Yeah, it's a little fishy that everything good for the environment wears out engines faster and increases service dept cash flow.

 

I yanked that plug per Tel's instructions about 2 years ago. At that point, Tel had already vetted the process and determined there were no errors. Others had also taken their cars to the dealers for service and nothing showed up.

Having had it unplugged for two years now, I have personally found no issues and I have been in for annual service twice. The only error you can cause is if you hit the button to turn on the stop/start, you get a message that says something to the effect that it is unavailable.

 

The easiest way to disable the eco start/stop is to push the button after you start the car. It takes less time than fastening the seat belt. Start/dynamic/eco off/seat belt. It's all done before the engine comes off fast idle.

This is offered without proof and smells of conspiracy theory BS. Engine wear? Debatable. Engine wear occurs when running, and also when starting. Fuel pump is running less, and injectors are being used less. The only data I've seen is decades old, but I have changed more fuel pumps and injectors than engines. Starter wear? Yes, but noticeable in the average time of ownership? Systems were redesigned around this feature. I dunno. If you do, prove it.

Is it fishy that I have to help the environment by having my trash hauled rather than being allowed to burn it in my front yard? No. It makes sense.

 

Draining the oil at every stop light needs proof? The pump is mechanical. But it doesn't matter because where I live sitting in car without AC makes global warming sound fun.

 

Even allowing for the hyperbole with "draining," yes, it does.

Stop the engine for 0.1 sec and the oil will still be there. Stop it for 10,000 seconds and it will have drained. How about 0.2 sec? Viscosity is such that it won't have drained. If it were enough time, then oil changes would be pretty quick. How about once the fluid has effectively drained, but film strength still has it clinging to the moving parts? Five seconds? 30? 120?

I'd like to see data on that more than a "the sky is falling" freakout that reduced emissions are a plot to make us buy more engines.

 

You might not remember when a typical stop for gas included a crew who washed your windshield and opened your hood to check the oil. Oil in the pan. The sky isn't falling there are a million regulations to pump profits, thats why an all aluminum sports car weighs 2 tons and costs more than a house.

 

Shot in the dark, and wide of the mark. Also, not at all relevant to the discussion.

Doesn't address my questions though, so I'll be more clear. How much idling time wear offsets startup wear when the engine is hot? How much stopped time does it take before the startup cost (in wear) starts to increase?

 

Before I answer, are we talking a turbocharged car that requires a 30 sec idle before each shutoff to avoid oil starvation to prevent turbo failure?

 

Dont forget that the juice from the battery is not gratis. It must be reloaded from fuel consumption. And there is something else. The automatic clutch in our gearbox make the car advancing at slow speed, when you release the brake pedal. Not the case with double clutch and can be surprising when you stand behind a car in front. So you must brake again. What could result in another showdown.

 

Great points. And when you get out of the car and it starts up and starts moving with one foot inside and one foot outside, when your foot leaves the brake pedal, is extremely dangerous if the car fooled you by shutting itself off in Drive.

I just accidentally figured out why our car slams itself into Park, stopping on the transmission gears, whenever you crack the door open while rolling to better see a parking spot line, or a curb while backing up. Some cars don't do that, so the transmission survives but you don't.

One bad nanny idea leads to another bad nanny idea. This is what happens when engineers and activists with very little driving experience try to tell people how to drive with an agenda.

 

^^^ That hasn't been true since synthetic oil became available 3 decades ago.

Old fashioned mineral oils would 'coke up' in the heat of a non-spinning turbo unless you gave it time to idle before shutdown. Today's oil base stocks are not as sensitive to the heat (and many of today's turbos have water-cooled bearings, with electric circulating pumps for good measure, if the sensors see heat from spirited driving).

Our other exotic, a turbocharged car from the 1980s (97K miles), has the original turbocharger. Mobil 1 used since purchase in 1993.

 

The reason is to give the turbo time to wind down before removing oil pressure. It applies to modern turbos especially, but is common sense to let any hot engine cool down before removing cooling altogether. It's in modern owners manuals, too, even cars with auto stop start, stupidly.

 

It applies less to modern turbos. Ball bearings and water jacketed center sections are a big improvement over the early days. Still, the main problem with hot shutdown in the old days was coking of the oil. I was overhauling turbochargers for a while in the mid-80s, and most were loaded up with deposits of former oil.