Idle Stop & Go (ISG) Love it or Hate it?

Shadowfax

Shadowfax

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May 8, 2013
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Location
Bucks County PA
So many of the new vehicles I drove including the 19 Santa Fe we just bought have this new feature, Idle Stop & Go where the engine turns off at red lights and back on when you release the brake or hit the gas.

Doesn't it take more gas to keep starting the car than it does to idle for the light?

Doesn't cycling the Starter many extra thousands of times create a stressed and early failing Starter?

I personally don't like the hesitation it has when restarting to move from a light. (All the ones I drove were similar)

All the SUVs I drove that had it, had it ON as default and you have to turn it off every time you start the car if you don't like it. It should be defaulted OFF.

Who likes it? Who hates it? Why?
 
I have had it on the last few vehicles but was able to set it so that it does not come on by default. When I did try it a few times I didn't notice any hesitation after it activated at a stop light.
 
That guy in the video is very opinionated but I think he’s right on a lot of stuff. I remember as a kid and young adult that starting the engine is the point at which most wear happens but as technology progressed, and warm stars are more common it’s probably not as big a deal. On my Camry hybrid, there were literally multiple dozen start stop cycles. I always cringed but that’s what it was designed to do.

I just don’t like it on a non hybrid car for many reasons. On my car it’s suspected of killing batteries in two years as opposed to the usual 4-6. I’ve disabled mine.

If it’s a lease, who cares. Don’t worry.
 
Joe, not a lease. I will push the off button when I drive but sure to forget at times so a full disable or at least a change in default would be great.
 
I have occasionally gotten them in loners from the dealership. I did not think it was the starter we firing the engine. I thought it was a very heavy flywheel with centrifical force it through it back on. Anyhow, I hated it and was always tinkering to figure out how to turn it off.
 
Idle On/Off is the dumbest thing the gov has made mandatory regarding cars since making ethanol blended gas mandatory......
 
My F150 has it, but I can disable it on my dash. When I first got it , it was "weird" but after 24k miles I Haven't had any issues at all. My neighbors 2016 911 has it, such a odd feature to be designed on a Porsche. Not fond of it.
 
Had it on my VW Touareg. In 3 years the ecu said it had started the car over 7000 times. I never use it now.
 
Terrible feature. It doesn’t work properly and can be very dangerous. It almost got killed in a rental car because of the acceleration lag. I needed to pull out quickly to avoid oncoming traffic and I couldn’t do it. Then there’s the ridiculous wear and tear on the starter.

Ken
 
joeinid said:
Holy cow, 7000 times, that’s insane.
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Joe, I never realised until I had a mechanic hook it up to his computer with the right tuning software & he started to read all of the parameters & figures. He was dropping me off & we started to talk about the new tuning capabilities his new software has that he got from Germany. As an interesting side comment he mentioned how many times my starter motor had been used since new. I freaked & never used the damn thing again. But as Ken said, it too can be escalated into a bad situation very quickly if you aren't 5 seconds ahead of the lapse....
 
I always modify every car I have. Luckily my 2016 370Z doesn't have this stupid feature. If it did, I'd using the tuning software to turn it off permanently. If I ever get a car that has this feature, I will get whatever tuning software is needed for that vehicle and turn that feature off (among doing actual tuning on the vehicle of course).

My brother that also had a 2016 370Z (which he never really cared for) just traded it in recently for a 2018 Alfa Romeo Giulia, and it too has that stupid Stop & Go feature that he has to disable every time he gets in it. The heck with that.

Just thinking about it, I estimate if my car had that feature, it would stop and start at LEAST 15 times between here and work which is a 4 mile city commute. And I typically go home for lunch. So that's roughly 60 times in one day that the starter has to be used! 60 times! That's two entire weeks worth of starts with a "normal" car like mine. Nooooo thank you.
 
Hate it too on my M550. The car starts with it on by default. Went to the BMW dealer to reset it to so that it defaults to being off at startup. Previous BMW had it off by default. Was told by dealer that the change was mandated by the feds.

Bummed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
bzr said:
Joe, I never realised until I had a mechanic hook it up to his computer with the right tuning software & he started to read all of the parameters & figures. He was dropping me off & we started to talk about the new tuning capabilities his new software has that he got from Germany. As an interesting side comment he mentioned how many times my starter motor had been used since new. I freaked & never used the damn thing again. But as Ken said, it too can be escalated into a bad situation very quickly if you aren't 5 seconds ahead of the lapse....
Click to expand...

I rented a Durango for a weekend to move gear. It had that feature. I don’t remember a turn off switch. I’d come to a stop wherever and it would shut off. I’d lift off the brake and it would start again. I’d have to stop, a few seconds later, off. It was annoying as hell.

My VW has it too but it’s sort of disabled. It’s not permanently disabled but good enough until I drag out the tool.
 
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