Please help! 996 mod

Hi all! I had a Boxster for four or so years (old shape 1998, 2.5 litre) and in the last 3 months I finally took a long-awaited plunge and upgraded to a 996 (C4 cabrio, artic silver with black leather) and for one thing, let me say I'm fairly happy about it :floor: LOL! I love it! It's awesome fun and I'm really pleased I made the move - I didn't get a great price for the Boxster but what with the crunchy credit and all, I got a real bargain on the 996. The one issue I've had with the newbie, and it's a pretty small one, is that the battery it had was a bit tired. Due to my job the car probably only gets a decent outing once a week / every other week, and the battery kept running flat on me. I had no other means of bringing it back to life except jump-starting it from the missus' car, although thankfully I never did any more damage to the porkie than blowing one fuse. It's now got a shiny new Varta gel jobby, which I know is less likely to run flat, but I'm extra keen to ensure it doesn't (not least as I hear the gel ones suffer more damage from each flattening). THE QUESTION! SO, getting to the point(!), I've bought a solar trickle charger that plugs into the cigarette lighter (the car sleeps in a car-port with no mains connection). However, the lighter doesn't stay "live" when I switch the car off. A friend with a 911 C4S (whom I suspect is on here somewhere, but isn't returning my emails recently! ) said that it's an "easy mod"... Anyone know how I do it? Cheers fellas! Puppy

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Its a 10min job (that OPC charge the full hour for), and I think someone posted how to do it on here, but there are so many threads on this you would prob never find it (I just tried and couldnt). Hopefully someone will answer soon. In the meantime, go to the 996-FAQ sub-forum and read the Battery problem thread. A solar trickle charger might not be enough I'm afraid. Enjoy

Thanks so much buddy, all superb info! I'll wait and see if anyone posts some guidance, but for the sake of 10mins' labour cost (and unless it's a fairly idiot-proof job!) I could be tempted to wait and ask the garage to do it when the car gets it's next service early in the NY. I've used Northway Porsche near Reading for everything over the last 4 or so years on the Boxster (and 996 pre-purchase inspection) and I can't fault them. Maybe in the meanwhile I'll just have to suffer the inconvenience of stretching it's legs more often... :thumbs: Thanks again

All post 2002 cars came "always on" in this circuit An OPC can wire up the pre-2002 cars so there's a permanent feed to the cig/lighter for about £50/£60 + VAT. Or Simply buy an adaptor for your charger/make a simple mod(ie croc clips) and connect directly. Just make sure you shut the bonnet as the light will stay on and flatten your battery....which kind of defeats the purpose somewhat :nooo:

...or buy a new battery(Bosch HD) which should be fine unless you are leaving the car sitting for months on end? If you are leaving it for a while then just pop the battery terminal(makes sure you have your radio code though) before changing the batt/disconnecting the terminal...your OPC can give you it if you don't have it. If your battery really is "tired" it's only a matter of time until it migrates from tired to dead, so a new batt would be my personal choice.