Battery and airport parking

[kevin h]

Looking to leave the car at the airport for 3 weeks. (65 plated HSD Excel) but worried about Battery on my return. Heard that disabling the alarm is a good idea, but what's the process and how do you know it's turned off? The manual doesn't seem to explain it very well.   Are there any other tricks to ensure you don't return to a flat Battery?, or am I worried about nothing.  

[Anthony Poli]

6 hours ago, kevin h said:

Looking to leave the car at the airport for 3 weeks. (65 plated HSD Excel) but worried about battery on my return. Heard that disabling the alarm is a good idea, but what's the process and how do you know it's turned off? The manual doesn't seem to explain it very well.   Are there any other tricks to ensure you don't return to a flat battery?, or am I worried about nothing.  

I have heard of some doing that and would like to know how to do it also on my 2010 auris. Failing that i will be keeping a jump starter in the boot for back up. I once left a OBD to wifi dongle connected and a couple of days later i couldn't get into READY. So much for the dongle going into low power mode when not in use.

After reading the charging circuit  doesn't really charge the Battery during normal driving, i connected the jump starter and took the Battery out of the car. So i could recharge it properly.

So much for thinking no more worries about a flat Battery in a hybrid ;-)

just not a lesson you wish to learn on a frosty morning when your late for work

[Dancing Badger]

I left my '09 Prius (which I've recently traded in) in the long stay car park at the airport for a fortnight or so 3 summers on the trot. I took no special precautions and never had a hint of any trouble, it started perfectly normally on my return each time. Afaik the car was on its original 12V Battery - when I bought it at 4 years old it came with bills and a FSH and there was no record of a Battery. I certainly never replaced it. Nor did I ever charge it. It's one of the things I loved about the car, in 3 years and around 45000 miles it was utterly reliable. I do use my car daily, I have a round trip commute of 24 miles and do regular (roughly monthly) long trips of 200 miles or more, so it does get plenty of opportunity to charge during driving.

I can only speak for my own experience - I've read quite a lot on here of other people having problems and there is a commonly held view that the 12V Battery is underspecced and a potential problem. The 12V battery does not have a great deal of capacity, but then it doesn't have to provide energy to turn over a cold engine, the traction batteries do that, and they absolutely will not go flat in a few weeks in a car park. All the 12V battery has to do is boot the electrical system.

Then again an internet forum like this can give a false impression. I suspect that you'd be more likely to visit a forum, and more likely to post, if you've had problems then if not - I don't think we can use it as a representative sample of the experiences of every hybrid owner.  In any event I never had any worries about leaving my Prius, and I don't worry about my '13 Auris HSD. I'd certainly be confident of leaving a '65 reg car for 3 weeks and would fully expect it to start normally on my return.

If the worst happens and the car won't start then Toyota Roadside Assistance or the AA/RAC/Green Flag are all quite capable of getting it going. I used to be an AA Patrol in the late 70s - early 80s, I rarely went more than a couple of days without jump-starting a car.  Cars - all cars - are much more reliable now, but dealing with flat batteries was completely routine. Even back then, though, I'd have had no qualms about leaving a 12-month-old car standing for 3 weeks. Certainly there's a specific procedure to be followed when jump-starting a Toyota Hybrid, but it's really not very complicated and any halfway competent recovery mechanic should know how to do it.

I wouldn't worry about the battery. I'd be more worried about leaving the car unattended for 3 weeks without the alarm set.

[Anthony Poli]

I left my '09 Prius (which I've recently traded in) in the long stay car park at the airport for a fortnight or so 3 summers on the trot. I took no special precautions and never had a hint of any trouble, it started perfectly normally on my return each time. Afaik the car was on its original 12V battery - when I bought it at 4 years old it came with bills and a FSH and there was no record of a battery. I certainly never replaced it. Nor did I ever charge it. It's one of the things I loved about the car, in 3 years and around 45000 miles it was utterly reliable. I do use my car daily, I have a round trip commute of 24 miles and do regular (roughly monthly) long trips of 200 miles or more, so it does get plenty of opportunity to charge during driving.

