Hi all. The auto stop is, in my opinion, not very effective on fuel saving, and is not good for the starter and battery. (Yes, it is a special battery.) To me, the feature is annoying, and I am far more comfortable driving with it disabled. But, with old age, I keep forgetting to press the button after engine start. Familiar?
So I have built and tested a simple electronic circuit that operates a relay about 8 seconds after engine start. It is powered from the accessories socket, and draws a mere 10mA. I am yet to fit it permanently, but have tried it in the car, loosely wired, for a few days, and it works a treat! 8 seconds after starting the engine, the light comes on just as if you had pressed the defeat button.
There are 2 issues for the average person.
1 is building the circuit. Any electronics guru can do it for you.
2 is connecting a wire onto the correct harness wire under the button you would press to switch off the feature. Note that you do NOT have to cut any wires. Just find the red/yellow wire in one corner of the plug under the button, and connect another small gauge wire to it.
If people are interested in using the system, and it seems many are wanting to disable it, then I am more than happy to draw the circuit and scan it to a pdf for anyone to use.
Another benefit of this system is that if, at some time, you wish to re-enable the feature, you simply press the button. After the electronics has done its thing, everything operates as normal.
Hope this helps a few people.
Geoff
