Will I damage my car's starter by always turning off the ignition at stop lights?

Turning the motor off at all lights is silly, however, at long lights it makes sense. Starting a car takes about the same amount of gas as about 30 seconds idle in your car. For those that think the starter will be over-worked having to start a few extra times (imagine 5 second starts, and that is a poor start, 30 times in a day, is less than 3 minutes extra work), I suggest you stay home if you have that little confidence in your vehicle. The alternator and starter are very similar construction, and the alternator turns every moment the car is running. UPS turns the vehicle off at every delivery, every day of the week. When is the last time you saw a UPS vehicle stranded because the starter burned out?

For the so-called tech, I add this information. I have been shutting cars off for 43 years, starting with my first car, a 1958 Chev. In over 1 1/2 million miles, I have only found it necessary to replace the starter on ONE vehicle, and that starter was defective, not worn. I have never had to replace a ring gear, which is made of carbon steel, not aluminum, on any vehicle. When the starter is positioned correctly, the starter pinion will engage the ring gear without binding and there will be no chance of starter pinion and/or ring gear damage.

And I repeat, starting a modern car with electronic ignition and fuel injection takes approximately the same amount of fuel as idling for 30 seconds, unless you have been neglecting maintenance and otherwise abusing the vehicle, in which case you have many worries besides the starter.

It probably takes more gas to re-start the car then you would burn by just letting it sit and idle. There's also the issues of the additional wear and tear on the engine, on the battery, starter, etc. and the safety factor. If your in a traffic lane on a public road you should always be ready to move if you have to NOW.

I know people are getting desperate over gas prices but some of this stuff is just getting silly.

Let me ask you this. When was the last time you checked the air pressure in your tires? Tire inflation has a bigger impact on fuel mileage than anything else you can do with the car and if you haven't checked them in the last week then your going about this backwards. Keeping the tires properly inflated is certainly a lot less drastic then making yourself an imovable object in the middle of the street. Leave the engine running and do the other stuff you are supposed to do to make sure the car is running as efficiently as possible.

your toaster already has a small toyota engine... and with pcm controls in closed loop your car is actually doing better without restarting it. Through a technical view you would be correct that turning off your car at every light in theory does reduce the amount of fuel entering the engine but here are things to look at... Everytime a vehicle is started with a computer so essentially everything since the early 80's the O2 sensor directly controls the amount of fuel delivered by sending a voltage to the pcm for short and long term corrections. It functions solely on the principal of achieving a 14.7 to one ratio. although this is not the most powerful or cleanest ratio it is used BECAUSE the catalytic converter must recieve exactly a 14.7 to 1 ratio to burn effectively. even a one percent change in either direction completely defeats its ability to clean the exhaust. the cat only operates when it reaches a certain temperature and not before. Likewise with the O2 sensor. This is what is called CLOSED loop. when a vehicle is in closed loop the 5 critical inputs are used to relay information to the PCM to compensate for load, intake air temperature, RPM, O2 and Volume of air. Every time the vehicle is started for approx 30 seconds it runs in OPEN loop. A preprogramed scenario that runs the vehicle rich for better acceleration and smoothness. particularly effective during COLD startup. not so good for a warm motor. so doing calculations if the O2 cools enough to stop sending voltage which happens rather quick and the PCM runs rich for at least 30 seconds your using more fuel during open loop startup than you would be during idle in closed loop. a vehicle that new from toyota surely has excellent gas mileage as is. if it was aerodynamic it would be improved but the best thing you can do for your gas mileage is clean your filters OFTEN!!! fuel, air, trans, as well as use cleaning products from BG44K to keep valves and injectors clean. don't pass up suggestions from dealers or lube shops. it is an upsale but its very essential for a proper running vehicle. Fill your tires to the placard on the driver door specification. don't use jack rabbit starts and while cruising draft off of bigger vehicles. also the starter is a part designed to wear. the gears on the flexplate and the starter are made of aluminum. a soft metal... with every start a very minute amount of metal is chipped off. over time this causes gaps and wear. Another safety issue that is brought up is the Brakes. although opperated hydraulically the brake booster only holds a limited application of air while the engine is off. in an emergency when the car behind you doesn't stop and you squeze the pucker knob your *** is going down the road with the impact. the afore mentioned UPS turn offs are large diesels with huge wastes of fuel. and its they break all the time. nightly maintenance keeps them repaired. those starters are replaced almost every two to three years as standard replacements with the shop in denver. so long story short don't kill your car. improve driving habits and save fuel the right way.

Obviously, the more you use something, the faster you will wear it out. Turning your car on and off in that way is not good for the car either especially when you think of other problems you may cause like the ignition switch (that tells your car to "start" or "run") to go bad much faster, and many other parts electronic or mechanical. Using the starter more will probably cause it go bad faster, but most likely it will not cause it to do so in a drastic way (like after only 6 months) because they are made to be very reliable.

By starting your motor all the time will wear out the starter motor very fast, It will also cause a lot of wear to engine itself. The engine doesn't get oil for a second or two after it starts, this is not a big problem when the engine is warmed up, but if the engine is not warmed up when you keep turning it on and off, it will cause major wear to the cylinders in time causing worse gas mileage.

>> .... will shorten the life of the starter motor

You got the answer - all by yourself.

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Think about it: People usually drive the car to and from work 5 times a week. So that is about 5 starts in the morning and 5 starts in the evening (10 starts plus another 50% for errands - for a total of 15 starts). Now you want to start it that much in one day (or even less).

Good Luck....

I don't know anything about this, but a govt consumer site says it won't have much impact on your starter and recommends it as a way of saving gas, although I'm inclined to agree that the amount of savings is so small that it seems like a waste of time compared to other fuel saving techniques you could be using.

If you're really worried stop doing it. There are not pros for it. Your car wasn't designed to stop and start. It won't hurt or damage the car, except for the fact that you forget and try to start the car while its running. There's too much to remember.

thinking its improving mileage by 1 or 2 miles per gallon is ridiculous. There are plenty of other, safer and more legal hypermiling tactics that you can pursue.

Call your local auto parts store and price a new starter. Then you will see if turning off the engine is a good idea. NOT!