This last week we went on a vacation to Colorado. We requested a four wheel drive truck as a rental, and we ended up with getting a 2019 F-150 XLT. We made our way out of town, and drove through the mountains. If you haven't drove through the Rocky Mountains, it's hard on your car. Your engine has to work overtime to power yourself up steep hills.

So when I got our rented F-150 from Denver into Frisco, Colorado I came to my first stop sign and when I stopped the engine cut off. My immediate thought was the engine died because of the stress I put the truck under through the mountains. Sure, it would be ridiculous to think that with a new truck that would happen, but not knowing any differently I started to panic. Then I took my foot off the brake and it immediately started again.

Next stop, same thing happened. That's when I realized this is some type of technology thing. Sure enough, Ford came up with a way to reduce fuel consumption by shutting the motor down in certain idling situations. It won't do it if the truck is warming up, or the temperatures outside aren't in a certain range. But let me tell you something, it's annoying. They say the climate control doesn't change at all, but the fan speed on the A/C diminishes greatly. And to be honest, I just can't get used to the engine shutting down and restarting without my control.

So how do you shut it off!?

Luckily, they designed a button to shut it off, and it's located above the display and to the right of your information screen. Look for the A symbol with a circle around it. Hit that button, and it will deactivate the auto start-stop for that trip.

There are other ways to disable it permanently, but in most cases that requires either tricking the system into putting you into "Tow Mode" or buying a device that plugs in after market to disable it.

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