Prius Prime: Forcing gas engine to run on remote start?

I would attach a trickle battery tender/charger on the 12V and not worry about it sitting idle for six weeks. The ICE will be fine.

 

I think that you may have some false assumptions there. First, the ICE does not (in general) deteriorate when parked and unused. The 12V battery is the only component that runs down badly over the course of being idle for a month. That can be fixed through the simple expedient of adding a trickle charger to the 12V battery.

Starting the engine daily is a waste of gas and adds unnecessary pollution to the environment. My wife's 14 year old Camry hybrid is idle 27 days out of every month. Sometimes it sits idle for even longer. For the balance of that month she drives the car about 1,250 miles at freeway speeds. The car has in excess of 175,000 miles on the odometer.

As someone once said... It's a Toyota hybrid. Just drive it.

 

Leaving a care unused and idle for too long is related to gas going bad, condensation in fluid systems, critters deciding to nest in the car etc.

So long as you aren't leaving it for months at a time with stale fuel and allow it to get to operating temperature when you do use it you're fine.

In a lot of ways letting the engine run for 5 minutes only a day in cold weather is gonna be far worse than letting it sit too.

Other components can seize if it's never driven as a car. But the engine will be fine.

 

Parking brakes is one thing to not leave engaged when not using the car for a long time. The pads and discs can seize together. Had this happened to me in the mid 90s. Left the car alone for three months and had to have the car towed because the rear wheels (FWD) refused to turn.

 

Six weeks isn't really that long of a time to leave a car. Besides the battery, any potential issues take time lines in the measurement of months to occur.

 

Another thread was talking about a guy with 2" of water in his oil pan because he didn't run the engine enough to fully warm it up. Running a car daily sounds not only like an ecological mistake, but a mechanical one as well. Get a trickle charger and use it.

 

@o_intent whats your parking situation; is connecting a smart charger for 12 volt battery practical? If so, that’s all I’d do. If it’s not practical to connect a charger, disconnecting the battery’s neg cable would suffice.

 

I think you will be fine. The ICE does not charge the 12v battery on this car; the traction battery does that job now. This way if you leave it plugged in, it keeps topping off the 12 V battery battery. If you remote start the vehicle, they will top off the 12 V battery. You don’t need engine to run. on a full charge of the traction battery you should be able to get plenty of remote starts done maybe every other week while you’re gone. If you were going to be gone for six months instead of six weeks, I would just disconnect the 12 V battery and add a tiny bit of fuel stabilizer. I travel a lot for work as well, no issues.

 

This only happens if the battery heater elements starts and unless it's vehicle marketed for Canada or Alaska, this will only happen for three days once plugged in (31 days in Canada/Alaska). Otherwise, being plugged in does not top off the 12V battery, some say it will drain it instead. Having a battery monitor plugged in to the 12V battery, I see small dips from time to time which could be when the car wakes up to check if it should run the heater when plugged but that's it.

 

Hmm, on page 81 of the manual it states:

●When the vehicle is left with the AC charging cable connected, the electricity consumption amount of the 12-volt battery increases due to controls, such as the system checking, operating. When the AC charging cable is not needed, remove it from the vehicle.