The E.P.A. under Trump is moving to eliminate credits to carmakers for the fuel-saving start-stop function.
The E.P.A. under Trump is moving to eliminate credits to carmakers for the fuel-saving start-stop function.
Wait. The car companies were getting credits to put this functionality on cars? It wasn't a law saying that they had to do it, but it was money the car companies were getting is the reason it was forced on us?
Most studies on start-stop technology show real-world fuel use reductions of 5 to 10 percent, depending on driving patterns. One study found that start-stop begins to save fuel when the engine is off for as little as seven seconds during an idling period.
I completely believe this and also absolutely hate the feature because it is a net negative outside of dense cities with a lot of stop and go traffic. Plus my particular model loves to restart after anywhere between 5 to 20 seconds, seemingly triggered by people talking since it even happens a while after putting the vehicle in park. My wife's model is better, it generally stays off when not moving.
But in both cases, it introduces problems with driving on the roads we most commonly use. Stop/start absolutely sucks when it kicks in at roundabouts or when stopping to let oncoming traffic go before turning left. Yes, you can let off the brake a little to get it going again but then it just wasted gas by not being off long enough for a benefit. Don't even get me started on stop signs, where it is off for far less than a second. While there is an option to turn it off in both vehicles, it then displays a prominent bright yellow warning looking light which is distracting and it has to be turned off every single time the vehicle is started.
I disabled mine after a year of being annoyed, and now I get 10% better gas mileage because my driving patterns don't involve stopping for more than the 7 or seconds often enough to break even. I do manually shut it off at drive throughs, which saves more than the automatic process since it doesn't start up until I'm ready to go.
Honestly I would love for easier control over stopping it temporarily myself than having an automatic system that assumes stop signs take more than 7 seconds.
I never had that feature but I just rented a Volvo Hybrid for a week for a road trip and I’m pretty sure it had the feature. Because it’s hybrid, the gas engine turned off but I never really noticed because the electric engine would start you off while the gas engine did its thing. The result was a pretty seamless experience. I couldn’t really tell when the gas engine was off or on in city driving. There may be better options out there as this is the only one I’ve driven but that was super smooth. I heard when it’s gas only that the experience can feel “lurchy”.
Maybe it's a manual/auto difference. If I know I'm only going to be stopped for a few seconds I just keep the clutch in and the engine doesn't enter start/stop.
If it was taking 20 seconds, you had something broken. Probably would have been better to get it fixed
Make-believe I wasn't clear enough, it should stay off for longer than 20 seconds but it starts too quickly.
I pull up to a drive through windows at the pharmacy. Engine stops when the vehicle stops. It should then stay off until it reaches the max timer or there is too much draw on the battery for the a/c or heater or something like that.
What happens instead is that it restarts after an inconsistent period of time, might be five seconds or it might be 20 seconds or longer, even if the a/c, radio, and headlights are all off. What it doesn't do is wait for a couple of minutes until I am ready to go.
It is an issue with that specific model, they can't fix it any more than the shitty automatic brights that don't work right. I'm fine with the brights as I prefer to control those manually anyway.
Did they somehow fix starter issues or the charge/discharge rates associated with starting an engine from battery so much, and the alternator trying to keep up with the power draw? I feel like your starter would die every 5 years and you might drain your battery in traffic if it doesn’t stay on long enough.
They reportedly use heavier duty starters and batteries, and it this supposed to start up if the battery is getting drained. It doesn't stop automatically under certain temps and maybe above certain temps, not sure on the latter. Whether they got the engineering right depends on the design and manufacturer.
I personally see it as a dead end for gas o ly vehicles because it requires too many assumptions to work automatically in all situations. It already works for hybrids, because it can just donits thing off of battery draw, it doesn't care about vehicle speed.