Long-term storage?

porsche_coyote

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Not sure if this is the right sub-forum, but here goes:

There's a strong possibility that I'm going to have to leave my Taycan in my garage at home for about two months while I'm out of the area. I'm concerned about the effects of storing the car for that long without driving it. Does anyone have experience/suggestions for what I should be concerned about and what I can do to mitigate those issues?

I've generally heard that it's a good idea have the high-voltage battery at around 50%, so I figure I'll start there.

What I'm really worried about is the 12V battery. The owner's manual says that it needs to be charged every six weeks minimum, and I will be gone for 8 weeks. It also says that you should trickle charge the battery if it's low, but also says that if you're 'laying up' the vehicle for a long period of time, you should close all of the doors, trunk lids, etc, which makes trickle charging impossible...
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wemct

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Not sure if this is the right sub-forum, but here goes:

There's a strong possibility that I'm going to have to leave my Taycan in my garage at home for about two months while I'm out of the area. I'm concerned about the effects of storing the car for that long without driving it. Does anyone have experience/suggestions for what I should be concerned about and what I can do to mitigate those issues?

I've generally heard that it's a good idea have the high-voltage battery at around 50%, so I figure I'll start there.

What I'm really worried about is the 12V battery. The owner's manual says that it needs to be charged every six weeks minimum, and I will be gone for 8 weeks. It also says that you should trickle charge the battery if it's low, but also says that if you're 'laying up' the vehicle for a long period of time, you should close all of the doors, trunk lids, etc, which makes trickle charging impossible...
Instead of 50% for the high volt battery, I would charge it closer to 85%. There is very little phantom drain on the Taycan, but it will loose some charge during the 2 months.

Trickle charging is easy to do. I have had my Taycan on a trickle charger for several weeks at a time. It is important to choose one that works with the 12v lithium battery. I use an 800mA trickle charger from Battery Tender, together with a 12 foot extension cable and an OBD II adapter. The cable is thin enough to close the door without a problem. Please note that you cannot use the OBD II adapter with a high amp charger. The 800mA unit is well below the limit and will maintain the battery without a problem.

You can get all three items for less than $100.

https://www.batterytender.com/Batte...electable-Lead-Acid-Lithium-Battery-Charger_7

https://www.batterytender.com/Battery-Tender-OBDII-Accessory-Cable

https://www.batterytender.com/Battery-Tender-12-FT-Extenstion-Cable
 

Mouse House

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Please note that you cannot use the OBD II adapter with a high amp charger. The 800mA unit is well below the limit and will maintain the battery without a problem.
Super interesting, thanks. Just wondering, is your reason for restricting the current because of that specific OBD2 cable, or because of something specific to the Taycan?

Just looking at other OBD2 charger connectors they are rated quite a bit higher... and I've just bought a 5A charger so it would be nice if I didn't have to swap it.

https://no.co/gc012
https://www.willgen.co.uk/optimate-o37-odbii-sae-adapter

I would of course want to be super cautious but intuitively it's just a 12V car electrical system, and there are no fuses rated less than 5A on the board.

Edit: just to explain my thinking further, if the 12V battery issue happened it would be convenient to just plug in to the OBD2 rather than getting the bonnet open and battery cover off to get some charge into the 12V.
 
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wemct

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Super interesting, thanks. Just wondering, is your reason for restricting the current because of that specific OBD2 cable, or because of something specific to the Taycan?

Just looking at other OBD2 charger connectors they are rated quite a bit higher... and I've just bought a 5A charger so it would be nice if I didn't have to swap it.

https://no.co/gc012
https://www.willgen.co.uk/optimate-o37-odbii-sae-adapter

I would of course want to be super cautious but intuitively it's just a 12V car electrical system, and there are no fuses rated less than 5A on the board.

