Technical Stop-Start...Good or Bad?

[Blue2U]

I've had a few local "experts" telling me that I should switch off the Stop-Start on my 500L 1.3 diesel Dualogic, just about everybody tells me it will wear out the battery and cause more wear and tear on the engine than I could ever possibly save in fuel...

Any advice from the wise will be gratefully received!

 

[MJG]

I've had a few local "experts" telling me that I should switch off the Stop-Start on my 500L 1.3 diesel Dualogic, just about everybody tells me it will wear out the battery and cause more wear and tear on the engine than I could ever possibly save in fuel...

Any advice from the wise will be gratefully received!

Cars fitted with stop start technology normally have both an uprated battery and starter motor.

The battery on our 500 which had SS was physically quite a bit bigger than the battery of our L that doesn't. ( though ours are petrols)

Personally if I had it I would use it, it shouldn't actually cause engine wear as such only potentially those items involved in starting it which as I say are normally suitably catered for, unless somebody knows different.

 

[JTD_Liam]

I let SS cut in round town occasionally in my MiTo JTDm and my Parents 500 TwinAir, but it's switched off when I get on the motorway so that if I hit a traffic jam, the engine doesn't stop straight away after a high speed run, as I always let my cars idle for a couple of minutes before switching off, especially after a long or fast drive. This is to allow the oil circulate round the turbo and cool it down a bit.

Personally I think SS is only there to help lower the claimed CO2 figures and car manufacturers probably care very little if the turbo or another component fails as a result of the SS system. Chances are failures will be after 3 years and it'll then not be them picking up the bill. Plus, if the customer still goes to the main dealers, the manufacturers dealers get money out of it.

I let it cut in round town to improve air quality, but the fuel savings must be so negligible to most drivers that I'd worry more about saving my bank account of future repair costs than getting an extra couple of mpg.

 

[Blue2U]

I let SS cut in round town occasionally in my MiTo JTDm and my Parents 500 TwinAir, but it's switched off when I get on the motorway so that if I hit a traffic jam, the engine doesn't stop straight away after a high speed run, as I always let my cars idle for a couple of minutes before switching off, especially after a long or fast drive. This is to allow the oil circulate round the turbo and cool it down a bit.

Personally I think SS is only there to help lower the claimed CO2 figures and car manufacturers probably care very little if the turbo or another component fails as a result of the SS system. Chances are failures will be after 3 years and it'll then not be them picking up the bill. Plus, if the customer still goes to the main dealers, the manufacturers dealers get money out of it.

I let it cut in round town to improve air quality, but the fuel savings must be so negligible to most drivers that I'd worry more about saving my bank account of future repair costs than getting an extra couple of miles outta my tank of fuel.

Yours are more or less the thoughts I've been having, the fuel economy is not particularly great anyway, after 2 months and 2200km I'm averaging 6.0l/100km (47mpg), and as over the last 7 years my average mileage has only been 8250pa (5126miles) I'm not really bothered about consumption either way.

I do think about pollution, but as my average Stop can usually be measured in seconds I don't think I'm doing much on that score either, however, as (because of the low mileage) I intend to keep the 500L for five years, I'd hate to be hit for a fat wedge just before I change it.