HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

I canno believe I did this....I got out of my TCH this am at 7:50 am and went into school to work... Luckily no meeting or extra-help needed so left at 3;00. Opened my car and heard the radio running. It seems the car was on the whole day. I dont know how that happened. I was sure I pressed the button to turn it off. It drove to my dr appt OK and then drove home fine BUT>>>>>>>COULD I OF DAMAGED SOMETHING???? I am going for the 5,000 mile check up tomorrow and I am embarassed to mention this....

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

I wouldn't worry too much about this. You a certainly not the first person that this has happened to. You will learn to really look carefully to ensure the car is really shut down. I have to watch mine all the time, starts back up after a short delay about 10% of the time.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

At worst you drained the battery down....but obviously not all of the way.

To ensure the vehicle is shut off make sure the clock is off. That was one of the frst tricks I read about when I got mine.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

Thanks Guys,,I feel so much better...I really felt so embarassed...Darn car is so quiet and worse of all my tank MPG was up to 37 and went down to 35.6...Darn!!! Probably used couple gallons of gas and at $4.05 per gallon , thats not nice...
When you turn it off..foot on and off brake? How long do you hold ignition switch in?

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

I am shocked the battery didn't drain down. I heard a few stories of leaving the car on draining the battery, requiring a drip to the dealer to get it running again.

What does the dealer actually do, when they need to "fix" a totally dead main battery? Can the battery totally die with Gas still in the car?

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

How can you drain battery when the car was running, unless run out of gas? Without the lights and other major electricity drain the car was running off the main battery for about half an hour, then engine would kick in to recharge it every so often. Normal car would probably burn between quarter and half a tank, TCH couldn't burn more than a gallon. For example after driving 500 miles, if you fill 14 gallons your MPG is 35.7, if you fill 13 gallons MPG increases to 38.4. Seaford had smaller drop in MPG than that and likely had driven less than 500 miles, therefore I doubt he burned more than 1/2 gallon.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

As others have said, you didn't kill your car.

Sounds like you may have:
1) left the car "running" -- especially if you tried to turn it off while your foot was on the brake. In this case, when you tried to lock the door, the doors would not lock and the car would give about 3 beeps (not sure about the exact number). Here, the only problem will be the hit in mpg due to the ICE restarting to keep the traction battery charged. :cry:
or
2) "double hit" the Power button, turning the car OFF, then back to ACC. I believe that you might be able to lock the car in this state, but it will still give an alert. In this case, it would be possible to discharge the small 12 V battery (but most likely not during an 8 hr work day, if you ONLY had the radio going, but YMMV). If the 12 V battery died, just a normal jump start would have gotten you going again. :) (And make you -- and you NEW car -- the butt of MANY jokes for the next few weeks.) :embarass:

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

Foot not needed on brake.
Press the power button and look at the clock, if it's off, the car is off.
Now that you've done (what many others have similarly done), you wont do it again (hopefully)

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

It didn't beep when you closed the door? I've certainly forgotten it was on once in a while but the warning beep always catches me before I walk away.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

I agree. I always wonder "What the heck did I forget to do or close now!!!"

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

I hate the beeps that don't make sense.
If you open the door before turning off the car, it will beep until you close the door.
I guess it is reminding you that you need to close the door, but I never really needed to be reminded of that.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

I get the beep a lot for not closing the moonroof.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

That's a good beep to get, no?

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

Not when I am parking in the garage for the night. :-P Most other times yes.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

As everyone else has said: you did not damage the car. It is definitely an easy thing to do, the TCH is so quiet. I also would not expect the battery to drain because the gas engine would cycle on and off to charge the batteries. It happens when we are stuck in traffic and not moving.

I will share my similar story, but it was with my 1995 Honda Civic. I was driving home, very tired and stuck in traffic. Hate to admit it, but I was probably nodding a little bit as I pulled up to the curb (in New York City). The radio was playing a favorite song, so I left the engine on while I put “the Club” on my steering wheel. When the song was over, I went upstairs to my apartment. Long story short, the next morning I came down and I noticed my air conditioner light was on. Yes, I left a car running with the keys in it on a NYC street overnight and it was still there in the morning!!!! :omg:

I drove to the nearest gas station and topped off the gas tank. Then I went to work.

I talked to my car buddies and after they stopped laughing at me they said it was probably a good idea to get an oil change. Since you are headed for your 5000 mile check up, you have that covered. I drove my Honda for about 10 years more after that incident. I’m sure the TCH will give us all that kind of longevity!!!:D

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

I have almost left mine on as well!

Once I was with my teenage DD and took my DS into a game store. DD, did not want to go so I left her in the car. As I walked away from the car, with the key on my purse - the car kept beeping at me. Finally I realized what was happening.

Another time we kept trying to lock the car. It kept doing this this long continuous beep. I thought the alarm was going to go off. DD and I kept trying to see, was the car still on or what was going on. After the third attempt and still the long beep - I looked at the display and saw the passenger rear door was not completely shut! Boy did DD yell at her little brother!!

I still love the technology and both kids fight over "pushing the start button".

Kristi

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

My method is to stop, press the brake and put the gear lever in park. I press the power button once. I look at the button to make sure it's not lit up green or amber. If the led is not lit then it's off.

I like Haroldo's idea, just see if the clock is off. I may start using that method as it's easy to see.

Even if you did run down the battery, it would be the small 12 volt battery in the trunk. Its a special deep cycle battery and should be rather hard to run down. The battery is located on the rightmost side of the trunk under a small flap type cover. A simple jump would get your car started. The TCH would charge it right back up in a few minutes.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

Actually, I swear off by haroldo's tip. "If the clock is on, then the car is still on". Every single time I leave the car, I had to check the clock. It's almost like "clockwork" ;)

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

You do know that since you are using my technique, you owe me royalties.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

I use the radio. If it is off, the car is off

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

If that works, great, but the only shortcoming is if you manually turn off the radio while driving. You might see the radio off and since you are trained to notice the radio, you would assume the car is powered off.
The clock can't be turned off and becomes a more reliable indicator (IMHO).

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

Do you have a documented license on that technique? I believe I posted it on this thread before you did? I may or may not have learned it from you....but I redistributed it first!!!:P

See post #3 of this thread.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

You might have posted it here, but I posted it with the US Patent Office, sorry, I must have forgotten to add your name to the inventor's list. Oops!

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

Well since I'm not reporting my royalties to the IRS you'll never get your %.

Serious though you can never go wrong with using the clock to verify that the vehicle is truly turned off. Once again thanks to Haroldo and everyone else who takes time to post the invaluable information here for us new guys!

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

i use the security indicator light next to the clock. if its blinking, i know the engine is off.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

A audio message when we open the door to get out would be nice. A message stating,
the engine is not turned off would be nice.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

Actually, you stole it from Stan. :P See post #11 in this thread. https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...80/index2.html

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

...but I was the first to patent it!

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

Actually the power button won't go off unless you have your foot off of the brake. Thats after the routine of, lever to park and pressing the power button once to shut off the engine.

It's sometimes harder to see the led in the button. The clock seems easier to me.