How to look after your car during a lockdown?

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.
 
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?
 
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.
 
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?! :confused:

I wouldn't even give it a second thought for at least a month unless I knew my car already had battery issues.
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It is a hybrid to be fair.
 
Simon said:
It is a hybrid to be fair.
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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!
 
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.
 
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.
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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.
 
For those missing ICE ... bbc news had a cornwall biker gang who were volunteering, and delivering groceries/medicines.
 
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 ?
 
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.
 
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.
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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.
 
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.
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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.
 
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..

HWfRYpQ.png


FFS, not a good time..
 
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