My Prius salesman, Jerry Rousselle, at Broadway Toyota in Portland, Oregon, has the following heads-up.<br><br> --Mike<br><br>Say, here is a word to the wise. I am fairly sure that you know this, but better safe than sorry. We currently have a Prius in our shop. The owner was away on an extended trip (close to a month). When he returned the battery was drained. Evidently he attempted to jump start the vehicle--not a good idea. At any rate, our Prius technician has the car back up and running. Somehow the key code got scrambled and we had to reset them. Everything is fine with the vehicle now. <br><br>Our technician wants me to alert Prius owners that if they are not going to be driving their vehicles for an extended time it may be wise to remove the dome light fuse. Apparently several of the onboard computer systems are powered through this fuse. When the factory has the cars sitting for any length of time (such as in the shipping process) these fuses are left uninstalled and are a part of our pre-delivery inspection in the shop when we receive them.<br><br>Also, I'm sure that the owner's manual says this, but our Prius technician just brought a service bulletin up to me that states "disconnect negative terminal from 12-volt auxillary battery for vehicles to be stored over 10 days."

If I follow this correctly, it's the 12V battery that runs down when the car is in storage, not the HV battery. So pulling a fuse or disconnecting the negative line is supposed to cut down the drain on the 12V battery. But I'd be concerned that if I pull the wrong fuse or disconnect the battery the car will forget the key codes!<br><br>Bob F

&gt; I'd be concerned that if I pull the wrong fuse or disconnect the battery<br>&gt; the car will forget the key codes!<br><br>I doubt Toyota would recommend it if that could happen. My guess is a voltage surge wiped out the codes on that jump-start attempt.<br><br>You probably should check with your own service dept. if you anticipate a long park.<br><br> --Mike

(I don't get my Prius for 8 hours yet, but this is my understanding so far.)<br>The 12 V Aux battery in the trunk my drain slowly during prolonged storage--follow any fine-print instructions about disconnecting it. Remember that if the car immobilizer system is ON, disconnecting this battery will IMMOBILIZE the car!<br> The big Hybrid battery pack will slowly lose charge in prolonged storage, but this shouldn't be a problem if the storage time is only a month or so. Cars in _prolonged_ storage should probably be driven around once a month or so, just like conventional ICE cars.<br> I'll know more when I have my own car and manual!<br>-Expectant Eric in Enfield, 7 hr 45 min to go!

Eric, have you slept? :-)<br><br>Good Luck<br><br>Pete<br>(waiting for my chance to pace the waiting room floor...)