Hard wheel turns--Engine auto stop-start....

[jmilet]

Two questions on a 2013 Boxter:
1. When I turn the wheel hard right or left at low speed the front wheels seem to skip. Is this normal?
2. Does anyone have an opinion or more information on the Boxter automatic engine stop and start to conserve fuel. Recommend using or not and why?

Thanks.

JM

[Budman]

Since no one else is answering, I'll try. As far as your tires skipping when you make hard slow turns, this is perfectly normal. Concerning your second question, I'm not able to help you with that one. Sorry. Cheers!

[jmilet]

Budman,

Thanks for the tire info. As for the auto start stop, I think I will just turn it off. It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks!

JM

[emayer]

I can possibly help with the auto stop/start function....

As you know this a basic trick employed by almost all manufacturer's nowadays to help boost fleet economy. I even have it on my G63 which is utterly ridiculous since it averages no better than 10-15 mpg!

That said, I always disable the function for a few reasons:

1. I favor sport and sport + modes which automatically disable the function.

2. I have no data to support this, but empirically I wonder about wear on the starter motor, battery, and engine from repeated stop/starts.

3. If I was truly concerned about the minor savings in fuel consumption from this feature, I'd have bought a Prius!

[CarreraS]

If I was truly concerned about the minor savings in fuel consumption from this feature, I'd have bought a Prius!

Eric, I have no doubt that when they develop the first 200 mph Prius, you will be first in line.

[emayer]

I'll use electrons to help the environment (another discussion!)- only if they let me drive faster!!

The Porsche 918, Mclaren P1, and LaFerrari are interesting technical exercises. Only a matter of time before this shows up in our GT3s....

[Larry Herman]

At last year's Porsche Tech Tactics the auto-stop was discussed and they felt that the starter was sufficiently rugged to be able to handle the re-starts in the course of normal driving. Don't forget that the engine has to be warm, and that the DFI lights off much easier than a conventionally injected motor.

As an interesting aside, a number of years ago I read about an electronic valve operating system that could start a motor just by closing off the valves, injecting fuel and firing the correct cylinders to get the motor to turn. Once it compeled a revolution, it was essentially started.