Flat battery - quick question

[DastardlyDick]

My battery has died ( done well though as it's 8 years old) and problem is that car is parked in a very tight single garage up against a wall on the passenger side. So, really tricky to get at the battery terminals to attach a charger. I have a large Powering Battery pack which says its suitable for vehicles over 4.0L and it comes with large jump leads but also a lead that will plug the battery pack in to a cigarette lighter. I can easily get to my cigarette lighter but my question is will the car take a charge via the cigarette lighter from the battery pack and is it safe to do so? Sorry for such a simple question, but I'm not very mechanical and I don't want to fry my electrics! Car is a 96 4L Chim. If I can get car going and out of garage, then local specialist battery man says he will fit a new Varta high output one ( yes - I've told him it's a TVR!) for £78 all in which seems reasonable. I suppose other option is to push car out backwards from garage ( carefully) and get a neighbour to give me a bump start.Thanks.

[skiver.]

Can't you push the car out of the garage and then use the jump leads?

[DastardlyDick]

Yes I can if very careful as it's very tight ( bikes on walls etc ) and also drive is quite a steep downwards slope immediately as I come out of garage so potential for a mishap is quite high! As I said, it is my last resort as would prefer to try and get it running whilst in garage first if possible.

[TwinKam]

You can charge the battery through the fag socket if it is live when the ignition is off, but you must not try to start it while anything is connected this way. You may find that leaving your Jump Pack connected this way for a couple of hours transfers enough juice to be able to start it, but if you can rig a battery charger up to feed through the fag socket for a few hours, so much the better. The outside of the socket is earth (negative) and the tit in the centre is live (positive), don't get that the wrong way around!
Just do not attempt to start the car whilst feeding in power through the fag socket either from a Jump Pack, a battery charger, another car or anything else!
Incidentally, that double ended fag socket lead is intended for charging the Jump Pack from your car electrics...

Edited by TwinKam on Monday 7th August 17:04

[DastardlyDick]

Thanks TK that's what I needed to know.

[frenchie TVR]

HI,
I live in London with a garage a mile or so away from where I live and no electricity in the garage.
I also have 3 kids, out of which 2 are 9 months old (twins) so I do not have much time to drive the Chimaera.
I have a battery brain fitted and it works a treat. I have been using this for 7 years now and it is really reliable: only change the battery once as it was totally flat and dead after not touching the chimaera at all for 8 months… she started first thing when I put the new battery in (even on 8 months old fuel). I often do not touch the car for periods of 4 – 8 weeks, sometimes more and it’s not an issue.
https://www.batterybrain.co.uk/

Good luck!

[jesfirth]

that looks seriously clever - a very neat solution

[AdriaanB]

frenchie TVR said:

HI,
I live in London with a garage a mile or so away from where I live and no electricity in the garage.
I also have 3 kids, out of which 2 are 9 months old (twins) so I do not have much time to drive the Chimaera.
I have a battery brain fitted and it works a treat. I have been using this for 7 years now and it is really reliable: only change the battery once as it was totally flat and dead after not touching the chimaera at all for 8 months… she started first thing when I put the new battery in (even on 8 months old fuel). I often do not touch the car for periods of 4 – 8 weeks, sometimes more and it’s not an issue.
https://www.batterybrain.co.uk/

Good luck!

I also keep my TVR in London without any mains - the photonic universe solar panel kits (sold on Amazon a.o.) are fantastic to keep the battery of all my hobby cars topped up during periods of no use.

[Litcoat]

Can you get to the starter motor? Put the live on the starter supply and earth to anything metal, gives full power to the starter instead of going through a flat battery, works every time on my dumper