Eco stop/start

[markjay]

Is waze any good btw? So far my favourite was sygic

I can only compare Waze to COMAND with TMC (I don't have the TomTom Live Traffic option).

Between the two, COMAND does have the better software, but very poor traffic data.

I ran a few tests, driving through London rush hour traffic to my office takes me around 34-45 minutes with Waze, or 60-75 minutes (1h-1:15h) with COMAND & TMC.

This is because COMAND (with 'Fastest Route' option) keeps taking me back to main roads, i.e. Marylebone Road and City Road, which are bumper-to-bumper during busy times.

Waze whisks me through Islington's many back roads and apart from the annoying and arbitrary 20mph limit across most of the borough progress is swift and I encounter little traffic.

COMAND is OK when driving on Motorways, the instructions are clearer etc, but in town - which is where I do most of my driving - Waze is my choice.

But...:

Also, re Waze, I understand it's a free product, but I would prefer to pay (if it was available as a paid app) and not have advertising displayed when stopped at traffic lights etc.

And, while as a driver I do benefit from real-time information regrading various road hazards, traffic jams, police, broken down vehicles, road closures etc - I still don't think it's very safe to encourage drivers to report these while driving in the first place. I mean, let's be real, how many 'Wazers' have a co-pilot that enters this info...? I would hazard a guess that 90% of the real-time alerts are reported by drivers while at the wheel. That can't be right....

 

[alanjm99]

Off topic.. get a room

 

[Yugguy]

Surely it reduces dangerous nox emissions when in stop start traffic in residential/pedestrian areas?

So, on holiday in Menorca I had an Ibiza TSI auto hire car. Quite a nice little car actually.

Apart from the stop start.

You would put it in R, to back out of a parking space. The INSTANT the car came to a halt, before you had chance to move from R to D, the engine would stop. It would then start again as you pressed the accelerator.

Jerky, dangerous as it increased the time between reversing out and moving off and utterly pointless. There was at least an easily accessible button to disable it per journey that I just got into the habit of pressing. VAG forums are full of "how do I permanently disable stop/start" threads.

 

[geraldrobins]

So, on holiday in Menorca I had an Ibiza TSI auto hire car. Quite a nice little car actually.

Apart from the stop start.

You would put it in R, to back out of a parking space. The INSTANT the car came to a halt, before you had chance to move from R to D, the engine would stop. It would then start again as you pressed the accelerator.

Jerky, dangerous as it increased the time between reversing out and moving off and utterly pointless. There was at least an easily accessible button to disable it per journey that I just got into the habit of pressing. VAG forums are full of "how do I permanently disable stop/start" threads.

 

[geraldrobins]

It doesnt work in reverse on an MB. I like it and don't have any problems with it. I respect your opinion not to.

 

[markjay]

It doesnt work in reverse on an MB. I like it and don't have any problems with it. I respect your opinion not to.

It does not work in reverse, correct, but us old-timers do not like shifting into R before the car has come to a complete standstill, hence why there's a brief pause between applying the brakes and shifting into R... during which the engine switches itself off and back on.

I guess if the engine could start in a fully imperceptible way then I wouldn't mind.. but there's a slight jolt when it wakes up to life and I find it intrusive - especially given that more often than not it serves no purpose - e.g. when stopping very briefly only for a second to two.

I think that the car is just not clever enough to distinguish between situations were it would make sense to switch off the engine, and those where it would not - needs more AI...

On the other hand, if it was near-imperceptible it would have probably been OK - and given that mine is 2013 car, possibly on newer engines the start-up is even less noticeable?

Said that, mine is a petrol, not sure if it's possible to start-up an diesel without a jolt...?

EV's, that's the answer

 

[geraldrobins]

It does not work in reverse, correct, but us old-timers do not like shifting into R before the car has come to a complete standstill, hence why there's a brief pause between applying the brakes and shifting into R... during which the engine switches itself off and back on.

I guess if the engine could start in a fully imperceptible way then I wouldn't mind.. but there's a slight jolt when it wakes up to life and I find it intrusive - especially given that more often than not it serves no purpose - e.g. when stopping very briefly only for a second to two.

I think that the car is just not clever enough to distinguish between situations were it would make sense to switch off the engine, and those where it would not - needs more AI...

On the other hand, if it was near-imperceptible it would have probably been OK - and given that mine is 2013 car, possibly on newer engines the start-up is even less noticeable?

Said that, mine is a petrol, not sure if it's possible to start-up an diesel without a jolt...?

EV's, that's the answer

Its not something I can say Ive noticed but I will now pay particular attention next time I reverse etc. I don't recall any jolt on start up of my diesel either.

 

[geraldrobins]

I don't often have the need to manoeuvre I just stop and reverse onto my drive or into a parking space, but I understand if anyone does a lot of 3 point turns etc and find stop start annoying.

 

[CowleyStJames]

I automatically turn my stop/start off whenever I get into the car now.
My first major junction getting onto my morning commute is a very busy T-junction where you have to move onto fairly smartly.
If stop/start is on, there's a momentary delay before you can move off that makes all the difference between a safe manoeuvre and a hairy one.

 

[c63chris]

It does not work in reverse, correct, but us old-timers do not like shifting into R before the car has come to a complete standstill, hence why there's a brief pause between applying the brakes and shifting into R... during which the engine switches itself off and back on.

