Which battery for 981?

Which battery for 981?

Author
Discussion

m999psw

266 posts

197 months

Monday 9th January 2017
quotequote all
  • ****
This has been discussed quite a bit on various forums. The fact is (confirmed by my dealer and in practice) is the socket in the rear arm rest does NOT shut down if it detects a battery charger connected to it. This is the only socket that does this, your battery charger will not work if connected to any other socket. My dealer was quite specific with regards to the connecting sequence, connect charger first, switch on BEFORE locking the car. In order that the charger is detected.This procedure has worked on all the Porsche's I've owned, ( 2 x 987 Boxsters, 987/2 Cayman S, 997/2 Carrera S and 981 Boxster GTS.), none of which are used much during the winter months and rely on Charge-o-mat life support.

  • ****
I still have my Ctek plugged into the socket under the glove box, car is locked Ctek has topped up the battery and now is monitoring and has been for 3 weeks now, so not the only socket?

Paul

dreamcar

1,067 posts

110 months

Monday 9th January 2017
quotequote all
m999psw said:
******
This has been discussed quite a bit on various forums. The fact is (confirmed by my dealer and in practice) is the socket in the rear arm rest does NOT shut down if it detects a battery charger connected to it. This is the only socket that does this, your battery charger will not work if connected to any other socket. My dealer was quite specific with regards to the connecting sequence, connect charger first, switch on BEFORE locking the car. In order that the charger is detected.This procedure has worked on all the Porsche's I've owned, ( 2 x 987 Boxsters, 987/2 Cayman S, 997/2 Carrera S and 981 Boxster GTS.), none of which are used much during the winter months and rely on Charge-o-mat life support.

  • ****
I still have my Ctek plugged into the socket under the glove box, car is locked Ctek has topped up the battery and now is monitoring and has been for 3 weeks now, so not the only
Paul
Well at least together we've proved you can trickle charge your Porsche using a 12v socket - many here say you can't!


Edited by dreamcar on Monday 9th January 20:26

bcr5784

7,102 posts

144 months

Monday 9th January 2017
quotequote all
dreamcar said:
Well at least together we've proved you can trickle charge your Porsche using a 12v socket - many here say you can't!


Edited by dreamcar on Monday 9th January 20:26
Clearly there are some conflicting opinions/findings. Tomorrow I'll try to charge my battery via the socket in the glove box, which should cover one area not clearly covered.

DJMC

Original Poster:

3,431 posts

102 months

Monday 9th January 2017
quotequote all
To dealer principal Leics OPC today:

"Am I correct in saying the 981 armrest 12v socket can detect a battery conditioner plugged into it and if it does it stays live to charge the battery?"

Response:

"Yes that's the one to use alongside the Porsche battery conditioner that Glenn here in parts can sell you."

I've seen CTEK MXS 5.0 for £60: http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers/MXS%205.0

...and XS 0.8 for £35: http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers/XS%200.8
The latter is "...suitable for maintenance charging “normal- sized” batteries such as car batteries."

Add a 12v socket connector for £8: http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers/Comfort%20Conne...

I guess the MXS 5.0 would be "more useful", but for what?

craigjm

17,908 posts

199 months

Monday 9th January 2017
quotequote all
bcr5784 said:
DJMC said:
My dealer principal has confirmed "Batteries are not covered by the warranty as they are considered wear and tear, the cold will affect the battery but you could also have a cell down which would cause this problem, do you have a charger or conditioner for the battery? If not we could carry out a battery test for you."

The car is kept in a warm garage. I'll just keep an eye on it and if it fails I'll replace it. Or does anyone think the make/model/capacity of an "aftermarket" battery (shock, horror) could really enable Porsche to defend a warranty claim? What fault could be put down to the battery? Melting wiring? An overworked alternator? I can't imagine.
I think that is extremely shoddy of Porsche. Any car battery at a fraction of the price of the Porsche one would have a 3 year warranty. Porsche could, I suppose, reject a warranty claim if it related to an electrical component.
Ask them for a list of everything the consider a wear and tear item and therefore excluded from warranty and you will be amazed at what is on it. My car threw its drive belt and they insisted that the seized pully on the engine and the tensioner were indeed consumables.

bcr5784

7,102 posts

144 months

Tuesday 10th January 2017
quotequote all
DJMC said:
To dealer principal Leics OPC today:

"Am I correct in saying the 981 armrest 12v socket can detect a battery conditioner plugged into it and if it does it stays live to charge the battery?"

Response:

"Yes that's the one to use alongside the Porsche battery conditioner that Glenn here in parts can sell you."

