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Auto Start-Stop Technology

corpflyboy

Well-Known Member
Joined
October 24, 2013
Messages
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City, State
Melbourne, Florida
Year, Model & Trim Level
2014 Ford Explorer Sport
I built and priced a 2020 ST just now.

I noticed the engine information said it has the dreaded "auto start-stop technology."

Does anyone know if this feature can be deactivated? If so, does it need to be deactivated every time you initially start the vehicle or can you permanently get rid of it? I am going to have Unleashed Tuning perform my tune as usual. I'm curious if the answer to the above questions is NO, will I have to rely on my tune to disable it.

I currently have a 2014 Exploder Sport and it thankfully does not have this "technology."

Any information will be appreciated.

I pretty much rent a car every other week throughout the year. I know how much Chevy's rides suck with that feature. It is so annoying at traffic lights. Especially when it is hot outside and the AC starts to blow warm air until the light turns green and the engine starts again. GGGGrrrrrr.

Buzz
 



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If the Explorer start/stop feature is similar to the Expeditions and F-150s, then you can disable it via FORScan. This will disable the feature full-time, meaning you won’t have to switch it off at every startup.
 






If the Explorer start/stop feature is similar to the Expeditions and F-150s, then you can disable it via FORScan. This will disable the feature full-time, meaning you won’t have to switch it off at every startup.

Is FORScan the dealership method? No matter, thats great to know!

Thanks!

Buzz
 






If the Explorer start/stop feature is similar to the Expeditions and F-150s, then you can disable it via FORScan. This will disable the feature full-time, meaning you won’t have to switch it off at every startup.

I think that if you put the car into sport mode then the start stop function will be automatically disabled. Maybe I am wrong.
 






I think that if you put the car into sport mode then the start stop function will be automatically disabled. Maybe I am wrong.

Correct but you have to select that every time after startup and say goodbye to fuel economy... but boy is it fun lol.
 






Honestly, you get use to it. I have it on my new Ranger, and it does get a little better milage with it. I sit in LA traffic, so for me it works.
 






I didnt mind it in the expedition or navigator I have driven.
 






Most vehicles that have that feature allow you to turn it OFF with a switch or setting. There should be no reason to use FORScan or any similar tool.

Peter
 






Most vehicles that have that feature allow you to turn it OFF with a switch or setting. There should be no reason to use FORScan or any similar tool.

Peter

On the expedition forum people have used forscan to disable it completely, as otherwise one needs to disable on start up everytime. Can't see why that makes sense, but hey, to each their own.
 






This is nearly reaching the "top of the hill" level of bullshit technology unwarranted, and un-needed.

I would not have a vehicle which does this, unless replacement batteries were free for life.

imp
 






Will NOT have a vehicle where I cannot deactivate this "feature." Forget battery, or starter, or whatever else...or even that it has zero effect on the vehicle; when I'm stopped and calculating how much time safely need to make a left-hand turn in front of on coming traffic, I do not need the added angst of gee-I-hope-my-car-starts-up. Even if by some miracle...which I don't believe would be the case...that it was 100% reliable, I'd ALWAYS be worried about it. No thanks!
 






Will NOT have a vehicle where I cannot deactivate this "feature." Forget battery, or starter, or whatever else...or even that it has zero effect on the vehicle; when I'm stopped and calculating how much time safely need to make a left-hand turn in front of on coming traffic, I do not need the added angst of gee-I-hope-my-car-starts-up. Even if by some miracle...which I don't believe would be the case...that it was 100% reliable, I'd ALWAYS be worried about it. No thanks!

If you are making a left hand turn and need to make it so quickly that you are worried, then you should not be making the left hand turn at that moment in an unsafe manner. Second, if it doesn't start as you are so worried, then you won't be in jeopardy as you haven't moved anywhere to be in danger. And Third, the vehicle is fully restarted before you even take your foot completely off the brake.
 






Will NOT have a vehicle where I cannot deactivate this "feature." Forget battery, or starter, or whatever else...or even that it has zero effect on the vehicle; when I'm stopped and calculating how much time safely need to make a left-hand turn in front of on coming traffic, I do not need the added angst of gee-I-hope-my-car-starts-up. Even if by some miracle...which I don't believe would be the case...that it was 100% reliable, I'd ALWAYS be worried about it. No thanks!

If you are making a left hand turn and need to make it so quickly that you are worried, then you should not be making the left hand turn at that moment in an unsafe manner. Second, if it doesn't start as you are so worried, then you won't be in jeopardy as you haven't moved anywhere to be in danger. And Third, the vehicle is fully restarted before you even take your foot completely off the brake.

Start stop has also been around for years in Europe. Not sure why it's taken so long to cross the pond, but there you go. It's gotten very refined now, as blwnsmoke pointed out. It's not a case of cranking the engine in - 40 every time it stops, it's much smoother. Frankly, we could all do with a bit less fuel consumption and I wish it was possible to retrofit this.
 






If you are making a left hand turn and need to make it so quickly that you are worried, then you should not be making the left hand turn at that moment in an unsafe manner. Second, if it doesn't start as you are so worried, then you won't be in jeopardy as you haven't moved anywhere to be in danger. And Third, the vehicle is fully restarted before you even take your foot completely off the brake.

