Auto Start-Stop feature

Just noticed at a lot, maybe most have this feature.

I assume it may be mandated or just appealing to those green weenies.

Anyone have an opinion on if this is a problem area?
I believe you can turn it off, at least pause it manually or permanently with some sort of modification.

Initially, my notion is I don't want it.
Seems turning off the car/truck/vehicle during driving/stops that something might go wrong?

Some without it: https://automoexperts.com/list...art-stop-technology/
or
https://www.garagenorwood.com/...-technology-in-2024/

Anybody think this is a big deal, marketing hype or an actual future problem area?

That is one reason I traded our 21' Highlander in on a 24' 4Runner. I don't need shit like that.

I take it as a fuel savings thing. In heavy start stop there have been times where I've wondered if it would have helped as I've been locked in traffic before in my truck where it stops almost to where you put it in park and then you roll like 5 ft. Might be nice for stuff like that. In general I feel that the more conplication added the more that can go wrong though.

My BMW has it, I disabled it. Not using it will increase the life of the starter & battery. Plus, my car is a manual, it makes the whole car shudder.

One of the worst concepts ever devised by man.

I despise that feature, to the very core of my being.

I think it's more to do with reducing emissions..... ever so slightly. But yes it can be turned off, which is the first thing I do after starting my Ridgeline. Not all vehicles have it and I believe no manual transmission vehicle does.

Not mandated per se, but a cheap way for manufacturers to comply with mileage and emissions requirements.

I have it in my 2018 Tiguan and find it unobjectionable. I do turn it off in certain driving situations, and it pays attention to A/C and heat settings. It's a simple one button push on the console, but I leave it active most of the time. The vehicle starts so quickly that there is little impact on driving off from a stop. I think there must be some mechanism in addition to the starter that re-starts the engine, retained compression/fuel admixture in some cylinders perhaps.

I know some people hate it, but it is a non-issue for me.

It’s got to be hell on starters to have the engine shutting off and turning on like that constantly

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
I think it's more to do with reducing emissions..... ever so slightly. But yes it can be turned off, which is the first thing I do after starting my Ridgeline. Not all vehicles have it and I believe no manual transmission vehicle does.

My BMW 440xi with manual trans has the auto stop/start "feature", but there's a button on the dash to defeat it. Luckily, it stays defeated unlike our X3 M40 which requires pushing the button after every engine start.

There is a special place in Hell waiting for the person or persons who came up with this absolutely stupid car feature!

I tracked it over multiple tanks in my 2016 F150.
No discernible difference to MPG either way.

And, in the summer, you were unlikely to get more than about 10-15 seconds of off time before it started back up due to cabin temps rising.

Both my former Explorer & my wife's Expedition tend to hold in off state for longer.

Supposedly, cars with this have strengthened starters & typically an AGM battery.
Whether that makes for increased longevity, I can't say.

My previous vehicle (2020 Ford Escape) had this. Fortunately, the "off" switch for this was on the center console, right next to the parking brake release, so it was an easy habit to release parking brake and disable the stop-start thing right after engine start.

My current vehicle doesn't have this, but it doesn't have a gas engine either.

It's a way to game government certification requirements. The government specifies driving profiles for the tests. The urban profile has certain "red light" portions where the vehicle sits stationary for a while as if at a traffic light.

Some engineer realized if the engine is turned off it is neither burning fuel nor putting out exhaust. So turn it off for that specified time.

One test showed the break even is about 8 seconds. If the engine is off more than that it is a win, but shorter than that the restart uses more fuel and creates more pollution than leaving the engine running.

Not much different than the VW diesel scandal, but this is legal.

I turn it off first thing every time I start my car. I believe it to be a safety hazard, plus there are many times the Stop is triggered but I am not going to be still for more than a second or two. The wins do not outweigh the losses for my driving.

My wife hit a deer last week. So we have a Chrysler Pacifica van as a rental. I was stopped at a light the other day and I looked at the tach and it was reading zero. I went WTF?!? and then it dawned on me that it had the auto stop feature. I never heard or felt the motor shut down. It came right back after I released my foot from the brake.

I would never own a vehicle with that feature. I can see it becoming problematic. I would stress out wondering at every stop if the motor was going to come back to life.

quote:

I assume it may be mandated or just appealing to those green weenies.

No to the first, qualified yes to the second. This, along with downsized (turbocharged & direct-injected to make up the lost power) engines, automatic transmissions with as many as 10 speeds (or CVT), ridiculously huge underbelly pans with a dozen screws holding them on to improve streamlining, etc., are to meet ever-increasing fuel economy and emissions standards.

What I don't understand is doing this while simultaneously making cars and trucks ever bigger. Compare the first generation (97-01) Honda CR-V to the current generation, which in turn is nearly as big as the first-generation Pilot. "Compact" pickup trucks rival the size of older full-size ones, and full-size ones are huge almost to the point of unwieldy.

quote:

I take it as a fuel savings thing.

It's more for emission's reduction.

This sort of nonsense is why I drive 20 year old trucks instead of paying eighty grand for a new one that makes decisions for me that I would rather make myself. Seriously, eighty grand for a truck with water based paint, low profile tires, 10 computers, devices that spy on me, tons of emissions junk and the battery goes dead if you don't plug it into a charger when you get home. What next? Belt drive transmissions like they put on some cars now?

I hate that feature of the newer vehicles. Thats the first thing I turn off when I start the car. Im sure there is a way ti permanently disable that function. I just haven’t figured it out yet.

For the Jeep Rubicon, there is apparently a separate battery just for that Auto Stop function, which is a pain in the ass to replace.

My wife's Pathfinder has this. It's bad enough on it's own, but on the Pathfinder it's poorly implemented and when the engine restarts it pushes the vehicle forward briefly with the brakes applied. It's really annoying in a slow drive through line.

My Macan has it. I disabled it with a console switch, and it stays off until you turn it back on which is great. My SIL had a Hyundai Palisade, which even when switched off, you had to redo it every time you turned the car off, PIA!