I've seen CTEK MXS 5.0 for £60: http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers/MXS%205.0

...and XS 0.8 for £35: http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers/XS%200.8
The latter is "...suitable for maintenance charging “normal- sized” batteries such as car batteries."

Add a 12v socket connector for £8: http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers/Comfort%20Conne...

I guess the MXS 5.0 would be "more useful", but for what?
The MXS 5.0 is more useful because it'll charge a completely flat battery reasonable quickly. The .8 would take forever - (about 100 hours or so) - and it's only sensible to maintain battery charge when the car is unused for an extended period.

bcr5784

7,102 posts

144 months

Tuesday 10th January 2017
quotequote all
Had the car on charge now for about 5 hours via the glovebox socket, so clearly that socket on my car stays on pretty much indefinitely with the car closed and the key out. So I'm coming to the conclusion that all the sockets behave the same - go off after a few minutes when under load, but stay on when the car is being charged.

m999psw

266 posts

197 months

Tuesday 10th January 2017
quotequote all
I have one of the older Ctek from my TVR days, but when I did manage to discharge the battery on the 987 by not disconnecting the Snooper I did buy the MXS 5.0 as its a bit more powerful and has a few more charge/test modes and can be used on any of my vehicles, for not a lot of money. I also bought the extension cable as its means I can plug it in to a lighter socket and the cable is long enough for the charger to sit outside at the front of the car.

Paul

Green1man

549 posts

87 months

Tuesday 10th January 2017
quotequote all
My only thought about using the Cteks to trickle charge is that they don't really trickle charge, instead after a couple of days they go into float mode whereby they only apply a charge current if/when they detect the voltage has dropped. This is ideal for long term battery maintenance however I wonder if the Porsche electronics thinks the charger has been removed and disconnects the socket?

bcr5784

7,102 posts

144 months

Tuesday 10th January 2017
quotequote all
Green1man said:
My only thought about using the Cteks to trickle charge is that they don't really trickle charge, instead after a couple of days they go into float mode whereby they only apply a charge current if/when they detect the voltage has dropped. This is ideal for long term battery maintenance however I wonder if the Porsche electronics thinks the charger has been removed and disconnects the socket?
Interesting point. Anyone know?

m999psw

266 posts

197 months

Wednesday 11th January 2017
quotequote all
The answer is still no, the sockets are live and the charger still works after a month. If I disconnect the charger all lights referring to charge state go out, because its not connected to a battery! If I measure across the cable now not connected to the CTek but still plugged into the locked car I measure the battery voltage, reconnecting the CTek the tests and maintenance mode start again.

Paul

bcr5784

7,102 posts

144 months

Wednesday 11th January 2017
quotequote all
m999psw said:
The answer is still no, the sockets are live and the charger still works after a month. If I disconnect the charger all lights referring to charge state go out, because its not connected to a battery! If I measure across the cable now not connected to the CTek but still plugged into the locked car I measure the battery voltage, reconnecting the CTek the tests and maintenance mode start again.

Paul
Do you do all that without unlocking the car? As I say, once you unlock the car the sockets become live again before you even put the key in the ignition.

m999psw

266 posts

197 months

Wednesday 11th January 2017
quotequote all
No not changing any state on the car or the last post would have been irrelevant.

I don't know how else to say 'the lighter socket does not switch off, and the CTek maintains the battery as it should with the car switched off until you want to use it again'

Paul

dreamcar

1,067 posts

110 months

Thursday 12th January 2017
quotequote all
m999psw said:
No not changing any state on the car or the last post would have been irrelevant.

I don't know how else to say 'the lighter socket does not switch off, and the CTek maintains the battery as it should with the car switched off until you want to use it again'

Paul
Perhaps a failure to understand simple English? I wouldn't bother trying to convince people, let them believe what they want to believe! You know and I know, as do others and Porsche technical advisers that the 12v socket stays live for the purpose of battery conditioning if others think they know better so be it!

bcr5784

7,102 posts

144 months

Thursday 12th January 2017
quotequote all
dreamcar said:
Perhaps a failure to understand simple English? I wouldn't bother trying to convince people, let them believe what they want to believe! You know and I know, as do others and Porsche technical advisers that the 12v socket stays live for the purpose of battery conditioning if others think they know better so be it!
The reason is that people - including dealers - are saying different things and I was trying to get clarity.

It seems that, with ignition off

1) All 3 sockets behave the same (whatever dealers might say)
2) They switch off when under load - probably after 30 minutes or so
3) They remain on indefinitely when a charger is plugged in
4) They switch on when the car is unlocked (though how long they remain on under those conditions is (to me) unclear - I suspect 30 minutes or so again, but haven't done any tests and no-one has suggested any time.

