Saving gas at stoplights by turning off car

I have a 2010 Mazda 3, and I live in Seattle where I find myself waiting at red lights for up to 4 minutes sometimes, and in these situations I turn off my car. Does this save any gas, or is it about equal to the amount it takes to re-start the car?

It saves gas, but so little that you will never be able to tell it.

Most government departments will tell you to shut the car off if it has to idle one minute or more. However, that is environmental advice to keep the air clean.
That government will not pay for you to replace a $500 starter before its time because of all the starting and stopping.

AS mentioned, the amount you will actually save in gas is hard to measure, but a new starter every 4 years instead of 7 or 8 is definitely measurable.

I agree with Docnick…plus I don’t want a bunch of stalled vehicles at red lights if this were ever to catch on. There are a lot of poorly maintained cars and trucks out there.

Just be wearing out the starter IMO, but what would concern me is that fellow behind you thats had a bad day. Next thing you know, ROAD RAGE! Not worth it.

In addition to all of the above ;
if you don’t anticipate the green correctly and restart your car in time,
YOU create a RUDELY un-necessary delay that causes at least two vehicles to MISS a green light they could have made.

  • then THEY have to wait AGAIN !

How much total gas are you really saving/costing ?

All of the previous discussions about this exact question apply to you too. Please search for them.

Too bad you got a new car already. Ford is bringing out it’s Euro tech to America here shortly. I think it’ll be in the Fiesta and Focus, not sure about the other vehicles, but they have an automatic start-stop feature built into the car already.

By doing that you are causing needless wear on the starting system and have no control of the vehicle in case you need to move suddenly. I doubt you would save even a gallon of gas by doing what you are doing for a year. New starters will cost you at least a couple of hundred dollars to install. You aren’t really saving costs in doing this and most likely adding to future repair costs due to extra wear.

AMEN to all the above! (except the one about the Ford Euro tec!

There isn’t any extra fuel needed to start a warm engine and there never was any extra needed to start a warm engine. Once I filled up on the Mass. Pike and I felt like I was ripped off at ninety cents per gallon. I could have got three gallons and had enough to get where I was going. With gasoline selling for $1.39 now, I recommend turning the engine off to save money. I would hate it if the price ever gets to $3.699.