Anyone own a 2002-ish Toyota Yaris? Can you answer this

easy

Does the cigarette lighter socket stay live when the ignition is off/keys out? and when the vehicle is locked?

My elderly mum has a 2002 Yaris Verso. because she only drives it short distances, and only about once a fortnight, she constantly struggles with having a flat battery.
I want to get her a trickle charger like This but she can't cope with having to get under the bonnet, so would need to plug it into the cig lighter socket, but that will only work if the cig lighter socket stays live.
Because I live 100 miles away I can't test it, and because her battery is flat right now, she can't test it either.

Any help would be useful.
Angela

motorguy

easy wrote: »

Does the cigarette lighter socket stay live when the ignition is off/keys out? and when the vehicle is locked?

My elderly mum has a 2002 Yaris Verso. because she only drives it short distances, and only about once a fortnight, she constantly struggles with having a flat battery.
I want to get her a trickle charger like This but she can't cope with having to get under the bonnet, so would need to plug it into the cig lighter socket, but that will only work if the cig lighter socket stays live.
Because I live 100 miles away I can't test it, and because her battery is flat right now, she can't test it either.

Any help would be useful.
Angela

How old is the battery thats in it?

A battery should hold charge for 2 weeks no problem, so theres a problem somewhere (most likely battery age), so what your proposing will only treat the symptoms, not the cause.

Also, if it is a weak battery, keeping it on a trickle charger will make it expire all the sooner, so you'll end up forking out for a battery too.

shaun_from_Africa

Apart from maybe a dodgy battery, something else worth checking would be any boot & glove box lights.
If the switch or wiring for one of these lights was damaged or not making proper contact, the light may be on all the time and over a week or two this could very easily drain a battery.

easy

The battery isn't old, it was replaced earlier this year.
We are pretty sure that the problem is caused mainly by mum not driving far enough to replace the charge taken out by starting it and running with the heater on full. If we fully charge the battery, the car is fine for several weeks, but eventually it goes flat again.
The reviews of the charger seem to be ok. We want to try this option. I just need to know if the cig lighter stays live when ignition isn't on, before I order the charger

forgotmyname

5w max on a bright summers day, during the winter it probably wont put 4w in during the entire day.

My car sits unused for weeks and i have no issues with the battery. Battery under spec'd? Or its a cheapo budget one with a lot less capacity than it says on the label?

Plug an external charger in for 10 minutes and it will put more power into the battery than that panel will in a whole week.

That panel is not the answer to your problems.

I have some of those panels to keep small SLA batteries topped up during the winter and i still have to charge them.

photome

easy wrote: »

The battery isn't old, it was replaced earlier this year.
We are pretty sure that the problem is caused mainly by mum not driving far enough to replace the charge taken out by starting it and running with the heater on full. If we fully charge the battery, the car is fine for several weeks, but eventually it goes flat again.
The reviews of the charger seem to be ok. We want to try this option. I just need to know if the cig lighter stays live when ignition isn't on, before I order the charger

2 of our cars are run similar to your mums, short trips, heater on etc etc, no problems with either battery, you need to look somewhere else for the cause

oldagetraveller

I would suspect that an older Yaris/Yaris Verso will be no different to newer models in that the ciggy lighter/accessory socket is only live with the ignition on.

reddwarf2002

Even doing short trips regulary your battery should hold charge for a lot longer than that.

I'm just wondering whether your mum is using electrical devices whilst the engine is off i.e. demisting the screens with just the ignition on rather than starting the car? That would kill the battery very quickly.

martinthebandit

Just a suggestion but if your mum is only using her car for a short run to the shops every couple of weeks would it not be cheaper to sell the car and just use a taxi?

Hoof_Hearted

Am I being dense here? Your mum wants to charge the battery from the cigar socket which is connected to...........the battery!

I suspect it's an alternator problem.

peter12345678910

If the alternator is going out.... A temp. fix would be to spray contact spray onto the alternator. At least you can do a visual inspection maybe some oil or debris has fallen onto it.