Stop Start has been around a while now - how are the batteries and starter motor's?

[GoNz0]

Mrs has a 6 year old Mini Cooper, still on the original battery and the stop start works so well I often find myself turning it off as moving over 4 mph and it will kick in again 5 seconds after I move forward.
Out of interest I got back one day and the diagnostics had it 85% charged, it won't keep trying to fully charge the battery if it doesn't need to, turns out the reason it had stopped working was the aircon condensor had a hole in it so the car couldn't pull the temps low enough to warranty turning the engine off, only figured that out when I accidentally turned the aircon off and stop start kicked in again.
Battery was 96% charged today as I was checking for any faults

95% of whatever it deems is it's current capacity, I didn't try and find that section of the daigs.

Zak, from what I can gather with the BMW cars with intelligent monitoring is normally due to the battery being changed because the car told you it needed doing, by this time the capacity will be reduced so much stop start wont work and failing to inform the ECU you put a new battery in will mean it short charges the new one, this in turn will shorten the life of the new one as it isn't brought up to capacity.

Should you put another ah size in you have to recode the car to the new capacity (I read this tonight as I was checking if my new 535 has had a new battery, sadly it hasn't so I expect that will be on the list in another year, this was confirmed by the ECU as it logs each time it is reset)

[TheAnimus]

I've done lots of short trips with mine, never disabled it, never had a problem with the battery. The cars are smart enough to not use it if the battery is at all flat, in fact that's what my car will do if I've been away for a few weeks and not used it, the stop start is disabled.

[Zak33]

I've done lots of short trips with mine, never disabled it, never had a problem with the battery. The cars are smart enough to not use it if the battery is at all flat, in fact that's what my car will do if I've been away for a few weeks and not used it, the stop start is disabled.

how old is it Animus? And what make?

[bledd]

It's a silly stop-gap before we move to hybrid petrol/electric cars, imo.

[Jace007]

I picked up a decent VM passat with this tech No idea how to use it, haven't really read the manual just turned stuff off . This is the 1st car I've had with a electronic Handbrake. When i bought it, I pulled up to a Petrol station. Filled the tank with diesel, paid, and started the engine and I couldn't pull away LOL I was like wtf .. Pressed the Clutch down put the Handbrake button UP and gave it some gas it wouldn't move. Tried doing this twice. Then turned off the Engine got out of the Car put the Central locking On/Off got back in the car. Pressed the Clutch down put the Handbrake button UP and gave it some gas ahah and it would'nt move. Panic mode - Rang the dealer whos laughing so hard & says 'Have you tried pressing the Button down with the Clutch in' LOL Red faced and 2 Customers behind me laughing, I smiled and said O boy i wish i had my old car..

[AGTDenton]

I have a '13 plate manual Octavia on 60k miles with stop start.
I use it when i know that the lights are long, a queue I'm in where I'll be stationary for a good period of time, or when I am waiting for someone or stopping for a quick bite somewhere in a drive thru.
I've had no known ill effects from it or battery replacements.

However, it made less sense to use it when I drove in an automatic. With a manual you control it with the clutch meaning you choose if you want to engage the start/stop. With an automatic it will always turn off when you stop for any reason no matter how short, so you end up disabling it completely anyway.

[Butcher]

I have a '13 plate manual Octavia on 60k miles with stop start.
I use it when i know that the lights are long, a queue I'm in where I'll be stationary for a good period of time, or when I am waiting for someone or stopping for a quick bite somewhere in a drive thru.
I've had no known ill effects from it or battery replacements.

However, it made less sense to use it when I drove in an automatic. With a manual you control it with the clutch meaning you choose if you want to engage the start/stop. With an automatic it will always turn off when you stop for any reason no matter how short, so you end up disabling it completely anyway.

I had it on my previous car, which was automatic, it could be engaged or not as required by varying pressure on the foot brake. A light press would stop the car, slightly more would engage hold assist (where it holds the brakes on for you), a little more would trigger stop/start. So if you didn't want it to trigger at a junction for instance, it was easy enough to control.

[Uriel]

2010 Honda Insight here. It has stop-start but in an unconventional way. The 12v battery powers on the ECU but unless the weather is really cold, it uses the IMA battery and motor to start the engine.

Still on original battery. It's been flat a handful of times after leaving lights on but the car has no alternator, just a DC-DC converter from the big battery in the back (basically about 85 D sized Panasonic NiMH rechargeables) to the one in front. Just leave the car long enough and the 12v battery gets a top-off and you're good to go again.

It's just shy of 8 years old with about 85,000 miles on the clock.