Car in neutral while running

If you decide to risk it, try to force charge before entering. Maybe you will make it. Turn off lights and HVAC.

 

I've been doing the same for the past 4 years, although yesterday, I saw one place which offered a "touchless" car wash . Perhaps I'll try that one! Anyone know how they work? (…perhaps it's in the same universe where Newton's Laws of Motion have no effect (viz. here in the North East, early January, 9ºF, 3" of snow/slush on the highway, yet there are idiots who continue to tail-gate, eventually screaming past in their AWD SUVs spraying road crud etc. over all and sundry, I can only guess that they must be late for their next accident further up the road, and that my only concern is that I would rather not be part of it, thank you! ))

 

The sprayers and equipment move around the car.

Sensors are amazing and allow you to “park and watch”.

 

I just found a couple of youtube vids on how they work, and the overall consensus is (…just like many other things! ) that it's better to do the job by hand!

 

Who has time for that.

 

Touchless means no brushes or towels; high pressure water only.
While most work like you said, some are "drive through" too.

I have never seen one that does as good a job without the brushes.

 

So......I assume that means that there IS NO official recommended procedure from Toyota ??

 

The answer is there is absolutely no reason to run the car in netrual for the heater. It’s a bad idea and the heater fan and A/C compressor will discharge the battery until you get a warning the traction battery is not charging. Continue on and the engine won’t start. Since you seem convinced your right and everyone here is wrong I suggest you do it your way and let us know what happens.

 

If you turn off everything that uses power that you can you will be fine if you have even half a charge. Lights, radio, climate control system. Those are the things that take power, the computers take almost nothing

 

By "dead" do you mean the car's off? Cus it can't be off and in Neutral. Which is a pain.

Does being in Neutral force the engine to keep running? I'm curious, never heard of this. I know you can put the car in special maintenance modes to keep engine running.

 

I found out how quickly you can kill a battery in a car wash when I went in a couple of months ago without a mostly full charge. I got a bunch of warning lights, a red indicator on the battery display, and the trouble code. I was fortunate, I caught it before completely drained and the battery recharged without issue. It has been fine since.

The OP is trying play a dangerous game, and not taking the advice given. He doesn't seem to understand that a completely dead traction battery means a tow and quite possibly a >$2000 repair bill when his battery requires replacement if it cannot be charged right away.

The short answer is YES, you will destroy your battery attempting such a stunt. You have been warned, but it sounds like you're intent on doing it anyway. Best of luck.

 

yes, it will hurt the hybrid battery. this was answered in post #2

 

You mean the same post #2 that I saw?

That post #2?

Here's a part of post #1 that hasn't had a lot of attention, though bisco did give the right info in #12:

You don't have to keep the engine running for heat in the winter. The car is already programmed to keep you warm in the winter while the engine cycles on and off. Your profile says you have a Gen 2, so there is a separate, electrically driven water pump for heat.

When the engine is stopped, the electric pump circulates the coolant through your heater, giving you heat. It takes several minutes before the coolant temperature drops a few degrees, triggering the engine to start, and run until the coolant temperature is back up to setpoint (and recharging the HV battery in the process). The coolant will not be circulated through the front-of-car radiator, because that would be a waste of heat. It just circulates through the engine and the in-cabin heater core. (Only if the engine is at or above full operating temperature will the cooling radiator be brought in.)

In other words, the car already does what you're saying you want here. Put it in READY, leave the transmission in Park, set the temperature on the heater to what you want, and the car will give you that, running the engine exactly as much as needed. Set the temperature higher, it will run the engine more.

The designers already thought about your use case and programmed the car to handle it. Lots of people with Prius camping experience can confirm.

 

can you explain this in more detail? i don't think any of us are understanding what you are trying to accomplish

 

If you were sitting in a regular non hybrid car would you run the heater with the car in park or neutral? If you think your saving the starter by leaving the engine running your wrong. The Prius does not have a starter or alternator, the engine is permanently attached to a motor/generator that serves as both. If anything forcing the car to run is actually increasing wear on the engine, not to mention not charging the traction battery and causing extra stress on that. The Prius has an electric water pump that supply’s heated water from the engine to the heater core when the engine is not running. When the temperature of the water (coolant) in the engine gets below a certain temperature the engine starts and warms the water up again. It’s all done by computer the only input you have is to adjust the temperature on the climate control screen. If you set the temperature to “max” you would see the engine run on a more continuous basis.

 

I think the part you're missing is that there is always a drain on high-voltage battery when the system is on. These cars have no alternator, all electrical draws come from the battery the engine isn't charging.

Idling in neutral is like doing the same in a conventional car with a failed alternator. The electrical draws will kill the battery and you will be dead in the water. The hybrid system draws a lot more power than a regular car does, so you will kill the HV battery quickly.

 

only some Priuseses have engine-driven coolant pumps. I don't know when they changed, but modern ones use an electric pump that operates independently of the engine.

So you can put the car in park & ready, and even when the engine is off hot coolant will be circulated across the heater core. When coolant temps finally drop, the computer will automatically re-start the engine.