Stop Start Technology

[l5foye]

I am interested in everyone's opinion of the stop/start technology which all car manufacturers seems to be adopting nowadays. While I can understand the push for greater economy, I wonder what it is at the expense of. I have only had a short drive in a car with the stop/start thing but it was enough to drive me bonkers. By the way I think I will start reconditioning starter motors.

 

[VB123]

Driving the S400 HYBRID, you don't even notice it. The electric takes over while the petrol engine gets going.... they are actually pretty cool!
Does seem to take forever to charge the batteries though, but again, you would never know.

 

[Apial]

My Clubman D has stop/start tech. You can turn it off if you want to. The system is set so that it will not necessarily switch off if the outside temperature is too hot or too cold so that the interior temp could not be maintained. It will also not switch off if the battery has insufficient charge.

I have noticed that when the temp drops to below 3C the system stops switching off the engine. In use I can't really say it has made any difference to how I drive. It does appear to save fuel at lights, and it also has had the benefit of dropping the vehicle into a lower CO2 banding. No broken starter motors so far!

 

[johny5_uk]

I drove an A180 loan car the other day and it startled me when I saw the engine stopped at the lights. I pressed the clutch in to start the car up again with the key (force of habit without checking the gears) and the car started up. It was weird as I never heard the starter motor but later realised there is an auxiliary starter built in and of course that this was a "start stop" eco A class .

Thought it was nice tbh.

 

[timwood2000]

I am amazed that this is being hailed as a new idea or new technology. 25 years ago I had an Audi 80 (83/Y reg) that had start/stop that seemed to work in exactly the same way as a B class I had as a loan car last summer.

Personally I find the system irritating and fail to see the benefits - it must use more energy to restart the engine everytime and if you are stuck in a major jam for a long time, then just switch off manually if necessary.

A solution looking for a problem!

 

[bigyin1]

A waste of time if you ask me, marketing gimmick to keep climate folk happy. If every single car had it in cities then perhaps, but they don't. This is about as much of a gimmick as putting a small and pointless battery in a Porsche Cayenne with a 3.0 supercharged engine and calling it a hybrid.

 

[wemorgan]

it must use more energy to restart the engine everytime

yes, but not as much energy as leaving the engine running

and if you are stuck in a major jam for a long time, then just switch off manually if necessary.

It doesn't have to be just a major jam, but just at traffic lights and similar situations. If you've ever walked in a congested city you'll appreciate how poor the air quality is at times.

Also it's human nature to be lazy, so I suspect few people can be bothered with switching the engine off manually.

It's just one part of the solution of using less fuel.

 

[VB123]

A waste of time if you ask me, marketing gimmick to keep climate folk happy. If every single car had it in cities then perhaps, but they don't. This is about as much of a gimmick as putting a small and pointless battery in a Porsche Cayenne with a 3.0 supercharged engine and calling it a hybrid.

It's all just a case of box ticking, "look at us, aren't we responsible"

 

[x332race]

Whilst there may be some benefits to stop-start cars in cities, benefits of this "technology" must be limited elsewhere. I think these systems are more designed to get the car into a lower CO2 range by being optimized to get through the relevant test cycle using the least amount of fuel.....its like the Prius...on a motorway it will be just as uneconomical as the next car!

 

[flango]

Total waste of time and money and mainly marketing hype, My driving style and that of many advanced drivers means the systems that stop/start on the clutch simply don't work. My Volvo does not have stop/ start but my colleagues does on very similar commutes each day there is no difference in mpg from mine to his.

Nice idea but nothing new as already posted VW/Audi had them on the cars in the early eighties, so much for progress

 

[Apial]

Total waste of time and money and mainly marketing hype, My driving style and that of many advanced drivers means the systems that stop/start on the clutch simply don't work. My Volvo does not have stop/ start but my colleagues does on very similar commutes each day there is no difference in mpg from mine to his.

Nice idea but nothing new as already posted VW/Audi had them on the cars in the early eighties, so much for progress

Why does your driving style and that of many advanced drivers (but not all) mean that stop start does not reduce fuel consumption?

 

[wemorgan]

By reading the traffic conditions ahead you can slowly approach stationary traffic thereby minimising the amount of time you're stationary

 

[saorbust]

Check Scientific American, Issue Feb 2010, Pages 36 to 41. V good article and panel on technology being developed to prolong the use of conventional engines and make them more efficent (instead of the battery brigade).

