Be Cautious with ESS

[WXman]

Not sure what you mean by “get it perfected soon”. This has been on cars for years now and pretty much the range of reactions by consumers is the same regarding love it, hate it or don’t care.

It's only been on the Wrangler for one year. And every implementation is different. So if we give it another year, they'll get the bugs worked out of the JL system.

I was going to post this. It is an okay system and I do leave it on in certain situations on my drive home such as just pulling up to a light that just turned red and I know wont change for a bit. But man is it annoying when I come to stop in a parking spot, engine shuts off, I shift to P and the engine starts back up just for me to immediately turn it off again.

That annoyed me for the first week also. I learned to shift to neutral as I come to a stop in a parking space and then immediately hit park. That prevents the on, off, on, off situation. After a while your brain learns how to activate ESS with different pedal pressure also. You get used to it.

Situations like what, driving?

Situations like pulling across oncoming traffic such that if your vehicle stalls they wouldn't have time to react. That has caused severe crashes since long before ESS was even a thought in any engineer's mind.


At the end of the day, the really funny thing is that this fuel saving, money saving, environmentally friendly feature can be flipped off with literally one press of a button. Yet there are dozens of threads of moaning and complaining about it. That just goes to show you how terribly spoiled we are in America.

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[OldBird]

I'm still torn on it. It makes me a little nervous that it just won't restart, although it hasn't done that yet.

I'm in a pretty rural area with lots of stopping for left turns, wait for the highway traffic to go by, then race across the lane or two. That or being at an uphill stop sign waiting for the tiniest break to instantly jump to 50mph.

It's not always possible, but almost every time I am able to see the break early enough to lift up on the brake pedal to get it started. On mine at least the pedal doesn't need to come all the way up and the Jeep doesn't start moving immediately when it restarts because I'm still stepping on the brake. I haven't been in any situation where the engine wasn't already running when I needed to hit the gas.

 

[bilcol81]

I've driven several vehicles with this feature and I have to say Jeep's version of the technology feels the most slipshod out of the other manufacturers. Currently I make it a point that when I press the button to start the Jeep, I will then press the button to disable the system. I'm still getting roughly 21/22 mpg.

I will invest in the Tazer in the near future, however, as I am looking to do a lift and tire upgrade and would like it to adjust my speedometer.

Hate the ESS! My wife and I have also gotten into the habit of pushing the ESS disable button right after the Start button.

 

[jfox]

I've found I can pretty much control if and when the ESS engages by the pressure applied to the brake pedal. If I don't want it to engage, I simply press the pedal lightly (almost on the verge of it rolling forward), and if I'm at a light that I know won't be changing for a while, I press it more firmly so that it engages and shuts the engine down.

Now, this isn't 100% accurate since there are times it engages and I didn't mean for it to, if that's the case i simply let my foot off for a second and then apply the brake again. The system does not re-engage again no matter how hard I press during that stop.

As I've gotten used to it, I've found it to be controllable for the most part.

As for the OP... I don't know man... I wouldn't feel too comfortable after that. Lucky there wasn't someone behind you anticipating you to go and rear end you. I'm pretty confident in my ability to handle unexpected driving situations... It's all these other idiots out on the road trying to crash into me I'm worried about.

Hopefully FCA takes notice (of the opinion of a large population of their customers) and maybe moves the ESS into the settings on the infotainment system so it can be set once and forgotten about. Obviously there are options such as Tazer that can be used if you are dead set against the ESS, but would of certainly made everyone happy if you could just set it once and leave it alone.

 

[jfox]

I'm still torn on it. It makes me a little nervous that it just won't restart, although it hasn't done that yet.

I'm in a pretty rural area with lots of stopping for left turns, wait for the highway traffic to go by, then race across the lane or two. That or being at an uphill stop sign waiting for the tiniest break to instantly jump to 50mph.

