Maybe this is on the forum somewhere but I couldn't find it. I wanted to leave my Prius powered-on on a cold winter day to keep my dogs warm. I kept getting defeated by the feature that prevents the doors from being locked when you get out of the vehicle with the engine running. I finally stumbled on this method. Power-on the Prius. Get out and shut the door. Lock the door with the key(not the remote lock, the little key in the Smart Key fob.) You will have to unlock the door with the key as well. The temperature stays at about 50 degrees with the temperature setting on LO. This is working well for me but I wonder if anyone knows of a reason why it might be detrimental to the Prius? Thanks!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RandyMaine @ Dec 3 2006, 09:52 AM) [snapback]356931[/snapback]</div> One thing that occurs to me is that someone notices a car running, breaks a window, jumps in and drives off.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RandyMaine @ Dec 3 2006, 10:19 AM) [snapback]356939[/snapback]</div> Other than that, I don't believe leaving it sitting like that should hurt anything. I'm planning on doing something similar for home power in case of ice storms, floods etc., with my Prius.
It won't hurt anything - so long as the car is in park. The ICE will turn on as needed, the car will take care of itself. HOWEVER, don't leave it in neutral. if you do that, the ICE won't come on to recharge the batteries, which can be bad.
I do this all the time for quick-stop errands. Avoids the whole warmup-cycle of engine running after another power-up. Having to use the physical key is mildly annoying but the car *is* trying to make sure I don't lock myself out. I looked into mods to allow using the RF clicker while powered on, but the functionality to ignore it is buried deep in the body-ECU code so I gave up on that avenue. . _H*
