Long story short, my car got towed and no one ever turned it off. It was running from Sunday morning to Tuesday afternoon. It started with a full tank of gas and went down to three bars of gas. It didn't run out of gas when I found it running at the tow yard. My question is, do you think this damaged the vehicle in any way?
Nope. You're not the first. Little chance of it overheating in NJ this time of year. Damage could have occurred had it run out of gas and eventually drained the HV battery beyond its safe minimum.
How the heck did they start it without a key? The Toyota system is one of the hardest to crack especially in the Prius. There is no way to "hotwire" it. You need a key for it to start. Did you leave it running, and they just towed it the way you left it? Leaving it on for days is no problem. Nothing to worry about. What I would worry about is how they started it and how they towed it. If you were parked somewhere with the pawl engaged hopefully they used the wheel raisers they go in and out then lift straight up. If they used a flatbed where they dragged your poor car up the incline with the wheel being locked by the pawl, then serious damage could have occurred to the pawl or maybe even transaxle. And once off the truck did they drop it and leave it somewhere, or push it around some more? That is the sort of thing you should ask.
I left mine running in front of the house for 5-6 hours the first week I had the car. The car is so quiet I thought I shut it off. The Tesla has a nice design, the car shuts off when your bottom leaves the seat.
Great post. I left it running and the tow driver simply asked for the key. They shifted it into neutral to move it but they unfortunately never turned it off when it got to the yard.
At least they put it in N, heard a few towing damage stories here. I wouldn't know, California we have cheap landscapers and postage stamp size lots If a lawn mower has it, why not a Prius?
Agreed but only partially. One has to consider the sensor malfunctioning while driving. I hope Tesla has some kind of fail-safe for that premise.
Wait, JMD said, "At least they put it in N, heard a few towing damage stories here." There is no real 'Neutral'. All the gears are always engaged. Is there a way to get 'Park' disengaged and turn off all power? The front wheels are usually off the ground when a car is towed, but what would happen if a Prius was towed with a rope or from the rear wheels? There would be electrical potential being generated by the permanent magnets in MG2, and at the very least and that would be sent to the inverter. Would this cause damage? The transaxle can handle ~47 mph with the engine off in normal use. But that is with MG2 consuming power, not generating it.... So many questions,,,, and why did he have it towed??? We still don't know that one... Probably too personal to ask.
