So, with no solution in sight to my vibration at 1,700 RPM, and 2,300 mile one way drives between home in Nova Scotia to our place in Florida, we decided not to get stranded. My friend the dealer took a 2019 on trade, it also is a Citadel, but it has a Hemi. The 2012 had 210K Kms, or 131,000 miles, it still ran well, no rust, no noises, but its​​​ time was up.

 

How can I tell if the SUV is equipped with engine shut off when stopped?

 

Watch the tachometer. If you come to a complete stop and it continues to idle, you don't have it. If the tach shows 0RPM at a stop, but you can still take off by letting off the brake, you do have it. Make sure the HVAC is off for this, because the compressor requires the engine to be running to operate. From what I can tell though, Dodge isn't putting it on the V8s. There is a company that makes a bypass module for the ESS, but when I went there they only listed V6 models.

 

Thanks for the response, but that won't work if the previous owner has that process switched off. I have played with both the apps on the dash screen and on the steering wheel but don't see any sign that the Durango is so equipped. I was just wondering if it is burred in one of those areas.

 

Sorry, don't know my own well enough to say for certain yet. But, if you plug your VIN into this site it may say. I put mine in and it came up with a full list of options, but didn't say anything about mine having any engine start/stop. I suppose we'd need to run the VIN of a Dodge vehicle that is known to have it to see if it comes up, to know whether or not it's listed. As much crap as comes up though, and as major a system as ESS is, I would think that it would have appeared under a VIN check. I would also expect to see a button like the one below if you have it. The circled A is the ESS disable button in a Jeep, but FCA uses quite a lot of the same stuff across brands. I test drove a Grand Cherokee before buying my Durango, for example, and they had pretty much the same layout inside. Same screens, same shifter, same steering wheel, ect. 2013+ Dodge Rams and 2018+ Jeep V6s do have it.

 

Thanks for that link, it isn't listed, so I'd say it doesn't have it, but there are 9 pages of things listed.

 

No worries. BTW, MDS is Multi Displacement System, which you will have with the 5.7L. Some folks hate it, I like it, just gotta use high quality oil and keep the oil clean to keep it running right. You should see a 4cyl mode light up in the cluster when it's active and you may need to be set to the fuel economy screen. I had a 2016 Charger R/T that would run the quarter in 13.2 seconds, and would get 28MPG at 80+MPH all day long thanks to that system. Unfortunately, what I really needed was an SUV so I had to give it up. The start stop is called ESS, or Engine Stop Start.