Engine off on traffic light
 

I'm not a rich guy, therefore I've never touch a new European Car before. Is it necessary to switch off the engine while stopping on the traffic light?? I thought it was only an accidentally off engine. But now lots of people doing this..~~ Is that a new policy or new function from a Luxury class???

:)

It's basically a eco mode on most newer luxury cars. So if your foot is on the brake for a extended period of time, the engine shuts off and starts up when you take your foot off.

oh icic. Thanks for your info.

lol yeah its an auto stop/start option to save fuel while idling

Side question related: Wouldn't the starters on the cars equipped with "Start/Stop" function die really soon? Doesn't it require more fuel to start the car again?

I hate it when it shuts off the car when I'm driving my mom's car.

turn off eco mode!

you can turn it off
http://www.bmw.com/com/en/insights/t...art_button.jpg

Oh yeah forgot to mention, I always turn it off haha:nyan:

But I am just wondering if it kills the starter / use more gas to start the motor

i think it's more advanced than just the starter being used. i can see the cam/crank sensors being used to determine exactly where the pistons are and fire very accurately/efficiently. the "start up" for a car that's is auto-stopped is stupid fast, like not even a half second, so there's gotta be something else managing the start up.

as for killing the starter...likely. but then again, cars in the 80s/90s mostly still have original starters, what's 10-15 years for todays disposable cars

The stop-start system saves about 10~15% of fuel depending on driving style and car. And a starter motor is between $150-250 for part IIRC. Assuming you'd replace the starter motor at 10yrs for a car without stop-start vs. 7yrs for a car with it, I think the saving to enable stop-start is totally worth it.

Okay I have a CLA250, this is the first vehicle I have owned with this feature.

First off I found it extremely frustrating in the beginning, now after having driven the vehicle more and more, I have gotten used to it and learned how to manage it better.

I will preface this by saying on the mercedes, there is no way to just turn this feature off and leave it for good. Everytime you turn on the vehicle the feature is enabled, so basically you would have to hit the button to turn it off everytime you get in the car. Which is fucked, screw you mercedes.

Now to their credit after getting used to the feature, it's not bad, you just have to manage it. In the screen on the dash there is a little eco symbol, when that symbol is yellow the car is warming up, or for some reason will not auto shut off. When that symbol is green when you come to a stop with your foot fully planted the car will shut off very quickly.

If you come to a stop and the light is green you can hold the brake gently and the car will stay running. This is great cause if you are at a stop sign or a light which is just changing to green, you can just lightly hold the brakes and the car will stay running.

On top of that the car does start extremely quick in auto start, still though I like to let go of the brakes a second sooner than normal so that the car can start, and it can have a moment to run before I hit the gas to set off.

Basically I have gotten used to the feature more since I have gotten the car, and it actually works remarkably well, but I still see it as likely reducing the life of some of the components in the car, and needlessly complicated. But with today's emissions BS you better get used to shitty new tech like this.

the starters are beefed up compared to the original versions without eco start/stop counter parts

the system is a bit complicated.

get use to a routine, hop in car, hit the keyless go starting button, right after, turn off the eco start/stop, at the same time reach over and turn drive move to sport or sport+.

on the description on how the system works, it takes into account a few things:
- how long you have been driving
- what convenience functions are currently on, eg, heated seats, audio system blasting, a/c on, temperature, day time or night time, ...
- current condition of the battery, how much voltage it is, if any other consumables are on, any current draw from the battery.

it takes all those factors before it operates the eco start stop.

at the beginning of the starting sequence, the control units will have to know which cylinder is where at the stroke sequence via crank sensors and camshaft sensors, so it will know which injector to operate and thus "timing". the variable timing probably gets adjusted for a bit til all cylinders are firing once again.

its more interesting now that they introduced the system to the diesel's, since we all know diesels generally are a bit more complicated, timing wise when starting.

but yeah. just get use to the routine of starting the car, turning off the eco start/stop, and turning on the driving move to sport/sport+.

Back when Audi first used this feature, we had a call in from an older fob lady asking for roadside assistance.

This was why.

What's with the fail on the OP, it's a legit question. Just coz maybe their english isn't perfect?

Maybe this is a silly question, but eventually in 5 - 7 years when the battery gets old and weaker, will the MB system recognize the weak battery?
Imagine getting a jump start and forgetting to turn off eco mode and pulling up to a red light and have the motor auto turn off.

Maybe he likes to pop people's fail cherry.

Even the Avenador has that feature...it's all good, as long as the driver still has the option to turn it off :)

The other bizzare thing that I found is that the sport mode doesn't automatically turn off the auto start/stop. The two eco modes are seperate.

So you can actually have your car in sport mode, and it will still shut off the engine when you come to a stop. Unbelievably retarded. If I have the car in sport mode, I don't want it turning off at red lights, I want it ready to pounce off that redlight when I hit it.

Insanely annoying feature. My dad's S63 has it. Every time I drive it I turn on Sport mode which disables the start/stop feature. Just one extra step that I've gotten used to now.

My first thought was, which rich fuck gives two shits about fuel economy when buying an S63? Then I realized that many lower model Euro cars have this feature, which makes sense.

Most vehicles with these features take battery voltage into
account.
It's a very smart system. Monitors Alot of inputs to determine if it will operate in auto start\stop mode.
Like someone else mentioned above engine temp is one of them.
Battery voltage is one of them too

Just lift off the brake pedal slightly when the other light turns yellow but its an acquired touch.

My civic hybrid has this back in 09 :lawl: the car was actually pretty interesting, it uses the electric motor or something to start the engine so there isn't any cranking sounds when you turn the key, or when the engine turns off/on at a traffic light. I'm interested in knowing if the newer euro cars with this feature have something similar? I know that it takes like 1 or 1.5 cranks to start the engine within a second or so while stopped at a light, but when you cold start it does it also take the same amount of cranks or does it crank a few times like a normal car?

I can attest to this as my parents and girlfriend both drive B250s, which have the exact same drivetrain as the CLA250, however from my experience it's not the smoothest start-stop system, and it actually starts back up quite rough, a little too much vibration for me, almost like a bloody diesel engine startup. I remember driving the F30 328i when it first came out and it is also a turbo 4cyl, but somehow the system manages to be much smoother with a lot less vibration.

Cars with this feature tend to have starters that are much heavier duty than what you're used to