Going away for a while

[TheSmiths22]

Hello All

I shall be going abroad later this year for three months and wondered if I kept my outlander plugged in (via the 13a plug) would this preserve and protect the 12v battery whilst the car isnt being used. I dont want to give the car to someone to drive whilst i'm away if I can help it.

Thanks in advance for your response

 

[kpetrov]

It's not very good for the main traction battery to stay fully charged for 3 months...

 

[maby]

Connect it to the mains through a smart socket and program it to come on for a couple of hours once a week.

Martin

 

[twosout]

I'm not sure that, once "Charge Complete" has been accomplished, the charger would not spring into action again until re-connected.
Doesn't the main battery check and charge the 12V battery itself? I would leave the car at least 3/4 fully charged.
I've left my car unused for over a couple of months and not thought about the little 12V battery - and it still seems to do what's necessary.
An interesting question, but I think you may be overly concerned.
(Have a good trip!)

 

[RossWilliams]

I believe I have set the automatic air conditioning to turn on once a week and the automatic charge to turn on the next day. That seems to have worked. I assume the air conditioning draws the battery down and it is then recharged and the charger also keeps the 12 volt charged.

 

[twosout]

I'm unsure what the benefit of that is?
You could see what charges have been achieved by looking at the (short term) charging history.

 

[nrayanov]

When not in use for long time it's better to have the battery between 50% and 80%, not at full.

 

[TheSmiths22]

some interesting responses, many thanks to all. I think Im going to charge the main bettery to around 12 to 15 miles which normally shows as about half full and leave it unplugged. I believe if once I turn off the car (press start) and then hold the windscreen stick in the up position for three seconds until the beep happens it will disable the alarm which should be less drain on the battery as well.

Thanks guys.

 

[rwh86]

Somewhere in the manual it tells you what happens with the 12V battery when the car is parked for an extended period. If I remember correctly, the car will use the traction battery to charge the 12V battery once per week.

 

[vs2]

Then Gen4 will do a daily maintenance charge on the 12v for about 5 minutes assuming you have capacity in your traction battery.

 

[DaveL59]

I noted today after not using the car for around 10 days that the 12v aux battery was reading only 11.9v. That's a brand new Optima 38Ah fitted in the last couple weeks. So it seems even with the daily top-up from the drive battery it may not (isn't in my case) keeping up with the parasitic drain when left unused.

Turning off the alarm isn't an option for me but fine if the car is secured away and would make some difference. Might be worth disconnecting the infotainment system as that may be the bigger drain on the 12v battery.

For sure check that the emergency key will get you in so you can jump the 12v if you need to.