Discussion
I'm hardly using my car at the moment, haven't driven it at all for about 4 or 5 weeks. Currently parked on the street so not easy to get a battery charger to it either.
How long should a battery last assuming coldish weather and a car alarm? The battery is only a couple of years old.
How far do I need to do drive before it puts more power back in to the battery than it took to start a 2 litre diesel?
Google seems to throw up a wide range of answers ranging from 5 minutes at idle to driving 20km, but I'm guessing there's a few on here with second (or higher order) cars that don't get a lot of use so might have personal experience.
ETA: FFS, how can I miss-spell Batteries!
Thank you whichever mod fixed that for me
How long should a battery last assuming coldish weather and a car alarm? The battery is only a couple of years old.
How far do I need to do drive before it puts more power back in to the battery than it took to start a 2 litre diesel?
Google seems to throw up a wide range of answers ranging from 5 minutes at idle to driving 20km, but I'm guessing there's a few on here with second (or higher order) cars that don't get a lot of use so might have personal experience.
ETA: FFS, how can I miss-spell Batteries!
Thank you whichever mod fixed that for me
Edited by RizzoTheRat on Thursday 14th February 15:08
Love the thread title.
I keep one of mine on a trickle charger and this time of year it would probably be unable to start the car after a couple of weeks without it.
The other issue you have is the DPF so you would maybe want to give it a good run to activate a regen if it needs it and this should be enough to charge the battery again.
Obviously as the weather gets warmer a few weeks standing should be ok if the battery is in good condition.
I keep one of mine on a trickle charger and this time of year it would probably be unable to start the car after a couple of weeks without it.
The other issue you have is the DPF so you would maybe want to give it a good run to activate a regen if it needs it and this should be enough to charge the battery again.
Obviously as the weather gets warmer a few weeks standing should be ok if the battery is in good condition.
Edited by Monkeylegend on Thursday 14th February 15:00
Monkeylegend said:
The other issue you have is the DPF so you would maybe want to give it a good run to activate a regen if it needs it and this should be enough to charge the battery again.
Good point but it does generally seem pretty resilient to that. In the past I've varied between months of commuting an hour or more each way, to months of doing 9 miles each way so it's hardly getting warm in the winter, and never had any DPF issues...yet.MDMA . said:
Can't you get your man to drive it round while you're in the City earning 6 figs?
It was fine when I left it at my weekend place as my wife would sometimes use it in the week, but it's now parked outside my weekday apartment while I cycle or walk to work every day 
Once the weather gets warmer my wife will probably be here at weekends more than me being back there so it'll get used more and be less of an issue.
Edited by RizzoTheRat on Thursday 14th February 15:10
kambites said:
Isn't this what solar trickle chargers were invented for? I've no idea how good they are, mind.
Didn't think of that. Pretty sure my cigarette lighter socket is permanently live so presumably I could connect to that or is that considered bad practice?Looks like they're £20-30 on Amazon.
ETA: Looks like some connect via the ODB2 port which might be more sensible
Edited by RizzoTheRat on Thursday 14th February 15:29
RizzoTheRat said:
Well I've found my ODB port and ordered a charger from Amazon so I'll report back next week if I can start the car
I’ve been using mine for a couple of years now (I’ve got 3 of the AA ones, one in each car), not had any starting issues since, they have happily kept some big batteries charged.If you got the AA one, be awarethat the blue led can be seen from space! Took me about 7 layers of electrical tape to hide it.
My car a 330I has far to many components that seem to stay alive and as I work either walking distance or away in some other country I bought this thing to keep the battery healthy.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DW6RHN2/ref...
Works perfectly and the cable is thin enough to allow me to shut the bonnet.
It works but for me the car is in my garage so may not be good for a street stored car.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DW6RHN2/ref...
Works perfectly and the cable is thin enough to allow me to shut the bonnet.
It works but for me the car is in my garage so may not be good for a street stored car.
Got one of these from Costco in December thinking it was a good price and may be even useful
https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Cat-1000-Peak-AMP-Profess...
Forward to Feb 2019 and have used it many times as I have not used my car as much as I used to for 3 or more weeks and with the cold weather the 1 year old battery did not want to know.
Now I wonder how anyone can live without that gadget
https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Cat-1000-Peak-AMP-Profess...
Forward to Feb 2019 and have used it many times as I have not used my car as much as I used to for 3 or more weeks and with the cold weather the 1 year old battery did not want to know.
Now I wonder how anyone can live without that gadget
Yeah, I went for the AA solar one. I may have need to put some gaffa tape over that LED then
I thought about getting one of those booster starter pack thingies but I think stopping it from going flat in the first place might be a better option. I have got a set of jump leads in the boot as a backup plan though.
Lovely and sunny the last couple of days but my car's parked on the south side of a street lined by 3 story houses so not too sure how much direct sun it will get a this time of year.
I thought about getting one of those booster starter pack thingies but I think stopping it from going flat in the first place might be a better option. I have got a set of jump leads in the boot as a backup plan though.
Lovely and sunny the last couple of days but my car's parked on the south side of a street lined by 3 story houses so not too sure how much direct sun it will get a this time of year.
Edited by RizzoTheRat on Friday 15th February 08:40
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