Prius C forum, I'm considering a Prius C III as a second car for our summer home. Since we only spend 6 months of the year there what are the down sides to leaving a hybrid like this idle for 6 month a year? jerryd
A Prius will NOT be a good choice for your situation. In order to keep the hybrid system in good condition, the car needs to be driven for a while once every few weeks. Even a normal non-hybrid regular-gas car might not be a good choice for you. Leave gasoline in the fuel tank for 6 months and it will go bad.
Lucas Gas Stabilizer seems to work. I park my AMC Gremlin for a year at a time and it still runs very well with the gas stabilizer.
Good topic. I understand why lead-acid chemistry must be kept fully charged and the prius c has a lead acid battery, but I understand that NiMH chemistry is best stored at ~40% charge. What are the problems with letting it self discharge once a year (other than not being able to start the car)? Is there some way to trickle charge the hybrid battery? Is there some way to jump charge it with the lead-acid battery?
you may not be able to start the vehicle if the 12V battery is dead. let the high voltage battery discharge by itself once a year may kill it. lol
I don't understand, why buy a new car and leave it unused for half the year? The batteries on a hybrid need to be used or they will die. Drive the car to the summer home, drive it back when you're done.
It's a long way to Maine and back. (Just guessing. There's a lot of snowbirds. ) 3,000 miles round trip. 60 gallons of gas plus tolls (although, if going to a summer home, there's no need to rush). Perhaps the OP doesn't use a car much where they live in Florida?
Prius forum, We live in a golf cart community in Florida and drive our Honda Odyssey to our summer place, so we are one vehicle short all summer. The golf cart costs about a penny a mile to operate and I've had to replace the batteries once in 7 years for $600. No idea how many miles are on it but we drive it everywhere. I really liked the Prius C but I guess I'll start looking for a non hybred. Thanks for the replies. jerryd
We have two homes, one in CO and one in AZ. The last 3 years, we've left one 2009 Prius at our CO home a little over 6 months. No problems of any kind. Here's what we do: 1. Pump the tires up to 45, leave the parking brake off and put Stabil in the gas tank (then fill the tank, to mix it in); 2. Turn off the smart key system; 3. Hook the 12 volt battery up to an Optimate 3+ battery smart charger; and, 4. Our neighbor comes over once every 6 weeks or so and disconnects the smart charger, starts the Prius and lets it run until the ICE shuts off on its own. The traction battery is adequately charged when the ICE shuts off. I spoke to my neighbor yesterday. He said the last time he started the ICE the traction battery was only down 2 bars and the car only ran 4 minutes. The longest it has ever run is 8 minutes. The manual says that if you park the car for long periods, you should turn off the smart key system and run the car 30 minutes every 3 months. Our care is a little better and works a treat. Hope this helps.
I wouldn't be surprised if there's an updated TSB to cover the Prius c like the one at http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...-dead-after-17-days-parking-2.html#post955609.
M8s, Thanks a lot for the info. I have a daughter near the summer home so she could perform these steps you listed. Since I'm very new to the Prius I have some questions. Looks like the Optimate 3+ battery smart charger is a kind of trickle charger. Isn't it better for batteries to be run down before charging? Would there be a sulfuric acid smell created during charging as there is with our golf cart? How do you shut off the Smart Key system? Maybe I CAN get a Prius C III. jerryd
If your daughter can start it up once a month then there's no problem, even better if she could drive it around for half an hour or so! The Prius has two batteries, a small 12 volt to power up the electronics and a traction battery, the big one that does all the work. The 12 volt is the one that needs a trickle charge if the car sits, the traction battery is charged by the gas engine and braking while being driven. No smells from either of them!
This is all correct. The 12 volt charger is only for the Prius's small, 12 volt battery. All it does is power the smart key system, boot up the computers and activate the relays that bring the traction battery online. After that, it is charged by the taction battery (not directly by the MGs). The traction battery is only charged by the ICE, by coasting and by braking. It can hold a charge a very long time but there is no advantage to pushing your luck. In the "old days," you let a battery run down before charging it to defeat the "memory effect." That doesn't apply to modern batteries. Also, there is no residual sulfur smell from the Prius 12 volt (the traction battery is sealed and doesn't lose electrolyte or smell, either). In our 2009, there is a "Key" button below the steering wheel that turns the smart key system on or off. I don't know about the c, though. (BTW, I have both an Optimate 3+ and a 4. I don't remember which one is being used on our 2009 at this time. They're about $50 at Amazon.).
