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ZB V6 Engine Questions

Rocko

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Hi all,

I have a V6 ZB, bought it second hand with ~47k on the clock ~6 months ago. I'm pretty happy with it in general, but I am confused by a couple of things.

First, the auto start/stop feature. My car has the button to disable it, but in the ~6 months I've owned it, I have never once had it do the auto start stop for me. Even when stationary at lights, etc. My battery reads 12.38V, and it has no problems starting regularly, so I don't think it's a low voltage issue. It also isn't likely to be related to climate control because I leave that off 90% of the time. I know some people have disabled it by plugging a dongle thing into the OBD2 port, but my OBD2 is empty. Does the ZB V6 actually come equipped with auto stop technology?

Second, throttle related. It seems like my throttle has a soft limiter when I'm in drive with foot on the break. Even with sport mode on and traction control off, you can't launch the car because it won't rev over about 2k while stationary. This seems pretty weird since most sporty auto's I've driven will let you launch like this. I spoke to a friend of mine who is a cop, and he says the ZB V6's he has driven for work can be launched, so is my car different to normal or are the cop cars different? I have seen a thread on here about replacing the throttle controller, which I might do to liven the car up a bit, is this likely to get rid of the soft limit on the throttle?
 

stooge

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Yes the zb has the start stop tech but there are a few conditions that must be met for it to start working.

With the limiter i have never tried to launch mine so i am not sure about that but a throttle controller will not remove it because the limiters are programmed into the ecu.

The police zb might have different programming.
 

Rocko

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Yes the zb has the start stop tech but there are a few conditions that must be met for it to start working.

With the limiter i have never tried to launch mine so i am not sure about that but a throttle controller will not remove it because the limiters are programmed into the ecu.

The police zb might have different programming.

Do you know if there are any hidden conditions? The manual lists them on page 246, and I would assume that I meet all the conditions, at least relatively often, but I haven't seen autostop once in the 6 months. Maybe I need to hook up an OBD2 reader and just check to see if there are any warnings/info messages to look at.
 

stooge

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Do you know if there are any hidden conditions? The manual lists them on page 246, and I would assume that I meet all the conditions, at least relatively often, but I haven't seen autostop once in the 6 months. Maybe I need to hook up an OBD2 reader and just check to see if there are any warnings/info messages to look at.

there are more ones like...
• You take your foot off the brake pedal

• The minimum vehicle speed between Auto Stop events has not been reached

• The engine or transmission has not warmed up enough

• The outside air temperature is not in the required operating range

• The vehicle’s air conditioning or heat settings require the engine running to cool/heat the cabin

• The transmission is shifted out of DRIVE (Exception: Some vehicles will allow an Auto Stop to continue when shifted into PARK)

• The vehicle’s battery charge is low

• The vehicle’s battery has recently been disconnected

• The Auto Stop has lasted longer than the maximum allowed time

• The vehicle’s hood is open

• You press the accelerator pedal

• Certain Driver Modes may block Stop/Start to maintain the right performance for the mode (Example: Tow/Haul, Crawl, Track modes, if your vehicle has those modes)

• You disable the feature (if your vehicle has a Stop/Start disable switch)

• The vehicle is on a steep hill or slope

• The driver door has been opened or driver seat belt has been unbuckled

• Other reasons

i found that when i first got my zb and driving it hard the system never kicked in but when my wife drove it the system would kick in.

if it is not coming on then you should be happy because it is a gimmick used purely to fudge emissions numbers on paper, it offers no real benefit to you.
gm/opel's implementation of it is pretty crap and you will find it shutting off mid parking and at other inconvenient times.

this guy explains some of it
 
H

harrop.senator

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Even if you can brake stall it up past 2k it's extremely unnecessary it's not a manual you can't slip it.

It will bog down trying to leave at max foot brake as the torque converter has nowhere to flash too.

Try a fair few launches with it and I can almost guarantee 1200-1500 rpm will probably be the quickest out the hole.

Even if you can foot stall a car up to 3-4k with a big converter in you still need it to flash to get a good launch and usually will launch under 2k.
 

ads_german

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Not that I make a habit of this (too much mechanical sympathy and I'd like to avoid issues in a car with an essentially worthless warranty), but I found myself on an empty road the other day and decided to test stalling up on a launch (V6 model).

Yep, wouldn't hold more than roughly 2.5k revs on the brake in drive, and was noticeably slower doing so (bogs down) .
Only tried one other launch stalled at roughly 1.5k - felt maybe a tiny bit quicker off the line than without any brake hold, but splitting hairs...

Then again, nailing the first few metres of a launch isn't the strength a heavy, atmo, AWD car. Throw in a rolling start, some wet roads or twisties though...
 
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