Perhaps you always make turns in front of people with enough space so that if your car dies, everyone will see it in time to gently slow down and no one is the least bit disturbed by such a dangerous mechanical malady. But, my turn window, while perfectly legal and safe in my opinion, has a somewhat narrower margin of error. And, the line of cars behind me are thankful.

With that said, note my use of the word "angst." I fully admit the possibility that my fear is entirely irrational, wholly without merit, and all in my head. Regardless, I won't be subjected to it.
 






Start stop has also been around for years in Europe. Not sure why it's taken so long to cross the pond, but there you go. It's gotten very refined now, as blwnsmoke pointed out. It's not a case of cranking the engine in - 40 every time it stops, it's much smoother. Frankly, we could all do with a bit less fuel consumption and I wish it was possible to retrofit this.

Don't think I've ever been convinced of anything by being told the Euros are doing it. I've never driven a car with the "feature," so I speak solely out of ignorance. It may be a wonderful completely innocuous experience, and anything for better fuel consumption is great...I just want it to be optional and not mandatory.
 






Don't think I've ever been convinced of anything by being told the Euros are doing it. I've never driven a car with the "feature," so I speak solely out of ignorance. It may be a wonderful completely innocuous experience, and anything for better fuel consumption is great...I just want it to be optional and not mandatory.

That wasn't meant to convince you, I was simply pointing out that the tech is not new by any means and has been refined over the years. You can get it on manual cars too, which I always found interesting (for some reason I always equated it with automatic transmissions). And goodness, "the Euros" is just such a laughable term, in my opinion anyway.

All things considered, you had an extremely strong opinion on something of which you admit you have no knowledge or experience of. Odd, to say the least. On other Ford vehicles, it's fairly unobtrusive and it probably will be possible to switch it off at will - if the Explorers bigger sibling, the Expedition, is anything to go by.

Is FORScan the dealership method? No matter, thats great to know!

Thanks!

Buzz

Forscan is the aftermarket equivalent of IDS, which is Fords diagnostic and programming technology. Dealers buy a license to rent IDS so they can diagnose and modify vehicles.

Forscan does a great job of giving vehicle owners the power to adapt and modify their vehicles almost as they wish. There are, of course, limitations to it and Ford doesn't provide any help whatsoever in how it programs its vehicles (unlike, apparently, GM, for example).

I believe the team behind Forscan is Russian too - in fact, most of the really cool mods come out of Russia from what I've seen, the forums are really interesting to read through too.
 






Thanks for the info!

All things considered, you had an extremely strong opinion on something of which you admit you have no knowledge or experience of. Odd, to say the least.

I don't think such is at all odd, I think as fallible humans it is quite common. But, at least, I am aware of it and own up to it. Like the Socratic Paradox, at least I know I know nothing. Most people flounder around trying to justify their irrationally held beliefs.
 






Thanks for the info!



I don't think such is at all odd, I think as fallible humans it is quite common. But, at least, I am aware of it and own up to it. Like the Socratic Paradox, at least I know I know nothing. Most people flounder around trying to justify their irrationally held beliefs.

You're welcome!

I mean fair enough then, you're probably the first person on the internet to at least admit to it haha :D.
 






If you are making a left hand turn and need to make it so quickly that you are worried, then you should not be making the left hand turn at that moment in an unsafe manner. Second, if it doesn't start as you are so worried, then you won't be in jeopardy as you haven't moved anywhere to be in danger. And Third, the vehicle is fully restarted before you even take your foot completely off the brake.
@blwnsmoke
Regarding "Third": This all assumes the re-start ALWAYS occurs quickly. How can such assurance be offered at 100% reliability? Way too many "what ifs" can be brought up here, regarding the very significant possibility that at that one moment, the engine will NOT start quickly, or, worse yet, starts and stalls. Can you give me a personal guarantee that a given engine will NEVER stall after starting? I can think of at least a dozen reasons why it MIGHT. imp
 



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@blwnsmoke
Regarding "Third": This all assumes the re-start ALWAYS occurs quickly. How can such assurance be offered at 100% reliability? Way too many "what ifs" can be brought up here, regarding the very significant possibility that at that one moment, the engine will NOT start quickly, or, worse yet, starts and stalls. Can you give me a personal guarantee that a given engine will NEVER stall after starting? I can think of at least a dozen reasons why it MIGHT. imp

An engine can die at any time for multiple reasons. All I can state from my experience on multiple 2018 Expedition, 2018 Lincoln Navigator and 2018 EcoSport rentals which all had Start/Stop that the vehicle starts as soon as you start to lift off the brake. Unless I slide my foot to the right of the brake and onto the gas, it restarts before I can even get my foot of the brake. The only time I could beat the engine is while pressing the brake as normal and instead of releasing pressure off the pedal, I slid to the right and met the gas pedal (this is not normal in my opinion of anyone).

The starting of the engine takes literally two blinks of an eye unlike a normal start. If your engine is going to die after restart, it would also die if it stayed running caused by the same exact issue.

For those who haven't driven it, here is a video I found. The Start-Stop starts up far quicker then a normal startup when getting into the vehicle. There is next to zero cranking of the engine.

 






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