How to look after your car during a lockdown?

Psycho Sonny · 12 Apr 2020 at 10:35

https://www.lexus.co.uk/discover-lexus/lexus-news/lexus-hybrid-parked#hero

Should I use my battery charger or turn the car on and sit inside it for 60 mins?

Battery charger will only charge the 12v battery whereas turning it on will charge both the hybrid and the 12v.

tom_e · 12 Apr 2020 at 16:47

You've included the link telling you exactly what they recommend so just do that :confused:

lordrobs · 12 Apr 2020 at 20:00

Isn't the advice from the manufacturer massively over the top? Run your car for an hour weekly to keep the battery topped up?! :confused:

I wouldn't even give it a second thought for at least a month unless I knew my car already had battery issues.

ezekial · 12 Apr 2020 at 23:11

I think 60 mins a week is a bit excessive.... probably do it every 2 weeks.. Is it on a driveway? can you lock it when you're not in it?

Tim Williams · 12 Apr 2020 at 23:54

I'd go with the advice - im a recovery guy and that's what we suggest

Jonnycoupe · 13 Apr 2020 at 00:20

Sound sensible to manage self discharge of the cells and hence maintaining a balanced pack, otherwise it can end up with cell voltages all over the place where the pack looks ‘normal and the stress on the cells at the edges of the pack isn’t good.

Ie the battery management system is out of calibration and a full cell taking loads of regen or a low cell has to provide of current.

Simon · 13 Apr 2020 at 06:51

lordrobs said:
Isn't the advice from the manufacturer massively over the top? Run your car for an hour weekly to keep the battery topped up?!

I wouldn't even give it a second thought for at least a month unless I knew my car already had battery issues.

It is a hybrid to be fair.

lordrobs · 13 Apr 2020 at 07:00

Simon said:
It is a hybrid to be fair.

They also go on to give the same advise for non-hybrid models.

It kind of reminds me of when you used to buy a mobile phone years ago and the instructions would say something along the lines of "charge the battery for at least 12 hours before first use" when it was clear the thing was fully charged in under 2!

Finglonga · 13 Apr 2020 at 09:42

Worth remembering, the engine needs to get up to full working temperature and stay there for 5 minutes at least to stop condensation in the crank case and at the end of it all an oil change would be beneficial.

DampDog · 13 Apr 2020 at 09:59

Finglonga said:
Worth remembering, the engine needs to get up to full working temperature and stay there for 5 minutes at least to stop condensation in the crank case and at the end of it all an oil change would be beneficial.

Just by chance I gave mine a run yesterday for the first time in almost a month. I let it idle for the most part but gave it a little periodic rev to about 2K until it was warm enough for the cooling fan to kick in. (35-40min) so properly warmed up. My drive is long enough that I could run the the car back and forth a few metres to just use the brakes and make sure everything was still moving freely. I also gave the parking brake a few goes just to make sure nothing was sticking.

First turn it did crank a tad slower than usual, so I'm thinking a trickle charger might go to the top of my wish list in the not too distant future.

Amraam · 13 Apr 2020 at 10:22

I set my charge level to 50% and leave it plugged in

jpaul · 13 Apr 2020 at 22:09

For those missing ICE ... bbc news had a cornwall biker gang who were volunteering, and delivering groceries/medicines.

Simon · 13 Apr 2020 at 23:04

jpaul said:
For those missing ICE ... bbc news had a cornwall biker gang who were volunteering, and delivering groceries/medicines.

Random. Is this better than a milkman’s electric milk float ?

jpaul · 14 Apr 2020 at 10:00

I'd meant ... an opportunity to drive your bike/car ... and, yes, would you go out for a fun drive in a non-ICE , oxymoron ?

robj20 · 14 Apr 2020 at 10:06

I just plan on leaving mine. In 2018 through winter it was left for around 3+ months, started perfectly and drove perfectly. I have zero worries leaving it for months and months.

Psycho Sonny · 14 Apr 2020 at 15:35

robj20 said:
I just plan on leaving mine. In 2018 through winter it was left for around 3+ months, started perfectly and drove perfectly. I have zero worries leaving it for months and months.

yours isn't a hybrid though. and that is terrible advice. your battery takes a tanking in winter and depleting it further is stupid.

i took the car for a 25 min drive the other day. hopefully that is better than idling for 60 mins.

robj20 · 14 Apr 2020 at 17:54

Psycho Sonny said:
yours isn't a hybrid though. and that is terrible advice. your battery takes a tanking in winter and depleting it further is stupid.

i took the car for a 25 min drive the other day. hopefully that is better than idling for 60 mins.

I didn't give advice did I? Just my observations, plus even after all that stop start still functioned so battery must have been above a good level as that's the first function the car disables as the battery level drops.

BigglesPiP · 15 Apr 2020 at 20:08

Going to depend heavily on the car. Some modern luxury cars can flatten their own battery in a couple of weeks, so you'll want to start them weekly. Most older basic cars are truly off when the ignition is off, can last months if the battery is good. EVs can also last months unplugged, but ABC if you can (Always Be Charging).

Brakes more annoying, mine get a good layer of corrosion on the disks after a couple of weeks and a few spots of rain. You want to drive a few hundred metres and scrub that off to avoid eventual pitting etc, that or store your car in a garage.

I'm doing a food shop every ~10 days right now, that's enough to sort the brakes out. It doesn't stop this from happening though..

FFS, not a good time..

jpaul · 15 Apr 2020 at 21:08

what are we looking at ? fish eye reversing camera covered in plastic ... that's delaminated from somewhere

Jonnycoupe · 15 Apr 2020 at 21:10

Pug 206 rear ended him.