Hi folks. I'm new to this forum, but not to the Prius. I owned a Gen II 2005 that served me well til I recently traded it in for a new Gen III. I have a question that I've been unable to answer from my owner's manual. On my 05 Prius, there was a button under the steering wheel that allowed me to shut down the electronic key fob; i.e. it would not send out a query signal searching for the key fob function, and thus saved battery power. I used this feature in the winter, when I store the car in my garage for a 6 to 8 week period while my wife and I travel to warmer climes. I can't find anything like this button on my '10 Prius, nor any info on this function in the manual(s). Can anyone shed any light on this for me? Has it been deleted by Toyota? I'd ask my dealer, but I haven't gotten too much good tech info from them in the past. Is it even necessary to do this on the Gen III for long-term storage? Any help will be much appreciated. Donzi
Thanks for your timely advice; one less thing to worry about. This technology is kind of a steep learning curve for a guy who started out, in 1960, driving a 1951 Ford flathead V8 Tudor Deluxe. The highest tech thing on that car was the overdrive transmission, and I don't understand how overdrive worked, to this day. Please don't try to explain it- I'm easily confused. Donzi
FYI... I'll assume you don't have a Digital Battery System Analyzer, but this TSB has all of the other recommended long-term storage requirements.
Even your GII would shut down the SKS system after some time. To save money and make it simpler Toyota removed the switch in the GIII and shortened the time before automatic shutdown. But whether on or off it doesn't make that much difference. Most dead batteries are caused by leaving either the headlamps on or an interior light on, or, a battery that has been "abused" (fully discharged a few times).
