Leaderboard

Hi for all the people who value stop start, had a rather interesting Volvo/Ford engineer as a passenger this week and rather than a lecture on electric vehicles he had my attention talking about stop/start, mine as usual was zoned out and he enquired why, I explained that my theory was it put added wear on the starter and ring gear he laughed and said it was highly unlikely as both components were beefed up to accommodate the extra loads but in fact my theory wasn't as far off as I thought, he then went on to tell me he was working with the oil companies to produce new nano tech oils because the existing engine technology is suffering with stop/start as when the engine is running the pressured oil forms a hydro barrier between the crank journals and the bearings, when the engine is stopped the journal/bearing come into contact and when the engine starts again there is a lapse between the oil pressure arriving to reinstate the hydro barrier, I.E. extra wear, he then explained that a normal engine is rated to start 50,000 times during its life and a stop/start engine will perform the same function over 500,000 times, so you can see where this is going and apparently the race is on to produce a coating for crank bearings that is self lubricating Teflon and Iron Oxide, Yes, Rust, which in fine particles reduces friction co efficient by 50%, also he explained that the engine conditions for stop/start have to be ideal as it won't work when the engine is too hot/cold or if you have the aircon working flat out, I have never experienced this as my stop/start is never on. Steve.

Hi Gareth there must be someone in your area who has VCDS/Snap on they would definitely run the culprit to ground, try a local independent as most of them have something that will read it for a modest cash donation. Steve.

Hi I have done a fair amount of research on this and from personal experience would concur with what the guy said the oil film you mentioned is in fact physical but there is contact which is why some engines with middling milage I have worked on knock when being started from cold this is through naturally occurring wear on the bearings which would lead one to believe that due to poor maintenance or low quality oil even some being how far they can go after the service due message comes on, as far as I can see given some of the parameters mentioned stop/start would merely accelerate the wear process, as for the lubricants they have been selling advanced oils for years but most of these are sold at a premium and contain PTFE same as the Slick 50 Kev mentioned, reading between the lines car producers are not necessarily worried by problems that occur outside the warranty period as in the case of Audi who are quite happy to sell you a short engine for £5000, but in saying that why are they so suddenly interested in beefing up con rod bearings, someone somewhere is having problems inside the warranty. Steve.

You're welcome. Definitely worth seeing if the Cambelt and water pump/timing chains have been changed

Hello Barry and Steve, €16K for a 125K ( low, but not low, mileage if you see what I mean) model? Since it’s being sold by a specialist then I would expect a premium price, but wondered if this was indeed near the going rate. Take it you have checked the MOT history etc. Barry. Kind regards, Gareth.

That’s fine Duncan. Best left as no score draw half time then.

ah yes I quickly canned the op's post and mis-read what he said. I thought he was getting in and out 20 times a day, and totally missed out the 'unless'

Thanks Harminder, I think Jon clarified that his 21k equated to infrequent longish journeys, but you raise a good point in my book. Low mileage can result in above average wear and tear on many components, not really encountered on a high motorway mileage example of the same age. Shame Jon never came back to advise whether he had the same degree of success that he did with JLR. Kind regards, Gareth.

Sorry to bump this old thread, but I thought it was still worth replying. The car may have been of relatively low mileage for the leather to be cracking/scuffing, but I think the main issue that's causing this that is ignored! If you are getting in and out of the car 20 times a day, that will have a far greater effect on the wear than the number of miles driven. The bolster take a lot of wear when getting in and out of a car whether it's cloth or leather. My dad's car's bolster is ripped to shreds (it's only a clio with cloth seats) as he delivered fast food so is constantly in and out of his car. For the OP, the bolster car be re-dyed and then get a tough special coating that protects this area. Alternatively, depending on the car, just get a car cover for the drivers seat for day to day use, and when you are going to special functions, take off the cover.

Thanks Duncan, ‘…not totally correct…’ Um! Let’s try and boil this down:- Is stoping and restarting an engine (with zero oil pressure) unlikely to have any negative effect on the engine - particularly over many years of repeating that procedure numerous times/day? If your answer is ‘No it doesn’t have an adverse affect’ ,then it would be great to hear your reasoning to support that. As I see it we have two camps here who are not stop/start averse:- Environment supportive motorists who are happy to accept the engineering averse system, based on the ‘temporarily on stop’ emissions reduction. I certainly don’t have any any argument with that, since I guess they know that they are paying the cost. Other group - my car has stop/start, and that’s posh and somewhat impressive, and I want it to work for that reason, and it won’t be impressive if I switch it off. Different, and they too obviously know about the increased wear element. Back to your ‘… not totally correct….’ Interesting third group? Many thanks Duncan. Kind regards, Gareth.

i use slik 50 since i was 16 in my motobikes and all cars i have owend never let me down yet

Hi thanks for getting in touch. I did manage to find a set in Hungary through the FB groups, while they aren't the best they get the job done quite well :)

Did you ever manage to source these parts? I just bought my B2 model over here and the guy had 3 donor cars sitting in the driveway so im sure i can source them if you need and are happy to pay for the shipping.