I've noticed that the Start/Stop system on my Colour Edition Fabia sometimes doesn't always activate. It's usually, but not always,  during the first 15 minutes or so of my journeys. It's quite random, sometimes it activates after I've travelled only a short distance.

When I stop at junctions the engine keeps on running and a small symbol pops up on the dashboard display, (bottom left)  - "Start/Stop system not active" ??

Any ideas why this happens ?

     

There are quite a few parameters required to be met for the automatic idle stop to activate, IIRC, something like 8  - typical things that will inhibit the function -

- Low cabin temperature.

- Low engine temperature.

- AC demand setpoint not met.

- Low battery voltage (or failing battery)

- High electrical load.

- Steering wheel movement.

 

 

The Fabia Mk 4 Owner's Manual includes a section headed "START-STOP', but the only guidance on the system's operating conditions is as shown below.

 

Operating conditions

Some conditions are systemic and can neither be influenced nor recognised. Therefore, the system may react differently in situations which seem identical from the driver's perspective.

The driver must fulfil the following conditions:

- The driver's door is closed.

- The driver has fastened the seat belt.

- The driving speed was higher than 4 km/h after the last stop.

 

As Warrior193 has advised there will be a number of 'technical' conditions that must be met before the system will activate and (as far as I'm aware) when a Fabia Mk IV's Start-Stop system does not activate, there is no simple way to determine why. The system just moves in its own mysterious and unfathomable ways its wonders to perform. 

 

This Wikipedia entry may be of interest

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Start-stop_system#:~:text=Start-stop activation depends on,lubrication for an effortless restart.

I would add brake pedal pressure also influences stop/start, if, as some drivers do, slightly reducing brake pedal pressure a split second before the car stops, the S/S might not kick in, also if Auto Hold is switched off, S/S has activated slightly reducing foot brake pedal pressure will start the engine,

The cars are just glitchy.  I remarked a few weeks ago to the wife that the start stop no longer seemed to be kicking in.  It recently decided to start operating again.  I did wonder if it was related to engine temperature but the weather is presently rather cold so it's not that.  There has been no embarrassing situation yet where the engine has stopped then not responded to the controls leaving me holding everybody up.

@bazz2004 note all of the posts above, being cold particularly note Warrior193's post.  The newer models, DSG boxes, 3-cylinder, (active cylinder engines?) may well be more fussy than my wife 2015 Mk3, 1.2, 4-cylinder, manual box but also the newer cars have more electric and electronics on them giving more opportunity for greater electrical demand than a 2015.

 

nta I do read the posts in a thread but note that your experience relates to a 9 year old car not a mk4 . 

 

My first Skoda was from even longer ago than that being a Felicia which was the first version that had been adapted by VW after taking over Skoda.  It was pretty good to drive but showed right at the start that VW group were not great with electronics.  It had what was described as "Paper shop syndrome." That means that on driving on cold days it stalled at every stop made. It was said to be down to the engines electronic control unit which could not be adjusted and cost a lot of money to replace - with no guarantee that this would be any better. 

 

The competition for highly qualified designers in the area of electronics and software design is something that Skoda are not doing well with.  Their cars remain "glitchy" despite being mechanically well engineered.

VW Group stopped being able to employ the best engineers because with the Defeat Device the CEO & the Engineers Engineer Martin Winterkorn and the Board of Management tried blaming Junior Plebs and were even prepared to let them be jailed because the Heid yins were 3 monkeys.

 

The cars are still running engine management to get WLTP & RDE2 results rather than behave well real world on the roads. 

 

VW took software in-house and ballsed up, now they have incompetents writing software and VW group penny / cent pinch where ever they can.

They prefer spending on Advertising and lawyers than the R&D and procurement of parts and equipment. 

 

He was bound to pull the 'Ill heath card'.   Sick of lying possible.

Others sick of the stuff he and others signed off.

Edited 19 November, 20241 yr by Ootohere

2 hours ago, bazz2004 said:

nta I do read the posts in a thread but note that your experience relates to a 9 year old car not a mk4 . 

 

My first Skoda was from even longer ago than that being a Felicia which was the first version that had been adapted by VW after taking over Skoda.  It was pretty good to drive but showed right at the start that VW group were not great with electronics.  It had what was described as "Paper shop syndrome." That means that on driving on cold days it stalled at every stop made. It was said to be down to the engines electronic control unit which could not be adjusted and cost a lot of money to replace - with no guarantee that this would be any better. 

 

The competition for highly qualified designers in the area of electronics and software design is something that Skoda are not doing well with.  Their cars remain "glitchy" despite being mechanically well engineered.

I believe that you will find that the parameters governing operation of automatic idle stop (stop start) have not significantly changed since it was first introduced.

& the batteries fitted as standard are just what they could get away with as far a 'Much Cheapness',  it is amazing that there are ones lasting beyond the manufacturers warranty on the cars. Many do not, but then getting a simple battery replacement via Dealerships and a warranty claim can be a song and dance.

Yeap I'm have an idea of how things are with electronics and computer programming within the car manufacturing industry, the Covid pandemic really showed thing up, but just sticking with VWŠkoda whilst the original parameters (and perhaps original programming) may remain there are now more other programs systems and influences to affect them.  The loss of one cylinder, from a manufacturer used to to four or more, will also influence have some influence as everything has some input.

 

3 hours ago, bazz2004 said:

nta I do read the posts in a thread but note that your experience relates to a 9 year old car not a mk4 . 

