Totally dead battery after 13 days parked

[n3ckf]

So i arrived back at my house after leaving the Rav4 in the garage parked (and turned off) for 13 days.

Totally dead battery. Meaning, 0 volts. (this is the 12volt battery not the traction battery. The traction battery was completely charged when i left it).

Whats more taking the battery out of the car, it still reads 0volts. I think i'm just going to need to buy a replacment.

(Oh and taking the battery out of the car requires removing the plastic shield on top of the radiators. good job on engineering, Toyota!. You could've at least put a *hole* in the shield where the bolt for the battery bracket was... I'm going to modify it to have one before i put it back on...)

Anyone else have this problem? Know why it might have happened?

 

[TonyWilliams]

Anyone else have this problem? Know why it might have happened?

What happened is that the 12 volt battery is still at work even if you're not driving the car. The car is still making phone calls to Tesla/Toyota via the telematics, as well as other sundry power drains.

I recommend leaving the traction battery at 50% (10 of 16 fuel bars illuminated) and UNPLUGGED. Try and keep the main traction battery as cool as possible (but not below -20C).

Then, leave the 12 volt battery on a "tender" or "trickle charger".

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000657791

I highly recommend a "pigtail" on the battery so that you can quickly and easily hook up your tender:

 

[eschatfische]

I have two stupid questions:

In a situation where the lead acid battery is depleted, why can't the traction battery jump start it?

If the RAV4 EV is left in a temperate place and set to charge with the charge timer - traction battery life issues notwithstanding - would the lead-acid battery still deplete? ie, does the car need to actually be turned on and in Ready to keep the lead-acid battery charged?

 

[TonyWilliams]

I have two stupid questions:

In a situation where the lead acid battery is depleted, why can't the traction battery jump start it?

You'd need to jump start the 12 volt so that it could start the car, which in turn will energize the DC to DC convertor to charge the 12 volt battery.

If the RAV4 EV is left in a temperate place and set to charge with the charge timer - traction battery life issues notwithstanding - would the lead-acid battery still deplete? ie, does the car need to actually be turned on and in Ready to keep the lead-acid battery charged?

The LEAF has a once-every-5-days 12 volt charge cycle, but it is inhibited when the car is plugged in (yes, it's a dumb design). So, on the LEAF, the 12 volt battery would specifically deplete when left plugged in.

I don't know of any similar feature with the Rav4, but in general, if the car isn't charging, I doubt the 12 volt will get charged. The only time that we know for SURE that the 12 volt is charged is when in READY.

 

[user 340]

Then, leave the 12 volt battery on a "tender" or "trickle charger".

Tony,
Thanks for the advice - very helpful, as always.

Should one of the 12V battery terminals be disconnected from the car when on the tender? If so, which one would be best to disconnect?

 

[miimura]

Then, leave the 12 volt battery on a "tender" or "trickle charger".

Tony,
Thanks for the advice - very helpful, as always.

Should one of the 12V battery terminals be disconnected from the car when on the tender? If so, which one would be best to disconnect?

No, you can just connect it to the battery with the car normally connected.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Then, leave the 12 volt battery on a "tender" or "trickle charger".

Tony,
Thanks for the advice - very helpful, as always.

Should one of the 12V battery terminals be disconnected from the car when on the tender? If so, which one would be best to disconnect?

No, you can just connect it to the battery with the car normally connected.

Exactly! Please DO NOT disconnect the battery. Do you like reloading all your navigation settings and radio stations? Plus, the car really should be "kept alive" to potentially protect the main traction battery.

Do you know the term "bricked"? It would cost you $36,000 to fix !!!!!

 

[n3ckf]

well in my car the battery is disconnected, but it was at 0 volts anyway. I can see i'm going to need to buy 2 of those tender things (one for each garage i park the car in) and just hook it up every time i stop driving it.

(i think one problem that might have occurred here is that the car is parked where there's no cell phone coverage (ie. my house in the mountains), and my experience with cell phones is that that's the time they draw the *most* power). Ie. my smartphone will deplete its (much smaller) battery in like 12 hours up here becuase there's no signal for it to hear.

 

[arnolddeleon]

FWIW this is unit that Phil (Ingineer) recommended for the LEAF:

http://www.amazon.com/CTEK-93-56-865-Black-Battery-Charger/dp/B006CQ9BMO/

arnold

 

[n3ckf]

yup that looks perfect. So leaving the Rav4 parked too long turns into a $100 mistake. $30 for the charger and $75 for a new battery at Tractor Supply.

When you're driving a vehicle thats just beyond experimental, that's getting off easy...

