I left my car with my roommate in Toronto about 3 weeks ago as I embarked on a long overseas trip. My Prius is just sitting in the garage. I instructed him to start the car at least once a week. A couple of Sundays ago, the car would not start. It seems the 12-V Auxiliary Battery is dead. I'm not due to return to Toronto until mid-January 2009 (that is, close to another 2 months). Is it all right to leave the car in its present state? How would this affect the battery-pack and the car in general? Or, do I need him to jump start the car (which I'm trying to avoid)? Thanks in advance.
The traction battery will very slowly lose charge while it is stored. Don't know if two months is long enough to do any harm. Is your roomy able to read the MFD to see what the state of charge is for the traction battery? It is probably a bad idea to let the 12-volt sit there dead. Is it possible to hook up a battery charger to it while it sits in the garage? The jump point under the hood should do for charging up the 12-volt. Even if the 12-volt is mostly dead it could sit there on life support until you come home and can deal with it.
+1 If you trust the guy who's car sitting to hook the 12v up to a trickle charger that would be the best thing. I wouldn't worry about the traction battery at all. Worst case scenario is you may have to buy a new 12v when you get home.
The 12V auxiliary battery has a label warning against using a charging current in excess of ~4A, so if a charger is used I suggest that it should be set to a low current position. Also if the battery is quite dead, the charger may refuse to provide power to the battery for safety reasons (not knowing if it is connected to a battery or not). In that case it would be necessary to use jump cables (observing correct battery polarity of course) or else install a new 12V battery. Regarding the traction battery, Toyota recommends starting the car and leaving it READY for 30 minutes every two months, when in storage. See TSB PG007-03. If you leave the car for a total of three months, its probably not the end of the world assuming that you started the storage period with the MFD SOC gauge in the green or blue zone. If you started with one pink bar then you might be in trouble.
Expect to replace the 12V battery. Next trip, instruct the person left to care for the car and watch them do it a few times to see that they do it right and don't walk away afterwards with lights on or doors open. I would *not* trust any Prius-inexperienced person to jumpstart it or connect a charger. If they reverse the polarity it can do thousands of dollars of damage to the electrical system (wiring harnesses, computers, inverter).
+1. Even worse are the tools who hook the jumper cables up to the car, then briefly touch the clamps together and make a spark, to "prove" there is a good connection. Do that to a Prius, expect bad things to happen
Thanks to all your wonderful suggestions and comments. My roommate has a charger in the garage and he's willing to charge the 12V Battery. But, based on your responses, that might cause some damage if not done properly. Here is what I want to do - I'll tell my roommate to leave the car as is. When I return in January 2009, I'll have the car jump-started by CAA. I'll replace the 12V Battery. How much does this cost? Anyone opposed to my course of action?
Your course of action is reasonable. US dealers will charge from ~$110 to ~$160 for the correct Toyota battery sold over the counter.
I just want to get reassured that it won't be harmful to the battery pack and car if I leave the 12V Battery dead for 2.5 months. Thanks.
The world has tilted on its axis by two degrees, and because of your friends actions he has caused global warming to increase, it's all your fault too! I would ask him to put the 12V aux battery on a float charger and leave it alone. Just make sure the polarity is correct. good luck.....you opened up Pandoras box by letting this happen...how could you?:mod: the world will never be the same.....darn PS dont have him try to start the car while the 12V battery is hooked up to the float or trickle charger.
Why not have a new 12 volt battery fitted now and ask your room mate to be careful about doors and lights. Then the car will be ready to drive when you get home, no hassles. Use guilt to get your room mate to let the battery guy into the car and warn the battery guy he can bugger the works if he puts the battery in wrong.
The 12V auxiliary battery will be totally dead after that period of time. If your traction battery SOC was registering blue or green bars the last time the car was running, then the traction battery should be OK after the storage period has elapsed. Some Prius owners store their cars for 6 months at a time, moving back and forth between their summer and winter homes. You don't have to worry about harm to other parts of the car at this point.
I left my Prius for 5 months (was expecting 1-2 months). The 12v battery was dead but a jump start did the trick and it's been fine since. The traction battery had all blue segments lit when it was left and the same number 5 months later.
WOW! I hope mine works after I jump start it in January. But, I think there is something wrong with the 12V Battery. It should not go dead after a week. I checked everything before I left and no lights were on and the doors were all closed/locked. Is the 12V Battery covered by warranty?
Be careful what kind of battery charger you use. I use Battery Tender, I normally leave the charger connected if the car is sitting idle. My neighbor's battery was low on charge, he took it to a local auto shop who said no problem charging it. They put it on a typical charger, the battery went bad. A new battery at the dealer is $300. These are gel batteries. My battery was idle for over 4 months and I hooked it up to a Battery tender, it took about 3 days , but my battery is doing good. Good luck
Just to give you folks a quick update. After I returned from my overseas trip in mid-January, I had the car jump-started by CAA. I took it to the dealer and the technician said that I should be fine. I've been driving the car ever since without a problem. Although I've been careful not to leave the car idle for more than a couple of days. Last week, my car was dead again after being idle for about 3 days. I called CAA and had it jump-started. I took it back to Toyota-Pickering. They would not replace the 12-volt battery since their diagnostics did not indicate a "replace battery" message. They said that they can't replace it under the warranty since they can't claim it from Toyota-Canada without that diagnostic message. I was very persistent and demanded that they replace the battery which was covered by warranty. After arguing with the service manager, I agreed to leave my car for a few days so they could observe it to see what was causing the battery drain. The only after-market installation on the car was the DRL which is required here in Ontario. This morning, they called me to say that they had replaced the battery with a new one. The 12-volt battery was indeed defective. The DRL setup was fine and it was not the cause of the battery drain. They did not charge me anything. Hopefully, this is the end of my battery problems. PS - Like most of the people here, I block my upper and lower grills for the winter. The hybrid technician at the Toyota dealer told me to remove them immediately since it might damage the inverter and I run the risk of voiding my warranty. I've read the detailed accounts and experiences of people on this board with regard to blocking the grill. And, I think it's safe in these cold and frigid Ontario temperatures. Since I don't have a scanguage, I thought it would be safe to block the grill until the temperatures climb up to 10C. I didn't want to argue with the technician and just agreed to remove them at home. Of course, I don't plan on removing them until the weather gets warmer. What do you guys think?
Well, Pickering isn't Winnipeg as far as cold temps go, but it gets cold enough. I even block the grille on my FJ, it sure is nice to have good heat at -40 C. My dealership has never said anything about blocking the grille on either vehicle. Perhaps if I drove in on a +35 C day in August, they might be concerned As far as "overheating" the inverter, ask that tech if the dash would light up like a christmas tree if you even got close to overheating.
Thanks, Jayman. Coming from LA, Toronto is cold enough for me. I can't imagine temperatures in the -50C+ marks! :canada:
If you have a garage to park in, and anticipate being away on business a lot, do what I did and hardwire the VDC Electronics Battery Minder charge harness directly to the 12 vdc battery. All my equipment is kept safely charged by Battery Minders. I can expect to be away 1-3 weeks on business, the batteries last a lot longer if kept properly charged. Here is how the charge harness is hooked up to the Prius 12 vdc battery http://i653.photobucket.com/albums/uu256/jayman_photo/Prius%20Stuff/Closeupchargeharness.jpg How the cord is run out the rear hatch http://i653.photobucket.com/albums/uu256/jayman_photo/Prius Stuff/Chargeharnessouthatch.jpg The hardest part was removing that large red plastic cover over the positive post. I just about started yelling the F Bomb at it