I guess if the engine could start in a fully imperceptible way then I wouldn't mind.. but there's a slight jolt when it wakes up to life and I find it intrusive - especially given that more often than not it serves no purpose - e.g. when stopping very briefly only for a second to two.

I think that the car is just not clever enough to distinguish between situations were it would make sense to switch off the engine, and those where it would not - needs more AI...

On the other hand, if it was near-imperceptible it would have probably been OK - and given that mine is 2013 car, possibly on newer engines the start-up is even less noticeable?

Said that, mine is a petrol, not sure if it's possible to start-up an diesel without a jolt...?

EV's, that's the answer

If you stop using light not full pressure on the brakes the engine doesn't cut out. I use this if I can see the traffic is going to move quickly and also to stop it cutting out when selecting reverse.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[markjay]

If you stop using light not full pressure on the brakes the engine doesn't cut out. I use this if I can see the traffic is going to move quickly and also to stop it cutting out when selecting reverse.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Interesting... I'll try that.

 

[sosen13]

If you stop using light not full pressure on the brakes the engine doesn't cut out. I use this if I can see the traffic is going to move quickly and also to stop it cutting out when selecting reverse.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Interesting indeed.
I was only aware of full press taking car to HOLD. Will try gentle press during weekend.

 

[Yugguy]

I can't be bothered to wonder how much pressure might trigger the system. I'll just switch it off.

 

[sosen13]

well, it really works.
so there are 3 positions like for brake pedal.
1. gentle press, enough to stop the car, no eco mode activated
2. normal press, eco mode activated
3. strong press, hold mode activeand eco mode activated
good to know, however as @Yugguy mentioned sometimes hard to be bothered about how much pressure to use to stop car in different situation (but i do like a lot hold mode anyway)

 

[markjay]

well, it really works.
so there are 3 positions like for brake pedal.
1. gentle press, enough to stop the car, no eco mode activated
2. normal press, eco mode activated
3. strong press, hold mode activeand eco mode activated
good to know, however as @Yugguy mentioned sometimes hard to be bothered about how much pressure to use to stop car in different situation (but i do like a lot hold mode anyway)

I tried it too today, with same results: very mild brake pedal pressure and the engine stays on.

BUT - even with the mild brake pressure, the engine seems to switch itself off after around 30 seconds.

I dont think it's because I didn't manage to keep constant pressure on the brake pedal.... I am guessing that this is part of the system's intelligence, i.e. with mild brake pedal pressure it waits to see if you are crawling in very slow moving traffic or actually stopping.

 

[400ixl]

Mine doesn't switch off after 30 seconds if the light touch is held, did test that a few times when I got it. It does get harder to keep that balance the longer you are stationary though.

Equally, if I was going to be stationary for 30 seconds I would want to use hold wand have the eco mode cut in anyway.

 

[John]

I discovered the "light touch" thing fairly early on except that when descending even slight hills, it can be tricky to get the touch just right - which gives interesting results. Slightly too much and it cuts out lurching you forward a bit. Too little and you will of course not stop before the car in front.

I persevere though because it's easy to get on with.

 

[markjay]

Mine doesn't switch off after 30 seconds if the light touch is held, did test that a few times when I got it. It does get harder to keep that balance the longer you are stationary though.

Equally, if I was going to be stationary for 30 seconds I would want to use hold wand have the eco mode cut in anyway.

Yes it is possible that I am not able to balance the light pressure correctly over the longer duration.

And yes it would make sense to allow the engine to switch off if stopped for 30 seconds... the purpose of the exercise is mainly to fully understand how the system works.

 

[ernie]

Yes it is possible that I am not able to balance the light pressure correctly over the longer duration.

And yes it would make sense to allow the engine to switch off if stopped for 30 seconds... the purpose of the exercise is mainly to fully understand how the system works.

I had my 205 in the garage last week because the Stop-Start wasn't working and hadn't for months unless the car had driven around 100 miles. They recharged the battery and it was OK for that day only. Next day, it was as bad as ever, so I measured the battery voltage on standby. It read 12.4 volts. I then wondered if my dash-cam had anything to do with the problem, although I had a device to limit battery drain on standby, which was set to 12.2V and 6 hours, the shortest time available. Long story short, I disabled the standby protection, and I've had no problems since. As I said, this was on the 205; I had exactly the same setup on the 204 and it worked perfectly. I know there are a number of sensors on these systems, but the one theme that seems to recur is one of battery faults which, of course, leads to low battery voltage.

As far as I know, the only way to check out the system is by using STAR, but if your battery voltage is around 12.4, it might be worth charging the battery and checking if the system works.

Ernie

 

[Azaerius]

Hey guys,

On my 2015 E220 Coupe, Eco Start/Stop stopped kicking in even after long rides and after troubleshooting it A LOT I found out that even though no errors were displayed in the dash and the car started and drove flawlessly, both batteries were running really low and shitloads of electrical-related errors were being stored. Replaced both batteries and the car is smoother then ever and ECO kicks in every time after a few minutes driving. Even with AC on all the time, everything is working perfectly. The garage guys (German Motors Co in SW London) told me that battery is usually the culprit for ECO problems and people over look them cause most of the time no errors are displayed. ECO seems to be super sensitive to battery voltage.