It's not always possible, but almost every time I am able to see the brake early enough to lift up on the brake pedal to get it started. On mine at least the pedal doesn't need to come all the way up and the Jeep doesn't start moving immediately when it restarts because I'm still stepping on the brake. I haven't been in any situation where the engine wasn't already running when I needed to hit the gas.

Agree 100%.... I always get the engine going again before I actually have to go.

 

[TimmH]

Really seems like 2 simple software changes would make ESS way more manageable.

1. Make it less sensitive, rather than every time you come to a complete stop instantly engage ESS, wait for 60 seconds or so before turning the engine off.

2. Disable the system if the turn signals are engaged.

Around here, I am pretty sure cars do not come standard with turn signals, at least I have not seen anyone use them.

 

[chadly25]

Situations like pulling across oncoming traffic such that if your vehicle stalls they wouldn't have time to react. That has caused severe crashes since long before ESS was even a thought in any engineer's mind.

Obviously you still haven't viewed the video and are simply making a broad and invalid statement. I'm glad that where you live you never have to make a left hand turn. It must also be nice that if your engine did stop in middle of the road that you would be in no danger with other motorist near you.

 

[XJrider]

The sensor has a threshold of brake angle. If you dont push the brake that hard you can stop the jeep at lights and it doesnt shut off...

 

[GreyFox]

The sensor has a threshold of brake angle. If you dont push the brake that hard you can stop the jeep at lights and it doesnt shut off...

My observation as well. Or wiggle your foot while still on the brake to restart your engine before actually hitting the gas.

 

[chadly25]

I typically always let up on the brake just a bit right before I want to drive. My issue was the engine was running the whole time while I stopped to make my turn. Had the engine stopped 2 seconds before hand I would have done this. Having it stop the exact moment I lifted my foot off the brake and was beginning to accelerate was the issue. I'm a little concerned that it chose to turn off right as I began to drive but my big concern was that the engine did not start automatically on it's own. I had to take my foot off the gas, press the brake and release it again to get the engine to come back on.

 

[ChrispyJL]

I LOVE ESS, in the 7 months of driving my JLU, it has probably saved me 2 gallons of gas, @ $2-3 a gallon, that's a massive savings on my gas bill.
Totally kidding lol
I was at a red light one day, ESS wouldn't engage for whatever reason, light turns green, friggin ESS engages out of the blue only for me to restart and go, I said to myself, ohh cool, maybe the battery wasn't charged enough, maybe there is a timer from last engage that wasn't zeroed yet, maybe the wind was blowing at 4 mph from the east...who the frig knows.

Sometimes I can control ESS very well and think I have figured it out, other times it seems to have a mind of its own.

Honestly I would rather drive and not worry about ESS saving me $20 a year in gas, so whenever I push start, I just drop my finger a few inches and press ESS so it is off.

 

[blnewt]

Honestly I would rather drive and not worry about ESS saving me $20 a year in gas, so whenever I push start, I just drop my finger a few inches and press ESS so it is off.

This FTW!^^^^

 

[se7en]

I've found I can pretty much control if and when the ESS engages by the pressure applied to the brake pedal. If I don't want it to engage, I simply press the pedal lightly (almost on the verge of it rolling forward), and if I'm at a light that I know won't be changing for a while, I press it more firmly so that it engages and shuts the engine down.

I was just about to post this, too. It is somewhat controllable, although as you said, not 100%...maybe 90% is more accurate.

I use the same method you describe when badging in at the gate at work. It's a fine line, but a line nonetheless.

 

[K2500Z71]

OP, you wouldn’t happen to be a two foot driver would you? I’ve known some two foot drivers who experienced exactly what you experienced in other cars with stop start systems. It’s very frustrating for them because they start to hit the gas before they’re off the brake and the same thing happens. ESS seems to assume one foot driving (for automatics obviously)

 

[chadly25]

No, single foot driver. I'm not talented enough to have my left foot for anything except a clutch. Which, by the way, my rig is an automatic.

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