Stop/start

[Pale Rider]

What do you think of stop/start fuel saving devices on cars?

There's one on my recently acquired CMax, which is my first experience of them.

Takes a bit of getting used to, not least because I can't work out when it's going to deploy itself.

Seems to vary, sometimes when I stop at traffic lights it deploys itself and sometimes it doesn't.

The car is an auto, and one thing I'm not keen on is the stop/start operates when the car is in 'drive'.

Activating the starter when the car is 'in gear' seems dodgy to me from an engineering point of view.

The car is also keyless - it has a stop/start button.

Routinely, when I come to rest I forget to press the stop button because the stop/starter has already switched off the engine.

This means when I click the driver's door open the engine restarts, which is disconcerting.

I wonder how much fuel is being saved, then there's the extra wear on the starter motor/ring gear, and the need for a bigger battery which will be dearer when replacement time arrives.

Are stop start devices technology gone too far?

 

[Bazzer]

Mrs B's is an auto VW. The stop/start can be switched off, but when her stop start is active, (which seems to be when the engine is warm and the multiple sensors have decided the battery and engine can handle the existing load and the stop/start), it is only activated when the car is stopped and the foot brake is depressed. Take your foot of the brake and it starts. But as her car has autohold, the necessity to keep your foot on the brake isn't there anyway.
Similarly if the electronic parking brake is applied the engine will still run, with stop/start only coming in with the foot brake.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I find stop/start tech on cars is OK, don’t even think about it now. Yes, it’s a little different on Auto boxes but you soon get used to it.
Stop/start buttons to start the engine are a nonsense as are those locking systems that automatically unlock when you get close.
Also...having to push a button to shut the boot ffs....

I could go on, but the engine stop/start function seems OK to me (and you can turn it off), even my Dacia has it!

 

[Specialeyes]

I used to have it on an automatic Merc and would always disable it in the queue at busy roundabouts, otherwise the extra half-second lag would make it impossible or dangerous to pull out into a gap without affecting other motirists. Then I discovered I could restart the engine by blipping the steering wheel slightly without releasing the footbrake.

Mrs Spesh has it on her VW and I have it on my Tourneo, both manuals, so it just becomes part of the decision-making process in traffic.

 

[Smudge]

I found it really annoying on my Focus, i would always turn it off when i got in the car. But it defaults back on after turning off ignition. The battery is now gone on mine, so its now always off, i wont bother replacing it.
I dont like the extra wear it puts on the starter either.

 

[Spiderweb]

My car is an auto with start/stop, I tend to turn it off as I was always lead to believe continuous stopping and starting isn’t particularly good for the engine etc. Could be wrong!

 

[Gunk]

I absolutely hate it, luckily it’s stopped working in our 12 year old Mini, but as soon as get into my Golf I always turn it off.

 

[Illaveago]

These things can be fine when new but just think of the fun you can have when it gets older and it develops a fault ?
The batteries are a lot dearer .

 

[mustang1]

I don't like it on diesel engines coz there's too much vibration. Petrol ok though partial electric cars are great.

 

[classic33]

From a cycling side of things, it has had me wondering "Why have they stopped the car?" and wondering how far behind is the car.
Both at junctions

 

[Drago]

I can take it or leave it. It requires such a narrow operating window of battery charge, coolant temperature and ambient temperature to coincide that its operation can be unpredictable. I suspect that the extra engineering required and reduced component life outweighs any miniscule fuel saving when emissions are considered, and therein lies the rub - it's a wheeze to try and squeeze a few g/km off the testing figures for taxation purposes rather than a genuine means of reducing NET emissions across a vehicles lifetime.

 

[BoldonLad]

Our Renault Captur 1.5dci manual has it. Don’t like it. It is possible to turn it off, but, it defaults to on again. I am now in habit of keeping clutch depressed, at lights etc, which stops it from operating.

 

[Illaveago]

Someone carried out a survey and compared 2 similar sized towns and discovered that pollution was a lot less where they didn't have traffic lights and vehicles were kept moving more .

 

[CanucksTraveller]

I'm not a fan, I switch mine off as soon as I get in the car. I really can't believe that (compared to all the pollution that a car produces the rest of the time), a few seconds of low revs idling at some lights is the bit that needs all that technology throwing at it.

I suspect that Drago is right, it's a bit of a wheeze.

 

[Rocky]

I also wonder what it does to the battery life constantly starting the engine, particularly in heavy traffic. I know the batteries are bigger than in cars without this - that must also impact on the environment long term.