Just wondering out loud, now that s/s has been around for a number of years, has anyone ever suffered battery / starter issues as a result of it?
This was always the reason for not using it and even today I was speaking to a colleague who has switched his off because "its well known fact it kills the starter motors"
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Stop/start on my EV works flawlessly every time.
No pause before you take off either.
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Citroen do not use the starter motor on the HDi Berlingo.
It is clever use of the alternator I believe - the start is so 'instant' you hardly notice it. But it only works automatically when the car engine is up to temperature and the battery is fully charged
However I do find it irritating in traffic and for future reliabilty reasons generally turn it OFF. It is the only car on which I have taken out a manufacturers extended warranty after year 3 ):
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My rental car here in Spain has it and it's the first I've used. I'm about 800 miles in and I only realised in the last 100 miles or so. It's also a diesel and it has six gears and I hadn't used the top two till I got on a faster bit of road the other day. It also has Android car (?)but apart from using Google Drive rather than the inbuilt satnav I can't see the user of it yet - I still have to pick up these phone and read and type responses to text messages and emails... 😊
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BMW are rumoured to have starter motor problems. The SS on my old X1 stopped working. It was fixed under warranty. Seemed the root of the problem was the radio (!). There was a drain on the battery from it that reduced current sufficiently for the SS not to work.
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We always used it on the XC60 just as we do on the V90, both work flawlessly without any problems.
Pat
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>> It also has Android car (?)but apart from using Google Drive rather than the inbuilt satnav I
>> can't see the user of it yet - I still have to pick up these
>> phone and read and type responses to text messages and emails... 😊
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My car has android auto.
It gives me ... the choice between google maps/navigation and Waze. It gives me my podcasts. It (optionally) reads out texts and whatsApp messages and asks if I want to dictate a reply. Absolutely brilliant, and I always use it instead of the inbuilt satnav.
I didn't think I'd use the ability to read/send text and whatsApp - until I was collecting my wife from the airport recently and I was caught in traffic.
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The S/S seems to work on cars I have been in, my own car is too old.
However, when the car ages I can see issues - might be better to switch SS off - a few pennies extra at the petrol pumps rather than 4 figures for a new alt/starter.
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>>and for future reliabilty reasons generally turn it OFF
>>However, when the car ages I can see issues - might be better to switch SS off
This is what I am getting at - everyone fears that they won't be able to cope, but its been going for a few years now and wondering if there is any evidence that it does shorten the life?
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Have had it on at least my last 3 cars, so that's 12 years and a total of something over 200k miles, always on and no problems at all. That does not include any car getting older than 4 years, although my son took over my last car and has put another 50k miles on. Don't know what use he makes of s/s but hasn't reported any problems.
It's not just about a few pennies at the pumps it also makes significant difference to pollution levels in city traffic if everyone has start / stop enabled.
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I can't see SS being any more of a problem than a town taxi or district nurses car which has frequent engine starts.
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>>I can't see SS being any more of a problem than district nurses car which has frequent engine starts.<<
I know the NHS is under pressure but am not sure that nurses stop starts are at typical 15second intervals :)
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Isn’t the best way to use stop start is to use its as the default in normal motoring but it if you really are stopping and starting every 15 seconds then to switch it off. Conveniently this is exactly how manufacturers have installed the system.
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In the BMW I was surprised how noticeable it is. I naively thought it would be some desperately efficient, barely noticeable start. Where is in fact it feels like a normal start one would get from pressing the button, just automatic.
I am sure it would fade into the background and become less or perhaps not intrusive, but it clearly is a great deal more wear on the starter motor.
Usually I am all in favour of clever things which lessen pollution, but this time not so much.
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Obviously the BMW implementation lacks the finesse (or je ne sais quoi?) of Citroen PSA :)
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That could be; this BMW is the only one I've ever driven with stop/start.
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Driven a couple of Skoda courtesy cars with it. Once used to it it seems pretty seamless.
The trip consumption on my Roomster, which doesn't have start stop, clicks down pretty rapidly in tenth of a mile to gallon increments, when stopped at lights. In fact I've taken to turning off manually at one or two where I know the wait will be longer than half a minute.
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>> That could be; this BMW is the only one I've ever driven with stop/start.
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Could it be a function of engine size, I have only had 4 cylinder 2 litre diesels in the last 20 years although I have driven hire cars & test cars over the years with stop start.
The one on modern smaller engine petrols I tested late last year, BMW and VW, were very unobtrusive
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No idea. This was a 3.0 diesel. Which as I write it I realise is obviously the reason I noticed it so much. Doh.
I am sure it would be quite different in a petrol.
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In heavy traffic, I turn it off in the M140i because it has an annoying habit of cutting the engine a fraction of a second before the car comes to a complete stop. You then get slight, but irritating lurch as the deceleration increases slightly just as the car stops.
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It is different in the petrol, the start is imperceptible and instant, starting even when the car in front moves off, coupled with the auto hold starting is a seamless dream under all circumstances
Less so the stop. It stops a fraction too early. When I brake I feather off the pedal at about 1mph to smooth out the up bump on the suspension. That coincides with the engine off so I end up with the engine turning off and starting again immediately with a lurch. Start stop assumes it's a problem and goes into disabled mode
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Stop / Start - Lygonos
