I was checking my oil the other day and noticed a warning posted under the hood. To paraphrase, I think it states that the car must be driven at least 30 minutes every month to charge the hybrid battery. If not, permanent damage is possible.

This is unlikely to affect me, unless I take a 2 month vacation in Hawaii, but it could affect others.

 

No, I wasn't aware of that. A good thing to keep in mind.

 

Interesting, I wonder if that is culmulative, or it needs one 30 minute drive once a month? I mean driving for 1 minute a day ( or 3 minutes 10 times a month) really wouldn't charge the battery a whole lot. :p

 

Check your owner's manual, gang. Lotsa useful information in there.

 

I suspect it means 30 minutes of continuous driving, otherwise the charging would be negligible.

I will check the Owner's Manual, but I don't recall seeing anything in there.

Seems odd to post that under the hood...

 

On page 213 of the owner's manual under "Vehicle Storage" is states:

"...drive your vehicle every month for about 30 minutes. This will keep the IMA battery charged and in good condition."

It also states below that:

"NOTICE - If this vehicle is unused for over one month, the service life of the 158V Nickel-Metal Hydride battery will be reduced and the battery may be permanently damaged."

 

I just noticed this today too. I'm in the military so I can't get to my car if I am deployed....In that case I guess I would need a "car sitter"? I can imagine the look people would give me as I ask them "Can you drive my car around for a half hour a month for me while I'm gone? and oh yeah, easy on the accelerations!"

 

Just like to point out that for various reasons, this is really true of all cars. It's just that Honda chose to specifically point this out for us on account of the battery pack. But not only does driving around keep the batteries properly conditioned, it gets the oil moving around (preventing sludge buildup in the crank and filter), any water that may have collected in the gas tank from evening condensation from getting to the point where it could cause problems, the brake pads and rotors from rusting (again from dew collection), and so forth. So any time you're going to be gone a while, it's nice to have a car sitter take all your cars out for a spin.

 

lol

 

As a guy who has motorcycles and used to have tractors, I respecfully disagree. If you properly "winterize" your engine, having a "sitter" run your vehicles a few hours each month is worse than letting them sit unused.

In fact, even if you winterize nothing and stick a $30 trickle charger on the battery, you should usually be in good shape leaving vehicles for3-4 months (been there done that, and they're all still running!).

With theHybrids and the battieries, this is likeley a vastly different situation. I am glad someone posted it for our military drivers.

Also keep in mind that I'm sure the engine management system which records events stores the last few drives, and Honda can probably figure out if the car sat there for a while (this is speculation, not fact).

Dobe