I am not alone!
 

Rolled up to a stoplight that I always used to shut the engine off in my Civic because it's very long, and noticed that the car next to mine, a black VW Golf, had no lights on and I couldn't hear the engine running. Sure enough, just before the light turned green I heard the car start and saw the headlights flip on; he pulled in front of me before the next light and was clearly timing the lights.

This may not be a big deal to you city folk, but in the two years since I started driving thoughtfully I have not encountered another hypermiler in this small Midwest town. Now, I feel like Jodie Foster in "Contact."

While sitting in silence at those stoplights do you wonder "...where did those 18 minutes..." go? (wink,wink).

I also do this often at long lights. But then I wonder while sitting there (sometimes sitting in the cold, without the benefit of having the heater warming me in winter): how much money have I saved in unspent fuel as compared to this recurrent wear on my starter? I've changed the starter on my car twice over many years, and replacing it isn't an easy task. Actually it's a b---h.

Maybe this routine balances out at best. Maybe I am just breaking even. If I'm only breaking even, I ask myself what's the point of doing it?

Very funny. :thumbup:

Also: Vman, I know what you mean. It's cool to encounter other ecodrivers in the wild! http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...day-24542.html

Wow. What kind of car? (Make a garage entry -- helps.)

I haven't had to change a starter in decades! The last time was only because it was a crap component in mk1 Rabbit/Golfs, not because I was keying off much at all.

I completely agree with your point. After a couple of times starting the engine, I realized A) extra starter wear, and B) how much fuel does my 3.7 use to crank over?

What I have started to do, is NOT cut the engine at lights unless I EOC up to the light, or I KNOW how long it will be. Back near my last college, there was a light that went in circles, with 6 angles, and a solid 2.5 minutes if you missed the light. Often, I will bump start my engine before coming to a complete stop to avoid having to crank it over. Either way I will need to start it, but that way I save a bit on the starter.

I was watching a mythbusters yesterday on hypermiling and they found with the all the devices they used for measuring gas mileage that sitting at a light used 0.5 gallons per hour if you figure that your car idles for about 30 minutes on a tank of gas you've used at least half a gallon of fuel to that do pretty much nothing. Considering modern fuel injected cars use the same amount of gas to start up as they do in 7 seconds of idling all you need to do is be stopped for at least 8 seconds to save gas

Yes, you'll save gas. But the more you use a starter, the faster it will wear out.

I still turn the engine off at lights that are known to be long. But for times of less than a minute it's probably a trade off with starter wear.

The starter in my last Metro must have been from an army tank. It worked flawlessly the entire time I owned the car. I'm not sure how long it served the previous owner. The cool part is, the last six months of this wonderful cars life was driven without a clutch after it (clutch) failed. The starter was used at every stop to not only start the engine but to move the car, in first gear to get it going.

Ha! An excellent starter story.