Start/Stop Issues 'vehicle power consumption high'

[Andy Beats]

FWIW, the starter motor may not be involved with stop/start.
I know others (Mazda for instance) make one piston stop at TDC.
When you're ready to start again that cylinder is ignited, forcing that piston down and turning the engine over.
No starter motor involvement at all, very ingenious.
No idea how VW do it.

[monkeyhanger]

My commute is 3 miles, stop/start has always worked so far.
This is with everything you've listed above plus heated seats on.

Congratulations.

I have booked an appointment with my local dealer, see if they can help.

Sorry for the necro bump, just wondering what came of your trip to the dealers? My car is the same, I do about 10 miles each way and I notice if the cars had a good drive on the weekend start stop kicks in after a few minutes Monday, Tuesday about 10 mins, Wednesday 15 mins and then it'll take a 30-40min+ drive for it to come on again. Considered booking into the dealers but get the feeling they'll just put it on a charger tell me no faults found and hand it back?

What do you use a lot while driving? Aircon? Heated seats? Anything sapping energy when you're not driving, like a dashcam with a low (or no) cut-off?

If you pretty much have everything on then it might be you, if not, you might have a dodgy battery or alternator

[Cro_vw]

I'm curious to know was it hard to install LED? and is it blinding other drivers? I purchased today LED kit, I paid 100 eur.

[Mch101]

I am also having the same issue with my Polo R-Line 115. It's hasn't even done 500 miles and having the same issue. No other power is on in the vehicle and still won't engage.

I've also found rust on several engine components and had to top up the coolant in the vehicle as it was close to empty..... Great start

[Andy Beats]

Stop/start works as designed on mine, but I wish it waited until you'd actually bloody stopped!
I had a scenario today, where I went nose into a parking space on a hill and just wanted to freewheel backwards a bit.
So I'm rolling, but in neutral with the clutch out.
Bloody engine stopped and the power steering went off.
So you could say VW's version is start/nearly stop

[OomStu_ZA]

I'd prefer to do without Start/Stop so disable it as part of the "start-up sequence."

It's been proven beyond reasonable doubt that individually a Start/Stop system does nothing for fuel economy but overall (worldwide) it looks "green" so that's why manufacturers include it with a vehicle. Think of it as modern day snake oil. I've just watched a post from Autogefühl reviewing a 2019 Polo Highline and Thomas also confirms the system is ineffective. See post on YouTube here:
https://youtu.be/YkUwY-jYjl0

I don't understand why the system would immediately kick in when you come to a stop at the freeway off-ramp after travelling at speed on a highway. Surely the turbo needs time to cool down sufficiently avoiding heat-soak build-up instead of dumping the oil into the sump?

Annoyingly my car is also fitted with Keyless start/stop, another bane in my life.

[Andy Beats]

Surely the turbo needs time to cool down sufficiently avoiding heat-soak build-up instead of dumping the oil into the sump?

The turbos are hybrid-electric, so I assume the electric part keeps the turbo spinning until such time as it's safe.

[OomStu_ZA]

The turbos are hybrid-electric, so I assume the electric part keeps the turbo spinning until such time as it's safe.

Thank you.

I've been schooled
https://youtu.be/mhk5SSukX78

[kdniuk]

Apologies this may be an old post but i have just returned a 2016 polo beats 1.2 tsi. Start stop worked for the full ownership of the car. Worked with everything turned on, dash cam, phone , lights etc.

I have a 2019 vw polo beats 1.0 tsi and have driven it for 200 miles with nothing on and i have still not managed to activate start stop.

Vehicle power consumption too high.

12 miles to 12 mile return daily. Did you ever get an answer from a dealer?
I hated start stop lol, however i would like the new vehicle to work as it should.
Kev

[monkeyhanger]

Apologies this may be an old post but i have just returned a 2016 polo beats 1.2 tsi. Start stop worked for the full ownership of the car. Worked with everything turned on, dash cam, phone , lights etc.

I have a 2019 vw polo beats 1.0 tsi and have driven it for 200 miles with nothing on and i have still not managed to activate start stop.

Vehicle power consumption too high.

