Stop Start doesn't seem to work

[Vx-Man-G]

Hey guys,

I know stop start is one of them things which everyone wants working but will always switch off, I'm no different, on the new B Class we've bought it doesn't seem to work. It's a 2017 B180d, Auto.

On startup by default on the screen the A with a circle round it is orange with a line through it, but the button on the dash is green.

I'm slightly confused.
Is it active automatically on startup or deactive?

Advice appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[mioba]

Aux battery or capacitor is toast.

 

[V6Matty]

It’s always activated on start up, so likely the car needs a good charge, getting up to temperature and a few other variables for it to go green

 

[grahamcol]

Be joyful it doesn't work.. Stop start is an invention of the devil.

 

[Vx-Man-G]

Aux battery or capacitor is toast.

Where is this located?

 

[dry run]

My stop/start always used to get turned off by me as soon as I started the car. For about the last 6-months I haven't had to turn it off as it never changed from orange to green (happy days). On friday, I took a trip from Portsmouth to Leeds and back (averaging 47.9 mpg). On the way back, the orange light changed to green and I was suprised that the car turned the engine off at the first juction I came too.

Since then (last 2 days), I've had to start turning it off again as It comes to life within seconds of starting the car??? Even this morning, as soon as I started the car and drove about 20 yard to the end of the road - sure enough it kicked in.

This system truely is a fickle beast

 

[Vx-Man-G]

My stop/start always used to get turned off by me as soon as I started the car. For about the last 6-months I haven't had to turn it off as it never changed from orange to green (happy days). On friday, I took a trip from Portsmouth to Leeds and back (averaging 47.9 mpg). On the way back, the orange light changed to green and I was suprised that the car turned the engine off at the first juction I came too.

Since then (last 2 days), I've had to start turning it off again as It comes to life within seconds of starting the car??? Even this morning, as soon as I started the car and drove about 20 yard to the end of the road - sure enough it kicked in.

This system truely is a fickle beast

Ah, I see. So the light on the dash, when it it amber, it means its not operational, but when it goes green it means it will work. Gotcha.

 

[rorywquin]

Hey guys,

I know stop start is one of them things which everyone wants working but will always switch off, I'm no different, on the new B Class we've bought it doesn't seem to work. It's a 2017 B180d, Auto.

On startup by default on the screen the A with a circle round it is orange with a line through it, but the button on the dash is green.

I'm slightly confused.
Is it active automatically on startup or deactive?

Advice appreciated.

Thanks.

Green = On
A with a circle round it is orange = not operative


As previously mentioned teh car probably needs a good run. Our 2015 is still on the original battery & does mainly short runs & the Eco works fine.

Battery in ours (IIRC) is under the drivers feet but easy for you to google that or use the QR code inside one of the doors (shows locations of batterys and strong points for emergency workers).

 

[grahamcol]

You've probably realised l hate the feature. Increased wear on starter, battery and engine.
I travelled on a bus recently. Sometimes at a bus stop, the engine would cut out and then restart within a couple of second or less. What's the point ? An utterly ridiculous feature, completely devoid of any real benefits in my opinion.

 

[Vx-Man-G]

You've probably realised l hate the feature. Increased wear on starter, battery and engine.
I travelled on a bus recently. Sometimes at a bus stop, the engine would cut out and then restart within a couple of second or less. What's the point ? An utterly ridiculous feature, completely devoid of any real benefits in my opinion.

I agree.

Im just the type of person that wants everything to work, and im the same as you, when it is operational I will probably switch it off.

But your info is really useful.

Thank you.

 

[rorywquin]

You've probably realised l hate the feature. Increased wear on starter, battery and engine.
.............

That is an urban myth. Car starters and other systems (eg oil circulation) are designed for this. There are many articles regarding this & it has been around for years now.

 

[grahamcol]

That is an urban myth. Car starters etc are designed for this. There are many articles regarding this.

Sorry but l have to disagree. A friend had a C class with the feature. Around 20k miles he had to have the starter motor replaced. I suppose that could have been an exception but there again I'm not so sure.

