Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

61

General Discussion Area / Re: New car technology .

« on: 02 February 2024, 07:41:35 »

If you google "Mercedes eco-start-stop-technology-guide-pdf", and click on the link to the glaowners.com, you'll get a pdf describing the system. There is a whole load of guff in there, and I checked it all on my car. The only thing that is out of limits is the battery voltage drop.

What I'm unsure about is if it's the drop on the small auxillary battery, or the main 'big' battery. But I can see on the iCarsoft that the 'battery' voltage dips to between 10 and 11V on my car (from > 12.5V) , and that's enough to disable stop start.

That's not what the document says at all.

If the voltage dip (U < 11V) at engine start is to great, the engine stop is deactivated for t = 1 minute in order to recharge the Eco start/stop function battery

Its not actually defining what it considers to great and it also is only delaying activation of the stop start for 1 minute. The rest of the doc is referring to 'available electrical power' which is the SoC.

Also, be absolutely assured that your scan tool will not be able to report the mS long volt drop at cranking as its just reading messages at random intevals, you need an oscilloscope on the starter terminal to do that. The volt drop will be down to 9V or less on a cold engine crank (remember, this is my day job on the design side  )

62

General Discussion Area / Re: New car technology .

« on: 01 February 2024, 16:29:59 »

They do!

The Merc system monitors the battery voltage drop during cranking. If the voltage drops below (IIRC) 11.5V then it disables Stop/Start. It'll still start all the way down to less than 9V.

It's not really the state of charge that matters, but the batteries internal resistance. The resistance increases as the battery ages, so it can be fully charged (>13.7V) but still drop enough during cranking to disable the Stop Start.

Mine's been like it for over a year. Behaviour confirmed by iCarsoft scanner. New AGM Stop/Start battery would no doubt cure it, but why on earth would I want to do that! £300 to re-enable something I don't want.

If they do then they are fools! (I am confident they don't as we use the same setup!), they wouldn't meet ISO 16750-2 under those conditions

Monitoring the terminal volts under load tells you little about the battery condition as there are to many variables, temperature being the very significant one, as the chemical reaction in the battery is much poorer at low temperatures and so the VBatt drops much lower. There are also variables with connector/cable ageing, engine types and a whole host of other things.

The SoC is the critical measure for start stop, as it is the only means to tell if you have the reserve to complete repeat re-starts, its also the only viable means to determine battery health by checking the batteries ability to absorb energy 

63

General Discussion Area / Re: New car technology .

« on: 01 February 2024, 12:24:57 »

....
Coded the stupid start stop malarky off mine, Only kicks in if I have it in Eco Plus mode..... Which I never do!

My ML's stop/start has stopped working all by itself  I suspect the main battery is a little low, though it never hesitates to start up.

Keep an eye on it, the stop start systems do not look at the cranking ability, only the state of charge, if its stopped working then the battery is probably not recovering to more than 85% SoC which is plenty to crank but, shows the battery is deteriorating and they have a habit of dropping off a cliff after this point. 

64

General Discussion Area / Re: New car technology .

« on: 01 February 2024, 12:22:31 »

An interesting read.

Just waiting for all the court cases attributing car crashes due to the driver looking at the screens. (like the use of mobile phones)

Thank god I still have my Omega's. They have plenty of buttons/screens for me but I am not looking forward to the future when I replace them.

Drivers are getting more stupid.........we get two UK breakdown calls a week where people have pulled over because they have a low screen wash fluid warning.

There was a court case recently (not against us) where a passenger had their feet on the dash and the airbags deployed in a lowish speed crash, it dislocated there hips and paralysed them as they were folded in half...........the owners manual warns of it and its a bloody stupid thing to do but, they still won.

Lets also add that if the insurance companies were allowed to discriminate, then people of a certain religious background would have higher premiums, and the hood wearing females of the same, would be higher still..........and hence why more emphasis is being put on the 'nanny' intervention of the ADAS systems

65

General Discussion Area / Re: New car technology .

