commbubba19 September 23, 2021 at 9:51 AM
and there it is folks, the shining beacon of light in all this darkness. the ability to choose not to have the stupid auto/stop start enabled from the factory. happy days!
It would have been helpful if the article defined the term
The engine automatically stops when you are stopped, and restarts when you take your foot off the brake. That would drive me crazy.
My 2021 Ranger has this feature and, while somewhat annoying, it does appear to improve mileage with a lot of start/stop driving.
The question in my mind is if the engine is really built for it. I expect not, and like most things these days, it is just what “sounds like a good idea” to some bean counter or millennial engineer wanabe. It’s a lot of engine starts, which seems like a lot of wear on the engine, starter and battery.
Auto Start Stop was and is an asinine idea. Makes no sense and is annoying as hell.
A simple wifi signal will stop your truck. And you are paying for that?
Buahahahahahahahaha!
We have a new Subaru with this feature & have to disable it every time we start the car. If you forget to do that, the car will shut off at a red light. Really dislike it. It must a democrat idea as a way to save gas.
In our 2019 F150, there’s a plug block with three plugs under the dash. The plug on the right side of the block handles the towing connection at the rear bumper. Unplugging the plug on the right disables the towing connection...but also disables the auto stop/start. Just leave it unplugged until you need to tow. That being said...I don’t do that. I just lift my foot off the brake and the truck restarts.
I worry more about the wear and tear with the repeated use of the starter.
Makes a complicated car even more complicated, requiring a second dedicated battery to operate the stop start feature. Is it any wonder why a car will have 300-several thousand “chips” .
All this hoopla because folks are too lazy flip a switch themselves and want their cars to think for them.
Incredible...
I’ve been told the start stop feature actually causes premature wear on the starter. No sure if true but seems plausible.
Never had this until I rented a car in Italy. At the first stop it took me a minute to realize what was happening. Then again, I drove all over the place and when I decided to get some gas, I couldn’t believe the tank was full so quickly because it barely used any.
I wonder about the wear on the starter on my Santa Fe. The vehicle has to be fully warmed up before the start/stop feature kicks in. Once the engine oil has started to circulate, I don’t worry much about actual wear on the engine. I do get better gas mileage with the stop/start. Guess I’ve gotten used to it, and I have more important things to worry about anyway.
I have a Subaru Forester, love the vehicle, just love it.
Except for all the electronic assist BS. Hate all of it...all of it, with a white hot passion.
Especially-and most especially-the collision avoidance idiocy.
You come up behind a car taking a right or left turn, and you try to steer around it and the car automatically jams on the brakes with that nasty grinding sound.
There is a car way, way in front of you, and the collision alarm sounds. I wish I could turn off the collision alarm permanently, but I can’t. It makes my wife tense up and grab onto something every time. And it isn’t because I am going to fast or closing too fast. It does it in normal, slow speed suburban driving.
I despise it all. All of it. Except one thing.
I love the Adaptive Cruise Control. By itself, it ALMOST makes the rest of the stupidity bearable. I love cruise control on long trips, but...in moderate to heavy traffic, in the past it was just not usable.
Now, you just set your speed about 10 mph above the fastest you think you will go, and that’s it. What a great invention! I like that implementation alone.
All the rest makes me grit my teeth.
Funny. When I got my first car with a backup camera, I didn’t want to use it lest I become dependent on it, so even though I use it, I still crane my neck around (because I still can...for now) One aspect of it I love-when you are trying to back out of a parking space and have zero visibility to either side, I find the camera has a wide enough field of view to make it far safer to back out. You don’t have that squirt-inducing experience of an unseen car roaring through the parking lot suddenly appearing when you decide you must take a chance and back out.
Another thing I had difficulty with initially was OTHER cars with backup cameras. We all know the scenario. You are sitting in a parallel park space, with an empty one in front of you. A car lines up to pull in and begins to back in. In the past, you would be watching, and when they would get close, you were certain they were going to bump your car and you had to give them a short blast on the horn. When backup cameras became a thing, people STILL cannot parallel park, but...it took me a while to adjust that with the camera, they were going to get REALLY close but still aren’t generally going to hit you.
They still can’t parallel park, but...they generally won’t have to bump your car and the one in front to get into the space.
All the rest of that techno crap they can throw in the lake. I know you can probably buy one of those things that you can program with and permanently shut most of it off, but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to find that if you rear-ended someone, you could be found liable because you disabled it.
I don’t have a car with that ‘feature’, but I’ve rented them. My comments are as follows:
1) If you coast up to a stop in neutral, the engine doesn’t quit, as the software is probably confused (at least in my rentals). I normally do that out of habit, just because I used to drive sticks and I don’t like my car tugging at me when stopped and in gear.
2) If the disable switch is a simple 2-wire momentary pushbutton, I’d try rigging up a relay that would ‘press’ the switch every time the key was turned. I always get the electrical manuals to my cars, so this wouldn’t be difficult (other than needing to be a contortionist).
wonder what the MTBF is now on starter solenoids and starters with all that starting and stopping?
I have older cars and wasn’t aware that such a feature existed. So that’s what’s going on when I hear engines starting at traffic lights. On countless occasions I have been stuck in traffic and going 0 mph. The engine goes off then too? It shuts down every time traffic comes to a halt? I don’t believe I would like that, along with a lot of other automated features I have heard about. Give me a car with AC, power windows, and a decent radio, and I’m good to go.
My 2021 RAM 1500 has Stop / Start.
It has the Hemi E Torque system with a 48 Volt Motor / Generator instead of an Alternator. An Accessory Belt goes from it directly to the Crank Pully.
It restarts the Engine instead of using the regular Starter and it is pretty much seamless. Don’t really notice it.
If the Air Conditioner is on its lowest setting (we live in the South) it never engages anyway and there is a switch to disable it on the Dash anyway.
I have a problem with my car shutting it’s self off while in traffic. If it doesn’t restart I am now a dangerous traffic hazard and unneeded road block. I want to be in a parking spot before my engine shuts off period. Just in case it doesn’t start again.
My wife’s Subaru does this.
What a STUPID idea! Unnecessary wear and tear on the starter, battery, engine, etc.
WHAT IF IT DOESN’T RESTART?
STUCK in traffic! STUCK in the frozen tundra. STUCK in the ghetto at night. STUCK on your way to the hospital. STUCK on your way to get BEER!
This is such an asinine idea that it must have come from the government.