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Sentra, I appreciate this thread, and understand your convictions. I have only used engine off coasting for one tank in the last 70k miles. On my Insight which had idle stop, the guts of the cat came loose in the shell and started rattling like crazy. It was replaced under warranty, or it would have cost me $2k for the front cat. I always wondered if the heat-cool cycles of the idle stop caused the problem.
Now I wonder if the idle stop introduction in the near future will not create similar problems, and this may be one of the reasons why the manufacturers seem to be reluctant to adopt what seems to be a no brainer to me, unless there are consequences we may not yet understand.
Your situation also supports my belief that the best emissions system is the one that works in the combustion chamber itself. The factories have been trying for 40 years to stick on this or that device to clean up what should be clean when it exits the combustion chamber. When the feedback systems with O2 sensors became common in the early 1980's, performance returned.
Now we face another point where the pretreatment of ultra high pressure injection with multiple injection points and super critical very hot fuel shows a potential to reach a goal that has eluded us for 40 years. The inherently clean engine.
cfg83, I was posting about using a hand held thermometer for checking cat temps, which would have required stopping and opening the hood, considering the CAL emission test would reject anything permanent regardless of it's effectiveness.
It reminds me of the problems with the Civic VX and lean burn which produced emissions very close to today's hybrids, with the single exception of NOX which caused their demise. It's OK to drive a 10 MPG fuel sucking pig but if your NOX barely goes over a bureaucrats imposed limits you are doomed. I prefer a system that allowed for some leeway when the sum total of emissions is considered in it's totality.
To me it's much the same reason we can not get the highly efficient cars sold in Europe. Not to start an off topic heated debate, but absolute legislated limits, without overall total consideration seems to me to be shortsighted. Kind of the tail wagging the dog.
regards
Mech
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