Start Stop "technology"
Discussion
On my preferred radio station, there is an ad for a car that has start stop "technology". My company vehicle shows how much fuel it is using per hour. It has a 6.6 litre diesel engine and when the engine is at operating temperature and I have (it's always on) the air conditioning on, it shows no more than 2.5 litres an hour at idle. Now, how much fuel could one save by switching the car off for 30 seconds at a set of traffic lights? Bugger all would be my guess, so what's the point?
Yes. Clearly all these car companies implementing this technology just did so for the hell of it. Obviously no research what-so-ever was done into the possible benefits.
I did read up about it somewhere and because of the way it's been designed, I think the car only needs to be stopped for something in the region of 6-10 seconds to get a fuel saving / benefit. So it is worth it. Apparently.
I did read up about it somewhere and because of the way it's been designed, I think the car only needs to be stopped for something in the region of 6-10 seconds to get a fuel saving / benefit. So it is worth it. Apparently.
t Green load of bI understood that the main benefit is that the car manfs can claim more advantageous emissions figures.
I was in my first stop/start yesterday, a BMW 1 series diesel. It was quite unnerving each time it cut out and I wondered whether in the future, once these vehicles have done a few miles, how many will need new mains bearings (the only wear mains bearing have is during start-up) and how many starter motors they'll need. I believe the starters could be beefed-up from the standard but this will only lead to them being more expensive I guess.
I can definitely see there would be an advantage to using this tech in traffic jams, therefore in central London but I can't help thinking it's a bit redundant elsewhere. Having it stop and restart on me after 10 seconds is plain daft. I turned the feature off in the end.
I also wondered if, at notable stationary traffic zones, there were signs requesting you turn off your engine if you can see you'll be sat for a time, people would do it. People are better at assessing whether their car is likely to be stationary for a worthwhile period than anything else.
I was in my first stop/start yesterday, a BMW 1 series diesel. It was quite unnerving each time it cut out and I wondered whether in the future, once these vehicles have done a few miles, how many will need new mains bearings (the only wear mains bearing have is during start-up) and how many starter motors they'll need. I believe the starters could be beefed-up from the standard but this will only lead to them being more expensive I guess.
I can definitely see there would be an advantage to using this tech in traffic jams, therefore in central London but I can't help thinking it's a bit redundant elsewhere. Having it stop and restart on me after 10 seconds is plain daft. I turned the feature off in the end.
I also wondered if, at notable stationary traffic zones, there were signs requesting you turn off your engine if you can see you'll be sat for a time, people would do it. People are better at assessing whether their car is likely to be stationary for a worthwhile period than anything else.
Baz Tench said:
I agree to a degree, but if it's only stopped for a few seconds at a time, the oil won't have gone far from where it needs to be.
Indeed. And stop-start doesn't activate until the engine temperature is well up (so not continually cold starting), won't activate if the battery doesn't have enough charge, won't activate if there is excessive load on the electrical system (e.g. stereo, heater, lights are all on). I believe there are a number of other considerations given such as stronger battery and the engine will stop in such a way that makes it easiest to restart. There's some good information on the system if you read around on the net - I'm just rehashing stuff from memory that I read about some time back 
For what it's worth I had a car with it fitted and owned it for about 10 months. The system worked just fine, I got very used to it being there after a while, and indeed found it quite strange when I replaced the car with one that didn't have S/S.
Watchman said:
Baz Tench said:
I agree to a degree, but if it's only stopped for a few seconds at a time, the oil won't have gone far from where it needs to be.
It's not about the location of oil but the pressure which drops away to zero as the engine stops.Willy Nilly said:
On my preferred radio station, there is an ad for a car that has start stop "technology". My company vehicle shows how much fuel it is using per hour. It has a 6.6 litre diesel engine and when the engine is at operating temperature and I have (it's always on) the air conditioning on, it shows no more than 2.5 litres an hour at idle. Now, how much fuel could one save by switching the car off for 30 seconds at a set of traffic lights? Bugger all would be my guess, so what's the point?
Your company car has a 6.6 litre diesel engine?! Christ. What's the BIK on that? LuS1fer said:
As long as you can disable it (and I believe you can), i would still buy but if it did it permanently, it would be a deal breaker for me. Same with all that auto everything crap turning bad drivers into lazy bad drivers.
My Mini lets you turn it off, but only until you next turn off the engine. If you keep the clutch down, it doesn't cut in. I learnt to drive around it within a few hundred miles. I have this on my 320d. switching it off is one of the first things I do when starting on a journey.
I did try it for a while but couldn't get on with it. A recent example was starting the car on a chilly morning to leave from the flat, the car must have been running for about a minute I put the clutch in and handbreak on while I opened the communal gates, the car proceeded to stop the engine.
I did try it for a while but couldn't get on with it. A recent example was starting the car on a chilly morning to leave from the flat, the car must have been running for about a minute I put the clutch in and handbreak on while I opened the communal gates, the car proceeded to stop the engine.
Edited by XKjimmy on Tuesday 4th September 20:48
Had it in a 1.6tdci focus recently. The manual said that it was only worth it if stopping for 3seconds or more.
They have beefed up the starter motor and battery too.
The issue in the focus at least is that the whole car shakes each time the engine stops or starts.
I have a passat now which in which the shake is less noticeable. In practice I'm all for Eco gubbins like this which reduces the BIK for company car drivers and can be switched off!
They have beefed up the starter motor and battery too.
The issue in the focus at least is that the whole car shakes each time the engine stops or starts.
I have a passat now which in which the shake is less noticeable. In practice I'm all for Eco gubbins like this which reduces the BIK for company car drivers and can be switched off!
Nissan offer the 1.6 petrol Qashqai both with and without stop/start. IIRC, the stop/start model is in a lower VED band, gets about 2 mpg more, and costs another £200. Gives people the choice.
I have stop/start on my 320d and it has worked well in the four and a half years I have owned it. The system is clever enough not to shut off the engine if the external temperature is cold, or the engine has not yet warmed up, or the A/C is working hard.
I have stop/start on my 320d and it has worked well in the four and a half years I have owned it. The system is clever enough not to shut off the engine if the external temperature is cold, or the engine has not yet warmed up, or the A/C is working hard.
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