Specifically mentions start stop - along with many others - on page 38, and compares them all.

 

[clk208]

By reading the traffic conditions ahead you can slowly approach stationary traffic thereby minimising the amount of time you're stationary

I like to do this wherever I can, not only for fuel consumption but it just makes for a smoother / more pleasant ride.

However - try doing it anywhere within a 15 mile radius of Central London at any time of the day - just not possible. I think the stop-start could offer real benefits in these scenarios. Just needs to be fitted to the filthy black cabs and HGVs and could offer serious benefits to air quality in urban environments.

 

[Apial]

By reading the traffic conditions ahead you can slowly approach stationary traffic thereby minimising the amount of time you're stationary

Well say you do this and you also have stop start tech fitted car. Once the car stops you stop using fuel. A normal car would come to a stop and then you would carry on using fuel. You don't have to approach slowly, and you will still save fuel anyway. I guess you could just drive all the time slowly! Either way, stop start must save some fuel.

The thing is, you do not know when everything is necessarily going to grind to a halt for a longer period than anticipated, With stop start, the decision to stop the engine is made once you apply your hand brake. Putting the handbrake on usually means you are not just making a momentary stop, but people do drive with different styles with respect to handbrake use. If this irritates you during slow crawling traffic, then you just push a button and switch it off. You still benefit fro the lower CO2 banding and BIK tax if that applies to you too.

Why would you not want it? Would you prefer to spend more on fuel, VED and BIK rather than get used to a stop start engine? I do believe that in Germany you can be fined in some cities for NOT turning your engine off at red lights.

 

[NormanC]

I am interested that this engine stopping when stationary is regarded as new technology.

My old Triumph Spitfire had this 20 years ago. Every time I came to a stop the engine stopped. At least a good service cured it!

 

[st13phil]

Prior to her SLK, wy wife had two MINI Cooper S's in quick succession (why is another story), the first without stop/start and the second with it.

We live in a fairly rural area and so would not see the sort of benefit that someone routinely driving in stop/start city traffic would. In like-for-like driving the second car was marginally more eonomical overall than the first (around 8% better mpg), but when used for short journeys with lots of stop/start, the difference was much more pronounced.

 

[flango]

The thing is, you do not know when everything is necessarily going to grind to a halt for a longer period than anticipated, With stop start, the decision to stop the engine is made once you apply your hand brake. Putting the handbrake on usually means you are not just making a momentary stop, but people do drive with different styles with respect to handbrake use. If this irritates you during slow crawling traffic, then you just push a button and switch it off. You still benefit fro the lower CO2 banding and BIK tax if that applies to you too.

Why would you not want it? Would you prefer to spend more on fuel, VED and BIK rather than get used to a stop start engine? I do believe that in Germany you can be fined in some cities for NOT turning your engine off at red lights.

I agree with some of the above but lets take a closer look, My handbrake is never used unless the car is parked, thats why it's called a parking brake,would never dream of using it in day to day driving unless in an emergency.

The stop start cars I have driven work on the following, say you stop at a red light you put the clutch down, put the car in neutral and raise the clutch this stops the car, then to start you depress the clutch which fires the starter motor (different to a normal starter BTW)put the car in 1st raise the clutch and move away, what a parlarva and by the time you have done that the lights have probably changed back to red.

I stop depress the clutch, into first, thats it end of unless I'm facing down hill and then I'll apply a light pressure to the foot brake, lights change, up comes the clutch and I'm off no messing in and out of gear twice waiting for car to start. So a stop start would never be in use with my driving style.

I totally agree on the BIK if co2 emissions are lower and if I were a company car driver I would chose it for that sole reason alone

just my 2p worth

 

[PJH]

Question. If the driver stalls the engine, does this device automatically restart the engine ?

 

[st4]

I stop depress the clutch, into first, thats it end of unless I'm facing down hill and then I'll apply a light pressure to the foot brake, lights change, up comes the clutch and I'm off no messing in and out of gear twice waiting for car to start. So a stop start would never be in use with my driving style.

I used to do this but why do ADIs teach handbrake neutral. Much easier to do this, foot on clutch and car in gear ready to take off . Feet on the brake not an issue as auto car drivers have to do this anyway.