Ok the superb is the first car I have had with this and not sure if its saving me fuel or making it worse what do others think do you turn it off or leave it on?

Turn it off everytime I start the engine.

I've experienced this on a rental Alfa. Drove me nuts. Turned it off.

Imagine the cost of replacement starter motors with all those thousands of extra stop/starts...possibly.

If starter motors failing due to start-stop was an issue I'd expect plenty of cases to be reported on the forum here and I've seen nothing. I'm guessing the starter motor on the cars with start-stop is significantly uprated compared to older cars. Having driven both a manual diesel and a petrol DSG with start-stop I don't see any reason I wouldn't leave it on. There are a couple of places where I turn my engine off already - Road works traffic lights that stay red for 4.5 minutes at a time on the N20 in Ireland for example - so automating the process makes sense...

Edited 25 January, 201610 yr by psycholist

I leave it on. It can be abit annoying in stop start traffic when you are only stopping for a few seconds but mostly it works well.

Road works traffic lights that stay red for 4.5 minutes at a time on the N20 in Ireland for example...

Do you have to drive that Cork/Limerick road daily? That's hard going, definitely one of the roads in the country that I like the least, especially at night.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I leave it on all the time. It just becomes the norm after a while. Once you learn to trust it and allow for the split second delay on restart there is no problem. I did than some Passengers can get quite nervous though as they think the car will stall!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think the stop start system is a waste of time and in reality is saving a lot of people absolutely nothing

 

If you drive in traffic you come to a stop and then just as the engine cuts out you need to move forward another 10 feet again, meaning it saves you about 5 seconds worth of idling, by the time you have done this a few times and you have made a whopping saving of 5p the battery is half flat and stop/start is disabled.

 

It would be useful if you had to wait at traffic lights for 2 or 3+ minutes in which case I may turn it back on but in reality I never seem to be stood still for long enough

 

Plus I have too much mechanical sympathy to let the car start up and instantly be pulling away out of a junction.

Edited 26 January, 201610 yr by SuperbTWM

 

Plus I have too much mechanical sympathy to let the car start up and instantly be pulling away out of a junction.

 

Do you think it does much damage?  Surely engine is already hot, plus I understand the system is pretty clever and leaves the engine in an optimum position to restart.  Strain on the starter and battery definitely but on the internals of the engine I kinda doubt.

 

But agreed the 3 seconds you stop in a traffic jam its kinda pointless

Do you have to drive that Cork/Limerick road daily? That's hard going, definitely one of the roads in the country that I like the least, especially at night.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I usually only drive it twice a week as there's no way I can justify wasting 3+ hours a day commuting. I enjoy driving it late at night though. It's a relaxing drive without traffic and takes 15 to 25 minutes less when you can stay at the speed limit all the way (Apart from maybe 5 or 6 bends) rather than having to follow the queues of traffic stuck behind trucks stuck behind the 70 km/h Toyotas that are a permanent feature of daytime intercity driving in Ireland. The alternative route through Kilmallock has some amazing sections if you get a clean run at them, but it takes the same time or longer with traffic (There are literally no safe overtaking opportunities on that road it's so twisty, but the surface is very good) and uses more fuel, same story with the M8 Fermoy option (Which has a toll as well), so miserable as it is with the road works, it's still the fastest route :(. 

Handy for me as the local city (Chichester) has a set of train gates at several key roads and so I can spend anything up to 12 minutes stationery - but you never know how long the wait is going to be so the start/stop is really helpful here - I once worked out over seven days that I had the 'stop' engaged for a total of 90 minutes! So over a year, it's a lot of fuel.

It's on all the time. If I know i am about to pull away after stopping for a few seconds, the clutch stays depressed. Other than that, I leave it to do its thing. 

 

It's excellent in the perpetual traffic jam that is London. 

 

I didn't like it at first but got used to it. It would be strange not to have it now. 

 

With regards to wear and tear. I am sure VW must have tested the S/S starter motor for a much higher number of start cycles through its lifetime. I haven't seen any issues with premature starter motor wear, and the technology has been around for several years now. 

Anyone remember the Polo Formel E ?  an Original stop / Start system, that was pulled quite quickly & queitly due to its unreliability  

There was a time when the words stop/start system and Skoda probably gave rise to a few old Skoda jokes!  Thankfully those days are long gone

 

On the issue of savings, I think on balance and taking average driving (yes I know, how long is a piece of string etc) into account there is a saving to be made.  I certainly notice it as I can compare a pre-FL 170 (without S/S) and my current FL 170 and I am making a slight saving - not much, but it is something.  Now counter that with longer-term potential damage (??) to the engine which I have to admit I am a little bit concerned about, although I probably won't keep the car for long enough for it to be an issue for me.

Do you think it does much damage?  Surely engine is already hot, plus I understand the system is pretty clever and leaves the engine in an optimum position to restart.  Strain on the starter and battery definitely but on the internals of the engine I kinda doubt.

 

But agreed the 3 seconds you stop in a traffic jam its kinda pointless

 

With modern day technology and oils I don't think its much of a detriment to the engine, enough oil sticks around in the engine on turbo for it not to be a problem I just prefer not to let it start/stop unless i'm actually benefiting from it. Turbo's don't like to be idle for long period of time so you could argue that in some cases start/stop could be better for the turbo.

