iStop - Mazda 3

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750 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1365031 12-Aug-2015 21:39

jonathan18:
minimoke: I have an issue with mine that someone might be able to help with. Trundling along and the green i stop light comes on the dashboard so presumably all required qualifiers are met (temperature right / no air con or demist etc). Get to a stop and hit the brakes. pedal pushed down, wheels straight ahead, no moving steering wheel and I Stop light goes out but no idlel stop. Move away from stop and light doesn't come back on. When i stop and manually turn the engine off. turn it back on again and drive away the light comes balk on but same issue at the next stop. So its seems ready to work but for some reason doesnt - any ideas?

Which engine is in your car?

2.0l petrol with skyactiv

MikeAqua

7769 posts

Uber Geek

#1365329 13-Aug-2015 10:07

We have iStop on our Mazda 3 (SP25).

I have always found it works just fine. If I: -

1) Drive into the park
2) Apply brake (i-Stop kills engine)
3) Put the car into park
4) Take foot off brake (engine stays off)
5) Press stop button (electronics shut down).
6) Exit car and press lock button

Works every time. I don't have to do anything fast slow or otherwise. As far as I can tell the hand brake is irrelevant.

Note that park-selected and brake-applied are conditions required to start the engine.

If you turn i-Stop off manually then things can go a little squirrelly. I've also noticed that i-stop won't work when the engine low temperature indicator is displayed. I haven't tested high temperature yet

Mike

minimoke

750 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2489205 22-May-2020 10:19

I have asked this thread to be unlocked as I have found another solution to the problem of the Mazda I Stop not working. Seems to be a common problem across Mazda forums.

To recap, years ago (see my post above) my I Stop dash light glowed amber and I couldn’t, not matter what I changed with vehicle conditions, get it to glow green and get it working. In the end I gave up, accepting it was likely a batter fault and I wasn’t going to spend $380 for a new battery so I could save $5 of fuel.

Moving on to modern day, my battery finally was on its way out. I had the orange I Stop glowing along with the orange Service spanner light. Time for a new battery!.

So imagine my joy after a wee bit of driving the I Stop dash light turn green. Halleluiah – it was working again.

But no!. Pulled up to an intersection. Came to a complete halt, green I stop light went out, engine didn’t stop, moved out of intersection and I stop light didn’t come on at all. Next time I got into the car green light came on but same thing happened.

Bugger me – the flipping thing still not working. So back to the drawing board.

I run through usual checklist

Engine at optimum operating temperature. tick
Battery fully charged (greater than 75%). Tick
Battery temperature warm (-5°C to 60°C). Tick.
Window demist - off Tick
Air conditioning system not on Max or Min setting. Tick.
Cabin temperature in right range relative to air con temp setting. Tick.
Ambient temperature not too high or low. Tick
Atmospheric pressure not too low. Tick
Car not stopped on a slope. Tick.
The steering wheel not at an angle when stopped. Tick.
Car doors, boot/bonnet / fuel cap all closed. Tick
Driver seat belt fastened Tick.
Brake booster vacuum pressure reserve is OK. Tick
Automatic gearbox oil temperature is in range (0C - 118°C) tick
I Stop dash on/off switch not activated. Tick

Every thing ticked and the damn thing still not working. And then I found the solution, which is

Battery in key fob going flat. Changed the wee button battery and finally I Stop works!

Talk about an over engineered solution to a not very big perceived problem!

CruciasNZ

879 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#2489209 22-May-2020 10:23

Glad you sorted your issue out. My Mazda 6 (2016) just seems to hate iStop. When I get it serviced they fix the thing, and then after a few weeks it just stops working - the iStop light never changes to "ready". Ironically my father hates his iStop, and is envious of the fact that my one never works.

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minimoke

750 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2489304 22-May-2020 11:00

CruciasNZ:

Glad you sorted your issue out. My Mazda 6 (2016) just seems to hate iStop. When I get it serviced they fix the thing, and then after a few weeks it just stops working - the iStop light never changes to "ready". Ironically my father hates his iStop, and is envious of the fact that my one never works.

