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Porsche specialists buying, selling, servicing | 911virgin | Uxbridge

Battery charging

S

siy

Monza
Joined
11 Nov 2007
Messages
210
I am very un-mechanically minded, so please excuse my ignorance. I do not have my manual to hand so thought you guys are the best font of knowledge!

My battery is becoming a little 'sluggish'. I will try re-charging it before buying a new one.

Can I charge it without disconnecting the battery from the car - or is that bad?

If so, where do I connect to (not actually even sure where the battery is, imagine in the front under one of the covers?) - or are there terminals elsewhere in the engine bay that I should connect to?

Finally - my charger has a switch for standard battery or sealed battery. I assume I should flick this switch to standard?

Apologies in advance for my ignorance!!!!
 
If the battery is still working the best way to charge it is to go for a long spin.
Now if you want to charge it with the external charger I would recommend to disconnect.
One last question can you explain what do you mean by sluggish ? How old is the car/battery ? Does the car start easily or ?
 
Yes should be located in the front hood mate. regarding charging your battery, usually they can take up to 24 hours necessary to charge a full battery, this would require you to take the thing out and charge it in the home for security reasons of leaving your car hood up to get charged.

Alternatively, this is what I usually do anyway, take the car for a good long couple hour drive down a motorway the alternator should do its job as a result of a 'sluggish battery'.


One more thing to note is to check the water level of the battery, it is quite common that the battery is low on de-ironised water and may require a 'tipup'.

If you require a new battery however, they cost about £90 for a Bosche Silver, or Porsche directly will set up back about £150 iirc.

If you require a bit more information regarding battery's see here...

http://www.911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=33085
 
Thanks for that.... The car is a 55 reg 997 C4S cab. The battery has never failed, but on startup it just takes a second for it to fire. I did exactly that - went for a 2 hr motoway blat, but still the same.

I keep it in my garage, so if I can charge it with the hood up and still connected to the car then that would be easier....will this do any damage?

I will check to see if it needs more de-ionised water.
 
I had the same problem the other week with my 05 C2S. Over the period of a week, the battery seemed increasingly reluctant to turn over the engine. I decided that I should top it up, but didn't get around to it on the Friday evening, as it had seemed reasonable that morning. By the next morning, the battery wouldn't manage more than a couple of revolutions.

I use an "Optimate 3" (now superseded bu the Optimate 4), Which I used on my last car and on the Bike. It's a good charger costing about £38 and revives tired batteries, running test/discharge/desulphate cycles and can be left more or less permanently connected in "Maintenance" mode to keep your battery fresh.

In the case of the C2S, however the battery was too far gone to hold its charge. It seems that 3-4 years is about the life you can expect for a battery.

I Bought a High-capacity Chloride-free battery from Halfords (£98) and it has been absolutely fine ever since, so I'm happy to recommend it should your battery be on the way out.
 
Hmmm. Emoticon overload, sorry about that.

That Halfords battery was 98 quid, not a cool nine quid!
 
So I still havent looked at my manual!!!

Can I just connect my charger to the battery when it is still connected to the car, and leave it charging whilst in the garage?
 
Yes!
 
Yes! charge in situ...being careful.



I have a powerboat and the engine start (and services) batteries are always connected to the boat and always on a trickle charge.

This is standard procedure for boats (to be charged whilst connected to the engine/consumers)...and I have never had a set of (well looked after, water topped up etc) batteries go bad.


I have adopted the same procedure for my 997TT (and 996C4S before that) as I found that if left for more than a week the Tracker (and maybe other things) would kill the battery.

I have a permanently wired (and 10a fused) cable from each battery pole connected to a trickle charger. The cable is thin enough to slip out under the bonnet by the wipers. The bit of wire on the car connects through a small 2 pin connector to a female connector off the charger.

It is a bit of a faff plugging it in - bonnet up, plug in, bonnet down - but cheaper than a new battery; more importantly more confidence the thing will actually start and keep going.


I don't know what capacity alternators are but this chat about "just go for a good run, mate" might top the battery up but might not get it up to full capacity...a trickle charger, or other specialist charger will get it there and keep it there...meaning your run to the shops won't flatten the battery just enough to mean your battery is just dead enough to not start in Sainsbury's car park.

Besides if your battery has been flattened you're on a hiding to nothing. The plates inside have probably touched, battery life is cut short, a new one on its way.
 
Charging

DO NOT DISCONECT THE BATTERY, as I have just found I thought this would give the car a better charge as very little used. Once either disconnected or vey flat the PSM has to be reprogramed. Ive been chaging perfectectly fine until some dummy from the rac told me to only charge once disconnected. Be warned
 
siy said:
I am very un-mechanically minded, so please excuse my ignorance. I do not have my manual to hand so thought you guys are the best font of knowledge!

My battery is becoming a little 'sluggish'. I will try re-charging it before buying a new one.

Can I charge it without disconnecting the battery from the car - or is that bad?

If so, where do I connect to (not actually even sure where the battery is, imagine in the front under one of the covers?) - or are there terminals elsewhere in the engine bay that I should connect to?

Finally - my charger has a switch for standard battery or sealed battery. I assume I should flick this switch to standard?

Apologies in advance for my ignorance!!!!
Click to expand...

Funnily enough I have just had to replace my battery as it started to get sluggish and then flat as a pancake and even after long runs required jump start. WORD OF WARNING, don't jump start off battery with negative, attach it to car somewhere. Manual says as far away from battery as poss, but this is just to cover themselves. Anywhere apart from battery prevents potential fuse frying!!!!

Battery is just over 3 years old and mileage is 18000 so obviously had long periods of steady discharge.

Got battery from Kwik Fit (£95) and so far so good. After putting battery on had the PASM failure message, but disappeared as soon as pedal hit the metal.

God I love this car!!!
 
Not sure if 997 is the same as 996, but 996 jump start leads are to be connected in the engine bay.

In 996 there is a little black plastic box to right of engine air intake (on picture it is right of MAF, which is sticking out of air intake tube). It is usefully stamped "+" to remind you.

Open box door for POSITIVE terminal and use NEGATIVE terminal near engine lid latch (actually dual use as airbox securing bolt, but with proud brass terminal for this purpose - see bottom centre of picture)

0608_EC_23z+2000_Porsche_996+Underhood_Engine.jpg
 
997 TT battery issues

Chaps I thibnk the answers are in theb thread I just need a littke reassurance please.

Cars an 06 997 TT with about 15k miles on the clock Ive owned since April so cant really comment on the battery life and history.

I have had her standing for a few weeks and noticed start up was getting tiresome after a couple of weeks standing so I got my trusty Cirtek trickle charger out (used on 993/996 TT/GT3). Things looked ok after another 2 week period and the car turned over in garage fine, a further 2 weeks on and with the charger still saying the battery was fully charged I tried to use the car (finally) only to find it was dead with no engine turn over at , dead. lights pop up on dash board and theres the flick flack sound of a muted alarm I can just make out. Is it a case of new battery or has the car gone in to another mode and shut down? The car was left unlocked in garage with one window down if that helps?

Ian :?
 
In summary:

can a GOOD charger be left connected in the car 24-7?
YES


why is my battery dead?
If lead acid batteries are discharged below 50% of their capacity then they are on the way to the bin...you'll get a bit more use but they're knackered

your battery may show "charged" on the charger but it isn't "holding" the charge and able to deliver the cranking amps to turn the engine

also make sure the battery water is topped up...Porsche don't check this in my experience
 
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