Auris hybrid : Preventing 12V battery discharge

[Auris Hybrid 2013 owner]

Hello to all !

I'm the proud & happy owner of an Auris 136h Dynamic, bought new in 2013. The one and only problem I ever had with this car is that, after leaving it standing idle for about one month, the 12 V Battery was discharged.

Unfortunately the same situation will arise again, as I soon will be away from home for about one month owing to family matters.

My question is: Which fuse(s) should I remove from the fuse box in order to prevent the discharge of the 12 V Battery ? (never mind any possible data loss, which would occur anyway if this Battery was allowed to become completely discharged as happened last time I took a long leave).

Any advice, suggestions, details, inside knowledge on fuse allocation welcome !

[Andy H777]

When my volvo was discharging (bulb fault) I just connected a £10 solar panel to it and put panel on back shelf

[unclepoo]

When the 12v Battery is disconnected, nothing vital is lost, so you can re-connect it and away you go.

As for a solar panel. I did this with my mx5 that I only drove on occasions. Works a treat.....but bigger is better for the solar panel, I used a 10w with great success...its still going strong.  http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10W-12V-Cell-Solar-Panel-Module-Battery-Charger-Car-RV-Boat-Camp-4-Meters-long-/131833147208?hash=item1eb1de2f48:g:A8cAAOSwepZXTVNu

[Auris Hybrid 2013 owner]

Coming back to the present topic, I appreciate all suggestions given, and I thank you all for them.

My problem was that I needed an immediate solution ; It was too late for me to order any solar powered device and hope for it to be delivered in time. I could have gone to a shop and bought a trickle charger (mains powered) off the shelf, but i'm not comfortable with the idea of leaving a totally unattended car connected to the mains for a long period, didn't want to risk finding my house burnt to a crisp on my return.

Disconnecting the Battery itself is not really a practical option on this car, as the 12 V Battery lives in the booth and in order to open the lid, first you have to open the driver's door using the key, somehow find your way and creep inside the booth, remove a panel and work the booth's lid lock from the inside since, normally, it is electrically operated.

Instead, I looked up the list of fuses in the manual, which also describes their functions. I found out that fuse 44 (on the model equipped with the hans-free entry system using a fob for identification, which is the car type I own) feeds the fob detection system, which is basically no more than a radio receiver permanently kept active. So I removed this fuse, hid it in a safe place, and, one month later, upon re-installing this fuse, my car started immediately !

I'm certainly going to consider the solar trickle charger for the future : It has a lot going for it, effectively being a fully operational trickle charger without any of the hazards inherent to unattended mains powered devices connected to cars with fuel in them.

[Anthony Poli]

I was wondering if you had tried just locking the car with the physical key, disabling the alarm?

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[Auris Hybrid 2013 owner]

To : A. Poli (Lancs.)

The Auris Hybrid Touring Sports (highest spec available in France) doesn't come fitted with an alarm (don't know about UK specs), and there is no option for disabling the fob remote.

All the same I just tried locking the car using the physical key, assuming that doing so might disable the fob receiver, but in fact it doesn't, which I found out because the ceiling light comes on when I approach the car with the fob in hand, meaning the receiver in the car remains active and would drain the 12 V Battery empty over a 1 month period.

As I said, I find the solar-powered trickle charger option appealing, I'll probably give it t try next time I travel to the US. Not sure though if it would work in the winter, wondering whether there would  be enough daylight to keep the system alive.

Well, only experience will tell, it's worth a try anyway.

[Anthony Poli]

Another option would be is to add another Battery in parallel. Which you could remove when not needed.

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[Dutto]

I have a Toyota Auris Excel Hybrid 2016. I want to fit a CTEK indicator eyelet to enable a quick connection to my CTEK 12v charger. My only problem is that I can't find the 12v Battery. Can anyone tell me where it's located?

[Catlover]

Quote

In the load area, offside (drivers side)

 

[Anthony Poli]

Usually hidden under a cover, close to the back wheel.


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[Auris Geezer]

I have an Oxford  Oximiser Battery charger from my days as a motorcyclist.  This comes with a flylead and plug which is permanently attached to the 12V Battery terminals.  Do you think there will be any problems using this to top the Battery up as necessary as I did with my bike?  With the bike, there was no necessity to disconnect the battery to charge/top up, just plug it in.  Being new to the Auris, I'm unsure whether this is permissable to plug in a charger to a the battery fully connected to the car.  I know it was OK to do it to my previous four cars (all Skodas), but this is a Toyota, so a whole new ballgame for me.  Many thanks.

