drop results in a slower rotating alternator which in turn lowers the voltage briefly.

[Sigh-on-Rice]

I just read the whole 35 pages of posts. I'm posting here to keep a log for myself and also for everyone's info.

I picked up FR-S in the beginning of June. Idling has been perfectly stable. Even at the moment when the A/C compressor turns on, it would drop from 650 to 630 or so, where the needle hardly moves.

In early October when I just passed 4k miles, idle dip happened for the first time. A/C was on. About 2 seconds after the A/C compressor turns on, it would drop to 500 and then jump up to 800. It kept doing this every time the AC compressor turned on, which is about every 15 seconds.

No idle dip since then for about a month. Then it did it again.

No idle dip for about 2 weeks. Then it did it again...

No idle dip for about a week. Then multiple times a week...

I currently have about 6k miles. It has MT and VIN ends with 3xxx. By reading people's experiences, I'm guessing the dealer won't do anything for mine since there is no CEL. But if it keeps doing this, I'm going to mention this when I get my first service done next month.

Originally Posted by Asphaltfrs1

That's the setting I have on the A/C when it occurs, I turn the A/C off and it idles normal again.

My experience is similar to Lytheum's and Asphaltfrs1's.

Originally Posted by enigmaaron

Only 225 miles on mine so far but I thought I would point out that my idle is consistent at 650rpm. Seems like

everyone reporting this issue is idling at 800 then drops to 400, correct me if I'm wrong? Maybe a clue as to what's going on?

If I turn the AC on it will dip to 500 for a moment, bounce up to 750-800, then come right back down to 650 all in a matter of 1-2 seconds.

Also, no crickets here yet (fingers crossed) in case anyone is tracking a correlation.

enigmaaron's one seems similar to mine as well.

Originally Posted by civicdrivr

I've been keeping an eye on my car, and now it only does it with the a/c on or when the rad fans kick on. If

everything is off the idle is rock steady. Im just shy of 5k miles.

Mine stops happening when I turn off the A/C just like civicdrivr's.

Originally Posted by Rob_g

I was parked on the side of the road yesterday with my FR-S (AT) running and the A/C was on (too hot to have it off). I

was eating some popcorn and just relaxing for the moment. I must have been parked about 5 minutes and then all of a sudden the engine

sputtered, idle dipped to about 350, the car shook and it felt like it almost stalled. The engine did recover right away, but after that the

idling started going up to about 800-900rpm.



Rob

Mine is a little bit different from Rob's since mine would be doing it every 15 seconds. It's not something like it does it once and not for a while. When it does it, it does it every 15 seconds until I turn the engine off and turn it back on.

Originally Posted by bneale

I'm sitting in my car right now. I was able to get my RPM's to drop by turning the AC on while the fan was already

running. It dropped from about 800 down to 400 and back up again after a small shudder. I was able to get the car to do this 3 times in a row

just by pressing the button.

I have no cel yet and no whine. Car was warm because I was just driving it.

Bneale

When my car has idle dip, I can do what bneale describes too. But "when" it happens seems to be random and I don't see any pattern. Once it happens, it keeps doing it until I turn off the engine.

Updates for the record:
1/4/13 - idle dip after 3 weeks. Gone after restarting the engine.

[Marrk]

Would someone mind (re)stating why, to the best of our collective knowledge, this idle dip issue happens only after the car has logged 1000s of miles? If the software and/or hardware is bad, why doesn't it happen at 1.0 miles?

Thanks.

[dano]

Just an update: I just received a recall letter from Toy/Scion about an ECM re-flash. According to the letter, the re-flash is to resolve issues with compliance for California smog check laws. Doesn't say anything about the idle issue. When I bring my FR-S in, I'll ask about idle issue updates.

-dan

[driftartist]

Mine has a weird rattle when i crak the throttle now after i picked mine up after the flash...