Something that should have been suggested sooner; check the manual on what to do for extended parking of the car. On my old gen2, you could turn off the smart key system to reduce its drain on the battery for example. Restating what I said before, you'll likely want to be more proactive when replacement time starts approaching after what this battery has been through. Maybe she also has one of these.
I drove it Monday for 15 minutes on the highway and local roads. It had no problems starting. The "check engine" light is still on. A Toyota service tech told me that the "check engine" light will go off on its own if no problems are detected after a couple days. He said I should drive at least every 3 days in gas-only mode for at least 20 minutes. That's more than I drive normally (every couple days, on EV or flex mode, for 5-15 minutes). I read the 2 manual sections on the key. It says some battery-saving features are automatic, some you can set yourself. I'll be sure to keep them in mind next time if I plan on leaving the car idle for a while. Thanks for the advice.
The 20 minutes driving is what I remember hearing for what a starter battery needing to replenish what was used for turning over the engine. The solar battery maintainer is probably something to look into for anybody with mostly short drives looking to extend the battery's life as long as possible.
My comment was specific to what I heard about non-hybrids. Turning on the car is less work for the 12V in a battery in a hybrid, but modern cars have higher vampire loads now, and past hybrids tended to have smaller capacity 12 volts. Lead-acid batteries last longer sitting at 100% charge, and when only discharged shallowly. For any car that is parked most of the time, or its daily drive cycle is under the time the car needs to fully recharge the battery, a solar battery maintainer could help extend its life.
I was trying to find these sections about battery-saving features and couldn't find them. Would you mind telling me which sections?
