Auto Start Stop Eliminator

[ROBERT18452]

I recently installed the Auto Start - Stop eliminator on my 25 4R. It’s the best $99.00 I ever spent.

https://a.co/d/0b3Eop1l

The fact that Toyota installed this and doesn’t allow us to permanently lock it out is shameful. In reality disabling this feature is better for your car as driving in city traffic really beats up your starter & battery.

The installation was very easy and took approximately 5 minutes.

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[NotApplicable]

I strongly considered this, but after driving I realized how easy it is to avoid triggering it by modulating how much pressure I apply to the brake pedal after coming to a complete stop. Now I don't even have to think about it and it never triggers. Originally I was annoyed having to remember to press the button every time I got into the car, but no more!

 

[rogueclimber]

I recently installed the Auto Start - Stop eliminator on my 25 4R. It’s the best $99.00 I ever spent.

https://a.co/d/0b3Eop1l

The fact that Toyota installed this and doesn’t allow us to permanently lock it out is shameful. In reality disabling this feature is better for your car as driving in city traffic really beats up your starter & battery.

The installation was very easy and took approximately 5 minutes.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MOD!!

100% absolutely hate auto start stop, and psyched there is a solution

but don't spread bad info about it

(And yes I used AI to gather the info I already knew)

Is auto start stop hard on the starter and battery of a car in city driving


Searched the web

Searched the web

Short answer: not really — as long as the car actually has a start-stop system designed for it, not a normal starter that's just been asked to work harder.
Why it's not hard on the starter
Cars with start-stop use a purpose-built starter, not the same part as a non-start-stop car. Differences include:

• A stronger, reinforced starter designed to withstand continuous use without wearing too fast or overheating. HandWiki
• Different carbon/copper brush composition than a traditional starter, chosen to increase longevity without accelerating wear on the commutator, and needle bearings instead of oil-impregnated bushings for the rotating parts. Power Electronic Tips
• A gear ratio between the starter-drive pinion and flywheel ring gear that's optimized so the starter motor spins more slowly, which reduces wear per start. Green Car Reports
• A dedicated solenoid design that separates the mechanical engagement of the drive pinion from the electrical switching of the motor, so the contacts that do the switching aren't the same ones taking the mechanical wear of engagement — this also reduces the electrical load needed to turn the engine over, leaving more current available for accessories and lights during the start event. Green Car ReportsGreen Car Reports
• Some systems even time the restart to fire fuel into a cylinder that's mid-compression-stroke, so the engine gets a "kick start" from combustion rather than relying entirely on the starter motor.

On engine wear more broadly: one bearing-design expert cited in the trade press estimated a normal car without start-stop goes through up to about 50,000 start events over its lifetime anyway — start-stop just moves more of those events earlier in the odometer's life, on a starter built to take it. Power Electronic Tips
Why it's not hard on the battery (with the right battery)
This is the part that actually changes for owners. Start-stop cars use AGM (absorbent glass mat) or EFB (enhanced flooded) batteries, both of which support significantly more charge cycles and higher load than a standard flooded battery, because the battery alone has to run the entire electrical system every time the engine is off and the alternator isn't generating current. Manufacturers typically label these batteries as specifically rated for start-stop duty. HandWiki + 2
Where it can go wrong
If you (or a mechanic) replace a dead battery with a cheaper standard flooded battery instead of the correct AGM/EFB spec, the car's electronics may struggle to keep the accessories running through each stop, and you'll wear that battery out much faster than normal. That's really the main way start-stop becomes hard on a car — using the wrong part, not the system itself.
For city driving specifically — lots of stoplights and stop-and-go traffic — this is exactly the environment the system was engineered for. It's less about extra strain and more about how much fuel and idle time you save, which is the whole reason the technology exists.

 

[6thGen1419]

100% absolutely hate auto start stop, and psyched there is a solution

but don't spread bad info about it

(And yes I used AI to gather the info I already knew)

Is auto start stop hard on the starter and battery of a car in city driving


Searched the web

Searched the web

Short answer: not really — as long as the car actually has a start-stop system designed for it, not a normal starter that's just been asked to work harder.
Why it's not hard on the starter
Cars with start-stop use a purpose-built starter, not the same part as a non-start-stop car. Differences include:

• A stronger, reinforced starter designed to withstand continuous use without wearing too fast or overheating. HandWiki
• Different carbon/copper brush composition than a traditional starter, chosen to increase longevity without accelerating wear on the commutator, and needle bearings instead of oil-impregnated bushings for the rotating parts. Power Electronic Tips
• A gear ratio between the starter-drive pinion and flywheel ring gear that's optimized so the starter motor spins more slowly, which reduces wear per start. Green Car Reports
• A dedicated solenoid design that separates the mechanical engagement of the drive pinion from the electrical switching of the motor, so the contacts that do the switching aren't the same ones taking the mechanical wear of engagement — this also reduces the electrical load needed to turn the engine over, leaving more current available for accessories and lights during the start event. Green Car ReportsGreen Car Reports
• Some systems even time the restart to fire fuel into a cylinder that's mid-compression-stroke, so the engine gets a "kick start" from combustion rather than relying entirely on the starter motor.