I can only speak for my own experience - I've read quite a lot on here of other people having problems and there is a commonly held view that the 12V battery is underspecced and a potential problem. The 12V battery does not have a great deal of capacity, but then it doesn't have to provide energy to turn over a cold engine, the traction batteries do that, and they absolutely will not go flat in a few weeks in a car park. All the 12V battery has to do is boot the electrical system.

Then again an internet forum like this can give a false impression. I suspect that you'd be more likely to visit a forum, and more likely to post, if you've had problems then if not - I don't think we can use it as a representative sample of the experiences of every hybrid owner.  In any event I never had any worries about leaving my Prius, and I don't worry about my '13 Auris HSD. I'd certainly be confident of leaving a '65 reg car for 3 weeks and would fully expect it to start normally on my return.

If the worst happens and the car won't start then Toyota Roadside Assistance or the AA/RAC/Green Flag are all quite capable of getting it going. I used to be an AA Patrol in the late 70s - early 80s, I rarely went more than a couple of days without jump-starting a car.  Cars - all cars - are much more reliable now, but dealing with flat batteries was completely routine. Even back then, though, I'd have had no qualms about leaving a 12-month-old car standing for 3 weeks. Certainly there's a specific procedure to be followed when jump-starting a Toyota Hybrid, but it's really not very complicated and any halfway competent recovery mechanic should know how to do it.

I wouldn't worry about the battery. I'd be more worried about leaving the car unattended for 3 weeks without the alarm set.

Out of curiosity did you notice if the traction Battery charge was any different on your return?

[Dancing Badger]

30 minutes ago, Anthony Poli said:

Out of curiosity did you notice if the traction battery charge was any different on your return?

Can't help with that, I'm afraid, I didn't notice, never occurred to me to check. The car behaved perfectly normally, no differently than if I'd just left it overnight, that was all that I noticed.

I tend not to watch the HSD displays much any more - I did at first, they fascinated me, but I'm not into hypermiling techniques, I just drive the car and let it look after itself - I think the computers do a better job of deciding when it should be charging and when it should be in EV mode than I do! I have noticed in the Auris that the traction Battery display is a lot less prominent - on the Prius, IRC, it was always visible in the main display unless I had the consumption graph displayed. In the Auris I have to make a point of selecting it on the central display and I generally have that either displaying whatever media I'm listening to or the sat nav.I can also select it on the little display by the speedo where I also don't use it, I mostly either have cruising range or fuel consumption displayed there. It's nice, of course, to have all that information available and I know that some people find it useful and enjoy having lots of technical data about how their car is running, but I don't feel that I need it or that it particularly informs the way I drive the car.

[Anthony Poli]

7 hours ago, Dancing Badger said:

I wouldn't worry about the battery. I'd be more worried about leaving the car unattended for 3 weeks without the alarm set.

Sorry i forgot to ask.

Did you use the manual key to lock the car in order to not set the alarm?

 

[Dancing Badger]

2 hours ago, Anthony Poli said:

Sorry i forgot to ask.

Did you use the manual key to lock the car in order to not set the alarm?

 

No, I just locked it normally with the remote (or I might have touched the sensor on the door handle - probably not as I had luggage on the boot and only had a sensor on the driver's door). I didn't disable the alarm at all, not even the internal sensors, just locked it and left it as I would have if I was leaving it for the day. I probably dead locked it by double clicking the remote - can't remember now but I usually do.

[Anthony Poli]

Thanks for that, I was just a little bit worried after hearing about some people having issues of the Battery being drained whilst the car had been sat for a week or more. At least i know what to check next time mine will not show ready, that OBD to wifi dongle had only been left in from friday to monday. Glad i had a jump starter at home.