Quote:
Originally Posted by KFM
Just FYI, my car sat for a year and my battery still works decently.....
|
One of the major concerns of hybrid battery sitting for any period longer than let's say two weeks, is the possibility of individual sticks getting out of balance due to self discharge.
Now the owner of the vehicle, typically has no way of measuring this, unless they tap into the 10 pack monitor wires from the Insight battery pack.
Because of the possible stick mismatch, and self discharge, if a pack was low enough in voltage when the owner used the IMA to start the car, at least one if not more of the cells in the various sticks could easily forced into reverse voltage from the stronger cells, which would permanently damage the weaker ones. This is because the IMA draws 100 amps momentarily to start the ICE.
The best option therefore is to trickle charge the pack before starting the ICE, after it has sat for a long period of time.
I should mention that did just that, i.e. trickle charge the pack after working on the Insight Tail for four months several years back, before attempting to start the ICE using the IMA.
Jim.