Cheers, Trev.

PS, only asking this due to the car not being used due to lockdown

Edited April 5, 2020 by Auris Geezer
Typo

[BigRedSwitch]

Yes, you can charge the Battery without removing the terminals if you have a Battery charger that prevents "feedback", according to the manual of my CTEK MXS 5.0 charger.  I do it on my hybrid.  Do not connect the negative lead from the charger to the negative Battery pole, instead connect it to ground via the car body; I use a luggage tiedown loop in the boot.

I'd have doubts abour a dedicated motorcycle charger being powerful enough to handle a car battery.

[Auris Geezer]

Many thanks Ian.👍

[mrpj]

If I am correct in assuming that the 12v Battery in a hybrid is much smaller than a starting Battery in Ah capacity, then a smaller and cheaper CTEK maintainer might be sufficient, e.g. CTEK XS0.8.

I do have both a CTEK MXS5 and XS0.8. The former is currently (no pun intended)connected to my parked up Yaris (non hybrid) and the latter to a spare Battery 46Ah in the garage. The XS0.8 works fine on the 46Ah battery. If the 12v aux. battery in a hybrid has a capacity of less than 46Ah I would expect the lower output CTEK will work fine.

For anyone using in a non hybrid Yaris, like mine, it is conncted to battery positive and a battery tray securing bolt sufficiently far enough away from the top of the battery or any fuel lines.

 

[Auris Geezer]

Fitted the fly lead today and the charger works a treat, and puts in about  900milliamps. The Battery itself is only 20Ah.

@BigRedSwitch Ian, I fitted the lead as you suggested with the Neg wire to a body ground, but may I ask why you shouldn't fit it to Neg terminal of the Battery?  

Not doubting you, just for  information only.

Many thanks for your input.

[BigRedSwitch]

5 hours ago, Auris Geezer said:

Fitted the fly lead today and the charger works a treat, and puts in about  900milliamps. The battery itself is only 20Ah.

@BigRedSwitch Ian, I fitted the lead as you suggested with the Neg wire to a body ground, but may I ask why you shouldn't fit it to Neg terminal of the battery?  

Not doubting you, just for  information only.

Many thanks for your input.

No idea.  Seems strange to me but that's what i saw on a Youtube video from CTEK.

[Auris Geezer]

Thanks Ian, I'll check it out.

[Gerg]

As the weather was good, I finally got around to checking the ‘parked-up’ current draw on a 2013 Auris Icon hybrid (no ‘keyless’ door opening, just the keyfob button) to get a little more insight into what happens when the car is locked.  I also tried this with the 'keyless' enabled on an Excel hybrid model, and then with it disabled via the dash menu on that car.

After locking the doors (on either car), the current draw is initially around 0.66 amps, but this quickly lowers in distinct steps over the course of about 2-3 minutes, stopping eventually at around 0.175 amps (Icon) and 0.200 amps (Excel).

After close to 20 minutes at this draw, the car’s loading drops significantly to around 0.017 amps (Icon) and 0.055 amps (Excel).  It doesn’t seem to drop to a lower level beyond this mode, or if it does, it takes longer than I was willing to wait.

If the keyless entry is turned off via the dash menu, then all the readings for the Excel drop by 0.030 amps i.e. to nearly the same as the Icon (no keyless locking).  So maybe worth thinking about turning this feature off when parking up in the longer term, provided you know about how to start the car when in this mode, so you can switch the car back to 'normal' via the dash menu.  Or just remove fuse 44, mentioned in the 4th post?

If the keyless-enabled car is approached with the key when the car is at, say, the lowest level of current draw, when the key is at a distance of about just under 1 metre from the door, the current meter shows that the car will ‘wake up’ and then repeat the powering down cascade if you move away and don’t open the door i.e. it will not be fully in ‘sleep’ mode for just over another 20 minutes.  So regularly walking close past the car with the key in your pocket may discharge the 12v Battery faster.

The cable from the 12v Battery joins the under-bonnet fuse box (which is where I was measuring this) via a connection marked on the diagram (under the fuse box lid) as “DC/DC 125A”.

I’m sure the above values have been measured before, it’s just that I haven’t seen them.

HTH