Equinox 2018 - disable auto stop feature

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JGreg7

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The auto stop feature in my new Equinox is driving me crazy. I live in traffic plagued southern California, where creeping along is a way of life. The Auto Stop feature keeps killing the car while in traffic or in parking lots, and has almost caused me to be rear-ended several times.

It also takes too long to start, causing a lag when trying to pull out into traffic. A very dangerous problem.

The concept is generally useful, however the implementation is poorly done. There needs to be a programmable delay before the car simply turns off, or better yet a switch to disable it when in traffic.

Is there any way to turn this feature off?
 

dietz4ibanez

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There has to be a way to disable it. I would also reach out to your dealers service department to see what they say about turning it off or maybe even a reprogramming flash for it to work better.
 

c&wsinbad

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There has to be a way to disable it. I would also reach out to your dealers service department to see what they say about turning it off or maybe even a reprogramming flash for it to work better.

You can disable it, but not permanently. On transmission selector, shift to "L" and then use the +/- button on the top of the shift lever to set the range to "9" (look in the Drivers Information Center for the range indicator; it will appear as L2, L3, L4, etc depending on what you have set it as.) Once the transmission is in "L" and range set to 9, the transmission will shift thru all gears as it normally would, but "auto start/stop" will not activate. You will need to do this every time you start the Equinox.
 

JGreg7

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Tried the following...

I have tried the following:

I asked the dealer if they could turn off the Auto Stop feature, or alternatively change the delay (increase) so the Auto Stop would wait a bit for momentary stops such as traffic.
The dealer replied that this was not possible since the programming was not changeable.

Also, I have used the manual gear shift selection, while this does work, with 9 gears to cycle through every time I shift the car into manual, it is becoming a nuisance that I should not have to endure.

I am looking for some method of disabling this feature, or installing a switch to allow me to choose when it is applied. I would even settle for an increase delay in the shut-off timing to prevent nuisance activation.
 

stumusic

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I believe if you put the vehicle into "L" range, and select the highest gear you want to use with the +- combo on the shifter, it will more or less drive normally but will not activate the auto stop function.
 

michigansam

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Tried the following...

I have tried the following:

I asked the dealer if they could turn off the Auto Stop feature, or alternatively change the delay (increase) so the Auto Stop would wait a bit for momentary stops such as traffic.
The dealer replied that this was not possible since the programming was not changeable.

Also, I have used the manual gear shift selection, while this does work, with 9 gears to cycle through every time I shift the car into manual, it is becoming a nuisance that I should not have to endure.

I am looking for some method of disabling this feature, or installing a switch to allow me to choose when it is applied. I would even settle for an increase delay in the shut-off timing to prevent nuisance activation.
https://www.amazon.com/Eliminator-Chevrolet-2019-2021-Cadillac-2018-2021/dp/B0952ZBHYT this works great om my 2019 Equinox
 

michigansam

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You can disable it, but not permanently. On transmission selector, shift to "L" and then use the +/- button on the top of the shift lever to set the range to "9" (look in the Drivers Information Center for the range indicator; it will appear as L2, L3, L4, etc depending on what you have set it as.) Once the transmission is in "L" and range set to 9, the transmission will shift thru all gears as it normally would, but "auto start/stop" will not activate. You will need to do this every time you start the Equinox.
https://www.amazon.com/Eliminator-Chevrolet-2019-2021-Cadillac-2018-2021/dp/B0952ZBHYT this work great on my 2019 Equinox
 

stumusic

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You shouldn’t need to manually shift gears. Once you select L, you shoukd be able to dial up to 9 once to set the range of gears, and it should then basically behave as it does in Drive. Alternately, dial it up to 4, then move it to Drive when you are up to speed. Honestly however, the autostop to me has very minimal impact in traffic or not. Restarting takes 2 seconds.
 

dgstarr

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You shouldn’t need to manually shift gears. Once you select L, you shoukd be able to dial up to 9 once to set the range of gears, and it should then basically behave as it does in Drive. Alternately, dial it up to 4, then move it to Drive when you are up to speed. Honestly however, the autostop to me has very minimal impact in traffic or not. Restarting takes 2 seconds.
I purchase an auto stop eliminator on Amazon for about $25 and it works great on my 21 Equinox Premier AWD. It shows no trouble codes and my dealer sees no problem wit using it.
 

spaycace

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I've seen NUMEROUS posts about this on multiple sites for multiple vehicles ... and I'm always curious when I see people say "I was almost rear-ended" because when I take my foot off the brake, the engine is running by the time my foot hits the gas pedal. I have been in "dreaded traffic" quite often enough in the Denver area (and southern Cali too) and never really had a problem with this feature. I'd either use the "L mode" trick and select the highest gear, or I'd simply take my foot off the brake just enough to re-start the engine and it wouldn't shut off again after that if I never got over a certain speed in that crappy traffic! I'd say the turbo lag on my '19 diesel Equinox is worse than the stop/start feature, but I get around that too by simply stepping on the go pedal and getting my RPMs up to about 1200 before I let off the brake. I honestly don't see the problem and would certainly appreciate the fuel savings ... especially at California prices!
 

ricklack

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Buy a 2022, they have a disable button for auto-stop :LOL:
 

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