‘I’m a mechanic – always press a little-known button before starting your car’

The motoring expert Scotty Kilmer has advised that drivers can save hassle and potential damage by turning one common function off.

Scotty has been a mechanic for over 55 years and regularly posts short videos to his YouTube channel to give advice, including five cars to avoid because they are “endless money pits”.

In one of his latest videos, he explains why motorists should not always use the stop-start feature in their cars.

Scott, who also recently listed two European car brands he’d never buy a vehicle from, said: “Most of the wear on your engine occurs when you start the car. The oil at the bottom of the engine, the oil pump has to spin, pump the oil to the top of the engine, and start lubricating.

“Every time you shut the car off the oil goes back down, it’s got to be pumped back up again. Do you really want to be starting and stopping your car all the time?”

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The stop start function has been found on cars since 1974 and stops the engine from running when the vehicle is stationary.

In doing so, various manufacturers claim that stop start helps to make the car more environmentally friendly and improve fuel economy.

However, since starting the engine takes a significant amount of energy, the function will only work when the battery is charged to a certain level.

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Scotty added that, whilst there is no way to completely turn off this feature, drivers can disable start stop in their car by pressing a small button which features the letter ‘A’ within a circle.

“By law you can’t turn it off from the way it was built from the factory permanently so every time you start the car you have to push the off button for the automatic stop start, then the light will come on.

“But every time you shut off the car, go home, whatever, and then you start it again you’ve got to push the button, just get in the habit of doing that.”

Shortly after posting the video to his YouTube channel, Scotty received over 140,000 views and 8,000 likes, with many drivers commenting their thoughts on this function.

One person wrote: “Scotty I completely agree. That feature has been non-existent in my ’19 Ford Fusion, I always have it off. I always felt like my starter and spark plugs will wear out faster and the engine in general.”

Another commented: “I’m glad you said something. I was taught since the 1980s that 99 percent of engine wear comes from starting a car.”

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