A Technical Question

[SemperFi]

I had noticed this way before gas prices went over 4 dollars, and it befuddled me then as now. It seems to me, at least every other stop light, when it turns green, I hear a car starting up. People turn their cars off at red lights.

Now, I am not a wizard environmental engineer, nor a mechanical one. Does this save gas? I always thought it stressed the systems (mechanical and electrical) most during start up. I thought that NA engines actually used a little more gas to start up. It seems to contradict what I had thought was proper operation of a car. I am not talking 5 minute rush hour waits. Usually 1 minute or less.

What is your opinion...is it wise to start up 20 times a trip? Or just go with the flow...

I realize I post this in the Mach 1 forums...cause I own a Mach 1.
I also realize that owners of lesser cars with letters like GT and R and PP will comment.
I will allow this, as I believe even the plebes should have a voice...once in awhile.

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[glockholiday]

Lots of cars have the auto shut off feature now and the manufacturers tests say it saves fuel. I think it's freaking dumb. I turn it off on any vehicle I drive that has it but most make you have to disable it at every initial start up or tune it off permanently.

 

[Charlemagne]

Manufacturers will gladly sacrifice longterm realiability for a bit less emissions. They want you to buy a new car after 8-10 years so additional wear is not a big issue for them. I wouldn't trust these auto start/stop systems. I had it in my Mini but had the button programmed to remember the last state after switching engine off.

 

[Skye]

Several years ago when there was a gas spike, drivers in Japan were asked to turn off their cars at lights. UPS and FedEX would turn their trucks off at stops in the US and elsewhere.

But I don't think the economic situation lasted long enough to answer is the gas saved (if any) worth the additional mechanical stress and reliability of turning the vehicle on/off all the time.

Hybrid owners. They often use the same principles of start/stop and have been around a while. Studying this segment might give some good insight as to reliability, especially regarding the starter itself, batteries, flywheel, etc. But these systems are designed for repeated start/stop.

I personally don't like the idea of having an auto on/off on a non-hybrid vehicle. If I'm stopped somewhere, and realize I might be waiting a while (longer than a stop light), I'll just shut the truck off.

 

[Mr. Met]

I had noticed this way before gas prices went over 4 dollars, and it befuddled me then as now. It seems to me, at least every other stop light, when it turns green, I hear a car starting up. People turn their cars off at red lights.

Now, I am not a wizard environmental engineer, nor a mechanical one. Does this save gas? I always thought it stressed the systems (mechanical and electrical) most during start up. I thought that NA engines actually used a little more gas to start up. It seems to contradict what I had thought was proper operation of a car. I am not talking 5 minute rush hour waits. Usually 1 minute or less.

What is your opinion...is it wise to start up 20 times a trip? Or just go with the flow...

I realize I post this in the Mach 1 forums...cause I own a Mach 1.
I also realize that owners of lesser cars with letters like GT and R and PP will comment.
I will allow this, as I believe even the plebes should have a voice...once in awhile.

Plebe here. Idling for one minute is going to use much more fuel then turning the car off/on once. As far as stress, while it will obviously affect the life of the starter in say a Mustang, cars with auto stop/start have a separate starter that's is designed to handle this. Jason from Engineering Explained has a very informative video about this.

 

[SemperFi]

Good video, I like Jason, he usually takes the time to explain the intricacies in a non-overly scientific way. It cleared up that starting your engine takes less gas by far than idling, but he did not address the stress on the battery or the electrical systems. He did mention the mechanical engineers created a system that would adapt to the wear and tear of the physical components constantly reengaging, but not the computer and electronics. Having worked for several decades with computers far more hardy than the ones in cars, I do know that constant on/off aint good.

Also what was curious...if you turn on subtitles...they default to Russian. Curious. The Russians WANT us to use more gas, so they would feed us disinformation. I'm going full Q-anon on this one!

Rather good find for someone that has a lot of extemporaneous letters after the word Mustang

 

[Zelek]

Unless you're idling for a very long time (10-15 minutes like a drive through or waiting on food curbside) it is a waste. Carry on your day with your engine running and less wear and tear on bits starting it up each time.

 

[Mr. Met]

Good video, I like Jason, he usually takes the time to explain the intricacies in a non-overly scientific way. It cleared up that starting your engine takes less gas by far than idling, but he did not address the stress on the battery or the electrical systems. He did mention the mechanical engineers created a system that would adapt to the wear and tear of the physical components constantly reengaging, but not the computer and electronics. Having worked for several decades with computers far more hardy than the ones in cars, I do know that constant on/off aint good.

