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17 days sitting - dead battery?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by Acre, Jan 11, 2010.

  1. Acre

    Acre New Member

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    Location:
    Woodside, CA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    II
    I'm out of the country for 17 days. What's the latest on the dead battery problem discussed some time back? I have a Prius II so there are perhaps fewer things drawing juice than with higher end models. This is Northern California so it might freeze at night but it won't get wicked cold.
    Thoughts?
    Anything I can do to avoid a problem?
     
  2. 32kcolors

    32kcolors Senior Member

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    Who wants to start a betting pool on this?
     
  3. don_chuwish

    don_chuwish Well Seasoned Member

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    Where will it be parked? Not at the airport I hope. If not, BatteryMinder maybe? Or disconnect the ground. What's the manual say?
    For my Gen II I would just turn off the smart key system and hope for the best.

    - D
     
  4. leeb18c

    leeb18c Active Member

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    Maybe carry one of those battery boosters. Even the smallest one would do with Prius since it just need to boot the computer & some relays.
     
  5. PaJa

    PaJa Senior member

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    Don't do anything special. Just check if all visible power consumers are switched off, like map lights, cargo light and so on. SKS will go to low power mode automaticaly, if you didn't ask the dealer for the special setting via Techstream.
    This is Gen III, not Gen II.
     
  6. Darwood

    Darwood Senior Member

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    Ask a neighbor to come start it once while you are away.
     
  7. going red baby!

    going red baby! still a n00b

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    Ask your neighbor to turn it off again sometime after he starts it.
     
    1 person likes this.
  8. creativeguy

    creativeguy Member

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    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
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    I just left mine in my garage for 11 days and it had no problem. Traction battery didn't even lose a bar. I think this fear is overblown.
     
  9. antoine

    antoine New Member

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    Location:
    maine
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    II
    My dealer tells me to pull the "short fuse", which is a white fuse in
    the center of the fuse box near the rear of the fuse box. He has a
    "notice" that says that this fuse is pulled for shipping and that the
    dealer must insert it during vehicle preparation. It will kill power
    to the SKS system (big user of power when car not running) and
    a few items on the dash like the trip odometer settings. I only
    tried this for a minute and in that time, I did not lose my radio
    station settings.

    My Prius is in a neighbor's garage now for 2 months. We'll see
    how this works. A battery jump box is a sure way to insure you
    can start the car, but decent ones cost around $90-$145 and they
    need to be maintained (charged).
     
  10. c64rbr

    c64rbr Junior Member

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  11. dorboy

    dorboy Junior Member

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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    III
    I was concerned about leaving my 2007 Prius Tspirit in the UK for 3wks over Christmas. I took the precaution of making a good run in daylight so that the big battery was well charged. Then I left it double locked, with the footbrake off to avoid seizing.

    Afte 3wks and a day, it started no problem at all. Everything seemed normal, so now I will not worry so much.