Auto Stop Start disabled more often than not.

[PLB]

My car is 5 months old and I have noticed that the Auto Stop Start feature is disabled (Icon greyed out) more often than not.

The reason given according to the information display is that it is due to the car battery charging.

For the first couple of months it did appear to work more often than not but for the last couple of months it’s gone the other way.

Is this normal.

I must admit that the majority of my journeys are short.

[Maddave]

I've had my car since October  , mine does exactly the same , and like you I do mainly short journeys. It's ok after a decent run   , nothing to worry about. The majority of the time I turn autostop feature off.

 

[Comares2001]

Because vehicle has intelligent battery monitor/charging unless you do some long runs battery will never get anywhere near full charge so many features can get disabled eg Auto stop start  and also Sync3 when engine not running. Benefits are though that it always saves enough charge for the vehicle to be started.

[Ennvoqation]

If you run high drain equipment such as Air Con it will also disable stop start, especially if you've only just set off on a journey. If you have any devices attached to the 12v system that can also affect it. Attach a bluetooth OBD reader and connect it to your phone with whatever client you wish to use and monitor battery drain, see what affects your system is the simplest answer to figuring out how Stop/Start works.

[Oldster]

On a trip to the sea last Saturday we were held up at a level crossing. Stop/start kicked in and the engine stopped. The air conditioning wasn't running but the fan was circulating air round the car and the satnav screen was functioning. There may well have been many other things live, for all I know.

As the delay extended I considered turning the whole thing off but decided to wait. After some minutes (not sure how many) stop/start kicked in again and started the engine up, presumably to prevent the battery flattening.

So it does seem to work.To what extent it aids fuel consumption I don't know, but it must cut down on pollution in towns.

[PLB]

Thanks guys for all your replies.

I feel happier now and reassured that all appears to be normal.

BTW, I do tend to keep the air con on and that coupled with short runs probably doesn’t help.

[DaveT70]

Air con runs off a compressor/pump on the engine, only voltage used is to light the display.

Short journeys are what kills the battery, take it on a run and get it fully charged

[Ennvoqation]

On 5/25/2019 at 8:54 AM, DaveT70 said:

Air con runs off a compressor/pump on the engine, only voltage used is to light the display.

Short journeys are what kills the battery, take it on a run and get it fully charged

Interesting, I've noticed when I switch off the AC unit and parked up the Auto/Start kicks in but soon as I switch it on the A/S is disabled. There must be a draw elsewhere? I've done a lot of testing on the Auto/Start trying to figure out how it works and AC is one of the things that definitely cause it to be disabled. If there's no cold air it'll ramp down the fan speed until it kicks in again.

[mjt]

On 5/25/2019 at 8:54 AM, DaveT70 said:

Air con runs off a compressor/pump on the engine, only voltage used is to light the display

Not correct. Electrical power is also used to engage the compressor clutch. This combined with the extra load of the compressor on the engine is probably what causes the auto stop-start to be disabled.

[KOJACK]

Hi guys I have recently bought a 2016 Mondeo with stop-start, this isn't working, I drive on a motorway 50 miles everyday this should be enough to charge my battery. Its just out of warranty do you think Ford would test the battery for free or charge me also don't new Ford batteries come with 5yrs warranty or is it just 3yr.

Not sure any other suggestions ? 

I also read this may stop my heated windscreen from working ?.

Oh also my next door neighbor has the estate version 2016 he does 500 + miles a week & his works fine.

Many thanks

Edited May 31, 2019 by KOJACK

[Botus]

On ‎5‎/‎24‎/‎2019 at 10:12 PM, PLB said:

Thanks guys for all your replies.

I feel happier now and reassured that all appears to be normal.

BTW, I do tend to keep the air con on and that coupled with short runs probably doesn’t help.

yes, all normal.  When stop start is working you car wears out and ford sell more cars.

when stop start is broken, the planet lives a little longer, your wallet will be thousands of pounds better off in the long term and car manufacturers profits are down a tiny bit.

[Sandie]

Hi, I’m hoping someone can help me. I’ve only had my Ford Focus Titanium 2019 a few days. The auto start/stop is confusing me. The green A is illuminated but so is the greyed out strike thru A, however the engine doesn’t cut out at lights etc. With my previous Ford (2015) either the green A was on or the greyed out A when the system wasn’t available but this is showing a green A and a greyed out A. 

[Tizer]

If one of the symbols is high up and the other is lower down then the high one is for the Braking System Auto Hold. The lower one is for Stop Start.

There should be switches for both that you can toggle on and off to confirm this. 

[steve67]

My start stop started working every the since I bought a ctek battery charger and did a full recon ....

[Tooky]

I see this comment a lot with the push start feature, I’m looking into getting a 2020 Ford Focus ecoboost sometime before the end of the year.

 

It’s seems the car I currently have an eye on has this feature

 

Is this still an ongoing issue? Or are the more modern cars still having these so called issues?

 

is it still worth investing in a keyless start?

[Guest]

We kept telling ourselves we would never buy a vehicle with the ESS installed within the system, But as time went along, we found that we will have to deal with this issues. Nothing more than pushing a button on the dash (if we can remember to do when we start the van) is all thats needed the van stays running, but when we come to a stop it seems the system still wanted to shut the van off. Not to the point where it stalls. But it is manageable. True we don't like this system is it doesn't make sense to have this system on the smaller engines or even the diesel engine. Typically there is a plunger type device under you hood which makes contact with your car's hood. if you see this device, just disconnect it from the engine compartment and zip tie it to the engine bay somewhere. you will get the "hood open" message but you'll never have to worry about the ESS again. The only other thing you can do is if you car is set up for towing.. It has bene said that if you connect the trailer adapter to the light mounts at the rear of the car, this sends a signal to the system saying your towing the ESS wont enable.

[unofix]

removing the switch from the bonnet (hood for our USA friends) will mean that the car Alarm system will not arm, or at least that is the case for UK vehicles.