Can anyone comment on using the Stop/Start option in warmer climates (Gulf Coast region/Southwest). How does the A/C do when the car cuts off? Does it maintain cooling? Maybe it has not been quite hot enough yet to put it to a real test?

 

No personal experience with it, from what my MA told me and stuff I've read on it, if the car doesn't have enough battery power to maintain the A/C while the engine is off, it won't turn the engine off. Ditto the radio and any other electronics, it watches the battery while making the call to stop and start.

Green mode does change the A/C though, unrelated to start/stop, it'll reduce the overall output of the A/C it to lower total power consumption.

 

BMW's stop/start doesn't stop the car if the temp is over 95. At least in my friends 335i.

 

I can confirm this statement. If you are at a long traffic light for example and the engine shuts off with start/stop active but you have the AC running it will automatically restart to maintain the battery. Needless to say it is a little disconcerting when it first happens as it gives the feeling that the car is going to start driving off on its own!

 

This is what the Owner's Manual says:

 

I am waiting to break the engine in a bit more personally before I really start to try and use this function. For right now all it amounts to is another little light in the center control panel signaling that is disabled. I know ideally it should not really impact the break in of the engine, just my personal preference. Plus in the last few days down here in FL, the AC has been going plenty strong so odds are it may not really have had the chance to work anyway (and AC is way more important than the slight increase in MPG down here),

 

Thanks for posting that info from the Owner's Manual, RKW. So far I haven't had to disable the feature as it works so well it's pretty transparent to me. I'm going to add one missing item in that list. If you have a manual transmission, it will not shut off if the clutch is in. So if you don't want it to shut off, when you come to a stop just keep the clutch depressed.

 

Now that you guys have got stop/start like us Yurpeens, you want to start a new thread with all the odd reasons why the stop/start won't work.

The oddball ones I've found on a 2nd Gen are:
▷ The driver's seat belt is not done up.
▷ The footbrake has been released and the car has reached about 4mph, rolling (unpowered) down a hill.
▷ There is an 'r' in the month.

The last one is a straight lie, but it's not that much stranger than some of the other reasons. Reverse engineering the software is a great game!

 

LOL...i'll add that while i like it and plan to keep it activated, i have run into a few issues where i'm coming to a stop and the light turns green JUST as the car auto-shuts. at this point i press the start toggle (lord knows why) and the car fully shuts off....at which point i start pumping the clutch (cause i'm that dumb) and then realize i have to toggle it on again since i fully shut it down.

needless to say the cars behind me were not amused

 

Washington, DC here (a veritable swamp of humidity) and more often than not if the air is running the start/stop activates for about a minute to a minute and a half at a red light, after that it restarts itself to replenish the battery. For city driving the stoplights are usually timed well enough that when I'm not moving the car is off.

 

When the start/stop shuts off the engine, the fan is running on low speed and blows over the cooling coils to blow some cool air on you. The A/C is not running nor is it charging because the engine is off. If you have a passenger in the back, they will sweat on hot days if you're at a light and the engine decides it wants to save the planet. It does get a little warm sometimes up front with the engine off and this is only June here in Tennessee. I have gotten to where I shut off the feature. It probably saves fuel, but the constant shut down and starting on hot and humid days and the way the car lurches forward when the engine comes back on its getting annoying. It's a cool feature but apparently I'm not "environmentally responsible" to put up with it.

 

I just disable mine and leave it off. For the minor amount of gas saving, I prefer not to have the engine cycling on/off at lights. I always sit at red lights with the car in N and the clutch out. Unless disabled, the engine will stop under that condition. I find it frustrating, and don't care for it. Just my preference.

 

This really gave me a laugh to read this, though it wasn't so funny when it happened to me a few times and I crumbled under pressure.

I have been feeding the fish the last couple of tanks and will try doing the same thing with the S/S off to see how it effects the mpg on the next tank.

 

Did that once... people will only ever do it once...

 

I have a MCS with an auto and use the stop/start function. I work in the San Fernando Valley and it's often times really hot, 95+. The function makes sure the car is pretty well cooled down before it starts enabling the function. Once the interior of the car reaches a normal temp the car does the start/stop. I have to say I don't really mind it, it seems to know when it's ok to to enable the system. However sometimes when the seats are still hot and the car is still pretty hot inside it will shut the car down. If it does I just give the steering wheel a tug and it starts right up again and then keeps running for the remainder of the traffic light.

I've noticed the function doesn't seem to activate when the AC is on max. So I've recently started using the max AC until the car is cooled all the way down, then I let the car do it's thing.

Also, when it's really hot out, I don't use the Green mode too much because it backs the AC down. I know I can change the setting but I haven't done that just yet, I may as summer heats up.