12 miles to 12 mile return daily. Did you ever get an answer from a dealer?
I hated start stop lol, however i would like the new vehicle to work as it should.
Kev

I ahev found stop-start activation (or not) a puzzling thing. Without exception, even if the ambient temp on a morning is above 18C, I will not get stop-start to work until 9 miles into my 12 mile commute on the way to work, yet on my return home, stop start usually kicks in less than half a mile from work, waiting at a major roundabout. I'm going to work without any abnormal ancillary use (lights, aircon etc.).

Even having driven 200 miles yesterday (Newcastle to York and back), with the battery supposedly as charged as it could be, (again setting off and returning within daylight), went to the Metrocentre this morning (13 miles) and again the stop start wouldn't kick in for the first 8 miles. Plenty of time I see the "vehicle consumption is high" message in the display when I look for why stop-start isn't working, on a journey where the ambiennt temp is reasonably high and all I have on is the DRLs and radio.


I do have a dashcam, but the car being inactive for 10-12 hours between uses shouldn't hammer the battery. I do wonder whether the car is set up to maintain a battery charge that is so low that always leaves it wanting more? That wouldn't explain why stop-start is always available for going home, but not for going to work.

Can't find any definitive logic or pattern to it. Definitely not oiil temp threshold related, known ancillary usage related or ambient temp related.

[kdniuk]

Thank you for the reply. It's a complete mind boggler.

[Trantor]

My GTI+ stop/start also seems to have a mind of its own. I can drive off from cold, travel a mile, be held up at some long-cycle traffic lights and the stop/start is suspended. Then, without switching anything on or off it will suddenly stop the car. Be like that for about 20-30 secs and the engine will cut back in again. It can do this more than once while stationary. My previous 6C GTI was far more predictable. You knew that from cold it would not activate, then when got up to temp it continued to work as expected. The new one appears to be much more sensitive as to when it decides to work and when it doesn't.
One thought while typing, my previous 6C stop/start was linked to the pressure you apply to the foot brake. I noticed that when stopped and you apply more foot pressure the engine cut out. If you release foot pressure slightly, but not enough to let the brakes off fully, the car would start. I assume the new one operates similarly? Could be I'm unconsciously releasing or increasing foot brake pressure while waiting.
I've only had the car for about 3 weeks and only 300 miles but will monitor behaviour.

[stevereeves]

FWIW, the starter motor may not be involved with stop/start.
I know others (Mazda for instance) make one piston stop at TDC.
When you're ready to start again that cylinder is ignited, forcing that piston down and turning the engine over.
No starter motor involvement at all, very ingenious.
No idea how VW do it.

You're right that is ingenious. Read somewhere Mazda have also developed an extremely economical petrol engine which uses some diesel properties, forget the details but seem to recall it's very high compression ratio so it burns very lean. Back on topic; I turn the annoying, to me, start / stop function off every time, but when it does operate (when I forget to turn it off) you can clearly hear the starter motor kick in, a Golf obviously but imagine a Polo is the same. Also read somewhere that a regular, that is a non-stop / start, system the starter motor will likely operate 100,000 times in 10 years, with stop / start it's closer to a million....

[silverhairs]

Getting back to the start/stop issue.

Why isn't it working?

Many people ask us why their stop-start systems aren’t working, but what’s usually happening is that the system is working, but not actually switching off the engine. Why? Because a stop-start system doesn’t work in isolation as a simple engine cut-off; it’s working as part of the whole engine management system. So, it not only takes account of when you’re standing still, but also the amount of drain and strain on the engine at that time. So, if it’s a cold day and you have the heating turned right up, or conversely if it’s a hot day and you’ve got the air conditioning blowing, then the stop-start computer may decide that you need to keep the engine running to power those systems. Equally, if the engine is still in its warm-up phase, it may be kept running as, overall, it’s more efficient (and better for long-term reliability) to get the engine properly up to temperature, rather than constantly re-start a cold engine.

[Simmo]

This is the first car I've owned with the start/stop function.

It seems to work perfectly well, whether the engine temperature is cold or hot. Not noticed it cutting out before coming to a stop like some have but I am trying to remember to switch it off before driving off after starting engine for the first time.

It would be beneficially to have a setting to permanently switch it off as it doesn't benefit my driving in anyway whatsoever. Aircon tends to power down when engine auto stop is engaged and I'm convinced this system is bad for the battery and starter motor, let alone wear and tear on cold start/stops.