Long-term Prius Storage/6-12 months

I've stored vehicles for six month intervals for the past 10 years.

1. Fill the tank. The fuel will not degrade for at least a year in my experience.

2. Turning off the SKS isn't necessary, it'll turn itself off after a few days.

3. Having someone start the car every few weeks will do more harm than good. Have them start the car every three months and let it run in "P" for 10-15 min if you feel it's necessary. It is better, however, to disconnect the 12V battery -ve terminal and just trickle charge it once a month. A "battery tender" is good for doing this, and in fact, you can leave a battery tender connected full time (less messing around means less chance of something going wrong).

4. Put full normal pressure in the tires and leave the vehicle on the ground. Modern tires don't have trouble "flat spotting". Do check and air up the tires when you put the vehicle back on the road, they will loose some pressure (as they do when you drive for that long). Again, leaving the vehicle on the ground means less things to go wrong. I tried it both ways and found no difference, so go with the simplest way.

5. Make sure the windows are fully closed, to keep mice and insects out of the car. You will have to clean the inside of the windows when you put it back on the road, due to the accumulation of outgassing stuff from the interior plastics.

6. Change the oil (and filter) then park the car. This way you will minimize the acids in the oil pan. They won't work much anyway if the car isn't run, but it's a good thing to have clean oil in there if it's sitting for a long time.

 

Is there any value (or, with the bladder, any downside) to adding fuel stabilizer? Just curious ... and ignorant on the subject. If the fuel won't degrade, I wonder why my motorcycle shop recommends fuel stabilizer as part of winterizing my bike.

 

bah. we're parking our lexus until this fall and it's got a plain old full tank of gas in it.

 

Full tank of gas, good idea. Fuel stabalizer may or may not help, the stuff intended for lanwmowers and motorcycles could actually damage the O2 sensor and catalytic converter.

"blocking" the car up, may help and won't hurt. Improperly supporting the car will absolutely HURT. Less bother to just leave it on the ground. I have blocked up classic cars in the past, properly supported.

Either invest in a battery *tender* or disconnect and remove the 12 vdc battery. It's expensive and doesn't tolerate long periods of sitting. Note, do NOT leave a "trickle" charger hooked up! They are NOT an "automatic" charger and will overcharge/destroy the battery. Here is the tender I use:

 12 Volt-1 Amp  Charger and Maintainer

The traction battery is fairly safe to leave alone, when powered off the relays are opened so the NiMH should be ok

If you're within half the interval to an oil change, change the oil. If you had it changed in the last 2,000 miles or so, don't bother

That should do it, have a nice trip

 

A car cover will keep the dust off, even inside. You are storing it in a locked garage with an alarm, aren't you? Making sure the air is set to recirculate when you park it will close the mouse access doors. A few moth balls scattered around outside the car might not hurt.
Who's going to babysit all those rambunctious WeePrii drivers while you're away?

 

hi rufaro, if you do elect to do this, never do it in a closed garage. and i would even go through the trouble of backing the car out/etc so it's outside. you don't want carbon monoxide to build up!

ps: not sure how long it takes for CO to build up to deadly levels, i would just never take the chance!

 

and what about the HV battery pack
not being charged for 12 months?
so its depleting by it selfs i don't think thats a really good thing

 

How about force-charging the battery up to 8 green bars prior to storage, by putting the gear selector to D, holding the car motionless by pressing the brake pedal with your left foot, then depressing the accelerator pedal fully.

Hope your sister does not have a problem with rats or mice. They can enter via the cowl below the windshield, and also via the large rectangular vents located behind the rear bumper cover on either side of the car.

 

Since Toyota goes to great pains to NOT charge the battery this much, it seems counterintuitive to do this.

 

Well.

Think only 7 bars.

Could it be a good idea for long time storage to force charge the HV batt a bit over the usual 4, 5 or 6 bars?

 

I've never used Sta-bil in any of my vehicles or lawnmowers. In small engines I drain the fuel and run the engine until it stops. In cars I just fill the tank. I've never had a problem, and one vehicle (RX-7) I just sold last year had this treatment for six months every winter for ten years. Sta-bil is not necessary unless you're lazy.

The NIMH battery will self discharge, about 1-2% per month. In one year that's 24% max. and probably closer to 12%. Not a problem!

Jayman's recommendation of removal of the 12V battery is best, but as I said several times, the more you do the more chances of YOU causing a problem. If you're not mechanically inclined, leave the battery in, disconnect the -ve terminal, and use a tender - one that is intended to be used continuously. Search "Battery Tender" on the internet. What you find is what I purchased (though I've not had to use it this winter). It's mounted on my garage wall, waiting for really cold weather (which we didn't get - it only went down to -34C).

 

No problem unless you store the car for one year, and happened to start with only one or two pink bars showing on the SOC gauge. Suppose that immediately prior to storage you were waiting in the Prius and left the air conditioner on, thus discharging the traction battery.

Toyota recommends running the Prius for 30 minutes in READY, every two months while in storage (TSB PD091-06). So if one must ignore this recommendation, it would be good to start the storage period with the traction battery as fully charged as possible.

 

A regular name-brand 5W-30 oil is fine. The suggestion to change the oil before storage is so that existing contaminants & residual water are removed from the crankcase.

If your B-I-L can make the Prius READY every 2-3 weeks and let it sit for 30 minutes each time, that will be great, no worries. This implies that he is partially removing the car cover to get in the car, which will give him a chance to look for problems like rodents.

 

Second that. Turning it ON and letting it sit in Ready for a half-hour every three or four weeks is the easy alternative to screwing around with a battery tender and/or worrying about the main battery. Let it take care of its own batteries.

 

A battery tender is the best solution to long-term storage. Hard wired into the 12 vdc battery, as long as there is a source of power for the charger, it will automatically keep a float charge on the battery.

The better models even desulfate the battery, which doesn't hurt either. I've left my Prius 30 days hooked up to the Battery Minder, with zero issues

I would be leery of trusting a non-Prius driver to follow a schedule of starting the car every so often. It's easy enough to enter Acc mode, which can bugger the battery. I suppose the non-Prius driver could be asked to actually take the car for a spin, which is a definite no-no for me

Ideally the Prius would be stored in an enclosed space. Since this is apparently not an option, the remaining choices are less than desirable

 

i still wonder wy the 12vdc to 210vdc ( or something close to 210vdc ) charging option from the first Japanese market only prius did not get implemented in the newer models?

then all of these problems will be solved!