« on: 01 February 2024, 12:17:37 »

.....
Just wait until you get a 24MY car which badgers you every time there is a speed limit change or you go 1mph over the speed limit.....you quickly learn the to knock that one off at every ignition cycle 

hope it's set up better than than the camera in my ML that reads road speed signs ..... every now & then it comes up with the NSL sign when on a 30/40 road. I've yet to discover what it thinks it's 'seen' 

Some system are a hybrid of map data and forward vision systems, it might be that a section of road once was a national and the map is overriding the vision..........plus the vision systems are far from perfect!

66

General Car Chat / Re: Air con gone faulty VW

« on: 01 February 2024, 07:30:46 »

I would have thought any AC specialist would have been a better option than a dealer.

Its either going to be a cracked pipe, failed condenser or a pump issue (either thermal fuse blown in the clutch or the pump has detonated.......which would mean a flush and new dryer also).

You don't tend to vary the hvac across territories on the central system as its a big and expensive to tool part and even in the UK, a sun soaked dark car can get pretty much as hot as it would do in an Arab state. Bigger cars do tend to add secondary systems for third row and rear seats but, they still use the primary AC system.

67

General Discussion Area / Re: New car technology .

« on: 01 February 2024, 07:28:45 »

However the system on newer cars seem to set by default to 'activated' mode whenever the ignition has been off, which would do my tree in.
It's like being a pilot, I guess. Going through the cockpit drill before setting off - lane assist off, engine stop / start off, auto hold on.....

You can thank some selfish arseholes in Wolsburg for that!

Since the emissions scandal, the legislation was changed such that the car has to default to the modes used during approvals at every ignition cycle. That means driving modes, any ADAS functions, safety functions etc. Just wait until you get a 24MY car which badgers you every time there is a speed limit change or you go 1mph over the speed limit.....you quickly learn how to knock that one off at every ignition cycle 

68

General Discussion Area / Re: Not a surprise...

« on: 31 January 2024, 12:28:48 »

Another person who has no idea what they are talking about  ...........more brake dust from an EV..........much less is the answer as they rarely ever use the brakes

69

General Discussion Area / Re: Gas Chamber

« on: 25 January 2024, 15:18:08 »

Alabama on the news lunchtime death sentence by gas chamber  inhuman to make a murderer suffer they say, snowflakes protesting, surely a bullet in the head would sort it nicely. Why is the human race becoming so stupid ?

Just been watching the news about the killings in Nottingham.

The families of the deceased were not expecting a manslaughter verdict.

Looks like the police f*ucked up yet again.

Yes, three murders and three attempted murders and he drops out with a manslaughter charge.

70

General Discussion Area / Re: Vans

« on: 16 January 2024, 14:30:46 »

Rascal was mid engine rear wheel drive, they salesmen used to get despatched with them to the Melton Road in Leicester to flog whenever a trade in one arrived into stock.

I always joked that I would get the apprentice one as he hankered after a mid engine vehicle

71

General Car Chat / Re: Talking Of Big Pick Ups

« on: 12 January 2024, 13:06:22 »

We have a Raptor at work (full fat), interesting lump, very agricultural with a hell of a lot more power than the chassis can do anything with, bloody huge though

72

General Discussion Area / Re: In a world I can't identify with

« on: 02 January 2024, 07:38:25 »

Surely, in the case of item 2, she just removes the headset? 

73

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: 02 January 2024, 07:35:33 »

Changed the oil in hers.  Being a diesel chain driven engine, I start to get twitchy once its done more than 4k on the oil.

Any wonder, the earlier Ingenium engines are prone to chain issues, my lads Xf needs doing at 82k with full history

Its the crazy 21k mile intervals that take out the chains (the links wear)...........full service history is never a good sign.

74

General Car Chat / Re: Can I have....

« on: 15 December 2023, 13:49:31 »

Except, maybe, a Freelander2.

Isn't that just a previous generation Evoque with a different frock?

Little Bro has one, and loves it. But, unsurprisingly, is now going through replacing the failed door locks!

No, completely different car, the Freelander was actually an SUV that failed the occupancy protection part of the crash test so bady, they jacked the suspension up and called it the Freelander (the extra height helped with the crash survivability). Evoque started off as a Mondeo chassis spin off, very much moved on from that now though

75

General Car Chat / Re: Can I have....

« on: 15 December 2023, 10:43:00 »

......your learned opinions on this please 

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202311254292625

Perfect car for you, Hondas are designed for the retired and near dead