Edit: just to explain my thinking further, if the 12V battery issue happened it would be convenient to just plug in to the OBD2 rather than getting the bonnet open and battery cover off to get some charge into the 12V.
The particular OBDII adapter I am using states that it should not be used with chargers over 3A. The instructions indicate that the use of a larger charger can damage the OBDII port. I did not investigate it further. My main goal was to find a connection that would still allow a trickle charge with the ignition off since the 12v outlets in the Taycan do not remain on after a short period of time after the car is shut off.
 

Mouse House

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The particular OBDII adapter I am using states that it should not be used with chargers over 3A. The instructions indicate that the use of a larger charger can damage the OBDII port. I did not investigate it further. My main goal was to find a connection that would still allow a trickle charge with the ignition off since the 12v outlets in the Taycan do not remain on after a short period of time after the car is shut off.
Thanks - and good thought about the 12V sockets, I had been wondering whether you can use those as well. Looks like you met your goal perfectly.

I think I will swap my charger for a less powerful one that will definitely meet the spec - I looked up the OBDII specification and the 12V pin at least has to be able to supply minimum 4A.

https://jaxengineer.com/wp-content/download/SAE-J1962-2016.pdf

My guess is that 5A would probably be fine (this is a 5A OBDII device), but don't particularly fancy using a new Taycan as a guinea pig, particularly as I only plan to use the charger if there's 12V a problem.
 


MN_taycan

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Question related to long(er) term storage (1 month+) - leave traction charger plugged in, or no? Porsche sales guy said yes, but that makes me oddly nervous. As someone mentioned, I haven't seen much drain off the 85% target when left for a few days, so I imagine the drain over month+ would be low. Am going to do the trickle-charge setup on the 12V system.
 

wemct

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Question related to long(er) term storage (1 month+) - leave traction charger plugged in, or no? Porsche sales guy said yes, but that makes me oddly nervous. As someone mentioned, I haven't seen much drain off the 85% target when left for a few days, so I imagine the drain over month+ would be low. Am going to do the trickle-charge setup on the 12V system.
Your question regarding the Porsche Mobile Charger Connect is a dilemma I have too. I left my PMCC plugged into the Taycan, but at a reduced amperage. Instead of 40A, I turned mine down to about 24A to avoid any issues with the heat issues discussed elsewhere on the forum. However, I received a charging error message when I checked remotely about 3 weeks ago. I will be back in town at the end of this week, so I will check to see the cause of the error and the remaining SOC after no charging for 3 weeks (I left it at 85% 5 weeks ago).
 

MN_taycan

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Your question regarding the Porsche Mobile Charger Connect is a dilemma I have too. I left my PMCC plugged into the Taycan, but at a reduced amperage. Instead of 40A, I turned mine down to about 24A to avoid any issues with the heat issues discussed elsewhere on the forum. However, I received a charging error message when I checked remotely about 3 weeks ago. I will be back in town at the end of this week, so I will check to see the cause of the error and the remaining SOC after no charging for 3 weeks (I left it at 85% 5 weeks ago).
Thanks for the response - good idea on reducing amperage (I have mine set up at 40A in both the locations I charge on 50A circuits). I also have concerns about putting an indoor/lightweight car cover (have the Porsche one from Suncoast) on with the MCC plugged in. The engineer in me doesn't love that if there is uncertainty around heat up.

It isn't my everyday driver so I'll be navigating this issue going forward. Need to figure out:
1) standard overnight practice with daily use - plug in on overnight timer with 85%, I think
2) week-ish leave practice - plug in, same timer to keep up to 85% with very modest decline
3) extended leave practice - 12v trickle charge, traction battery ???
 


Miwa

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There's a section in the Good to Know app that is the specific instructions for longer term storage.
 
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porsche_coyote

porsche_coyote

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There's a section in the Good to Know app that is the specific instructions for longer term storage.
Could you cite the title of the section? I searched GTK before posting here and didn't find anything relevant. I also read the owners manual PDF. Happy to RTFM, but honestly couldn't find enough info. Never mind. I found it under 'Car Care.'

