I didn’t want to hijack someone else’s thread but the ‘hate’ shown towards HELE on another thread had me wondering… I don’t have HELE on my FF but isn’t it actually more fun to leave HELE on so that you get the startup roar each time the engine comes to life? I just love the noise the FF makes on startup. So why do people dislike HELE so much?
The sound you get on start up that you desire is a cold start, it really isn't going to roar to life every stop start (HELE). It's really undramatic in my 812, and it's part of my startup procedure to turn off HELE. The other thing is that it will increase wear on the engine as every time the engine stops and then starts is a bad cycle. There have been improvements to the rotating assembly bearings to reduce this wear, but it still exists.
As long as it can be turned off when you go through the startup as Stew stated then who cares? I test drove an 812 that had it and was not aware it was on - scared the hell out of me when I came to a stop and personally I think it is ridiculous but if its presence allows car manufacturers to satisfy regulations and users can simply turn it off when they start up the car and it lasts until they shut the car off who cares? I just test drove and ordered a 2022 Rubicon that has it - one button - big deal. Hit the "start" button then hit the "turn of HELE" (or "start/stop" in Jeepspeak) and off you go. No big deal IMHO -
My 812 would turn its self-off when I approached a junction when cold, and I had not even stopped! It should not have even been turning off at all when cold.
People like to complain. I’ve never had an issue with it in any car that’s has had it, including a friend’s LaFerrari. I would actually quite like it on the FF as the drone at stop lights can be a bit much.
Thanks for relating your experience with HELE in the 812. I believe that the cold start noise is due to the lack of vacuum pressure in the exhaust valves so they’re open at startup but close pretty quickly once the engine is running. If you’ve been stopped at lights for a while in the 812, is there no loss of vacuum pressure to the exhaust valves and therefore more of a cold start noise?
My valves are always open. It has partly to do with the valves, but mostly how the engine runs at start up when it’s cold. That’s what gives you the noise. So when I start up the car after it’s been fully warmed up, it’s not nearly as eventful as cold. Even with the valves open.
Why it is not liked is all over the threads you read. Maybe a thread with a poll for like/dislike would cover more ground.
Assuming there's a physical button for it, I'm sure someone could create a bypass module that automatically turns it off like 5 seconds after the car is started.
There is a physical button and I believe the bypass exists. However on my 2018 French GTC4Lusso, if I turn HELE off, it stays off for the subsequent starts. I will need to press the button again to turn it back on.
My understanding is that constantly turning off and back on is not ideal for a car but I'm not sure why exactly. Perhaps that's if the car hasn't had ample time to warm up and stay warm. I've always disabled it in my cars regardless of potentially causing damage or not.
While not that old, I can remember a time when having an engine go from running to not was indeed a very very bad thing. Every time one of these systems shuts the engine off, I have an instinctive shiver- even though I know its part of a modern system and the car is fine. My own take is these systems could be great for those cars stuck in traffic - allow the occupants to remain in comfort whilst not burning any fuel and also not creating any additional emissions for the area. However, I dont think there is any point when you come to a brief stop, the engine shuts off, then a millisecond later you are needing to pull away and now the engine has to fire up. This can’t be as efficient as just letting the engine run. So it seems to me the tuning is a little over zealous. Coming back to Ferrari, clearly, they need such systems for regulations, but, as we have discussed before, its the regulations that are just silly when applied to a small manufacturer such as Ferrari. Sent from my iPad using FerrariChat
Disabling as part of start up sequence becomes automatic but the best solution as a means to disable until if and when one wishes to enable the feature. Easily programmed if the company desires to do so.
I think - unfortunately - that regulations are what is preventing that now. On my 2015 488 the HELE (which was declared optional, but actually mandatory since I got it - and paid for it - without having asked for it) could be disabled once and for all... which I did, and never had to think about it again. On later models the operation changed so that it is automatically enabled at each start-up (so if you want, you need to disable it each time you take the car).
Does that only work on euro spec cars? On my US spec 2018 lusso, I have to turn off HELE each time I turn on the car.
It depends on the car, the manufacturer and where the engine is in the cycle, etc. The main point being its kind of silly to have an engine shut off for ½ second of a stop to then need to restart. This happened to me in my Pista the other day when I had forgotten to switch the system off. Same in my other cars- it’s annoying - but also preferable to not having these things. Sent from my iPad using FerrariChat
Apparently on US cars this needs to be turned off every time you start the car. Maybe even on Euro cars but from different years. The point is, if you can get your ECU flashed with a Euro firmware, maybe that can cancel that "default ON" mode for HELE.
I have it on my Lusso and mostly remember to shut it off. As SeattleStew said The “roar” on a stop start has nothing to with HELE. It’s the cold engine. While I find it annoying it hasn’t been a huge deal and if I forget to shut it off one stop/start cycle reminds me to do so…… Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
HELE is appropriately named as it is an electronic nanny from hell Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
Hate to bring up an old thread but even the EPA itself has stated that all these start/stop systems basically do more harm than good recently. I disable the start/stop on all my cars (luckily my 458 didn't have it) just as an engine longevity thing. The extra wear and tear on the engine itself (not on the starter) is what concerns me and I honestly don't care about the couple dollars it saves me every fillup.