Quite right my actual experience of VWŠkoda is limited to my wife's 2015 Mk3 but it wasn't always a 9 year old car and my first experience of VW start/stop was when it was first on the Golf and a mate had one as a loan car, he'd had a few new/nearly new VWs (and Beemers and Mercs) and we had Skodas before VW took over and just after my wife had a Favorit, the model before the Felicia, which I believe VW had some influence perhaps input and build but I can't remember, and I can't remember how much electronics were on it probably a bit in the ignition system but we never had any issues in cold weather and we'd never expect to with a car made in Czechoslovakia as it was then.  As I've put many times before when VW first took over I was told by the the quality of the vehicles dropped . . .

Edited 19 November, 20241 yr by nta16

ETA: part two as I posted before I'd finished  . . .

 

by the small friendly back-street Škoda dealer we bought our cars from, this was before the VW corporation started changing them more to the model of the slick (in all it's good and bad senses) VW Dealerships.

 

I also drive my neighbour's 2023 Ren-No! Nissan Cashcow at least once a week so have some experience of newer cars with their greater level of driver "aids" and "assists" with it's version of start/stop electronic handbrake with assist, thankfully to me it is at least a manual gearbox but the computer programs still rule.  The other (2021) Cascow had the battery replaced under warranty (possibly as a recall/manufacturer's thing, I forget) my neighbour was told it was a battery fault (that's usually a scapegoat excuse as we know).

 

Like all of us I have decades of experience of computers and computer programs and all their problems and the problems they create, my wife get phone calls about their issues and often has to return to work to help sort out the messes they make.  My mate was the top manager of the computer programming part of a large national company that dealt with computer programming project costing millions, he knew not much about computers but was a good manager of people and programmers can be special sorts of people, I've meet them in other jobs I've done too, even know someone that used to be in the military and worked at GCHQ. 😉

 

But as my signature(?) has it and I for a while started my posts I'm not an expert in anything and don't have any experience of a Fabia Mk4.

Edited 19 November, 20241 yr by nta16
spelling

@john1952 the following is about why the engine may continue to run during operation of the start/stop system, it's from the 'Owner's Manual' of my wife's 2015 Mk3 but I can't think why all would not apply to your MK4 but other MK4 owners will let us know any discrepancies or changes.  I've also found with the 2023 Ren-No! Cashcow that I have to press the brake pedal harder than I normally would to get the handbrake hold to operate but I've no idea about VW DSGs.

 

Edited 19 November, 20241 yr by nta16

I'm happy when the stop start doesn't activate! Especially with my Volvo as it can no longer be turned off.

I bought my wife a new Fabia Design edition with the 1.0TSI 110 bhp and 7 speed DSG.

 

We both love the car, but there is one annoying thing for me. When sitting in long traffic queues, if I come to a halt and apply the foot brake the engine cuts out. That's fine and dandy.  Then I slip it into neutral because the traffic isn't going to move for an eternity, or I don't want to dazzle the driver behind, lo and behold if I take my foot off of the brake, the engine restarts.

 

It seems a strange set up to me that the car doesn't recognise that the hand brake has been applied. when neutral is selected.  Small grumble, but am I missing something? 

Edited 8 February, 20251 yr by EltonGone

Try pressing the foot brake a bit harder  before releasing it and make sure you don't move the steering wheel as not doing the first or doing the second seems to restart the engine on our Kodiaq.

1 minute ago, skomaz said:

Try pressing the foot brake a bit harder  before releasing it and make sure you don't move the steering wheel as not doing the first or doing the second seems to restart the engine on our Kodiaq.

Thank you. I shall try that. I am definitely not moving the steering wheel, but it all seems very counter intuitive that when in neutral the engine should restart with the handbrake applied.

 

I will let you know how we get on tomorrow.

These "clever" computer programs ain't that clever, wait until you have 'fun' with lane "assist" and front "assist". a leaf sticks to the grille, a bag blows in the wind.

 

I have all that on my Karoq. To be fair it hasn't given me too many problems other than the very occasional warning I am about to crash, when clearly I am not.

You'll have a lot more than that on a 2025 car.  Something that reads road speed signs but can't see them all so tells you that you are going above the speed limit when you are not or holding the speed down if you've got other driver "aids" activated.  The computer systems are like a very nervous inexperienced driver sitting in the passenger seat, flitching and jumping about, giving out verbal warnings and advice often too premature and unnecessary - but this one can take over the steering and braking and more from you as a driver.

 

In the future all you'll need to know is computer games, as a driver you'll just be a lump of meat going from A to B in a battery electric storage, entertainment moving room. 😁

 

I feel you are are the impression that I have no experience of these driver aids and they are new to me. The only thing I am asking about is the stop start as my Karoq is a manual transmission and I have had no experience of the DSG.

 

AS for everything else, I do not have a problem with them as I have most of them on my own car. The Fabia is my wife's car. 

 

Edited 9 February, 20251 yr by EltonGone
added detail

Sorry yes I did by your test track thing.  For DSG start stop brake pedal thing also have a look here and in Mk3 Fabia and other model forums for what other owners have found with this and do about it.

 

On 08/02/2025 at 17:44, skomaz said:

Try pressing the foot brake a bit harder  before releasing it and make sure you don't move the steering wheel as not doing the first or doing the second seems to restart the engine on our Kodiaq.

Hi Skomaz, we took the car out today and tried pressing the foot brake has hard as possible, then engine stopped. I then moved the gear control to N, applied the hand brake before removing my foot from the brake. Once again the engine restarted. Tried a couple of times, but got the same result.

10 hours ago, nta16 said:

Sorry yes I did by your test track thing.  For DSG start stop brake pedal thing also have a look here and in Mk3 Fabia and other model forums for what other owners have found with this and do about it.

 

Do you have a link as I am sttruggling to find anything relevant.?

Sorry I can't find anything either but I don't think I imagined it, @Ootohere is good with DSG and searches, I'm stuck for what words and terms to try Gogle jumps on the words that give a different result.  I can't even find stuff I know I've put up nowadays, perhaps Elon is against me. 😁