Can I take the battery out of my 981 for 3 months

[puffingbilly]

My 981 will be laid up for 3 months in a garage without power which will probably kill the battery, I am thinking of removing the battery and putting it on a conditioner at home so the question is will the car's electronics survive 3 months without it? I would leave it unlocked with the bonnet open. My old 986 didn't like the battery being removed and went a little haywire. Has anyone any experience of doing this?

[seveoff9]

Was lucky to be able to spend 5 months in Spain last winter and left my 981CS on an old trickle charger. On my return it was clear that the charger had not worked and the battery was dead. However, used jump leads and car fired up straightaway, took it for a decent run and it's not missed a beat since.

[stevemcs]

You could just get something like this

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Sealey-SPP01-Solar-Power-...la-594043188670&abcId=1140486&merchantid=7435054&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlpmJ2eK_5QIVCKWaCh2ykAJNEAQYAyABEgKLEPD_BwE

[dreamcar]

You won’t need to take the battery out of your car to trickle charge it. Buy a Citek or Porsche Charge-o-Mat ( same thing) or similar with a cigarette lighter socket fitting, plug it into the socket in the cubby box in rear part of the centre console and this will keep your battery trickle charged. This socket will stay live with the charger connected to it.

[supersport]

dreamcar said:

You won’t need to take the battery out of your car to trickle charge it. Buy a Citek or Porsche Charge-o-Mat ( same thing) or similar with a cigarette lighter socket fitting, plug it into the socket in the cubby box in rear part of the centre console and this will keep your battery trickle charged. This socket will stay live with the charger connected to it.

Apart from the fact that the OP’s garage doesn’t have power

[dreamcar]

supersport said:

Apart from the fact that the OP’s garage doesn’t have power

He doesn’t actually say that....

[HTP99]

dreamcar said:

supersport said:

Apart from the fact that the OP’s garage doesn’t have power

He doesn’t actually say that....

First line of OP:

puffingbilly said:

My 981 will be laid up for 3 months in a garage without power

[SV_WDC]

One option - and something I am considering myself is buying a large truck/van battery with inverter & connecting the trickle charger to that. Then periodically bringing the truck battery into the house to charge that up.

No idea how much consistent charge you could get out of it though. Have seen similar suggestions on here before.

[norscot]

No need for an inverter, just connect the large battery direct to the car battery with jump leads, and they'll discharge together.
Is 3 months really going to totally drain the car battery though? I wouldn't have thought so. I've certainly gone well over a month without any problems. I'd just leave it as is.

[TVR4US]

dreamcar said:

You won’t need to take the battery out of your car to trickle charge it. Buy a Citek or Porsche Charge-o-Mat ( same thing) or similar with a cigarette lighter socket fitting, plug it into the socket in the cubby box in rear part of the centre console and this will keep your battery trickle charged. This socket will stay live with the charger connected to it.

I have tried this but when I plug it into the cigarette socket I get no lights on my citek, I have had to use small crocodile clips direct to the battery

[dreamcar]

TVR4US said:

I have tried this but when I plug it into the cigarette socket I get no lights on my citek, I have had to use small crocodile clips direct to the battery

There’s a bit of a knack to it. With charger off, plug into socket (it only works with the socket at the rear of the centre console).Switch on charger (if it’s the same as Porsche’s Charge-o-mat) then finally lock the car. Out of sequence and the socket shuts down after only a short time.

Edited by dreamcar on Tuesday 29th October 19:14

[400SE Dave]

As far as I know the 981 socket does not stay live like previous generations. I have a c-tek wired to the battery positive and earthed to the body. Apparently if you wire directly to both battery terminals it bypasses the power monitoring system

[AW10]

SV_WDC said:

One option - and something I am considering myself is buying a large truck/van battery with inverter & connecting the trickle charger to that. Then periodically bringing the truck battery into the house to charge that up.

No idea how much consistent charge you could get out of it though. Have seen similar suggestions on here before.

I do this on my 981 - works a treat. Doesn't even need to be a particularly large battery.

Going somewhat off topic... the AGM battery in my Oct 14 registered BGTS still shows a battery health of over 95% - would never have guessed it would still be that strong.

[TVR4US]

dreamcar said:

There’s a bit of a knack to it. With charger off, plug into socket (it only works with the socket at the rear of the centre console).Switch on charger (if it’s the same as Porsche’s Charge-o-mat) then finally lock the car. Out of sequence and the socket shuts down after only a short time.

Edited by dreamcar on Tuesday 29th October 19:14

Many thanks will give that a try, I was wondering why after two weeks on charge I haven’t got 2 green lights,

[David W.]

stevemcs said:

You could just get something like this

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Sealey-SPP01-Solar-Power-...la-594043188670&abcId=1140486&merchantid=7435054&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlpmJ2eK_5QIVCKWaCh2ykAJNEAQYAyABEgKLEPD_BwE

^^^^^ is your simplest solution. ^^^^^^^

[dreamcar]

400SE Dave said:

As far as I know the 981 socket does not stay live like previous generations...

Yes it does - at least on my 981 BGTS! But you have to connect up the charger in the correct sequence.

[Gorsh]

dreamcar said:

Yes it does - at least on my 981 BGTS! But you have to connect up the charger in the correct sequence.

It's a bit hit and miss in my experience, have had two 981 BGTS's and my current one (May 2015) won't charge via any of the power sockets no matter what the sequence - they all disconnect after half an hour or so. I Use a CTEK MSX 5.0 and use their lead to connect direct to the positive terminla on the battery and to the spare threaded 8mm hole by the top of the left suspension strut bolts. The short lead with the CTEK two pin connector sits nicely in the recess (where you put your fingers to unclip it) of the plastic cover.

[dreamcar]

I must be lucky then - never had a problem using Porsche Charge-O-Mat which I think is just a rebranded CTEK - works every time!

[nw942]

dreamcar said:

There’s a bit of a knack to it. With charger off, plug into socket (it only works with the socket at the rear of the centre console).Switch on charger (if it’s the same as Porsche’s Charge-o-mat) then finally lock the car. Out of sequence and the socket shuts down after only a short time.

Edited by dreamcar on Tuesday 29th October 19:14

On my 991 I find that if I just unlock the car and plug-in the charger the passenger footwell socket will shut down after a period of time.

If after unlocking I move the key to ignition position 2 e.g. to lower windows, the socket will stay live.

[anonymous-user]

dreamcar said:

I must be lucky then - never had a problem using Porsche Charge-O-Mat which I think is just a rebranded CTEK - works every time!

More likely, your battery is in pretty good condition. Charging a battery with a ctek through a Porsche lighter socket is, in practice, a nondeterministic process; hence all the conflicting anecdotes about which sockets stay live and which don’t and about which rituals work or not. There are more factors at play than the time since last ignition and the variability increases significantly as the battery ages and/or declines in condition.