Happy Monday! I was at the car wash that I frequent in town, and it is the type that pulls your car through while you sit inside, and your car must be in nuetral. While waiting in line, the battery wore down pretty quickly with the AC on, as it was pretty hot this weekend (it went from 50 degrees F to 89 degrees F), and by the time I got to the entrance of the car wash, I had 2 bars left on the battery. I put her in nuetral, and was so scared because the car says that it will not charge when the car is in nuetral. So I quickly turned off the AC and sweated it out (literally). What happen's when the battery goes down and the car is in nuetral? Does the gas engine kick on? I was seriously very nervous! I didn't want to have my car die in the middle of the busy car wash. Thanks
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(remaxmanager @ May 1 2006, 06:07 PM) [snapback]248172[/snapback]</div> Well I live in the south therefore, it’s HOT. And very often I sleep in my car, sometimes for a couple of hours. I just push park and the ICE comes on when needed. Unless you have something wrong with your car, it will do the same. I will admit that the battery gets very low (according to the bars) before the ICE comes on, but so far I haven’t had any problems. I just sleep in bliss. This will affect your gas mileage, but it still cheaper than with my other cars. I don’t know if this is the way to do it, but it’s the way I do it. B)
Keep in mind that even when the battery is down to 1 or even 2 bars, that still means that the battery is at ~40% SOC, so it's not like it's almost completely depleted of its energy. Just pop it back into Drive after you go thru the drive-thru car wash next time and drive it normally. The car is smarter than you are, and will replenish the battery as it sees fit.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(grasshopper @ May 1 2006, 06:33 PM) [snapback]248183[/snapback]</div> You can't go through the car wash in Park. Park engages a parking pawl which keeps the wheels from turning, while this type of car wash drags the car through so it needs to be able to roll. Your best bet is to stay in D or P until the last moment, then switch into N just for the duration of the wash. Tom <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(remaxmanager @ May 1 2006, 06:34 PM) [snapback]248184[/snapback]</div> The ICE won't kick on in N, as there would be no point. The physics of the PSD makes N a freewheel setting, so the ICE can't charge or power anything. If it could, it would be D or P. P is the same as D, except the transaxle is locked with a parking pawl to keep the car from moving; not much different than sitting in D with the brake depressed. Tom
