Stop/Start is now Stop/Stop

[littlebrooklyn]

We took our car in for a factory recall last Friday, something to do with the airbag if I recall correctly.

Ever since we bought the car over 2yrs ago the stop/start has been intermittent and most of the time just hasn't worked at all. We weren't particularly worried about it and just lived with it. However when they did the recall they did a software update and twice since then the stop/start has stopped and just not started again. Not impressed at all, how can an update make the car even worse than before? Not sure why I ask such a daft question as this is Mercedes! Sitting here now waiting for someone to come and have a look at it, it would have been easier to not have taken it in for the recall I think

 

[Gazwould]

You'll be the envey of a lot of peeps here and will want the same software update...

 

[littlebrooklyn]

You'll be the envey of a lot of peeps here and will want the same software update...

The Mercedes guy came round pretty quickly and has diagnosed the fault as the car needing a new starter motor. It's only done 18,000 miles. Keith has just gone to take it to Mercedes and the technician is bringing him home. I'm hoping we get a loan car as they had the car all day on Friday and it's awful without one

 

[A.J.]

That damn stop/start might be the thing that's killed your starter motor. First thing I do after starting the car is switch the bluddy thing off !!

 

[Andy.M]

ditto

 

[littlebrooklyn]

That damn stop/start might be the thing that's killed your starter motor. First thing I do after starting the car is switch the bluddy thing off !!

You can't turn it off permanently though can you. Everytime you start the engine the flipping thing is activated. When I had my Fiat500 I could just turn it off and it would stay off, not this car.

 

[umblecumbuz]

Get your Frogeye out of mothballs!
They don't suffer with such problems,

 

[AMGeed]

You can't turn it off permanently though can you. Everytime you start the engine the flipping thing is activated.

Just press the eco button to turn it off before you start the car.
Its a pain, but disables it until you start the car again.
Just a matter of remembering to press the button before starting every time.

I'm sure it could be coded out.

 

[ajlsl600]

The Mercedes guy came round pretty quickly and has diagnosed the fault as the car needing a new starter motor. It's only done 18,000 miles. Keith has just gone to take it to Mercedes and the technician is bringing him home. I'm hoping we get a loan car as they had the car all day on Friday and it's awful without one

therein lying the reason why i aint doin stop start . starter shxxxxd , i would expect to get 100,000 from that ! and software ,suggests "conflict " virus, dealer/ maker control." all sold as a benefit to the user,methinks not.. i would just want it to keep working as the day i got in it.......... hope you get sorted sans asprin...

 

[A.J.]

You can't turn it off permanently though can you. Everytime you start the engine the flipping thing is activated. When I had my Fiat500 I could just turn it off and it would stay off, not this car.

Sadly no, you will just have to make a habit of turning it off. It is just routine with me now, I rarely forget it.

 

[littlebrooklyn]

They have brought round the new A Class as a loan car while they sort ours out. The technician that diagnosed the fault really seemed to know his stuff and said he keeps seeing the same fault all the time, so why they have this stupid stop/start thing on the car that you can't disable just once and it stays off I really don't know.
The new A Class is quite nice inside, seems to have a nicer look to the dash than ours, however I don't think they are worth the extra money.
I don't intend driving it as I'm sure to kerb an alloy and that wouldn't go down well

 

[ajlsl600]

They have brought round the new A Class as a loan car while they sort ours out. The technician that diagnosed the fault really seemed to know his stuff and said he keeps seeing the same fault all the time, so why they have this stupid stop/start thing on the car that you can't disable just once and it stays off I really don't know.
The new A Class is quite nice inside, seems to have a nicer look to the dash than ours, however I don't think they are worth the extra money.
I don't intend driving it as I'm sure to kerb an alloy and that wouldn't go down well

simples . more wear to various components more work for dealers , they just hope/plan that most of it will materialize after warranty

 

[sl500amgsport]

Stop Start disabled by my Smart Roof plug in so it seems it can be coded out...

Mercedes SL500 R231

 

[400ixl]

So we are now trying to blame a stop/start that was rarely working (and therefore putting no load on a starter) for the starter failing?

Get real, its just an early failure of a component.

Mercedes made a decision for switching it off not to be permanent, no legal requirement for that yet, but will be at some point I would have thought. They have also not put the option into Star to disable it that way. However someone has come up with a way to do this via the ODBII port so you can buy a device to plug in and it does disable it until you re-enable it.

 

[Capra]

Sadly no, you will just have to make a habit of turning it off. It is just routine with me now, I rarely forget it.

Me too, that's the first thing I do now, every time, turn out the green light. Just a habit now.

 

[Srdl]

Mercedes made a decision for switching it off not to be permanent, no legal requirement for that yet

I suspect it’s to do with the emissions figures. What they quote has to be for the standard default option on start-up.

 

[littlebrooklyn]

We have our car back today, glad to get it back. The technician did tell us there was an internal power drain on the starter motor, so I guess the stop/start wasn't helping but probably didn't cause the fault. Good job we got it done before the warranty runs out later this month

 

[Srdl]

We have our car back today, glad to get it back. The technician did tell us there was an internal power drain on the starter motor, so I guess the stop/start wasn't helping but probably didn't cause the fault. Good job we got it done before the warranty runs out later this month

That was lucky - these things normally go wrong a month after the warranty had ended

 

[noonboots]

Just talking to my son, he has had his BMW reprogrammed so that the stop start defaults to off rather than on.Maybe this is possible on Mercedes too.

 

[400ixl]

I suspect it’s to do with the emissions figures. What they quote has to be for the standard default option on start-up.

Not really, it is there so that they meet the emissions requirements as part of the testing. But other manufacturers go through the same testing but allow the system to be set how the owner wishes across restarts. So is purely their decision at this point in time.