My model of MX-5 is: MX5 RF 30th Anniversary model_
I’m based near: Northampton
I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: iStop
I just don’t understand quite how it works. Haven’t used the car much over the winter but when I have the iStop hasn’t worked as I expect it would. I imagine it requires a certain level of charge in the battery but at the same time I have not experienced any problems with starting over the winter. I drove to Hinckley and back today and coming through Towcester the iStop started working again. My assumption is that the iStop requires a certain level of charge (maybe not the right word) in the battery before it can work. It’s just idle curiosity but I would like to understand what initiates iStop electrically if possible.
Hi Kathryn… One of my friends across the road had a similar problem with their Mercedes B Series… As battery voltage drops the software disables certain “non-essential” systems within the car… By driving it and bringing voltage back up will reinitiate the iStop. I tend to switch my iStop off most of the time…
I have just bought a new ND and yes, you are right the iStop will work if the car has sufficient charge and it is not actually using lots at that time. If you have the hood down (which you always should unless it is raining!!), then you may have the heater on full, or auto, as it is chilly. If this is the case, the iStop will not cut the engine off. I stopped at some traffic lights and noticed this, so turned the heating off full to low and the engine went off.
Therefore the car is making a judgement all the time as to if it is sensible to turn the engine off or not. Obviously the car has to be in neutral and the clutch pedal up to work too. But as long as the heated sets are not on full and the heater is not roaring away, it should cut out.
Hi Kathryn,there are a few different reasons for it not working,in the winter if your heater is set on demist for instance it won’t work at all
Which at the moment we all have it on that setting
There’s a I-Stop screen on MZD, under fuel economy monitor I think. It has 3 icons, if all 3 are glowing I-Stop is ready if one or more isn’t that’s the reason it’s not I-Stopping.
Thank you all very much. It is kind of as I expected - at of good old basic If Then Else programming - I am quite sure it is much more sophisticated now but the principle still applies. I quite like it when I have a long wait but not for ‘short’ waits. Yes and, of course, even at my advanced age - roof down unless it is raining.
I-stop operation is virtually random in practice as it’s so dependant on stopped, clutch out, lights, music, a/c et al. Even when it operates it rarely stays off for the whole time of a red light! You can interrogate the centre screen to see how much benefit is achieved in saved fuel ( okay it’s not issuing pollution when I-stopped) - it ain’t gonna save the planet, mine had saved something like 7 miles in 10,000. Given that the Mx-5 encourages scenic routes I’m sure I’ve wasted considerably more than 7 miles driving for fun!
My Mazda doesn’t have stop start but my BeeEmm does and if it displayed the symptoms you describe, I would be worrying about the battery.
Does it need a charge perhaps?
Is it on the way out?
Is it just too small for the job?
With lockdown and not driving much, the first thing I do after starting the car is to switch off the stop start.
This is a regular topic on other car forums as well. The battery will have a battery condition monitor that reports continually to the cars ECU’s and optimises the battery charging and stop start.
The voltages differences are tiny but people have found that putting the battery on charge overnight can lift the voltage and restore stop start which then just keeps working.
I wouldn’t turn it off, but neither would Iworry about stop-start not working or having some impenetrable algorithm for when it wants to. It is of very little practical use or relevance and it’s probably a net waste of resources even to manufacture it and carry the extra gubbins around.
It’s a stunt in the name of environmentalism and it is only there to make an almost totally theoretical difference to the official emissions figures.
My only interest in it would be that it shouldn’t malfunction and stop the car working properly.
I don’t say that as a conspiracy theorist, but as someone who thinks the environment is absolutely the most important thing for every government and citizen.
Yes and somewhat heretical, I don’t mind I-stop most of the time but I only turn it off in heavy traffic because it’s just annoyingly intrusive when trickling a few paces at a time!
Mine’s turned off at each start, and has been on every car I’ve owned with the dreadful system fitted, it’s there purely to get cars through emissions tests with the lowest possible figures.
In real life it probably costs more in environmental terms than it saves, and is a terrible solution to a problem that doesn’t exist, but as usual the manufacturers are only interested in the likelihood of failure during the warranty period.
OH’s first CX5 (in which she left it switched on) managed to save the equivalent of 25 miles worth of fuel over 48000 miles, after which I lost interest.
A few years ago in my BMW’s you could turn it off permanently, but the last one you couldn’t, it reset to on at every start, but could be coded to default off by a dealer.
Does anyone know a way of permanently disabling it on the MX?
Might be a bit late to the party on this one but I thought mine wasn’t working at all…until I realised that it doesn’t work if you have your heater turned to windscreen… if it is…then it wont operate. If the heater selector is on a different setting…face, feet, etc then it will work fine, but only depending on how much juice is in the battery. As mine does fairly short trips it will cut out at traffic lights, but then kick back on about 30 seconds later to keep charge of everything. You can of course turn it off completely if you want by hitting the button to the right of the steering wheel
That’s interesting… Having the the heater on windscreen setting disables the i-Stop!. I often deactivate the i-Start before setting off, but not always - only to get to my destination thinking why didn’t i-Stop operate! Didn’t think to much about it… until I read your post…!
Yeah, I was about to take it back to Mazda to ask them to look at it…but thought I better look in the book first…glad I did! I would never of been able to show my face there again if I had gone down there lol
The same thing happens in the Mini Cooper S I am driving at the moment. You never know when stop/start is gonna work.
It doesn’t bother me as much as some of the other irritating features and traits of this car.