 

[rorywquin]

I agree.

Im just the type of person that wants everything to work, and im the same as you, when it is operational I will probably switch it off.

But your info is really useful.

Thank you.

You’r dad wont bother to turn it off. My wife never turns it off and is so used to it she doesn’t realise it is there. I have a feature (aftermarket SmartTop mainly for extra features for the folding roof) - in my SL that permanently disables it because my car’s fit in the garage is quite tight and when I’m nudging upto the correct “spot” in the garage, it kept kicking in every time I braked.

 

[rorywquin]

Sorry but l have to disagree. A friend had a C class with the feature. Around 20k miles he had to have the starter motor replaced. I suppose that could have been an exception but there again I'm not so sure.

Millions of cars with millions of trouble free miles using it now. As you allude to, the exception does not make the rule. We only ever hear about the problems.

 

[grahamcol]

Millions of cars with millions of trouble free miles using it now. As you allude to, the exception does not make the rule. We only ever hear about the problems.

Well l think we're just going to have to disagree on this one on this occasion !
Neither of my current cars have stop start, so it's not going to bother me (yet)

 

[Vx-Man-G]

I have it on my personal Insignia, in the near 2 years I have had the car its worked about 5 times, and when it does, I always think, oh dear, have I broken down, then I remember its the S/S.

My previous Insignia was 1 year older and had A LOT more miles on it and it worked from day 1 right the way to when I gave the car back some 6.5 years later.

This technology and the parameters really are a minefield!

 

[Ron240]

Be joyful it doesn't work.. Stop start is an invention of the devil.

When paired with an automatic gearbox I literally could not agree more!
I routinely turn mine off when starting the engine, and Mercedes have helpfully put the disable button immediately below the starter button on my car.
Having said that I think the technology is good and when paired with a manual gearbox works well...the crucial difference being it only activates when the driver wants it to.

 

[rorywquin]

I have it on my personal Insignia, in the near 2 years I have had the car its worked about 5 times, and when it does, I always think, oh dear, have I broken down, then I remember its the S/S.

My previous Insignia was 1 year older and had A LOT more miles on it and it worked from day 1 right the way to when I gave the car back some 6.5 years later.

This technology and the parameters really are a minefield!

FWIW the s-s (well certainly on MB) is only operative when a list of parameters are met. One of those is that the cranking battery has to be sufficiently charged to allow cranking. There are a whole lot of others but the battery being in teh right state is teh most important. Many short trips, long periods of no use, etc can all affect teh battery performance.


I lived in The Netherlands in the late 90s for 5 years. Back then it was law to turn off the engine when in traffic or at traffic lights. We were new immigrants and couldn’t afford new cars and owned a few bangers - not one of them suffered any issues from repeated starts and it was not considered an issue there. The Dutch are very tight fisted and if cars were breaking down because of stop-start everyone would have known about it.

 

[Gazwould]

The bottom line with Stop Start is a cash cow device marketed falsely as money saving , it's a regular topic on most car forums and alot are renewing 5+ year old batteries that are still starting the car and will for years for hundreds of pounds and it still doesn't make Stop Strain operational.

Will it ever have saved them hundreds of pounds , quite simply , no .

 

[rorywquin]

The bottom line with Stop Start is a cash cow device marketed falsely as money saving , it's a regular topic on most car forums and alot are renewing 5+ year old batteries that are still starting the car and will for years for hundreds of pounds and it still doesn't make Stop Strain operational.

Will it ever have saved them hundreds of pounds , quite simply , no .

AFAIK it is supposed to protect the environment via reduced emissions. Yes, it will save fuel because the engine is not running, however I’ve never heard that the main driver was better fuel economy. Fuel economy is simply a small side benefit.

Additionally, this was not a scheme dreamed up by car makers but was forced on them through legislation.

Ergo not a "cash cow device marketed falsely as money saving”.

However the whole "car pollution” problem with EV virtue signallers is a red herring. The EU calculated that all the transport in Europe (trains, planes , cars, boats etc) are only responsible for about 35% of the emmsiions problem.