Is Your Car's Start-Stop System Hurting You in the Long Run?
There are several tips and tricks available to help you improve your fuel economy. And one of them is increasingly being built right into your car. Many new vehicles have a start-stop system, nominally to reduce how much gas is wasted during idling. But does this feature truly save you fuel? And even if it does, are there any long-term issues that can develop because of it? How does the start-stop system in your car work? First introduced in the 1970s, start-stop systems, or ‘auto start-stop’ as they’re sometimes called, have become more prevalent in the last few years. And that’s thanks to improvements in automotive electronics, especially in starter motors and hybrid powertrains. Although each start-stop system is slightly different, they work in roughly the same way. When your car detects you’ve come to a stop and have the brake pedal pressed, it sends a signal to the ECU. The ECU then cuts your car’s fueling and ignition systems temporarily, shutting the engine down. And when