I was adjusting the roof rack rails I installed today to test fit my car carrier for a trip this summer. While looking through the manual looking for guidance on where to place the bars, of which I found none, I ended up wandering and came across a section that mentioned automatic starting/stopping of the engine to conserve fuel.

I have a 2013 CMSA4 and on page 129 of the owners manual it talks about an Automatic Engine Start/Stop Function. Is this something that must be turned on? If so, where? The manual only describes it matter of factly like it should just happen.

 

Auto Start/Stop is not a feature available in the States. I believe it is available on certain models in Europe. The manual covers all possible configurations, thus the mention.

 

If I remember right, a more heavy-duty starter, etc is installed...
and certain things must be done..such as AC not on MAX, etc for it to work. Some BMW's DO have this feature turned on...but the savings is so minimal, that at US prices for fuel...about 50% of Europe...the option just does not make $$ sense...
Believe Bimmerfile, sister site to motoringfile (the MINI site) had info...

 

Auto Start/Stop will be on U.S. MINIs for 2014, I believe.
And, if it's like the BMW system, you'll have to shut it off each time you start the car. The default position is ON. Royal PITA, in my opinion.

 

that's when coding comes into play and you can permenently disable

 

The rack placement recommendations are actually in the manual that comes with the rack.

 

Here are the rack positioning specs:

Front crossbar: 260mm from the front of the rail to the front crossbar center.
Rear crossbar: 705mm from the center of the front crossbar to the center of the rear crossbar.



Got Weather Radio?

 

The Thule fit kit only specified a distance between the bars. I was hoping it would give optimal positioning based on the roof of the CountryMan. The instructions were not exactly verbose.

I test fit my cargo box the other day and ended up with the front bar 12.25" from the very front of the bar and teh 2nd bar 27" back on center. Still can open the hatch without it hitting with my Ascent 1600 on top which comes as far forward as the top of the windshield. Looks like it was made for it.

 

I drove a base Cooper in the UK for a week with Auto Stop/Start. Was pleasantly surprised by both the simplicity of the system and how easy it was to adapt to. Not a PITA, at all.

 

I've spoken with some clean vehicles people and done my own analysis (from datalogs of an engine running a megasquirt) of the fuel consumed during idling and the feature does make sense from a gas savings standpoint.

The equivalent fuel burned from a warm start to settled idle is roughly equivalent to between 3 and 10 seconds of stopped idling. So really (in theory), any time you are stopped for more than 10 seconds, you're potentially wasting fuel.

Now if you consider the cost to design, implement, and buy the feature, then maybe it doesn't make financial sense. But it does make environmental sense.

 

Your front crossbar is 51mm aft of the front crossbar reinforcement area in the roof, and the rear crossbar is 32mm aft of the rear crossbar reinforcement area. So, my caution to you is:

(1) DO NOT load your roof box to the maximum weight shown in the manual. Stay well below the limit (say 100-120 lbs);

(1) Since your rear crossbar is aft of the rear reinforcement by fewer millimeters that the front, try to pack the heaviest stuff toward the rear of the box.

FWIW

 

The reason why MINI hasn't brought it to the US is because the EPA doesn't include the function as part of the fuel economy testing. Since the savings realized from the system aren't reflected in the EPA's MPG ratings, MINIUSA decided that it wasn't worth the expense of adding it - because there is an added cost to incorporating the system. That's per Motoringfile and the various MINIUSA folks that they've quoted on the site.

Yes there are savings - but since those savings aren't apparent to your average non-enthusiast sticker reader, MINIUSA elected not to offer the function...