I love my 2020 Jeep Wrangler JL! It’s comfortable, fun to drive, and looks great. However, there is one thing I dislike about my Jeep, it has this stupid Auto Stop-Start or Engine Stop-Start (ESS) “feature”. This is where when you stop at a stop light or in traffic the engine shuts off and when you are ready to go again (take your foot off the brake) the engine starts. I guess this “feature” is suppose to save gas or reduce emissions or whatever but… it SUCKS! Beyond just being a pain in the ass I am sure the excessive shutting off and restarting also increases wear on the battery, starter, etc.
There is a button on the console to disable the ESS, but it resets to ESS enabled when you shut off the ignition. I almost, sometimes I remember to disable it (more often Sandy will disable it if she is with me), but usually I end up starting out and at the first or second stop sign the ESS shuts down the motor, I cuss, and then I hit the button on the console to disable it.
The Auto Stop-Start is disabled when the light on the console is lit. I want it to remember I disabled it, that seems reasonable (at least to me). I don’t know why Jeep did not allow this setting to be configured and remembered through power cycles, because they did not I spent $85 on this gadget from Auto Stop Eliminator.
The Auto Stop Eliminator for my Jeep JL sells for $99 but I had a coupon code, GMTRUCKS, I found in a forum somewhere (sorry did not save the link) which got me a 15% discount. So with free shipping it was $85 to my door. Ordered on a Thursday and it was delivered on Monday.
Took less than 10 minutes to install the Auto Stop Eliminator and the only tool I needed was some snips to cut excess off the ties.
The installation video is here:
Note the camera angle in the video is from the floorboard looking up and toward the driver seat. I tried to take some pictures of my install but I couldn’t really get any good ones. The video does a good job showing the where and how.
After installing the Auto Stop Eliminator I can now disable the ESS with the button on the console and the setting is remembered when the ignition is switched off.
Been driving around with it installed for the past few weeks with no issues, the light on the console stays lit and the ESS has remained disabled through ignition cycles – no more stopping and starting and stopping and starting. Sucks to have to spend $85 to remember the setting you want (and I am sure Jeep could do this with a software update) but if the ESS pisses you off or you are worried about wear and tear on the starter and other components then the Auto Stop Eliminator is the solution.