For others here, Porsche recommends that the HV battery be charged to between 20% and 50%, and that you have the car connected to a HV charger to keep the battery level above 20%. If you can't connect to a HV charger, the recommend avoiding using the Porsche Connect app, but checking every three months to be sure that it doesn't drop below 20%.
 
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Tay Tay

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Also overinflate your tires and/or put them on tire cushions to prevent flat spotting
 

MN_taycan

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the recommend avoiding using the Porsche Connect app
Ha - I'm a bit OCD about checking the Connect app...so that will be a change for me. It's like my kids and snapchat. Also looks like I need to worry more about charging my phone than my car based on current app status screen...
Porsche Taycan Long-term storage? IMG_3695.PNG
 

wemct

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As I mentioned, 5 weeks ago I left my car plugged into the PMCC with a profile in place to maintain the charge at 85% SOC (I also have the 12v battery on a trickle charger). I log into the Porsche Connect app remotely about every 1 or 2 days. Since I have the car on the trickle charger, I don't worry about killing the 12v battery when I do things on the Porsche Connect app. 4 weeks ago when I logged into the Porsche Connect app, it said there was a charging error. I remotely accessed my security camera in the garage and saw that the lights on the charger were solid red (no charging). Not good. So the high voltage batteries were not charged for the last 4 weeks. Yesterday when I got back to town, I checked the PMCC and also checked the car to see its current SOC.

The SOC was 80% so the car lost 5% over 4 weeks. I think that is fairly low for battery charge loss. As far as the Charging Error, the message on the PMCC panel said the circuit breaker tripped. I was a bit confused at first because I had purposely reduced the charging amps from 40A to 24A when I left 5 weeks ago. When I checked the electrical panel the breaker was not tripped. When I got inside the house, I noticed the microwave said PF (power failure), so it looks like the house lost power during a storm and the PMCC thought the breaker tripped. Once I rebooted the PMCC, everything was back to normal.
Porsche Taycan Long-term storage? 20200918_105324_resized_01
 

Jon Steinmetz

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As I mentioned, 5 weeks ago I left my car plugged into the PMCC with a profile in place to maintain the charge at 85% SOC (I also have the 12v battery on a trickle charger). I log into the Porsche Connect app remotely about every 1 or 2 days. Since I have the car on the trickle charger, I don't worry about killing the 12v battery when I do things on the Porsche Connect app. 4 weeks ago when I logged into the Porsche Connect app, it said there was a charging error. I remotely accessed my security camera in the garage and saw that the lights on the charger were solid red (no charging). Not good. So the high voltage batteries were not charged for the last 4 weeks. Yesterday when I got back to town, I checked the PMCC and also checked the car to see its current SOC.

The SOC was 80% so the car lost 5% over 4 weeks. I think that is fairly low for battery charge loss. As far as the Charging Error, the message on the PMCC panel said the circuit breaker tripped. I was a bit confused at first because I had purposely reduced the charging amps from 40A to 24A when I left 5 weeks ago. When I checked the electrical panel the breaker was not tripped. When I got inside the house, I noticed the microwave said PF (power failure), so it looks like the house lost power during a storm and the PMCC thought the breaker tripped. Once I rebooted the PMCC, everything was back to normal.
20200918_105324_resized_01.jpg
Interesting. I don’t have my car yet, is there a way to remotely reboot the charger from the app?
 

Genau

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4 weeks ago when I logged into the Porsche Connect app, it said there was a charging error . . . Yesterday when I got back to town, I checked the PMCC . . . the message on the PMCC panel said the circuit breaker tripped.
Is it possible to read the PMCC display error message remotely, using the technician mode of the web interface?
@elberk said: "Additionally it looks there are two user roles defined in the web interface, a normal user and a technician mode. Technician mode lets you configure a lot more things of the charger it looks like."
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/web-interface-for-porsche-connect-charger.1768/post-23014
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