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-   -   Starter-Stop Motor for Palio (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/42496-starter-stop-motor-palio.html)

Guys - I have read Bosch has come with a starter-stop kit to be used on BMW minis. What it does is that it shuts down the engine when the car is at stand-still i.e. at red light or in a jam.
It then senses the clutch, brake and acceletor position and switches on the engine quickly.
It really helps improve city mileage and all this with no changes to the drive transmission.

Attached is a link
Bosch introduces new start-stop system - AutoblogGreen

Anyone knows if such mods are available in India ?
BHP gurus - your 2 cents please ?

Looks interesting. Hope this will be available for all kind of cars soon.

Is this the same as what gets deployed in Civic Hybrid?

Frankly speaking, technically its not very difficult to implement if you think about it. The moment a car has an ECU lot many such interesting "applications" (that is what it is) can be built. People just have to think about them.

Sukiwa - No it is not the same. The Hybrid cars use a transmission consisting of Combustion Engine + Electric Motor.
Electric Motor is driven through fuel cells.
When braking , the motor is driven instead of driving and converts itself into a generator recharging the fuel cells. It is called regenerative braking - used in local trains.

Mahindra is planning a Bolero with this Start-stop motor.
The motor will be rated for 100,000 cycles, and will save fuel in traffic jams

Personally I think that it is just an gimmick for auto-makers to advertise better fuel mileage.

You can do exactly the same thing by turning your engine off and on manually.

Regards,

Yes did sound like a marketing tool. And what will that do to engine condition. Frequent start/stop ? Or are modern engines quite able to take that kind of beating ?

Lets see what reviews we get of the Mahindra once launched.

HI

In the case the Engine stops how about air con? Will it stop functioning as well???


Amit

I had read a similar thing in Autocar India May 2008 Issue regarding the Scorpio hybrid. The increase in fuel economy was great (about 5-6 kmpl more), however I am doubtful about its aftermarket fitment and the consequences. Incase you can lay your hands on the issue, please read it.

Best Regards,
Adheesh Parelkar

can we get such a motor aftermarket?
Also would it be just as effective as the manufacturers claim?

A stop-start system should also factor in battery life & the strain the increased number of starts are going to put on the battery. I tried this stop-start thing last year & in my opinion I lost more in having to get a new battery than I saved in fuel costs ! My daily commute is 6.5 Kms, each way, & I have around 6 signals along the route. By switching off the engine at signals that were more than 60 seconds, I found that I was getting an average improvement of 12.5% in my fuel consumption numbers. However, my initial euphoria was short-lived - within 4 to 6 weeks of the stop-start regimen, my battery failed !

It has to be remembered that an automated system would indiscriminately shut down the engine whenever you come to a stop, increasing the number of starts significantly compared to when done manually. It's critical that any stop-start system be able to estimate the duration for which the car would be stationary, maybe a GPS based system with some kind of self-learning built-in or traffic signals that broadcast the timer numbers through low-power RF or something. I'm guessing by the time something like this comes along, we'd all be driving electric cars anyway :)

For now, without major changes to battery technology or traffic management infrastructure, trivial stop-start systems sound penny wise pound foolish to me - more of a knee-jerk reaction than anything else. I wonder what happened to the whole flywheel technology thing (carbon fiber flywheels in vacuum casings spinning at 100,000 RPM & stuff), was all the rage in the late 80's & early 90's. Something like that would be ideal to store energy between stops & assist in engine starts.

im_srini;905204 - Rightly said.
However I read that the Bosch system, monitors battery life through teh cars electric grid management system and will disable this (the start -stop) is the battery is low.

I see following down sides (most of them already mentioned by others!)
- The cost of this gadget and any maintenance/repair bills it may invite!
- Battery drain due to engine starting.
- Battery drain due to music system, especially if you have subs.
- A/C won't be available!
- Also, will auto door lock/unlock happen in this case? If so, those will undergo much more unnecessary strain too.

Given all that, I don't think this thing would be worth the fuel savings. Better do it manually if signal durations are too long.