rickhoy615

Hello to all, This post is for anyone who was wondering if the old method for turning off start-stop works on the Mk IV. TL;DR IT WORKS. I've owned a 2021 Octavia Mk IV for about a year now and it is my preference to start the car with the system disabled. I have owned other Skodas previously and was very satisfied to use an aftermarket memory module on the physical start-stop system switch where available. Other members who own a Mk IV will know that it is not possible to use this approach on our cars because there is no physical switch. The times that I forget to turn the system off before I start driving frustrate me intensely, because the system decides to cut the engine at the most inopportune time (in my opinion). It can only be disabled by using the touch screen. I try to avoid using the touchscreen when I'm already in traffic because I think it's pretty dangerous. I had been patiently waiting for better minds to work out the coding required to permanently disable the start-stop system, but today I had enough. I wanted to see if the old method of disconnecting the little black plug from the negative battery terminal worked. I had not been able to find any reports of people trying this method on the Mk IV so far, so I thought I might as well try it and post here with the result. After reading page 30 and page 65 of the Mk IV electrical system service manual, I disconnected the plug from the negative battery terminal and went for a drive. The plug on mine was orientated differently to the diagram but it was easy to tell that it was the same plug. It worked exactly as I expected it would. The start-stop system was disabled without any input from me. I went for a few more drives to see if the rest of the car's functions were affected by disconnecting the module. I can say that, as far as I can tell, none of the car's other functions seem to be affected. The message to inform you of the start-stop system error isn't even annoying on this car! You just get a momentary notification on the left side of the virtual cockpit the first time that you come to a stop during that power cycle of the ignition and then it goes away! It doesn't bother you again for the rest of the drive. It doesn't even play that annoying bong sound that every other error message or fault code plays. You will find the error message under vehicle information on the infotainment unit, but for that you'd have to use the touchscreen 😁 For me, this is a vast improvement over cutting the engine right when I don't want it to in the event that I've forgotten to use the touchscreen to disable it. Now, it's important to note that the service manual states that module J367 also controls the auxiliary heating, so if your car is fitted with that option then this method may not be for you. My car doesn't have that option and it's not available in my region, so I can't say for sure. It also states that an entry is made in the event memory for every time that the system produces an error. I don't care about this because since the last software update, my car throws fault codes for emergency assist and travel assist multiple times every second drive or so. It probably records so many errors it doesn't matter. Hopefully software version 1896 fixes some of those when I get it. It's a good thing I'm very tolerant of the software bugs, because I do really like the car otherwise. I hope that this post assists anyone who wanted to try this, but wasn't game to go in blind.