Long term storage

JDMo said:

I have ordered and am awaiting a HEV limited. I know that I will put the vehicle in long term storage. It will be stored inside in Florida from 3 to 8 months. I have been storing a Prius V for several years and all that I have done is disconnect the 12 Volt battery. I have had no problems with tires and after I reconnect the battery, it starts and runs with no problems. I am hoping to do this with the Tucson.
How easy is it to disconnect the 12 volt system? Has anyone left their vehicle for a long period, if so How did it go?

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JDMo said:

I have ordered and am awaiting a HEV limited. I know that I will put the vehicle in long term storage. It will be stored inside in Florida from 3 to 8 months. I have been storing a Prius V for several years and all that I have done is disconnect the 12 Volt battery. I have had no problems with tires and after I reconnect the battery, it starts and runs with no problems. I am hoping to do this with the Tucson.
How easy is it to disconnect the 12 volt system? Has anyone left their vehicle for a long period, if so How did it go?

Click to expand...

Not sure about battery disconnections but Bluelink if your using it goes into a idle state, and needs to be reinitialized, after 4-7 days on a PHEV car

The way I understand it, 12 volt battery is maintained by the high voltage battery through a converter connected the 12 volt battery. If the car sits for too long, the converter will automatically disconnect from the 12 volt battery to prevent depletion of the high voltage battery, because if the high voltage battery gets too low there is no way for the car owner to recharge it. There is a reset button on the dashboard that re-connects the two batteries to allow the car to be powered back on. If the 12 volt battery sits too long without being maintained, the manual gives a procedure for jump starting. I think if you connected an automatic trickle charger to the jump start connections, you may be able to prevent having to jump start, but I have never gotten a confirmation whether that would be possible.

mungo544 said:

The way I understand it, 12 volt battery is maintained by the high voltage battery through a converter connected the 12 volt battery. If the car sits for too long, the converter will automatically disconnect from the 12 volt battery to prevent depletion of the high voltage battery, because if the high voltage battery gets too low there is no way for the car owner to recharge it. There is a reset button on the dashboard that re-connects the two batteries to allow the car to be powered back on. If the 12 volt battery sits too long without being maintained, the manual gives a procedure for jump starting. I think if you connected an automatic trickle charger to the jump start connections, you may be able to prevent having to jump start, but I have never gotten a confirmation whether that would be possible.

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I left my Tucson SEL idle for 5 weeks and when trying to access it with bluelink after two weeks gor a message that it has been idle for 4-7 days. When I got back home after 5 weeks it started up fine and ran fine it was just the bluelink that needed addressing. I called the bluelink people and they had me do the restart so bluelink would work properly. They told me it automatically disconnects bluelink from the idle system of 4-7 days. I think if I started it from out of town via bluelink it would of not went into the idle state.🙂

JDMo said:

I have ordered and am awaiting a HEV limited. I know that I will put the vehicle in long term storage. It will be stored inside in Florida from 3 to 8 months. I have been storing a Prius V for several years and all that I have done is disconnect the 12 Volt battery. I have had no problems with tires and after I reconnect the battery, it starts and runs with no problems. I am hoping to do this with the Tucson.
How easy is it to disconnect the 12 volt system? Has anyone left their vehicle for a long period, if so How did it go?

Click to expand...

There's a document, intended for dealers, on how to store the Tuscon HEV on their lots for long periods. It's on Hyundai's Tech Info website. In hindsight, it is completely unneeded as dealers don't have this problem, but Hyundai provides a specific protocol that dealers are supposed to perform if they have vehicles unsold on their lots for long periods. A dealer should have, or be able to get, the document for you. I read through it and don't remember much about it except that they don't disconnect the 12-V battery. If you have an electrical outlet in your storage place, it would be a good idea to hook up a trickle charger--even a motorcycle battery trickle charger-- to keep the 12-v bus alive. Your manual shows the connection points inside the under-hood fuse box. The traction battery will self discharge so make sure it has at least 50% charge before parking it.

Good advice. A quick trip in sport mode would be an easy way to get the battery above 50%. Also. make sure you store your fobs out of range. It looks like the Bluelink system shuts itself down after a period of time to protect the 12 volt system too.

Update:
The Tuscon sat for a month with the battery tender on while I was out of town. No problems at all when I got back and drove it.

JDMo said:

I have ordered and am awaiting a HEV limited. I know that I will put the vehicle in long term storage. It will be stored inside in Florida from 3 to 8 months. I have been storing a Prius V for several years and all that I have done is disconnect the 12 Volt battery. I have had no problems with tires and after I reconnect the battery, it starts and runs with no problems. I am hoping to do this with the Tucson.
How easy is it to disconnect the 12 volt system? Has anyone left their vehicle for a long period, if so How did it go?

Click to expand...

You may want to check into using a plug slow charger ( trickle charge? ) when your away. You should probably check with Hyundai about this first.

For long term storage, I'd put jack stands under the suspension, get the tires off the ground.

BK 22 said:

You may want to check into using a plug slow charger ( trickle charge? ) when your away. You should probably check with Hyundai about this first.

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I recently used a "battery minder" (not a trickle charger) for five weeks in my '22 Tuscon Hybrid Limited and everything worked fine when I got back. It's my understanding from postings here that the 12V battery is part of the battery pack under the rear seat, and it's best not to mess with it.