Quote:
Originally Posted by swartzentruber
These are all correct, although the "proper operating temp" doesn't seem to be that high. I've had stop-start activation after ~5 minutes of driving in warmer temps, with the oil temp gauge well below center. The biggest "trick" around activation is that you need to brake pretty firmly, and can't let the pressure up much. If you don't brake firmly, I think it registers as being in stop-n-go traffic, and it doesn't shut off in those instances. I've found it's a bit tough to brake smoothly in my normal manner, and still get it to engage (definitely better if you don't have passengers).
If the car restarts and you weren't expecting it, in my experience usually it's either due to A/C needing to run (car heating up), or pressure on the brake was released. I'll admit the system is still a little tricky to engage consistently -- I think I work at it because the tech geek in me finds the system fascinating, even if it doesn't always work how I think it should.
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Do you have DCT? I have the 6MT and it is not even necessary to apply the brakes for the autostart feature to work. You simply depress the clutch, shift into neutral and let the clutch back out. It restarts when you depress the clutch again. I believe the car needs to be fully stopped as well but am not certain. I've never tried to roll up to a stop in neutral to see if it will shut off. I wouldn't want to. Might loose power steering and there is no drive if you need it??
I was confused by it at first as well because it often didn't shut down. This turned out to be most likely due to air the conditioning being on. The car has a number of conditions which must be met before it will shut down, many of which have been outlined above. Now that we are driving in warm fall weather and the electrical loads are light it almost always shuts off. In summer it is at best a 50:50 bet as to whether it will.