 

[user 340]

yup that looks perfect. So leaving the Rav4 parked too long turns into a $100 mistake. $30 for the charger and $75 for a new battery at Tractor Supply.

When you're driving a vehicle thats just beyond experimental, that's getting off easy...

Doesn't EV mean "Experimental Vehicle?" That's what the RAV4 has taught me (in a good way so far).

 

[miimura]

yup that looks perfect. So leaving the Rav4 parked too long turns into a $100 mistake. $30 for the charger and $75 for a new battery at Tractor Supply.

When you're driving a vehicle thats just beyond experimental, that's getting off easy...

I would not be so eager to replace the battery. Just put it back in and "jump start" the car. As long as you either start the car to Ready every several days or put it on a tender, the battery should last longer than in a ICE vehicle. One discharge to 0V will not kill it.

 

[n3ckf]

Yeah, i couldnt get a charge onto that battery no matter what i tried.

However a replacement worked fine.

Interestingly, the center console apparently "backed itself up" when the voltage got too low, becuase when i restarted the car i saw a screen i've never seen before, which said "System Loading do not turn power off". It did that for 20-30 seconds and then powered up. (there was a picture of a disk drive on the screen when this happened). I even have my driving history etc. on the EV Info screen.

The Guess-O-Meter seems to have been twigged out though becuase now it says i have 153 miles of range. If only it were that easy

I broke a couple of the push-in rivet things on the cover panel above the radiators (which you have to remove to get at the bolt for the battery hold-down), but other than that, the car seems to work fine.

On my ICE cars, i solve the problem of "not starting the car" by buying AGM batteries. Which mean you only have to charge them every month or so. I dont think that'll work for the Rav-4 though becuase its not self-discharge that is killing the battery, its all that electronic control junk that Toyota and Tesla keep powered up. As soon as i put the new battery in i was greeted by all the whirring and clunking noises i'm use to hearing form the Rav4.

As they used to say in the Air Force, thats' the "Sound of Freedom"... (or at least, Progress...)

 

[commasign]

Tony - great suggestion, I have a long vacation coming up and don't want to return to a dead car. How did you hook up the pigtail quick disconnect cable? Looking under the hood, the battery terminal posts are pretty tight in terms of possible places to attach the rings, especially on the positive side.

I highly recommend a "pigtail" on the battery so that you can quickly and easily hook up your tender:

 

[n3ckf]

that charger that was recommended earlier in the thread actually comes with a pigtail connector option. I plan to just install it. However you can buy the removable connector at RadioShack (they sell both halves with a short loop of wire, you just need to graft on a couple of ring terminals and a short length of cable to the battery) if you want to make your own for a charger that only comes with the Aligator clips.

 

[snoltor]

I really lucked out.... my car was parked for 14 days while I was away but luckily the 12V battery had enough juice to start me up.

 

[Blastphemy]

Whats more taking the battery out of the car, it still reads 0volts. I think i'm just going to need to buy a replacment.

(Oh and taking the battery out of the car requires removing the plastic shield on top of the radiators. good job on engineering, Toyota!. You could've at least put a *hole* in the shield where the bolt for the battery bracket was... I'm going to modify it to have one before i put it back on...)

I don't get it - why did you even bother to take out the battery? Why not call your dealership to get it jumped or repaired? You have a warranty that's still in effect, and leaving a car unattended for two weeks should not kill the 12V battery, so it's a covered repair. It happened to me once and the dealer got me back on the road in fewer than two hours. (The dealer was especially sympathetic because two of its unsold Rav4 EVs couldn't be test-driven because they'd been sitting for four weeks.)

 

[n3ckf]

Well my car was 120 miles from my dealer and i wanted to actually use it...

This wont happen again once i install the pigtail for this charger i ordered...

Inconvenient, but not a huge problem.

 

[occ]

I went on a trip, left the car at outdoor parking lot, around 71 miles DTE. Came back 15 days later and it started right up, with 70 miles DTE. The ambient temperature around those 15 days ranged from 65F to 90F, but mostly 85F high.

While away, I tried to check entune for charge and location, but after two days, it would not response. But everything was ok when I got back. I got a 5-second scare when the door didn't unlock when I got back, with the key fob in my pocket as usual, put my hands in the handle...(something I did everyday and the car unlocks immediately), but it didn't unlock, so I manually press the unlock on the fob and everything was ok.

It seems that two weeks parked is fine for others as reported, so maybe this was was a weak 12v bat to begin with?

 

[locman]

Parked my Rav4 EV for 17 days(without anything special). Today it started right up.
Car parked on street in San Jose, CA.
Not sure what the weather was like in the past days, but i'm guessing 60s at night, 80s F in the day.