So start up doesnt use extra?

Whether its worth the faff, the complicated electronics, the rather expensive battery, the hesitation before moving off, and the as yet unknown long term effects, is questionable.

I wouldn't give you a thankyou for the system and any time i've driven a vehicle so fitted try my best to find the off switch, but as part of an integrated hybrid where the vehicle primarily starts moving on battery power and the engine assists when required, well that's a different thing altogether.

Had 4 cars now with Stop/Start and over those 10 years I would guess I have saved a couple of cups of fuel. But over that period I have saved about £1000 in VED (comparing the pre Stop/Strat version with the version we had).

That is a saving worth having.

All in the past now for new cars since its flat rate VED. Will still make a huge difference to company car drivers since the BIK is based on the emmisions.

The system in my Skoda Octavia 1.4tsi has worked once over the last 3 months, despite several long runs.. The garage has checked the car over and everything was diagnosed OK. I do get warnings about low 12V battery charge on occasion, which is also said to be OK.

If this persists in the warmer weather after a really long drive then I will be back to Skoda.

The road tax is only £30 per annum, so as above , this is a decent overall saving.

Edited by Glaikit Wee Scunner {P} on 05/02/2018 at 12:04

All cars fitted with a stop/start system have uprated starters.

I am no fan of stop start and will turn it off as soon as I can, but does it make a difference to fuel consumption? Only if you drive in the city all the time.

If I have to drive in the city I would want an automatic.

A non solution to the problem of driving in cities.

All cars fitted with a stop/start system have uprated starters.

I am no fan of stop start and will turn it off as soon as I can, but does it make a difference to fuel consumption? Only if you drive in the city all the time.

If I have to drive in the city I would want an automatic.

A non solution to the problem of driving in cities.

Everyone here seems very focussed on the issue of whether stop-start systems save fuel, but in cities it's also important to consider the reduction in harmful emissions that they provide. Forgetting the proposed migration to electric vehicles, as more and more vehicles have the systems the reduction becomes significant. And despite the "I don't like them, I turn them off" mantra here, there doesn't seem to be any evidence of them being problematic to any significant degree.

As a sideline, the alternator is used as a starter motor in some stop-start systems, so the load isn't all on the starter:

www.mechanexpert.com/how-do-stop-start-systems-wor.../

Mike - all electric vehicles do is move the pollution from the car exhaust pipe to the chimney of the power station, i.e. from the urban areas to the countryside, including additional pollution because of the electrical efficiency losses of transmission to the urban charging points.

Additionally, the electrical energy required to re-start a car in start-stop 'off' mode' has to come from somewhere, and if, say in an urban setting where it could be used a lot, the stored electrical energy in the car will quickly dissapoate and will need to be generated again/topped up to keep the system working, and the only way it can do that is making the engine work harder, burning more fuel and producing more pollutants in between stops.

I personally believe that start-stop systems are only worthwhile from a pollution and mpg saving standpoint when the car is stopped for significanlty more than a couple of minutes in heavy traffic (say a major jam on a road that you can't turn around or off of to go another route, e.g. a motorway or dual carriageway), which, quite frankly, is no different to what many people would (and should) do if they are stuck in a jam, perhaps excluding the coldest of conditions, even without having a stop-start system.

The system in my Skoda Octavia 1.4tsi has worked once over the last 3 months,

Thats probably because of the cold temps and extra drain on the battery from lights etc. Come March/April all should be back to normal.

Having said the the stop/start on my 1.4 TSi Superb had been about 75% fine over the winter which is about the norm for cars we have had in the past (except the Note which is very flaky).

As mentioned above, walk through any UK town or city at about 5.10pm and it will be full of cars sitting idling stationary at traffic lights chucking out crap.

Try standing by the road or driving a convertable through a town at rush hour and your eyes will soon be streaming. It is like driving a car with a failed manifold.

These engines do not need to be running in this situation. I appreciate it may have other energy use effects elsewhere but if we are to have traffic congestion we'll have areas of high concentrated pollution and if we can reduce them using technology why not?

I totally agree SLO and don't trust HJ's opinion that the systems will prevent it shutting down when the turbo is hot. Obviously the 'intelligence' of these systems varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. The Kia system is particularly stupid. Another flaw in it is when stopping at the end of the journey the engine stops sometimes in D or when pushing the lever from D to N. It then always restarts when the lever is pushed to P. You must then switch off as normal. For now the system in my Leon remains non functional which saves me remembering to shut it off!

If your car isn’t set up to stop it doing this immediately after stopping from speed then turn the thing off, it’ll eat your turbo and burn a hole in your wallet. I believe these systems are the reason for the huge increase in turbo failures in recent years. I disable the system in our CRV by keeping my foot on the clutch when I feel it’s inappropriate for it to stop.

Yes, as with Cyd's in depth advice on turbo care in the stickies in technical, the system shutting things down is not going to add to a long life of such parts as the turbo.

I've covered some 3 million miles in generally well serviced Diesels with turbochargers operating the way Cyd described, i've always allowed the engine and its oil to warm up a bit before asking the turbo to work, always allowed the engine to tick over for a while after driving, so far not a single turbo failure that i can recall, no way would i allow a sensor to say whether the engine should shut down regularly, it's hardly in makers interests for these vehicles to last 20 years trouble free.