You may find when you replace the battery it works. In my problem solving journey I've learnt that battery voltage drops is enough to stop the thing from working. So if teh battery is old good chance you'l have problems.

As a feature I dont mind it. But I certainly wouldn't buy a car based on this as a selling feature. This morning I was stopped fro 1 1/2 minutes in total on my commute. The I stop worked for one minute of that time - so I saved one minutes worth of car idling time. I cant be bothered trying to work out how much that saved me in fuel.

I find the car starts very quickly so being at a dead stop and leaving an intersection takes maybe a 0.5 second reaction time. You cant do a Le Mans front of the grid acceleration start. But thats not my driving style anyway.

alasta

6687 posts

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#2489337 22-May-2020 11:42

Interesting. Did you get any warning that your key fob battery was low? My CX-5 shows an advisory message in the instrument binnacle when the key fob battery needs to be replaced.

CruciasNZ

879 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#2489340 22-May-2020 11:52

minimoke:

You may find when you replace the battery it works. In my problem solving journey I've learnt that battery voltage drops is enough to stop the thing from working. So if teh battery is old good chance you'l have problems.

As a feature I dont mind it. But I certainly wouldn't buy a car based on this as a selling feature. This morning I was stopped fro 1 1/2 minutes in total on my commute. The I stop worked for one minute of that time - so I saved one minutes worth of car idling time. I cant be bothered trying to work out how much that saved me in fuel.

I find the car starts very quickly so being at a dead stop and leaving an intersection takes maybe a 0.5 second reaction time. You cant do a Le Mans front of the grid acceleration start. But thats not my driving style anyway.

Aye my Google Fu implies that would solve the issue, but it's a 2016 car with only 90k on the clock so I am loathe to replace the battery just to get the iStop working. I love the iStop and don't mind using it, but most of my trips (shopping and commute) are less than 5 minutes long, or 10 minutes in traffic, so it's not a major financial thing for me. I'd spend more fixing the battery than just living with the lack of functionality.

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engedib

254 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2489344 22-May-2020 12:02

CruciasNZ:

Glad you sorted your issue out. My Mazda 6 (2016) just seems to hate iStop. When I get it serviced they fix the thing, and then after a few weeks it just stops working - the iStop light never changes to "ready". Ironically my father hates his iStop, and is envious of the fact that my one never works.

Yeah, I also hate it, and cannot understand why there is no option to turn it off permanently :(

Quoban

38 posts

Geek

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#2489351 22-May-2020 12:24

When getting my Mazda serviced recently, I overheard the service representative mentioning the 'engine hood open' switch can be rotated 90 degrees which disables the iStop system - no lights on the dash, no error codes. (iStop light just stays off all the time).
The car thinks the hood is open/getting serviced, so it keeps the engine running.

Not sure how this might affect an anti-theft feature, if installed. (might never arm the system?)

minimoke

750 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2489355 22-May-2020 12:32

alasta:

Interesting. Did you get any warning that your key fob battery was low? My CX-5 shows an advisory message in the instrument binnacle when the key fob battery needs to be replaced.

I hindsight I did. Nothing on the dashboard - my car isnt that smart.

But I remember now that from time to time I would walk to the car and push the fob door unlock button and it didnt work from far away. But it did if it was right next to the door handle. And sometimes the engine push start button didnt work. It was an intermittent issue so didn't think much of it. Now I have replaced the fob battery door locking / unlocking works just fine

minimoke

750 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2489356 22-May-2020 12:36

CruciasNZ:

minimoke:

You may find when you replace the battery it works. In my problem solving journey I've learnt that battery voltage drops is enough to stop the thing from working. So if teh battery is old good chance you'l have problems.

As a feature I dont mind it. But I certainly wouldn't buy a car based on this as a selling feature. This morning I was stopped fro 1 1/2 minutes in total on my commute. The I stop worked for one minute of that time - so I saved one minutes worth of car idling time. I cant be bothered trying to work out how much that saved me in fuel.

