Any car made this century will come packed to the gills with fancy new features. Some of these features are great, increasing our safety and prolonging an engines longevity.
Some, like the auto stop in the Chevy Equinox, just might not be to your liking.
How do you turn the auto stop off in the Chevy Equinox?
Unfortunately, Chevy did not include a button like some carmakers do. Fortunately, it’s not too complicated. Turn the vehicle on, shift the car into manual, then press the + button to shift the gear up to six.
Below we’ll go step by step so you know exactly what you’re supposed to be doing, we’ll provide a video for those of us who are more visual learners, and we’ll get into the hows and whats of the auto stop system. Keep reading if you’re interested.
How Does the Auto Stop Know When to Stop?
All the auto stop is really doing is checking the RPMs and the brake. If the RPMs are at a dead stop, or close to it, and the brake is pressed, the auto stop kicks in and shuts the engine off.
The idea is to save on the wear and tear your engine may experience while idling. Every time a piston fires through your engine block, it chips a little bit of life expectancy off of your vehicle.
This could come in handy if you do a lot of stop-start city driving, but if you live somewhere nice and quiet with one stop light on the way to work, the difference is marginal. And you might just prefer having total control over your vehicle at all times.
Turning Your Auto-Stop Off
As mentioned, the fix isn’t quite as easy as a single button press, but it’s pretty close to it. It only takes a couple seconds, and you don’t have to hold the brake down for five minutes or anything. You just do the following steps:
- Turn your car on, but don’t start the engine.
- Shift the car down to manual.
- Press the + button on your shifter until you get up to the highest gear, which should be six.
And that’s all there is to it, no more auto-stop. And here’s that video we promised if you want to know exactly what we’re talking about.
Some people who drive the Chevy Equinox don’t mind the auto-stop. If you deal with a lot of stop signs and lights on the way to work, it could save you hundreds of miles on your car’s life expectancy.
Some drivers hate the feature. They’d rather be in full control at all times. Other drivers may leave the feature on when they’re driving through the city, and turn it off when they’re ready to hit the highway.
There is some concern as to whether auto-stop is doing more harm than good. But the cold start when you first turn your engine on in the morning does a lot more damage than auto-stop startups will, since your car is already warmed up.
Know What You’re Buying
Sometimes the higher price on a car is justified by a whole bunch of features you don’t want to deal with. In these instances, you might as well shop around for something simpler.
Vehicle History can help you find what you’re looking for.