Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2012 22:36:40 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: when is stopping/restarting better than idling?
In-Reply-To: <CA+n284NvpWVN4G2xv6E3XUKweFzoL+r=-_2LtCfrsBj29MXnZw@mail.gmail.com>
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I would ask what is meant by 'better' ?
in terms of fuel savings ?
or in terms of less wear on the engine ?
or ? ...........how about less impact on other people and the environment ?
I am generally very very possessed to idling engines .( I have big
diesel trucks that idle, sometimes for over half an hour ...about 120
feet from my desk, with nothing between me and that truck but an open
door and a chain link fence. - grrrr. )
It's surprising how much people do not shut off their damn engines
sometimes !
Total waste of fuel - you know , they're on the phone, they pull into a
parking spot - some people will sit yakking with the engine running for
25 minutes.
Sometimes I do think it is better to keep coolant circulating, rather
than shut off, if it's going to be a short interruption in driving. .
If things are hot....when the coolant stops circulating, it just gets
hotter in the engine for a while. I don't think that in itself does
much harm though usually.
But mostly ..if the wheels are not turning , and it's going to be more
than a minute or two , shut the thing off !
Wear on the starter - good Bosch starters last nearly indefinitely
....thousands of start cycles in them, I wouldn't worry about that
factor too much with a healthy starter.
mainly to me, it's just burning fuel, and adding pollution to the air.
Unless there's a good reason, or it's waiting for a traffic light to
change say ...any idling engine is a bad thing I think.
near as I can tell, most people really do not care at all about how much
fuel they burn, or how much of that stuff they put into the air. Or the
noise. Or how their idling or noisy engine affects others nearby -
mostly no awareness much at all, looks like to me.
We are on the tail end of the age of petroleum-burning for
transportation ..or nearing the end of that age.
I challenge anyone to come up with a number that approximates the total
number of running engines on the planet every minute..
I think it could be 5 million engines ( cars, airplanes, trucks, trains,
ships , generators, tractors - on and on ) running at any given
moment. Or more even. I've never seen that figure estimated anywhere.
I should google it.
On 6/16/2012 4:24 PM, pickle vanagon wrote:
> I guess I'm looking just for the range of educated opinions of the
> listmembers.
>
> In a well-maintained Vanagon, how long does a stop have to be for it to be
> better to stop the engine and later restart it, versus idling?
>
> 10 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, etc?
>
> I'm wondering about the theory of it, not the practical aspects as relate
> to the needs of actually driving around other vehicles...
>
> -Wes
>