I find the car starts very quickly so being at a dead stop and leaving an intersection takes maybe a 0.5 second reaction time. You cant do a Le Mans front of the grid acceleration start. But thats not my driving style anyway.

Aye my Google Fu implies that would solve the issue, but it's a 2016 car with only 90k on the clock so I am loathe to replace the battery just to get the iStop working. I love the iStop and don't mind using it, but most of my trips (shopping and commute) are less than 5 minutes long, or 10 minutes in traffic, so it's not a major financial thing for me. I'd spend more fixing the battery than just living with the lack of functionality.

Sounds like you are like me. Couldn't be bothered doing anything until the battery actually needed replacing. I think the feature is something the marketing department dreamt up (My dash comes up with a wee green tree after I have used I stop "x" many times. And then the engineers thought "right, I'll fix marketing" and created something that really doesn't have a lot of functionality.

minimoke

750 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2489360 22-May-2020 12:40

Quoban:

When getting my Mazda serviced recently, I overheard the service representative mentioning the 'engine hood open' switch can be rotated 90 degrees which disables the iStop system - no lights on the dash, no error codes. (iStop light just stays off all the time).
The car thinks the hood is open/getting serviced, so it keeps the engine running.

Not sure how this might affect an anti-theft feature, if installed. (might never arm the system?)

If thats the fix, it shows what a nonsense the I Stop is. Surely if you have your hood open you would want to disable the engine start, not the stop.

I'm not inclined to tinker with those things - what if it also stops airbags working or any other things the engineers have wired into the system.

Unless you are a racing car driving who loves instant acceleration from a dead stop I cant see any problem with the way I Stop actually works.

old3eyes

9112 posts

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#2489503 22-May-2020 15:26

CruciasNZ:

Glad you sorted your issue out. My Mazda 6 (2016) just seems to hate iStop. When I get it serviced they fix the thing, and then after a few weeks it just stops working - the iStop light never changes to "ready". Ironically my father hates his iStop, and is envious of the fact that my one never works.

iStop is usually disabled on my CX5 when I drive it around Morrinsville and the like. . The only time I leave it on is when I go to Hamilton and get in rush hour traffic.

Regards,

Old3eyes

jonathan18

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#2489512 22-May-2020 15:46

It's quite a coincidence that this thread has been re-opened the same time I've been having trouble with the iStop on my car.

I'm happy to blame Covid-19 for this, as I'm sure it's related to using the car about twice in about seven weeks; when I did finally drive it there seemed to also be problems with the i-ELOOP feature as well, as for quite some time that wouldn't 'charge'.

Generally, the most common reason why iStop doesn't work on my car is the DPF burn-off that comes with owning a diesel: for some owners of Mazda diesel cars this could well be the reason why iStop won't enable (especially since the car will repeatedly try to burn off the particulate if it doesn't manage to complete the cycle - and that requires driving at a decent speed (80kmh I think) for a decent period (15sh mins).

So this week I took the car for a decent drive in the country; yep, it did end up doing the DPF burn-off (can tell by smell and fuel consumption), but even after that the iStop wasn't working. Decided to drive to the Mazda dealer to ask them, but the mechanics were at morning tea so drove home; just as I got to the gates the iStop light went green! Reversed up the driveway, then drove forward to check if it was still working and... back to orange. That's where it sits...

My best guess at this point is the battery has dropped over the weeks of non-use, and is not fully re-charging from the alternator; and the solution is to get it tested and, if necessary, fully charged at the dealers or a battery place - does that sound a likely cause and fix?

jonathan18

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#2489665 22-May-2020 15:53

And to those who don't think sitting stationary adds up over time: my 2013 car, with 61k on the clock, has had iStop engaged for 76 hours.

While I'm sure that does amount to a decent amount of fuel over that time, the downside is certainly the impact this has on the battery - when I had to replace it a few years back I recall the cost was ridiculous compared to a bog-standard battery. Mazda was going to charge something like $800, but a terribly helpful chap here on GZ sold me one via his company for way, way less.

Sure hoping this new battery's not needing replacing already!

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