 

I'm pretty sure they have beefed up the starter motor but it would be interesting to see how well they start when they get to 10 years old and they have had 20x the amount of starts a non- start/stop engine has had.

 

For some people including myself (with the exception of my 2015 superb) who like running older cars its going to be a problem. You can go out and buy numerous VAG cars at the moment with the old PD engines that have no DPF, no Adblue and no start stop and they be a faithful steed for many years. I don't think for one second that these modern cars with all the emissions gear on them are going to be any good once that time comes where the market is full of them and it will be a complete minefield trying to get one that hasn't got a worn out starter motor, a tired DPF and failing Adblue components.

Edited 26 January, 201610 yr by SuperbTWM

The stop start is fine and if you are in slow stop start traffic and don't want the system to kick in, use a light foot on the brake and it will hold the car still without activating the stop start. Regarding fuel consumption I am sure this is more to do with lowering emmisons which if enough people use it will help improve the polution.

I am not convinced that my car is delivering good MPG. The maxi dot shows reasonable results but using fuely which basically is on online spreadsheet doing the maths, it shows very poor performance. Over the two years I have seen the graph forever going down and is now around the 35 mark. I drive about 5k per year, keep an eye on speed and ensure in 30 mph areas I have the speedo at 32 mph as this drops the revs to approximately a little over 10 k as it uses 5 gear. Obviously the increase in around town driving is taking it's toll.

For some people including myself (with the exception of my 2015 superb) who like running older cars its going to be a problem. You can go out and buy numerous VAG cars at the moment with the old PD engines that have no DPF, no Adblue and no start stop and they be a faithful steed for many years. I don't think for one second that these modern cars with all the emissions gear on them are going to be any good once that time comes where the market is full of them and it will be a complete minefield trying to get one that hasn't got a worn out starter motor, a tired DPF and failing Adblue components.

I'm not so sure about this. They said the same about fuel injection, ecus and catalytic converters but you don't think twice about those now.

The turbo when up to operating temperature needs oil to be circulating through it to keep it cool.

 

Coming off the motorway and up to a set of lights the stop/start kicks in, the hot turbo then cooks the oil sat inside it.

 

I was in a colleagues Audi A4 with DSG the other day, the stop start seemed to turn the engine off at the daftest times, like when maneuvering and just as the lights turn green. This means that he often has to get on the accelerator harder and faster to keep up with the flow of traffic negating any fuel saving.

 

Watching the headlights dim in the reflection of the car in front each time we crawl forward in traffic, listening to the fan slowing down and speeding up, the heated seats cooling down as the engine stops, the brief handful of heavy steering whilst the engine fires up.

 

I just find it annoying and not something that will extend the overall life of the car. My mechanical sympathy tells me the advantages are outweighed by the disadvantages, another system that simply allows the manufacturers to achieve better tax banding and sell more cars to fleet buyers.

 

Tiff Needel on Fifth Gear did a test a few years ago to understand how much of an advantage it offered...

 

My 2014 Superb II is my first car with stop start, was not keen at first but to be honest I really like it now. Clearly if I'm pulling to a halt but know the traffic is about to move I simply leave my clutch pedal depressed but other than that I let it do its stuff.  Infact it's operation appears seamless, sometimes I'm not even conscious the engine has stopped (although a symbol appears on the dash), the only thing I hear is the click of a relay/distant very brief starter noise when I depress the clutch and engage gear when setting off        

Edited 26 January, 201610 yr by bigjohn

I'll still use the key to 'stop start'.

If you really want to save the planet, kill all the cows and sheep and trash your car....then cycle or walk to walk.

Great bit of marketing though.....and I'd love to own a company making starter motors if this trend continues. Spot on about the turbo oil and issues.

Just my selfish view....not looking for an argument

Dave

I'll still use the key to 'stop start'.

If you really want to save the planet, kill all the cows and sheep and trash your car....then cycle or walk to walk.

Great bit of marketing though.....and I'd love to own a company making starter motors if this trend continues. Spot on about the turbo oil and issues.

Just my selfish view....not looking for an argument

Dave

 

Well you've got to think of number 1!

 

Its worth having to turn it off every time i get into the car for £30 road tax which is ridiculously cheap for a car as big as the superb estate   The money this is saving will pay for an EGR or DPF delete depending on which one packs up first.

I leave mine on all the time, it works very well. In slow moving traffic it doesn't really apply as the clutch is usually pushed in and its still in gear waiting to move off, and if it looks like I'll be there a while I move in to neutral and if it wants to stop the engine that's fine by me.

On the very odd occasion if I stall it it also restarts the engine at the push of the clutch pedal, no fumbling for keys etc. 

If I'm in stop start traffic I turn it off but leave it on for traffic lights etc

The turbo when up to operating temperature needs oil to be circulating through it to keep it cool.

 

 

 

Your TDI engine has a water cooled turbo and an electric run-on water pump that can operate independently of the turbo.  Even the old PD engines had this.

 

But yeah, it's annoying.

Really? I didn't know this.

 

It isn't a feature specific to Australia is it, I imagine it gets real hot over there at the height of summer...