Golf R

[boc121]

Cheers for that.

[Jackie Treehorn]

The stop/start facility should be stopped and started as little as possible to produce longevity for consumable parts.  The starter, oil, oil pump, battery, engine components are all effected by the stop start process so the fewer amount of times this process activates the better for you engine.  VW did not fit this device for the longevity of you engine, my guess is it was fitted purely for the emissions/MPG process.  You do not want the oil pump and oil flow stopped and started constantly in any engine...

The starter motor on stop-start enabled cars is beefed up, the battery is optimised for stop-start in the way it is charged and discharged, and on the R at least, the car is using an electric coolant over-run pump (V51) to stop the turbo bearings from overheating for a short while after the engine is turned off (there's a few R2D2 sounding noises and the low hum) - I'm quite sure the GTI engine (and all variants of the current 2.0TSI) has this but can't confirm it.

Stop-start won't kick in until the engine is sufficiently warm - VW have clearly considered the effects stop-start would have on a stone-cold engine, battery and starter motor (when the oil has thinned with warmth to not make restart effort as hard as the first start). By far the most engine wear occurs on the first cold start-up when the oil is not on the internal components of the engine after being sat for hours/overnight. If stop-start put a huge amount of wear on the engine and ancillaries, i'd expect to see a noticeable amount of metal in the oil filter at every oil change.

Stop start won't make VAG engines last half the miles they used to, considerations have been made in the design and utilisation of stop-start tech. I'm sure most of the other Marques did the same when they introduced stop-start.

Things have moved on in engine tech and lubrication tech since the 80s...

Obviously it has moved on from the 80's thankfully  , although i wouldn't mind my R5GT Turbo or 205 gti back. 

If by "beefed up batteries" you mean AGM batteries yes they are, starters have more KW and brushes too, but essentially that's it.  Whether your oil is warm or not is irrelevant if you are stopping and starting 25 times on your way to work instead of once. The less times you stop and start a car the better essentially and i think that is universally agreed, and this feature was not designed to improve the longevity of the car.  It appears it was designed for the EU test for emissions and this involved traffic simulation and 12 stop and starts, so if you cut the engine... voila!!  I guess you get improved emissions and MPG.

This surely was only to pass tests, and everything else, be it AGM or starter motors was simply to help that test and won't help the lubrication, imo.

I could be wrong and it could be a great invention to help, i just don't believe the info we are told is good for us.

[Exonian]

I'm a 'poor relation' manual driver and find the stop start doesn't bother me a bit. Mind you I don't spend ages stuck in traffic as a rule.

If I owned a GTD then I'd probably love stop start. Nowt to do with the fuel savings (assuming there is a detectable saving), purely from the noise and vibration point of view.
Modern diesels are smooth on the move but still have a noticeable vibration at idle.

[monkeyhanger]

I'm a 'poor relation' manual driver and find the stop start doesn't bother me a bit. Mind you I don't spend ages stuck in traffic as a rule.

If I owned a GTD then I'd probably love stop start. Nowt to do with the fuel savings (assuming there is a detectable saving), purely from the noise and vibration point of view.
Modern diesels are smooth on the move but still have a noticeable vibration at idle.

I think that the dislike of stop-start is dependent upon your commute/driving conditions and how much it kicks in on your car. For me as a manual driver, I like deciding when I will let the car stop, and there may be only 2 or 3 times on my commute that I am at a stop for any meaningful amount of time to allow it to kick in. Stop-start is by no means "good for your car", but considerations will have been made so it won't be susceptible to a premature death either.

Warm restart engine wear is accepted as tiny - it's the first cold start that does the damage when metal runs past metal with little or no lubrication on those parts as all the oil is back down towards the sump and the oil is at its most viscous. An oil pump pumping thinned/warm oil after a stop-star restart won't be under a huge amount of strain either, and stop-start won't stop a stone cold engine.