I read that someone disabled the auto start stop feature in here by unplugging a module on the Facebook “new defender owners group”. Said the module was in the boot. It’s a quagmire of wires and plugs. Any idea which module to unplug?

 

want to know the answer here too.

 

While I don't find it that hard to hit the button upon starting it up each time, if there were a permanent and simple disable available I would surely do it.

 

I have to say that, after 4 months and 6000 miles of getting used to it, I find the Defender's stop/start system to be the least obtrusive of the many ones I've experienced in other cars in the past. Little or no "shake" when the engine restarts, smooth and near-instant power when you punch it from a standstill, and when you get at a stoploght and the brake hold and engine stop both engage after you come to a full stop, it is blissfully quiet in there (and convenient.)

Took a little getting used to in the beginning and it seems like the system needs a bit of "breaking in" when new, not unlike an adaptive transmission (mine stalled a few times when the car had less than 1000 miles and I hated it too for a couple of days), but now I just let it do its thing and don't mind it at all. I do have the MHEV 6-cylinder engine, which may help smoothing things out.

 

I absolutely despise the system. It’s an asenine system that only exists to satisfy the politicians who kowtow to leftist environmentalists extremists.

 

I would love to turn it off. The main problem for me is that it also turns off all the fans in the car. I really don't like it.

 

I think manufacturers should make this feature easy to permanently disable through the vehicle settings. Certain Volvo models allow this -- the XC40 in particular does given how the poor the implementation was -- which suggests to me that manufacturers can preserve whatever benefit this feature gives them in compliance land while allowing owner choice. I find this particular implementation to be fine in the 2020 Defender -- it's less jarring than in other cars I've owned.

 

If the off button is easily accessible, I'm sure it will become automatic for me to turn it off. The Honda engineers put a big auto-stop off button just below the shift buttons on our Honda Passport. Myself, wife and kids all go through the same exact steps at start-up...step on the brake, press the start button, press the auto-stop off button then select reverse or forward. Never even think about turning it off anymore.

If the Defender shares the same auto-stop system with the D5, there is a second battery for the auto-stop somewhere. Once that battery fails you just don't bother replacing it and auto-stop is gone.

 

Well, that's new.

I shut my auto-start off every time I drive the vehicle and the rest of the vehicle operates normally. Never had a problem, other than me forgetting -- then I come to a stop sign and am forced to remember by the engine stopping.

Hopefully, you are having your vehicle looked into by the dealer?

 

wish I knew where that battery was so I could make it fail prematurely.