I have noticed a new feature on some cars and was wondering if it's a good idea and how they fix certain issues and would like you techies input. A Chevy Cruze was next to me today and had the auto stop feature on it. When they came to a stop, the motor turns off, then when they step on the gas, you hear the engine start back up. Heard it helps on the MPGs.

Now thinking about it, wouldn't this cause more of a strain on your car than it's worth? All the extra loads on your starter and battery I would think would be a draw back. If your car battery is bad and you need to get it to the store to get a new one, you have to jump it twenty times to get it there. Also, with a lot of stop and go especially in a traffic jam, couldn't it wear your battery down from not enough time for charging? How does the A/C keep cooling at a long stop?

These are things that have been keeping me awake at night... thanks in advance for your thoughts on this.

 

Personally, I think it's a gimmick.

I'm not a big fan of it. When you start a car up the first few cycles will not have efficiently catalyzed the exhaust so you are actually creating more smog than being green by constantly starting/stopping the engine.

From what I've seen, most cars that have the start/stop feature can have it turned off meaning, it will run like a normal car when the car comes to a stop

AC condenser and evaporator are probably bigger or have some sort of chamber to keep things cool while temporarily stopped. My coworker had a beamer with the auto stop feature. During the summer here in AZ he would shut the feature off because the AC couldn't keep up with the demand in stop/go traffic.

Engine wear would be magnified since 70% of engine wear is during startup and/or high RPMs.

 

Not sure on other makes but Honda has it only on Hybrid cars. They use the IMA (hybird) battery to turn the generator that sets between the engine and tranny as the starter for the car at all times unless the battery is weak at which point a regular 12v starter starts the car. The auto stop will also not work if the battery is weak. As for the a/c stuff they have what Honda calls a dual scroll compressor on them. They have a normal belt drive side with the clutch and then an electrical drive on the other end. They have a large orange cable going to them to supply the power.

I dont like them because they catch you off guard while driving and it messes with you. As far as does it help with mpg, yes. Better for environment, dont know.