On engine wear more broadly: one bearing-design expert cited in the trade press estimated a normal car without start-stop goes through up to about 50,000 start events over its lifetime anyway — start-stop just moves more of those events earlier in the odometer's life, on a starter built to take it. Power Electronic Tips
Why it's not hard on the battery (with the right battery)
This is the part that actually changes for owners. Start-stop cars use AGM (absorbent glass mat) or EFB (enhanced flooded) batteries, both of which support significantly more charge cycles and higher load than a standard flooded battery, because the battery alone has to run the entire electrical system every time the engine is off and the alternator isn't generating current. Manufacturers typically label these batteries as specifically rated for start-stop duty. HandWiki + 2
Where it can go wrong
If you (or a mechanic) replace a dead battery with a cheaper standard flooded battery instead of the correct AGM/EFB spec, the car's electronics may struggle to keep the accessories running through each stop, and you'll wear that battery out much faster than normal. That's really the main way start-stop becomes hard on a car — using the wrong part, not the system itself.
For city driving specifically — lots of stoplights and stop-and-go traffic — this is exactly the environment the system was engineered for. It's less about extra strain and more about how much fuel and idle time you save, which is the whole reason the technology exists.

Great post. Thanks!

 

[Fisher]

@
ROBERT18452
So you did actually install this? I ask because your signature line says " RAV4 w/ 4Runner on the way ". I asked this company directly some time ago if it really fit a 2025 because we don't have an actual "stop/start button" and if they had install directions and they never replied. I'd love to have this!!!

 

[NotApplicable]

@
ROBERT18452
So you did actually install this? I ask because your signature line says " RAV4 w/ 4Runner on the way ". I asked this company directly some time ago if it really fit a 2025 because we don't have an actual "stop/start button" and if they had install directions and they never replied. I'd love to have this!!!

Some trims do, like the gas limited (mine). There’s an ASS button below the shifter.

 

[ROBERT18452]

YES, I installed it and it works as advertised

 

[quadna71]

Do the trim packages with the auto stop/start have a second battery? My in-laws have a Grand Cherokee and it has a smaller second battery and if you don't use the stop/start feature it will kill that battery much faster than normal which leads to lots of lights on the dash. I now know it is pretty easy to change on their Grand but it is difficult to change on a Wrangler....so was wondering how hard it might be to replace on a 4Runner.

 

[Blackie1]

After you installed it does it light up the dash warning light like it does when you push the button on the console? Or does the dash light dissappear?

 

[ROBERT18452]

After you install the device ( short piece of wiring with a small circuit board the light on the dash is always on. Apparently you can press the switch and get it to work again. Why you would want to reactivate it, I have no idea?

 

[Nodak]

• hybrid's have a convential 12v starter for igntion off starts
  • after started, the electric motor does start/stop duty (if i remember correctly)
• hybrid start/stop is controlled by ecu (some say the transmission control module, not sure which)
• hybrids have no start/stop button to turn it off
  • you can defeat the hybrid start/stop by putting the vehicle in tow/haul mode
  • non hybrid have a button to defeat start/stop but you have to press the button after every ignition off
  • unless you use a defeat module
    • defeat module (if i remember correctly) doesnt work on hybrids since it needs to tap into the defeat button only available on the non hybrids

 

[127.0.0.1]

so glad the SR5 which is gas only does not have ASS. dodged a bullet

 

[zhenyizhainan]

lol ，Poverty keeps me away from this type of worry.

 

[ROBERT18452]

lol ，Poverty keeps me away from this type of worry.

I love your profile picture

 

[Hacksaw]

[...] In reality disabling this feature is better for your car as driving in city traffic really beats up your starter & battery.

This is baseless misinformation. Do better.
I'll re-post what I posted 16 months ago on this forum:
"
I don't know why people think implementing Auto Start-stop (ASS) was just a simple matter of adding a 0 mph detector and shutting off the engine and calling it done. There's way more to it than that. It required some degree of redesign of the starter system, the voltage regulation, the battery, the HVAC system on both the heating and cooling sides, the automatic transmission, the brakes, and cam/crank timing to make restart instantaneous. And a lot of computer monitoring of various sensors for all the situations where the ASS system will either not be enabled (intentionally) or will automatically start the engine if sensor readings drop below a threshold.

Anything that requires pumps, hydraulic pressure, or vacuum relies on engine power (i.e. power brakes, transmission, heater, AC, but not power steering since that is electric now) and it takes a second or two after restarting a non-ASS system for those to build up again. That's too long and it needs to be instantaneous for ASS.

Specific to the starter, it had to be re-engineered for much higher longevity** and to account for the scenario where you're rolling to a stop at a red light at just the instant the engine is about to stop, the light turns green and you hit the gas (if you've ever turned the key on while a car was already running and heard that awful noise, that's essentially the scenario). For this they designed a new tandem starter with 2 solenoids vs conventional starter. It's more complicated than that but that's the main idea.

** Specific to Toyota (this is taken from a video by Car Care Nut, a long-time Toyota mechanic, explaining Toyota's ASS), the new starter for ASS systems is designed for 384,000 stop-start events (to put that into perspective, 365 days per year x 20 years x 50 start/stops per day = 365,000 so it ought to last over 20 years even under pretty intensive daily driving). Also, the computer counts all start-stop events over time and displays a message to replace the starter when it hits the longevity threshold and it disables start-stop until that is done. With non-ASS cars, it's just a crap shoot. So you don't have to guess at when it's time to replace it.

Long story short, there's no justifiable worry about the starter. "
(from: https://www.4runner6g.com/forum/thr...ressions-review-photos-plans.2890/#post-40473 )

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