Stopping and Starting

[Timothy Nathan]

Has anyone got to grips with what the start stop button actually does?

For instance, if I stop for a minute, say to get a car parking ticket or post a letter, I want to stop the engine, then restart it.

But it seems, fairly randomly, on the second push either to start the engine or switch off the ignition.

And it seems that when you stop and switch off, it's only opening the door which switches the ignition off.

Has anyone got it precisely sussed?

[robob123]

Good question. How do you switch the ignition on without starting the engine, to for instance, to pair a phone to the mmi?

[Guest 2]

Good question. How do you switch the ignition on without starting the engine, to for instance, to pair a phone to the mmi?

The experience I've had on the D3 A8 is that the button is pressed slightly for the ignition but held in for the engine to start.

[nealeb]

I'm fairly convinced on mine that if you press the button once without your foot on the brake, you get ignition on. If you press it again with your foot on the brake the engine starts, without your foot on the brake you turn off the ignition. If you have your foot on the brake for the first press, the engine starts. I've no idea how this links in with the door opening! But there seems to be what in more traditional technologies would have been the "accessory" position of the "key". This is what you get if you press the button while the engine is running. In effect, the ignition is turned off, the engine stops, but the "accessory" bits keep alive (radio, phone coupling, nav, etc). If you then open the door, everything turns off ("take out the key"). But I have certainly not tried all the permutations:)

I'm not aware of any difference between short, light press and long press on the A6 but again, I haven't tested this explicitly.

[markludgate]

I agree pressing the ignition button without your foot on the break allows you access to mmi and ignition power up without starting the engine.

I have also found that if you unlock the car to say clean it, if you just press say the media button then you get access to music etc without ignition on etc.

Mark


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[KAM]

I think we're all going to have to create some new terminology for what cars actually do these days. :(
"Ignition" quite obviously doesn't ignite anything any more. (Yes, I'm old enough to remember learning in a car that had an ignition key and a separate starter pull-knob!)
So that's really just a kind of "mains on" switch now. Except when it's also used for "engine on". And I'm sure the handbook does confirm the brake pedal is the differentiator here: brake pedal unpressed="mains on", brake pedal pressed="engine on".
And yes, there's the radio/media/MMI issue where that button acts as a "radio on" (Jonathan Richmond anyone?) button, regardless of "mains on" or "engine on".

Let's start a campaign for more sensible button function names and send it to Audi.
Suggestions on a postcard please ...

[Timothy Nathan]

I know about the brake pedal, but who'd like to give me the exact sequence of presses to stop a car at a foreign toll booth, switch off, get out, pay toll, get back in, restart and drive off with minimum hooting from penile dysfunctional BMW drivers behind?

[markludgate]

I'm still trying to work out how to pull the choke out!!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[KAM]

I periodically stop at a post-box on my daily commute. Pull up, leave engine running, engage parking brake, select transmission 'park' (multitronic box), hop out, do the business, hop back in, foot on brake, select drive, disengage parking brake, mirror, signal, manoeuvre etc.

[Timothy Nathan]

I periodically stop at a post-box on my daily commute. Pull up, leave engine running, engage parking brake, select transmission 'park' (multitronic box), hop out, do the business, hop back in, foot on brake, select drive, disengage parking brake, mirror, signal, manoeuvre etc.
Hmmm...I am not a great advocate of leaving the engine running anyway, but I did try that a couple of times and the engine had stopped and the car in an indeterminate state, needing a full reboot (accompanied by hooting from Bavaria's finest) by the time I had paid the bill.

There was a message in the DIS about the car having been stopped, but I didn't stop to read it in my embarrassment.

[KAM]

Ah. The postbox in question is pretty close to my house, so the engine has never yet warmed up enough to allow auto-stop/auto-start, no matter how hard I tramp on the brake pedal when stopping. If I were to choose to stop the engine I'd have to go through the full "cabin crew, doors to manual" procedure and ring down "finished with engines" to the stokers in the boiler room (there's a fine pair of mixed technology metaphors for you :) )
So leaving it running, in 'P', with parking brake on, seems to work for me.

BTW, what is an "indeterminate" state? Is this one of these weird quantum things where you ran over a cat as you approached the toll but you're not sure if it's dead until you try to drive away? (or maybe the engine is simultaneously running and not running until you look at it. At at which point it flips to one or other.)