Anyone else turn everything off when you stop the car?

[JD!]

A turbo spinning at 10,000 rpm will not spool down in a matter of seconds. Turbos are prone to wipe out the plain bearing in extreme cases where the oil stops flowing when they're spinning at high rpm.

My daily driver shuts off the engine at 70mph when I'm taking a highway off-ramp. Couldn't tell you how fast the turbo is spinning at that point, but there's less than 10 seconds between taking my foot off the gas at 85mph and the ECU killing the engine. 120,000 miles and the turbo's still fine, probably a more extreme example than what most cars would see.

 

[Hall]

Ever park an automatic car on a hill without the parking brake on and then find that it’s a bit harder to get it out of park the next time you start it?

If you're parking on level ground or even relatively level, there's zero need to use the parking brake. If I park on a hill, yes, I'll set it. My first few cars were manuals and my parents, being from the UK, always set the parking brake and I was taught to as well. Of course, every time I took it to a shop for something, whoever drove it would always put it in 1st gear instead of using the parking brake. This was before clutch interlocks were common too, so countless times I'd start it and it would lunge forward !

 

[Hall]

it probably isn't the best for the AC compressor and/or the blower motor to come on hard from a dead stop. Radio too because I like to hear the start-up in case something is off

Have you tried it without shutting everything off ? I can't remember a car that doesn't have a "delay" relay - it kills pretty much everything for the instance it needs to supply 100% juice to the battery. Turn on the headlights and start a car. The lights on old cars would slowly dim while you cranked but on modern cars, they are shut off hard. Others have addressed things like the AC compressor. The blower motor will ramp up too, not instantaneously go full-blast.

 

[Opelman]

I'm from the school bus world. First and foremost parking brake every time, all the time. It quickly turns into a habit so one is less likely to forget when dealing with a high stress/distraction situation. Same with turn signals. Everything off when shutting down. On a bus the drivers would routinely forget something and be facing flat batteries the next day. Trying to teach presence of mind to some people is difficult.

 

[svtrit]

Dad trained me to turn everything off in the old 1978 D100 Stepside pickup truck I learned to drive in. He told me it reduced the load on the battery at startup.

I forgot about that until seeing this thread. Nary a problem has ever occurred because I didn’t turn off everything when shutting it off every night. I do idle for 30 seconds or so on turbo vehicles, however.

 

[tblt44]

A/C yes off everytime nothing else

 

[Marcozi]

Remember - the a/c system is a dehumidifier. Ever notice pools of water on ground after operating a/c system? This is reason a/c compressor runs when activating the defroster. Removes moisture from inside windshield

I agree. However bimmers have a bad rep for ventilation systems that seem to leave the the sytem damp or wven wet. I know when I switch off the AC and turn the fan to high I get tiny droplets of ater on the vents.

 

[Kestas]

My daily driver shuts off the engine at 70mph when I'm taking a highway off-ramp. Couldn't tell you how fast the turbo is spinning at that point, but there's less than 10 seconds between taking my foot off the gas at 85mph and the ECU killing the engine. 120,000 miles and the turbo's still fine, probably a more extreme example than what most cars would see.

Are you sure the engine stops rotating (no rpm) when coasting? Because I never heard of such a design. I do know the fuel is cut off.