Disable the Auto Stop feature

306000 Views 262 Replies 75 Participants Last post by RIT333, 6 d ago

JGreg7

Discussion Starter · Feb 10, 2018

The auto stop feature in my 2018 Equinox is driving me crazy. I live in traffic plagued southern California, where creeping along is a way of life. The Auto Stop feature keeps killing the car while in traffic or in parking lots.

The Auto stop turns the engine off when the car comes to a stop instantly. In the case where the stop is momentary, you have to wait for the engine to re-start before being able to proceed.

In traffic, when creeping along, or start-stop, the engine stop has almost caused me to be rear-ended several times.

It also takes too long to start, causing a lag when trying to pull out into traffic. A very dangerous problem when trying to pull into traffic.

The concept is generally useful if there was a long traffic light, however the implementation is poorly done. There needs to be a programmable delay before the car simply turns off, or better yet a switch to disable it when in traffic.

Is there any way to turn this feature off? Or somehow control it?

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rednox301

· #2 · Feb 10, 2018 (Edited by Moderator)

Several threads on the forum about this, do a search.
One is listed in the link below, post #8 covers it.

http://www.equinoxforum.net/42-new-member-section/15257-new-18-denali.html

c&wsinbad

· #3 · Feb 10, 2018 (Edited by Moderator)

Rednox has it right. I can attest that it works. I routinely shift to L and adjust the range to "9" and no more Start/Stop. My concern is the added wear/tear on the starter and battery, not to mention the lack of cooling transition for the turbo bearing and the oil for them.

Reactions: 3

stopwatch

· #4 · Feb 11, 2018

JGreg7, your not alone... I had rented a new Chevy Cruze but it also has the stupid auto-stop, so I took it off my shopping list. So when I looked at the new 2018 Equinox I turned it down in favor of a new 2017 Equinox with the main reason being the stupid auto-stop. The dealer wasn't surprised when I told him how much I disliked the auto-stop. ( seemed like he heard this complaint before ) Asked him why Chevy doesn't have a switch to turn it off, he just shrugged... Many other manufactures that I looked at do have an auto-stop switch. ( or don't have an auto-stop system at all ) Although the " M " workaround may work for some, it is not there as a switch for auto-stop its a manual gear range selector. ( and I'm sure someone will try this workaround and forget to choose the correct gear.... ) Enough said..

Lee F

· #5 · Feb 11, 2018 (Edited by Moderator)

JGreg7 said:
It also takes too long to start, causing a lag when trying to pull out into traffic. A very dangerous problem when trying to pull into traffic.

This doesn't sound right to me. In the time it takes me to remove my foot from the brake and press the gas, the car is ready to accelerate.

On my car the engine only stops when the car stops. I don't understand how the engine stopping will cause a rear end collision. Auto Stop should not cause your car to come to a unexpected abrupt stop surprising the car behind you.

Reactions: 3

Racerx

· #6 · Feb 11, 2018

It does take a little getting used to, but ours is pretty seamless. We have the 2.0T with the 9 speed, does JGreg7 have the 1.5L. We test drove a 1.5L before we drove the 2.0 and it did seem the start/stop was more noticeable with the 1.5L.

NC18NOX

· #7 · Feb 11, 2018

There is a company that makes a module to disable the stop start function. At this time however it's mostly for Chrysler-Jeep vehicles. I contacted them and the owner said he was working on something for GM products and it would probably be available this spring. The website is smartstopstart.com I've been practicing a tecnique of my own for stopping and my motor rarely cuts off. It works by letting off slightly on the pedal before you come to a complete stop and then lightly reapplying the pedal. It's easy to do but hard to explain, just takes a little practice.

JGreg7

Discussion Starter · #8 · Feb 11, 2018

Traffic is the reason...

Lee F said:
This doesn't sound right to me.
In the time it takes me to remove my foot from the brake and press the gas, the car is ready to accelerate.

On my car the engine only stops when the car stops. I don't understand how the engine stopping will cause a rear end collision.
Auto Stop should not cause your car to come to a unexpected abrupt stop surprising the car behind you.

I live in Southern California. Traffic is a challenge here, it is very heavy, with very long gaps or breaks where you ca pull into it. so you sit, and wait, and wait.... When trying to pull out into traffic, there is only a very small gap that you have to accelerate into. Try to start and jump into one of these gaps is delayed significantly by the engine needing to start. (I also have concerns that with the engine resting between these "waits", the oil may settle to the pan and not be available when the hard acceleration is needed).

The other issue, when creeping forward in traffic, as the brake lights go out, everyone is signaled to move. People start moving forward. However, when you don't actually go anywhere, the people behind you keep creeping up. While this is not a high-speed collision as in the example above, it is very troublesome.

My feeling is that the GM engineers that came up with this idea, did not fully understand the dynamics of high-traffic areas. A switch to disable this would be helpful. The idea would probably work well if there was a 5~10 second delay before killing the engine - at least in traffic.

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JGreg7

Discussion Starter · #9 · Feb 11, 2018

I have tried this - it works, however....

c&wsinbad said:
rednox has it right. I can attest that it works. I routinely shift to L and adjust the range to "9" and no more Start/Stop. My concern is the added wear/tear on the starter and battery, not to mention the lack of cooling transition for the turbo bearing and the oil for them.

I have tried this - it works, however, I am concerned that operating the vehicle in this manner could possibly damage the transmission (or cause added wear, or invalidate the warranty somehow....). It is also quite a nuisance to shift through all 9 gears in the beginning. The design should be seamless.

