Hidden car feature could mean drivers face forking out hundreds of pounds

Motorists are being advised to make use of a lesser-known feature on their dashboards to prevent engine wear. The renowned mechanic and popular YouTube personality Scotty Kilmer has highlighted the importance for owners of petrol and diesel vehicles to utilise a 'secret' button found on their dashboards.

Mr Kilmer has raised concerns regarding the stop-start system, advising drivers to disable it. Scotty explained: "You see this little button here that says 'A-off'. Well, guess what, make it a habit to push the 'A-off'. Now it won't turn the engine off when you come to a stop. It will continue to work like a normal car and won't keep turning itself off, starting itself up."

He further elaborated on the issue, stating: "Most of the wear on your engine occurs when you start the car. The oil's in the bottom of the engine, the oil pump has to spin, pump the oil to the top of the engine to start lubricating. Every time you shut the car off the oil goes back down, it's got to be pumped back up again."

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"Do you really want to be starting and stopping your car all the time? It will wear the engine out faster, it will wear the starter out faster, it will wear the battery out faster." In reply, a driver said: "Totally agree. The gas savings vs parts wear is like risking dollars to save pennies. The feature is also SUPER ANNOYING; dangerous even, due to the delayed restart. I constantly worry about stepping on gas too quick during the restart. Luckily my current cars Acura MDX Advance and RSX Type S don't have it and my next car won't have it either.

"I absolutely hate these start/stop stupid systems. It was a poor idea that wears components out faster," another fumed. A third said: "Had a 2017 Dodge Durango with this feature. Had to replace the starter which cost over $1k because the engine mount had to be removed to get the job done," , reports Birmingham Live.

"The mechanic checked how many starts the old starter had on it. It had logged 36,000 starts! We were floored! Even if I had started my car 10 times a day for a year it would have only totaled 3650 starts in a single year, but because it stops the engine at every stoplight, stop sign, and even when you pull in to park, it had racked up that many starts at the 87K mile mark."