[jgessling]

Greetings,

Well, it seems my retirement plans have gone off the track and I will be spending the next two years overseas. Producing oil for all those suv's I guess. What to do about my insight? I know there are car storage places, but I need to get it run every month or so.

Any ideas? Besides the undependable brother and brother in law? Anyone with experience in this area, please feel free to offer suggestions.

Thanks,
Jim
'01 #191

 

[JoeMultihuller]

The only problem I had was with the 12v battery running down (I think it's the alarm system which eventually draws the battery down), so I bought one of these http://www.pacificbattery.com/batterytender0123.html and successfully used is while I was away this past year - just plug it in and forget it. As best I could tell, the charge on the IMA battery did not drop significantly, but the most I had it without running was four months. Perhaps leaving it up on jacks under the frame would be nice to the car. Do some searches of this site, as this topic has been extensively discussed in the past. HTH. JoeS.

 

[Aaron Cake]

If I'm not mistaken, the only battery specific procedure in the service manual is to disconnect the 12V battery and trip the main breaker on the 144V battery prior to storage. Take the 12V battery out of the engine compartment and store it somewhere acid vapour will not cause issues.

Aside from that, storage procedures are much like any other car. I have a writeup that covers storage for RX-7s on my website at http://www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/storage.htm . If you ignore the rotary specific stuff, most steps apply to any car.

 

[jgessling]

the manual says

looking here:

http://www.insightcentral.net/encyclope ... orage.html

It says the car should be run every 3 months. I think this is straight from the owners manual.

I talked to a guy today who would store it indoors for a year contract for $150 a month and would run it if I called to remind him. Don't think I really trust him though. Still thinking about options.

Regards, Jim
'01 #191

 

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

Jim,
There is a sticker on the civic hybrids that says that the IMA battery could have problems if the car is not run for 30 minutes a month.
http://www.99mpg.com/resources/articles ... ning.jpg,0
We found some subpacks at 5V and others at 7.5 on the same pack that had been stored for several months.
The Insight and Civic use the same cells and subpacks.
Good luck on your job, and with your storage.