Parking for 3 months

Why not drive the Prius over to SF and use it there?

If you do decide to just park it, disconnect the negative on the 12v.

 

pump up the tires to max sidewall.

 

I just parked my Prius for 3 months. See the details of what I did here: What tips do you have for storing a Prius for 3 months? | PriusChat

 

What you NEED to do is mostly........nothing.

Except for the 12 V battery. If you will have access to electrical power, a small battery tender/maintainer is best.
If you won't have power, be sure the battery is fully charged and then disconnect the negative cable.
IF.....the battery is over 5 years old, now would be a good time to replace it.....after you return.

 

Gen2 Prius as a minimum you need to turn off the Smart Key System (SKS) which on a Gen2 has a button under the steering wheel, if your model has the smart key (most do). Kevin in Denver probably covers this.

I would get the HV battery reasonably full 6-7 bars before parking, and upon return home I would let the car warm up 5-mins without A/C before pulling out.

 

If your hv battery is from 2004, I probably would not let it sit 3 months. That will pretty much kill it, the weak modules will go out of balance. Once a battery gets old, you have to constantly use it to keep it from getting weak and out of balance.

 

maybe get a prolong and balance before leaving?

 

If you are disconnecting the 12 V battery, you don't also need to turn the SKS off, as it will go off when you pull the power.

No, it is not difficult to disconnect the 12 V battery, you will need a 10 mm wrench and I'd just remove the cable from the negative pole. Another alternative, is remove the red cover over the positive terminal and just unplug the white connectors from the black block attached the positive pole. You probably could do that with no tools, but a longish flat blade screwdriver would make removing the red cover a bit easier.


The image above highlights the sense wire, you do not need to remove that one (won't hurt if you do), but if you look to the right there is another plug, you remove that one.

 

And, IIRC, be prepared to crawl into the trunk from the rear seat when you get back in order to reconnect the battery. The trunk won't open without the 12v battery being hooked up...

 

^^^ Yeah that right there is gonna be the PITA. Although you could prep it by removing all the interior pieces aside for easier access for when you get back.

 

Another option, take a 12 V source with you to the car and connect it to the jump point under the hood. One of the those compact li-Ion starters, a regular jump pack or just another 12 V battery.

 

Now that's an interesting idea.
Just need to be absolutely sure that the clamps won't short out to anything.......including the hood when it's closed.

 

Why would you close the hood? As soon as you've opened the hatch, you can remove the power source.

 

WHAT ??
We were talking about connecting a charger to the jump points UNDER THE HOOD......and leaving it connected there for a long time.
I for one wouldn't feel comfortable leaving the hood standing wide open like that.......unless maybe it is in a locked garage at home.

 

I think the idea is to have another 12v sitting in the car (or somewhere you can have access), then use that 12v to connect to the jump points to give you power to open the hatch. Then connect the disconnected 12v battery back

 

I can see that now after re-reading it.
But that wasn't really specified in his post.........and that is why a small quote is ALWAYS a good idea.

 

Yes and no.

You might have been talking about that, but I was responding to the discussion in these posts:

My post just offered an alternative solution to having to crawl in the back to operate the manual release.


However, your train of thought is an option too, as long as there is a secure location to store the car with the hood up.