I'd like to be able to play the radio while parked up with everything switched off. Does anyone know how long I can do this for without prejudicing being able to start up again?
unfortunately, we cannot tell you without knowing the health of the battery. and that in itself is a difficult proposition. best you can do is put a reader on the 12v and keep an eye on it, or leave the car 'ready'
With all the talk here about the 12v battery, the cautions in the manual about it, and seeing how they are expensive and don't last all that long - I'd follow the manual's suggestion and avoid use of the radio or any accessories in "Accessory" or "ignition on" mode. I'd concur with Bisco and put it in "ready" mode. If the ICE kicks on for a few minutes here and there, it's no biggie. You can also run the A/C in Ready mode, so it won't be so stuffy.
Pretty sure the Prius will shut off the system and ACC after 20 min. Newer models will also shut off the car even in Ready mode.
I tried with my car, when 12 V battery aproaching to full discharge, the system will go off. Aprox 2 hours duration of music... But increased volume will consume it faster.
On my PiP, accessory mode automatically shut off after some 15 to 20 minutes. Don't know if this carried over the Prime. That's the max I will do. If I need to run the radio longer during, I turn on the car until the engine shuts off. Rinse, repeat until my lunch hour is over.
That's mind bogglingly stupid. Is it in the manual. I can't seem to find it. That would really blow a fuse for me if I was trying to use that camping and the car kept shutting off.
^^^ Pretty sure the auto shut-off feature can be disabled completely with Techstream, Carista or the like and an OBDll dongle. I'm sure there must be discussions about this here.
I'm OK with locking the door with the mechanical key. As long as there's a way to override it, I have no issues.
Thanks for the helpful replies. Generally I'll only be using the radio for half-an-hour or so, so I'll just have the car in Ready mode and not bother with trying to disable the automatic shut-off.