Reactions: 1

RIT333

· #10 · Feb 11, 2018

JGreg7 said:
My feeling is that the GM engineers that came up with this idea, did not fully understand the dynamics of high-traffic areas. A switch to disable this would be helpful. The idea would probably work well if there was a 5~10 second delay before killing the engine - at least in traffic.

I would guess they fully understand the dynamics, but they were probably told to develop a cheap system that works, that will allow GM to get the EPA gas mileage numbers higher, and not allow the user to switch it off, because then GM cannot get credit for it wit the EPA tests. Just my $0.02

Reactions: 2

JayTee2014

· #11 · Feb 11, 2018 (Edited by Moderator)

JGreg7 said:
I have tried this - it works, however, I am concerned that operating the vehicle in this manner could possibly damage the transmission (or cause added wear, or invalidate the warranty somehow....). It is also quite a nuisance to shift through all 9 gears in the beginning. The design should be seamless.

It will not cause damage to the transmission using this mode. The "Manual" Select mode is a normal mode of use, especially to those who drive in hilly or mountainous areas, tow a travel trailer or large boat. This "Manual Select" mode has been on GM vehicles for many years and in many models. Not just drive trains with "Stop/start". I have it on my 2015 Equinox and I believe it goes back to 2010 or earlier.

It merely selects the top gear the transmission will shift into. The added benefit it that it also disables Stop/start.

P.229 in your 2018 Equinox Owners Manual.

Reactions: 3

Lee F

· #12 · Feb 11, 2018

JayTee2014 said:
I have it on my 2015 Equinox and I believe it goes back to 2010 or earlier.

I had it on my 2008 Equinox Sport and my wife's 2008 Malibu has it.

Reactions: 1

JayTee2014

· #13 · Feb 11, 2018

Lee F said:
I had it on my 2008 Equinox Sport and my wife's 2008 Malibu has it.

We had a 2009 Saturn Aura and it actually had the "Manual Mode" plus paddle shifters on the steering wheel. On that drive train, it was a Manual Select as well as a Manual Shift. We have manual shift on our 2017 Sonic as well. Just a shift handle +and - button though. No paddles.

Zequinox

· #14 · Feb 11, 2018

If you don't want to manipulate the gear select switch, my wife tells me that if you creep up to a stop without firmly braking to a stop, the stop-start feature won't engage. It takes some practice.

Lee F

· #15 · Feb 11, 2018

JayTee2014 said:
We had a 2009 Saturn Aura and it actually had the "Manual Mode" plus paddle shifters on the steering wheel. .

Yep, same thing on the Malibu. I thought the paddle shifters would be a neat feature, but the shifts were a little slow, so I didn't use them very often.

Reactions: 1

c&wsinbad

· #16 · Feb 12, 2018

RIT333, I think you hit the nail squarely with your analysis! Meanwhile, we live with the results of a political decision.

stopwatch

· #17 · Feb 12, 2018

RIT333 said:
I would guess they fully understand the dynamics, but they were probably told to develop a cheap system that works, that will allow GM to get the EPA gas mileage numbers higher, and not allow the user to switch it off, because then GM cannot get credit for it wit the EPA tests. Just my $0.02

Gee the Ford Escape has a switch for the Auto-stop... I guess they understand the dynamics a lot better than the GM engineers.... Simply put GM should have included switch to disable it! No excuses.

tizan

· #18 · Feb 12, 2018 (Edited by Moderator)

There are EPA emission regs... but start stop does not help there as the measurement are done when engine is running.

I am not aware of any EPA mileage limitation on a given class of vehicles. May be i am wrong as far as i know EPA has regulations on the average mpg of all the vehicles on offer by manufacturers. It is 25 mpg right now but supposed to go to 35mpg in 2025 or 2030 . That is why for example GM has the electric Spark which is sold in California and sell in the 10s per year...so that they can sell the Traverse.
And in low gas price times...most pay no attention to the EPA mileage tag (except for people like me).

I suspect now that China is the largest automotive market... it may drive the design of vehicles sold there... just like California drive the emission of cars in the US. So may be if China has a reg on consumption on small SUV market and the nox is being sold there... then may be the design is a political decision

Since Toyota introduced this on its hybrids more than 10 years ago. I think it is more everybody is doing we can do it too... (may be engineering hubris; our starter can outlive a million starts). I drove a Mercedes B-series 5 years ago and it had it and it was way more aggressive than what is available on the nox.

I suspect start stop help on emission in congested cities more than it helps gain in gas mileage... but that is my guess, I have not read anything about it.

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brakeassistissue

· #19 · Feb 15, 2018

try holding plus to get it to 9 instead of one at a time

JGreg7 said:
I have tried this - it works, however, I am concerned that operating the vehicle in this manner could possibly damage the transmission (or cause added wear, or invalidate the warranty somehow....). It is also quite a nuisance to shift through all 9 gears in the beginning. The design should be seamless.

I can't say this works but it is worth a shot...

Hold the plus button and see if it shoots automatically to the highest gear after a second or 2 and skips all other gears

I know that it works in toyotas to either get to the highest gear or back to standard drive from manual mode, might work here as well.

Working from a foggy memory so can't be sure haha

Lee F

· #20 · Feb 15, 2018 (Edited by Moderator)

JGreg7 said:
. Try to start and jump into one of these gaps is delayed significantly by the engine needing to start. (I also have concerns that with the engine resting between these "waits", the oil may settle to the pan and not be available when the hard acceleration is needed).

.

If you slightly lift your foot on the brake without taking your foot off the brake, the car will restart and keep running. Seem odd you have a significant delay on the restart. I can't move my foot fast enough to get to the gas pedal before my car restarts.

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