Also what was curious...if you turn on subtitles...they default to Russian. Curious. The Russians WANT us to use more gas, so they would feed us disinformation. I'm going full Q-anon on this one!

Rather good find for someone that has a lot of extemporaneous letters after the word Mustang

I know in the two cars we have none of the electronics turn off. In our Kia Soul the only way you would really know the engine was off is by the tach.

As far as the subtitles...

 

[kz]

Good video, I like Jason, he usually takes the time to explain the intricacies in a non-overly scientific way. It cleared up that starting your engine takes less gas by far than idling, but he did not address the stress on the battery or the electrical systems. He did mention the mechanical engineers created a system that would adapt to the wear and tear of the physical components constantly reengaging, but not the computer and electronics. Having worked for several decades with computers far more hardy than the ones in cars, I do know that constant on/off aint good.

Also what was curious...if you turn on subtitles...they default to Russian. Curious. The Russians WANT us to use more gas, so they would feed us disinformation. I'm going full Q-anon on this one!

Rather good find for someone that has a lot of extemporaneous letters after the word Mustang

Starters in the cars with auto start/stop are designed to heavier duty, batter is a wear item - people here are replacing them every 3 years so that should be least of anyone's worries.
For as long as cars with start/stop systems have been around, it's pretty clear that reliability concerns by forum experts are overblown at the minimum and non existent at best.

Jason's video shows it has merit.

 

[Charlemagne]

The emissions savings brought are probably the same as with TPMS sensors and properly inflated tyres (which was the idea behind them). Normal car takes like 0.8 liter/hour of idle (for example my passat, not mustang which has double of that), that's 0.14 liter per 10 minutes every day, I guess it adds up. I still wouldn't like it.

Don't forget the turbochargers and their cooling after high speed drive on highway when it immediately stops at the the gas station etc. I was worried about that. Or doing this to cold engine in the freezing winter...

 

[kz]

Don't forget the turbochargers and their cooling after high speed drive on highway when it immediately stops at the the gas station etc. I was worried about that. Or doing this to cold engine in the freezing winter...

Those systems are intelligent enough - have number of conditions that prevent for system to be active - Ford does that in their F150 3.5 Ecoboost engines and many others I am sure. It's not rocket science, they have thought about it.

Again, those systems have been around for years. They work and save gas and do not break engine/car/battery/starter at higher rate than cars that don't have it. I wish those commenting watched the video mentioned above.

 

[I Bleed Ford Blue]

Ford's system defaults to on during every key cycle. You can disable it by pushing the button every time you get in the car, or you can permanently shut it off thru either forscan, or thru a custom tune, or with an https://www.autostopeliminator.com/

I bought an eliminator for my explorer ST before I knew it could be done thru the tune, and they have yet to find a permanent fix thru forscan on the 2020+ explorers. Three years in and they still haven't found a fix that works long term.

I have never seen the ASS feature on any S 550 mustang, but I suspect it will finally appear on the 650's as everything else in ford's lineup has it.

 

[NJMike]

My wife had this start/stop feature in her 2018 Mercedes GLC(the small SUV but not the smallest) - it malfunctioned on her several times while driving causing the motor to stop running when it shouldnt have stopped. For example she was exiting a highway and on the OFF ramp while doing about 45 the motor turned off. This went to the dealer for service, they replaced the secondary starter and a few months later it happened again. Rinse and repeat - a new secondary starter and I'll give one guess as to what happened next?
Original secondary starter replaced
Replacement secondary starter replaced
2nd replacement secondary starter replaced
Vehicle traded in...

 

[SemperFi]

Got the message on ASS...ok, to be clear, auto start systems. What if you don't have one? I would never do this to my Mach, but is there a benefit to doing it in any car w/out ASS? Or is it more detrimental?

TBH, before this post, I had never heard of the auto start thingy.

 

[Zelek]

Got the message on ASS...ok, to be clear, auto start systems. What if you don't have one? I would never do this to my Mach, but is there a benefit to doing it in any car w/out ASS? Or is it more detrimental?

TBH, before this post, I had never heard of the auto start thingy.

Unless the car is set to have it from the factory, I think you'd just be wearing out your starter faster trying to add this in later but I personally have never heard of this kind of stuff being added in the aftermarket. If you really want a start stop, get a hybrid vehicle. They're the best at it. My wife's 19' Insight gets like 50-54 MPG constantly.

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