Start/Stop

[Guy]

I find this can be useful but also it can be irritating and almost dangerous in some circumstances. For example, say you are approaching a busy roundabout with steady traffic already on it from your right. It's going to be a bit of a wait so you come to a stop, select neutral (manual gearbox), apply the handbrake, and raise the clutch. The engine is switched off automatically but you may not be aware of this. Then a small but safe break in the traffic occurs. You depress the clutch, select first gear, depress the accelerator and bring the clutch up steadily - all quickly in parallel. Sometimes too quickly because the engine hasn't started and you are in a stalled situation from which it seems to take an eternity to recover. Meanwhile the driver in the car behind you is starting to get annoyed, or worse he may have anticipated you moving off and started moving as well.

Just yesterday, I was in another situation waiting to turn off right from a main road into a side road. There was a constant stream of slow moving oncoming traffic. One kind person slowed right down and flashed me to cross in front him. I naturally wanted to complete this manoeuvre quickly but somehow managed to beat the system again. The car really did not seem to want to restart manually and I missed my chance completely. I can only imagine what the other driver was thinking!

So I think I'm going to try to remember to disable start stop every time I start a trip and then manually re-enable it on demand only when stopped in a genuine queue which is only moving forwards from time to time and where a stall wouldn't be the end of the world. In normal traffic it often seems that no sooner has the engine been stopped than it is needed again which must mean more wear on the starter and battery and maybe even higher fuel consumption than if it had been left idling for a few seconds.

Has anyone else had similar experiences or is it just my bad driving? I've only done just over 500 miles so am not fully used to the car yet.

[deanjohnl]

I thought I was going to hate start/stop, but I really like it. It just works seamlessly for me. Even at a round about when there's a break in the traffic - as soon as the clutch is partially pressed, the engine roars back into life and away I go.

[Penarth Blues]

I thought I was going to hate start/stop, but I really like it. It just works seamlessly for me. Even at a round about when there's a break in the traffic - as soon as the clutch is partially pressed, the engine roars back into life and away I go.

This is my experience too. I have however stalled the car a couple of times early on when trying to pull away in second, which surprised me as I thought it would have been torquey enough to deal with it

[Guy]

Perhaps I am bringing the clutch pedal back up too quickly and that aborts the automatic engine start. Or maybe not depressing it quite far enough for the stop/start to operate. It all happens very quickly so hard to know exactly what is going on. I'm sure I am pressing the accelerator before bringing the clutch pedal back up. I have absolutely no problems with getting away quickly and smoothly provided the engine is already running which tends to make me think I'm not misjudging clutch or accelerator positioning.

After some initial problems I thought I understood stop/start but after yesterday's little scare I am wary of it again. After one of these "stalls" the central display will state "Start engine manually" but you seem to have to return the gear lever to neutral with the clutch pedal up and the ignition key turned to the completely off position, then depress the clutch pedal and turn the ignition key fully on to the start position. All of which takes valuable seconds you can ill afford. And even then the engine doesn't seem to be too happy about it.

So I think I'll leave start/stop inhibited except in genuine traffic jams. It's a pity you can't change the default at initial switch on to be OFF but it's not too onerous to remember to press the switch.

[polocks]

coming from my previous stop start VAG I tend to stick it in neutral and come of clutch at traffic lights or bad traffic.

Round abouts are all clutch down, they're there to keep traffic flowing so I think allowing the engine to completely stop is against that


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[Guy]

coming from my previous stop start VAG I tend to stick it in neutral and come of clutch at traffic lights or bad traffic.

Round abouts are all clutch down, they're there to keep traffic flowing so I think allowing the engine to completely stop is against that

I think that makes sense to hold the clutch down at roundabouts. The situation where you think you are going to be held up for a long time but then some kind person cedes their right of way to you is harder to judge. You probably don't want to be holding the clutch down for too long - it puts load on the mechanism and bearings and if not fully down may be rubbing the linings.

[Guy]

Have found a couple of threads on other (non Polo) fora on Stop/Start. Responses seem to vary between "Love It" and "Hate It/It's Dangerous".

http://www.minif56.com/forum/289-mini-f ... erous.html

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1079289

[JohnPolo]

So easy with DSG. If I feel that I don't want it to kick in then I depress the brake with a little less force as I come to a stop.

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[afk]

So easy with DSG. If I feel that I don't want it to kick in then I depress the brake with a little less force as I come to a stop.

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Yes! You can essentially control the start/stop with a DSG without having to even use the button on the dash

[vc-10]

Same with a manual... just don't take your foot off the clutch!

[Guy]

I've read that holding the clutch pedal right down unnecessarily isn't good. Obviously it doesn't wear the friction linings but apparently it can cause the thrust release bearing to fail prematurely.

[Ricmondo]

Holding the clutch on full depression will do less harm than holding in a partially depressed state. Unfortunately years of doing so will eventually knacker your left leg.

[vc-10]

I wouldn't do it while waiting for a while at the lights (that's what stop/start is for, after all) but for the 1/2 second waiting at a roundabout or whatever, then it's not exactly going to do any significant damage.

[Guy]

I wouldn't do it while waiting for a while at the lights (that's what stop/start is for, after all) but for the 1/2 second waiting at a roundabout or whatever, then it's not exactly going to do any significant damage.

I agree with that exactly. But there is sometimes an in between situation where the traffic on the roundabout is heavier than you first anticipated. So then perhaps you do put the car into neutral and raise the clutch. A certain law then applies which means there is then almost immediately a break in the traffic!

I'm trying to remember to disable start/stop every time I get into the car. Then if I'm stopped at lights (particularly if they went to amber and then red as I approached them) I'll manually press the stop/start button to switch off the engine. As soon as the lights go red and amber I press the button again to start the engine. Restarting from lights isn't very time critical as I need to have the green before I move off so I can happily wait the half second for the engine to restart in this situation.

I remember when my car initially arrived at the dealership prior to the PDI, the salesman showed me round it and I noticed that the display said the start/stop was inoperative. He said this was because the battery would be in a low state of charge from the factory and following shipping - of course they would charge it fully as part of the PDI.

I wonder if this ever were to occur again would it be a useful indication that the battery needed a top-up trickle charge? I don't use my car much in winter and I'm very concerned not to damage the battery by letting its charge get too low. So I have a small digital voltmeter (reading to 0.1V) permanently in the 12V dash socket to keep an eye on the voltage level when I switch the ignition on.

I'd be concerned at relying on the start/stop disabled display to tell me that the battery needed a charge in case that message is only displayed when the voltage is so low that damage may already have occurred. On the other hand I've read that the start/stop batteries are much more tolerant of deep discharge than conventional lead acid batteries. Also they are supposedly happy being normally never charged much above 80% in order that the regenerative deceleration function always has some headroom to dump waste energy back into the battery.

Can anyone shed more light on this?

[vc-10]

I'm pretty sure that start/stop systems from all manufacturers disable the system if the battery charge gets too low. Both my parents cars have stop/start, and they've never had any trouble with them (BMW and VW/Skoda systems)