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Over the years I've replaced or refurbed a number of starter motors and/or the pinions and even ring gears. The more they're used the more wear and tear and the sooner they'll need to be repaired or replaced. My car doesn't have the option to turn it off permanently so I try to remember to press the cancel button as soon as I start up.

I don't find it annoying in use but I doubt the saving in fuel comes anywhere near meeting the cost of a new starter motor.

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10 minutes ago, Westward said:

Over the years I've replaced or refurbed a number of starter motors and/or the pinions and even ring gears. The more they're used the more wear and tear and the sooner they'll need to be repaired or replaced. My car doesn't have the option to turn it off permanently so I try to remember to press the cancel button as soon as I start up.

I don't find it annoying in use but I doubt the saving in fuel comes anywhere near meeting the cost of a new starter motor.

Its not so much the fuel saving as the reuction in emissions

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I think people are missing the point with these, they're not there to see whether or not you like them 😑  but to cut down on harmful emissions that are making towns and cities more and more polluted. Yes I agree the actual fuel saving for an individual is going to be tiny although even that can be big enough to notice in certain circumstances but if you think about slow moving traffic scenarios all over the country where a car may for instance be stationary for (20%+ of the actual journey time itself) the combined pollutants difference can be measured in substantial figures. 

I love the technology of it all and have noticed the systems used are being refined, our first st/start car for example would wait a full second of stoppage before cutting out (which seemed too long) the newer ones do so instantly (which adds up when multiplied by millions), there are also no end of built in measures to prevent the system from switching the engine off unnecessarily, for instance when the steering is turned slightly the system assumes a maneuver is about to take place, it also waits until the engine has reached operating temperature hence saving wear on a cold engine. 

In time they will not only be fitted to all cars but disabling them will become more and more difficult and frowned on, perhaps even made illegal. Starter motors will just have to be made durable to cope (as I'm sure they have been anyway), remember when F1 teams were allowed as many engines as they liked 😏  they often used 3 per race, now they're allowed 3 per season per car I believe and there are fewer blow ups if anything ! 

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18 minutes ago, Hamster said:

I think people are missing the point with these, they're not there to see whether or not you like them 😑  but to cut down on harmful emissions that are making towns and cities more and more polluted. Yes I agree the actual fuel saving for an individual is going to be tiny although even that can be big enough to notice in certain circumstances but if you think about slow moving traffic scenarios all over the country where a car may for instance be stationary for (20%+ of the actual journey time itself) the combined pollutants difference can be measured in substantial figures. 

I love the technology of it all and have noticed the systems used are being refined, our first st/start car for example would wait a full second of stoppage before cutting out (which seemed too long) the newer ones do so instantly (which adds up when multiplied by millions), there are also no end of built in measures to prevent the system from switching the engine off unnecessarily, for instance when the steering is turned slightly the system assumes a maneuver is about to take place, it also waits until the engine has reached operating temperature hence saving wear on a cold engine. 

In time they will not only be fitted to all cars but disabling them will become more and more difficult and frowned on, perhaps even made illegal. Starter motors will just have to be made durable to cope (as I'm sure they have been anyway), remember when F1 teams were allowed as many engines as they liked 😏  they often used 3 per race, now they're allowed 3 per season per car I believe and there are fewer blow ups if anything ! 

I agree with what hamster says .i don’t have a problem with stop start .its fine when you get used to it .

i don’t see why there is a switch now to turn it off there’s no need for it it should be totally auto turn off 

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The trouble is if the traffic is very heavy the system enriches the mixture for every start, so if it is happening very frequently it may actually be more polluting. (Please don't ask mw where the line should be drawn because I don't know) Some of this stuff actually seems to be voodoo science, like the push for diesel espoused by ignorant politicians, because the greens wanted it even though people were warned at the time about the risks of NOx emissions. People say they weren't warned but they were, it is just a smokescreen pushed out by the ignorant but loud mouthed.

 

David.

Edited by Kalahari
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If you can stand the “Straya’n!” schtick, this video is worth a watch on stop/start. 

I went through a phase being in and out of hire cars in 2015/16 for work.  Most, even on the higher spec cars were god awful, one Merc A-class even cutting out as I was decelerating towards a roundabout. No I wasn’t coasting, it was an auto.  Whoever signed off the software on that needs hanging upside down in Vetinari’s mime scorpion pit.

 

Edited by udderlyoffroad
Edited to get correct video link
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I fully get that the idea is to reduce pollution, that is after all why it became compulsory, but it's the usual low cost "easy fix", stuff the motorist to please the climate hysterics scenario so beloved of bureaucrats.

A better idea would be to reduce the number of times traffic is brought to a standstill.

In Gloucestershire we have a highways department that seems to think it's good wheeze to bring traffic to an unnecessary stop as often as possible. For example all recently installed traffic lights - and there are many - always default to green but will recognise when a vehicle is approaching and immediately start to cycle through to red in order to make the vehicle stop (and it does this 24/7  even if the road is otherwise empty). As soon as the vehicle has stopped the lights begin their cycle back to green which is annoying enough but when, as happens near to me, there are 2 sets of lights 150yds apart and you get stopped twice for absolutely no reason, even at 6.30 on a Sunday when the roads are empty, you can't help but wonder about the mentality of the people who plan these things.

I could name at least a dozen equally idiotic stunts by the highways people within a mile of where I live which serve no useful purpose that I can fathom and which must increase pollution significantly.

You only have to drive the M42/A42 east to join M1 to realise that highways planners are the last people that should be planning highways.

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