How to wire in a trickle charger?

[carbob]

My Boxster ( 07 09 Gen II) really needs a tickle charger in the winter as it doesn't get much use and the battery suffers.
I have the CTEK charger/conditioner which I usually connect via the cigarette lighter socket.
I would love to wire in a specific charging point somehow so that I can leave it connected.

Has anyone done this?
Anyone found a good place to run some charging cables to the outside somewhere?
It looks tricky to get from the battery to a convenient place
Thanks
Paul

Edited by carbob on Sunday 1st December 18:18

[anonymous-user]

• Drive forwards into garage
• Wires (with fuse) direct from battery terminals to an easily accessible two pin plug (non-reversible) behind the slats of front bumper
• Wires from trickle charger to a two pin socket (non-reversible)
• Simply plug in when you park the car.

Bonus: When you forget to unplug the trickle charger you'll get automatic disconnection without breaking anything.

[Richard Hamilton]

I did it like this:

[mr pg]

It's recommended to use an earthing poit (there's a couple) rather than battery negative.

[A500leroy]

https://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/garage-equ...

Put the rings on the terminals, run the lead somewhere convenient to hook up the plug when required.

[elisered]

mr pg said:

It's recommended to use an earthing poit (there's a couple) rather than battery negative.

^This or you are likely to reduce the life of the battery over time. If you wire directly to both terminals you miss out the little black box that provides feedback on the status of the battery to the charging source. Earthing point shown in handbook - on my Boxster its the wiper arm mount.

[Armitage.Shanks]

elisered said:

mr pg said:

It's recommended to use an earthing poit (there's a couple) rather than battery negative.

^This or you are likely to reduce the life of the battery over time. If you wire directly to both terminals you miss out the little black box that provides feedback on the status of the battery to the charging source. Earthing point shown in handbook - on my Boxster its the wiper arm mount.

Yep with the newer batteries where rate of charge can be varied you must NOT connect negative lead driect to the battery terminal.

[anonymous-user]

What happens if you're trickle-charging a battery that's not actually installed in the car?

[arcamalpha]

mr pg said:

It's recommended to use an earthing poit (there's a couple) rather than battery negative.

Can’t see it matters much if you keep the battery topped up. All the car electronics will know of that the battery is always full. If you were parking up with the battery low, then charging it without the car knowing I can see the electronics perhaps mis-reading things.

I’ve connected direct to the battery on cars for years with no issues at all.

[Richard Hamilton]

The OP says he has a 2007 Boxster (which must be Gen1, as the Gen2 was 2009-on). On both Gen 1 and Gen 2 987s, the battery negative connects directly to ground, so it doesn't matter if he connects to the negative terminal or any other ground point.

[carbob]

Richard Hamilton said:

The OP says he has a 2007 Boxster (which must be Gen1, as the Gen2 was 2009-on). On both Gen 1 and Gen 2 987s, the battery negative connects directly to ground, so it doesn't matter if he connects to the negative terminal or any other ground point.

You are spot on. Its an 09 - don't know what I was thinking :-)

Thanks everyone - I am going for the battery through to front grill, That would be prefect, and as someone said, it all disconnects if I forget to unplug!

Cheers everyone

[is200]

Richard Hamilton said:

The OP says he has a 2007 Boxster (which must be Gen1, as the Gen2 was 2009-on). On both Gen 1 and Gen 2 987s, the battery negative connects directly to ground, so it doesn't matter if he connects to the negative terminal or any other ground point.

Hi, very timely post. Just hooked up my boxster 987.1 2.7 (2005 model) to a CTEK MXS5.0 this afternoon for the first time. I used the eyelet leads that came with the device and connected them onto the positive and negative leads of the battery.

Is this Ok, or should I be getting into the garage and disconnecting?

[boitjie]

I've been considering doing this for my 718 Cayman. ATM I'm only driving it once a weekI

• I've heard mixed opinions whether it is necessary on "modern" Porsches as their power saving sleep mode is much better.
• Is it OK to use the point in the passenger footwell?
• I've read it can reduce the life of battery?

Thanks
(a different) Paul

[gtsralph]

I did this for a 981 which I believe is also the correct method for 718 models



Positive to battery, earth to suspension turret (strip some paint for good connection) to CTEK or similar via the rear or front of the trunk as convenient.

[carbob]

rockin said:

* Drive forwards into garage

• Wires (with fuse) direct from battery terminals to an easily accessible two pin plug (non-reversible) behind the slats of front bumper
• Wires from trickle charger to a two pin socket (non-reversible)
• Simply plug in when you park the car.

Bonus: When you forget to unplug the trickle charger you'll get automatic disconnection without breaking anything.

I am looking to wire this in over the break but I would like to wire it from the battery to the outside somewhere (like front bumper slats) but I can not find an easy path from the battery to anywhere on the outside! Its all so well sealed. Its a GenII Boxster 987

(Ideally I want to avoid front boot for the connection because if the battery is flat then you can't open the boot - electronic lock is mad!)

[edc]

What's wrong with using the cig lighter lead adaptor?

[carbob]

edc said:

What's wrong with using the cig lighter lead adaptor?

Yes that is an option as well, but initially I was trying to make it all outside from the front.

But if I can't work it out then cig lighter it is!

[BertBert]

Armitage.Shanks said:

Yep with the newer batteries where rate of charge can be varied you must NOT connect negative lead driect to the battery terminal.

I'm intrigued as to what this means. What is a newer battery and how is it different from an older battery? What's going on in the electrics that is between the chassis earth and the battery negative terminal?
Cheers
Bert

[elisered]

BertBert said:

Armitage.Shanks said:

Yep with the newer batteries where rate of charge can be varied you must NOT connect negative lead driect to the battery terminal.

I'm intrigued as to what this means. What is a newer battery and how is it different from an older battery? What's going on in the electrics that is between the chassis earth and the battery negative terminal?
Cheers
Bert

“New” means AGM (Absorbent Glass Mat) I think - as opposed to lead acid.
There’s a black box (I think on the positive side) that you miss out of the circuit if you wire your conditioner directly to the terminals - supposedly this is clever enough to work out how the battery is being used (or not used) and adjust the charging routine accordingly - I guess the better AGM specific conditioners can also do this at least to some extent.

So to maximise battery life/ performance best practice is not to wire directly. There was a long thread on here a while back with contributions from people who know a lot more than me. Even simple stuff is a lot more sophisticated (complicated) than it used to be in the good old days 😊

[Richard Hamilton]

@carbob - The 987.2 doesn't have an AGM battery,