I'm fortunate here that I preemptively replaced the hybrid pack in the fall after a few years of using the Prolong system. Additionally, one stop sign and two signals away is Needles Highway, about 25 miles of uninterrupted flat road with 45 and 55 mph speed limits. If I don't HAVE to go anywhere for three or four days I have been running the Prius down the highway and back. Monday my wife has two medical appointments in California so I'll be using the Prius to make the trip 250 miles each way. I'll sit in the car while they take her straight from the car to the examination room. No one is allowed to enter other than the patients and they closed the waiting room to everyone. We're packing an ice chest for food and drinks and have the masks and gloves in the car already for the gas pump and the pharmacy. So far, so good.
I have not driven in a week. I have been working from home. The wife just returned from grocery pickup. since she is younger, she wanted to get them.
^ I doubt the prius batteries would fail that much just becaise of aitting a little more. Every year i leave the 07 avocado for 1 month and every time i ask wife to drive it and she never does. Also i use to deive it only on sundays and mondays for a year. Never had problem. Knock on wood but at that age i hope i still have couple years of juice in it. Now in Chicago priuses still deliver food a lot. Winter time when its -30 ..then a lot of cars sit for a month outside and thats even worse probably
Absolutely! It's common for even a one week vacation to be the straw that broke the battery camels back.
My wife's car had sat for maybe 10 days. I figured a 20 mile trip to nowhere was cheaper than the combined cost of a new battery and a psychiatrist. So I got out of her hair for a ride at mixed 40-70 MPH speeds long enough to warm fluids and charge the battery. Accessories off.
Yes, my daughter’s 2007 w/ 143K miles just had a traction battery failure and is now sitting at her local Toyota dealer in Southern California waiting for the replacement to be received and installed.
Me and the missus (and Shiba) packed a lunch and went from north coquitlam over to capalino river in north van, day before yesterday. First good run the car's had in about month. Good for it. Still, think it best we get back to hunker mode. Just news report of coquitlam Walmart employee tested positive. Their last work day was mar 20, hopefully isolated case.
I'm a little worried about this. My car went from 2-1 hour long trips 5 days a week to an about once a week.
I'm not a mechanic but just reading things around here I imagine a good run once a week is probably ok for the hybrid pack. I'd actually be a little more concerned about the 12v battery discharging. I've been running the car a little up and back on the highway but on weeks when I haven't I've been using a Battery Tender to keep it in shape.
I just do a forced charge every now and then. 2 months back did a 35 hour prolong charge so the battery is still high on that. Just pull it out into the driveway put it in D put your left foot on the brake and then with right foot gently push down on the gas pedal till you see the battery charging arrow go into the battery. Once you see that dont push any harder on the gas. Dont have to push hard at all. Just a little past idle. Its called power braking. About 3 minutes of that and it will gain 2 blue bars. Been doing that for years. YMMV.
I had been wondering the same thing since the car has been sitting a lot more than normal. It's a 2004 with 190,000 miles so the traction battery was probably on it's last legs anyway, but sitting for periods of time didn't help.
Now the "EV Mode" button modification has two good legitimate reasons for me to have done it... the first is for fast food drive through, the second is to exercise the battery during a global pandemic. it does make me think... this would be one definite advantage of Lithium vs Nickel, if i understand correctly Lithium tends to have a much lower self-discharge rate
Our HV batt died around 20-Feb-2020 so just before COVID. But the car still ran semi-OK and we got the 2020 RAV4H. Dealer did not want the trade, so we sold it later. But the mistake I made during COVID was I forgot about the 12V, and it died. Normally I would religiously turn off the SKS system on standing...but now that the Prius was not our main car, I forgot my normal 12v battery tending duties.
