Hello all. I have a 2007 Prius with a yellow optima battery I installed this last year. If we leave the Prius in long term parking at the airport, should I be worried it won't start when we return? It would be there for 2 weeks. Thanks! Frank
You might consider shutting off your smart key system. We routinely do this when we have to leave ours at the airport.
As has been said in other threads, pull the dome fuse. Kills the car including SKS, locks, lights. Great theft protection. I will wipe out saved mfd info.
I have one of those booster battery packs so I'd make sure that was charged and in the back of the car in case the little battery couldn't take it.
It removes power from the lights and the lock system, preventing unwanted battery drain. I think it's overkill, and more bother than I want to do, but it is an option. Tom
I have an '08 and it has the original 12V battery. There are times, primarily in the winter, when I garage the car and do not drive it for longish periods of time, 2 - 4 weeks. I've had a dead battery only once due to that. Winter + 4 weeks = dead battery. Shorter periods, 2-3 weeks, have not been a problem. In warmer weather I suspect a guy would be okay a little longer.
I leave mine parked for longer than that since I drive interstate truck. I push the sks off button, lock it and haven't had any problems with an 08 on the original battery.
My car with 3 year old battery servived 2.5 weeks recently. And I had even forgotten to turn SKS off by mistake. Temparatures were in 50-60 F.
I have a new Prius v (Three model with Entune & navi, but no ATP, which comes only with the Five). I left it undriven for just seven days in my garage and was shocked to find the battery dead and needing a jump start in that short a time. When I brought it in to the service dept to have it checked out, I was told that with the newer models there are so many electrical components that continuously pull from the 12v battery that you can only expect to leave it about a week before the 12v battery drops to a charge level that will require a jump. The service staff offered nothing useful about what to do if you are gone for more than a week, their only suggestion beign to disconnect the 12v battery. They did not say there was anything that could be done in the way of turning off systems to reduce the drain on battery. It obviously makes more sense to hook up a smartcharger/batterytender to keep the battery charged than it does to disconnect it, so I don't know why they did not suggest that as an option. I assume that a charger can be hooked up in the same manner as you would a jump start (through the fuse box connection under the hood rather than having to connect directly to the battery, which is difficult to get to). I'd be curious to see if other Prius owners have found that the newer models can only sit for a week or so without having the battery become discharged. I'd also like to find out how folks most typically deal with this problem (there are a number of useful suggestions already in this thread), and how to deal with parking the car at the airport for a week or more where running a battery trickle charger isn't really an option.
You are WAY into borrowed time on the OEM battery. You really should get a new Optima unless you never have anywhere you need to be at a certain time.
Interesting. My Bride drives a new V, and I hadn't considered this. Does anyone know whether the dome light fuse trick applies to the Versatile Vee?
I know. I will likely do that before a 3000 mile trip I plan to take this summer. I've always been lucky with batteries and I live in a cold part of the country. I have a 2004 KTM 950, a motorcycle, which is still running the OEM battery! Motorcycle batteries have a reputation for being good for two or so years most generally. I keep it on a tender in the garage in the winter, imagine that lends to the longevity. I don't do that with the Prius battery, however.
Please people, read your owners manuals! Turning off SKS is NOT necessary. Yup, you may save a few milliamp hours of battery capacity. But it turns off automatically anyway. The GIII does so sooner, so it's even less needed to fool with the car. As far as how long the battery will last winter vs summer, it will last longer in winter. There is lower loss at lower temperatures. The ONLY REASON people think winter is hard on batteries is lower temperatures reduce the amount of peak energy you can withdraw (as in 100Amp and up starter motors), lower temps. do not take energy out of the battery, it just makes it harder to do so until it warms up. Remember, to start a Prius the battery only supplies a small amount of energy.
