Unplugged mine and heated wheel stopped working. Frustrating.

 

OTA update 2.7.1 basically 'undoes' whatever control you exercised over Auto Stop/Start.
(My vehicle version is down in my Signature.)

BEFORE 2.7.1
Auto Stop/Start was permanently disabled when I took delivery of the car 1 year ago-- I myself permanently disabled it/turned it off (slash appears thru the icon) and, it stayed Disabled this past entire year-- no having to press the Auto Start/Stop button each time I get in the car (This is how Auto Start/Stop is supposed to work (same on my old BMW and all BMWs)

AFTER 2.7.1
The software put on the vehicle now disrespects your desire to set Auto Stop/Start to permanently Disabled. You can set it when in Park, engine running, foot on brake, to Disabled. However that setting no longer persists ad infinitum, it resets to On at every startup of the car.

I DO NOT LIKE the behavior that results from Auto Stop/Start, I never have. I HAVE DISABLED IT on every car I have owned.

Is LR forcing this on every Owner now? or is this another buggy software symptom?

EDIT AFTER POST:
So I stand corrected, my Defender, like all others, has this feature activated at each Startup. (I just recently re-read the entire chapter on Auto Stop/Start, in the manual)
A slash line will appear on the Auto Start/Stop icon, if the vehicle itself determines that certain scenarios or condition(s) warrant it be deactivated. Somehow I was able to press the disable button for this feature, and have it "stick" in the slashed-icon state. As a result, mine was deactivated for the entire 1st year of ownership-- but only by mistake, I,e, it should never have been in an Always-Off/deactivated state that entire time. It was, however, due to a defect of some kind, in the PRIOR vehicle software, that allowed it to stay in that state.

 

I agree completely with you. Some coding jock needs to make us a board that saves the last state of that "feature", whether off or on, and doesn't change it until you push the button again. I think I mentioned last year in this thread that there's a small company, T-Design, that makes a Memory Module for Porsches. It's a small board you plug in behind the button panel in the console of Porsches. Every button will then retain its last setting until you push it again, even if the ECU wants to reset them to default with every restart of the car. I have a GT car so there's no Auto Stop/Start, but on regular Porsches it works with that button, as well as with the various Sport, Sport+, Loud/Quiet Exhaust button, etc. Used to cost 200 bucks, up to 229 now. I'd pay that for such a device for the Defender, as long as I could easily get to the place you need to plug it in.

T-Design Memory Module

 

I haven't had a vehicle in years that allowed disabling the start-stop permanently. My last vehicle just didn't do it in "sport" mode, so I left it like that all the time (aside from snow/ice driving). This isn't really a JLR thing. Manufacturers include it to help meet fuel economy requirements (and/or to be able to report better economy), and having a way for users to disable it permanently wouldn't allow them to:

"Automakers get incentives to do it this way from the Environmental Protection Agency. If the vehicle’s stop/start system is nonlatching and automatically turns on whenever you start the car, the EPA’s fuel-economy test results will be calculated only when the system is engaged. But if a vehicle’s stop/start system can be permanently turned off, then the vehicle’s fuel economy is tested both when stop/start is active and when it’s off. The EPA then averages the two tests for a resulting fuel-economy rating found on the car’s window sticker—which is certain to be lower."

 

Wow that sucks had no idea it was an industry standard type thing. My former BMW and also my partner's, allowed permanent Disable, that's the first thing I turned off when I got the car. Both vehicles allowed it, and the disable state persisted across startups (stayed Off the 5 years of ownership)
Just odd that it was in Disabled state for entire year, and only started being activated at each startup, the same day as the recent software update was installed.

For those reasons is why I am saying the whole thing is just odd

 

This is such a stupid bug for a car to have. LR should hopefully have a bulletin on this and update everyone sayinng they are working on it!

 

I suspect what you experienced was in fact the start/stop system not actually working until the 2.1.7 update. I've noticed a number of 2021 owners had that experience (myself included). It was a problem I didn't really want to fix, but alas it works as designed now (2.1.7 just installed for me a week or so ago).

 

Bringing this thread back from the dead to report that after 13 months and ~6,500 miles of stop and go driving in Los Angeles with the battery connector unplugged to disable start/stop, I've had zero issues or warning lamps of any kind. (2022 P300 without a heated steering wheel.)

 

To add to the discussion, I just watched a video in which a Brit in a UK market version of the Defender, showed how to permanently disable the auto start/stop. He had the vehicle running and disabled the feature by pressing the switch. He then shut the vehicle off. Then he opened and closed the drivers door. Upon restarting, he got the message that auto start/stop was disabled. I tried that, and it worked, one time. Turning the engine off again and restarting reactivated the auto start feature. Oh well.

 

lt won't work on a standard vehicle.

The guy installs a piece of software on your vehicle that makes the stop/start stay "off"

ln order to activate the feature, you need to perform the sequence in the video.

But the software needs to be installed, he charges U.K. £120 to do it and you have to take your vehicle to him.

l am sure someone in the USA will come up with a similar "upgrade" soon.