CEREC1

31 posts

193 months

Tuesday 4th December 2018
quotequote all
Bit late to this thread but my 981 CGTS has now given me 2 warnings over the last month asking for the car to be driven for an extended period to charge the battery.
The first time all was ok.
Yesterday however the air on, heater and the fan all failed to function until I’d driven for almost 90 minutes. Clever electronics that conserve battery power until sufficiently charged. Bloody nightmare however driving on a cold winters day with no blower function to clear the windscreen!
Awaiting Porsche Assist to check the car as OPC can’t look at it for 4 days.

Question on chargers, does anybody know if motorcycle battery conditioner/chargers work on a car to maintain battery health?
I’ve 3 bike chargers, Oxford products which I could hook up to the car.

Flyferrari

249 posts

282 months

Tuesday 4th December 2018
quotequote all
CEREC1 said:

Yesterday however the air on, heater and the fan all failed to function until I’d driven for almost 90 minutes. Clever electronics that conserve battery power until sufficiently charged. Bloody nightmare however driving on a cold winters day with no blower function to clear the windscreen!
Whilst I'm sure the trick electronics are more than capable of that kind of intervention, are you sure you haven't had abrush with the fabled "stuck heater fan"? I managed over two hours in freezing conditions, at night, with the drivers side window cracked open to prevent misting up. The only thing that fixed it was pulling the under-bonnet area to bits in a service station and spinning the fan by hand. There's a whole, long thread on it.

boxsey

3,574 posts

209 months

Tuesday 4th December 2018
quotequote all
CEREC1 said:
Question on chargers, does anybody know if motorcycle battery conditioner/chargers work on a car to maintain battery health?
I’ve 3 bike chargers, Oxford products which I could hook up to the car.
Although everyone with a Porsche goes on about using an expensive Ctek charger, I use one of these and it works just fine:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0012U5BO2?pf_...

DJMC

Original Poster:

3,431 posts

102 months

Tuesday 4th December 2018
quotequote all
Since I posted this thread almost two years ago my battery is still alive!

What I did was to buy a Ctek 5.0 and extension lead, as here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Battery-Automatic-Tempera...

Plus, a 12v cigar lighter attachment: https://www.amazon.co.uk/CTEK-CTE-56263-Cigarette-...

I believe the Ctek charger does a better job of conditioning the battery than a simple charger would do. It certainly seems to have breathed new life into my battery, now coming up 5 years old. I've used the Ctek 3-4 times in those two years when I get the feeling the battery is low, typically when not used for 4-5 days in winter time.

In March of this year I also had the "fan stuck" issue during a freezing 100 mile drive. This cured itself when I stopped for 10 minutes and simply turned the car back on after that time. Although under warranty, PGB would not do anything but make a note of this "intermittent" fault.

I think your issue is the sticky fan, not the battery, but naturally you'd think the latter to be the cause. After your 90 minutes, did the fan start working whilst driving or had you stopped and turned the car off?

Over over under steer

662 posts

122 months

Tuesday 4th December 2018
quotequote all
DJMC said:
Since I posted this thread almost two years ago my battery is still alive!

What I did was to buy a Ctek 5.0 and extension lead, as here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Battery-Automatic-Tempera...

Plus, a 12v cigar lighter attachment: https://www.amazon.co.uk/CTEK-CTE-56263-Cigarette-...

I believe the Ctek charger does a better job of conditioning the battery than a simple charger would do. It certainly seems to have breathed new life into my battery, now coming up 5 years old. I've used the Ctek 3-4 times in those two years when I get the feeling the battery is low, typically when not used for 4-5 days in winter time.

In March of this year I also had the "fan stuck" issue during a freezing 100 mile drive. This cured itself when I stopped for 10 minutes and simply turned the car back on after that time. Although under warranty, PGB would not do anything but make a note of this "intermittent" fault.

I think your issue is the sticky fan, not the battery, but naturally you'd think the latter to be the cause. After your 90 minutes, did the fan start working whilst driving or had you stopped and turned the car off?
The sticky fan issue is easily remedied by hand. Open the bonnet, take the plastic cover off above the front boot space. On the right hand side you'll see an air box, unclip the top cover and then reach in the void under the windscreen where you'll see a turbine style fan. Simple spin it a bit by hand, one turn will be fine. Replace plastic cover, turn car on, all should work fine again.

By god make sure that the key is out of the ignition whilst you do this!!!