Cayman R sat in garage......battery life?? - Page 2 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

Hi All, Any ideas how long the battery will last? How long have you gotten away with? I gave it a good run before putting it away 2 weeks ago but it might not get driven until the 3rd of Jan now. Cheers! Excuse for a pic:

It will depend upon the state/age of the battery to a large extent. I've left mine 3 weeks before without issue, but its pot luck really. You would do well to get yourself a battery conditioner.

Buy a trickle charger, plug in, concern gone forever...;)

I'll put one on the Christmas list!.... never thought I'd ever leave it so long. No power in the garage has been the excuse so far but I'm sure there will be non mains power types.

That car is gorgeous!

LuckyNumber7 said: Hi All, Any ideas how long the battery will last? How long have you gotten away with? I gave it a good run before putting it away 2 weeks ago but it might not get driven until the 3rd of Jan now. Cheers! Excuse for a pic: If your battery is flat you still have the bike to use!!

Handsome machine! My R gets huffy after 2weeks. The central locking stops first but you can still get in and start her if you don't leave it much longer. I've had to get the AA out once, and that was in summer, so def get a trickle charger for the cold months. Better still, take her out for an occasional blast... That'll keep both the car and you topped up :-)

I was wondering the same thing as my R may not get much use for a while. Which trickle charger do people suggest/recommend? I know nothing about them and don't want to f*** anything up.

PaulD86 said: I was wondering the same thing as my R may not get much use for a while. Which trickle charger do people suggest/recommend? I know nothing about them and don't want to f*** anything up. The C-TEK ones seem to come up top in most of the tests. My son has one. They look (are) very expensive considering their rated charge rates, but the rates are true (rather than inflated rms ones) and they are very sophisticated, designed to cope with absolutely flat batteries and vary their charge rates depending on the state of the battery.

I believe the Porsche battery chargers are just rebranded CTEK ones. My Spyder had a flat battery after leaving it too long so had to buy a new battery from Porsche for something like £230. So spending £100 on a battery charger is really a non brainer. George

Mr DaPickle said: Handsome machine! My R gets huffy after 2weeks. The central locking stops first but you can still get in and start her if you don't leave it much longer. I've had to get the AA out once, and that was in summer, so def get a trickle charger for the cold months. Better still, take her out for an occasional blast... That'll keep both the car and you topped up :-) I believe the central locking cuts out after a week to save the battery. It's a feature. Once you've used the key to get in, the central locking reactivates.

VladD said: I believe the central locking cuts out after a week to save the battery. It's a feature. Once you've used the key to get in, the central locking reactivates. you just lift the door handle and it all reactivates, no need to use a key, but yes it all goes dead after a few days.

bcr5784 said: The C-TEK ones seem to come up top in most of the tests. My son has one. They look (are) very expensive considering their rated charge rates, but the rates are true (rather than inflated rms ones) and they are very sophisticated, designed to cope with absolutely flat batteries and vary their charge rates depending on the state of the battery. Cheers. so C-TEK seems to be the way forward - any particular model? I was assuming I'd want to plug into cig lighter for convenience.

Any excuse for a R/MTB pic...

Have posted many times about the Aldi/lidl ones that come up for sale on the Specials Page every so often £13.99 and they do the exact same as the C=Tek ones as I have both and no difference had them for years

PaulD86 said: Cheers. so C-TEK seems to be the way forward - any particular model? I was assuming I'd want to plug into cig lighter for convenience. I have the CTEK Multi XS 3600. This is by no means the top of the range but does everything I want. I purchased it from Demon Tweeks but as mentioned above, alternatives can be bought quite a bit cheaper elsewhere.

Hi Lucky Nice R, I bought this for my Spyder as its SORN over the winter months http://www.frazerpart.com/acatalog/Charge-o-mat_ba... Very helpful guys so if you want to give them a call and discuss I found it really helpful to know what I was buying. Its also the newer version they are selling (not the one in the picture) which has various conditioning options. Same make and model as the Porsche branded version for around half the price. Also recommended by RAC who came out to start my car last Spring when the battery was fully dead. Simon

Thanks for the tips.....main problem is no power to the garage as it's in a block away from the house. Does anyone know why sometimes you can jump start a car and the battery will be knackered and need replacing and other times it'll be ok

SJR202 said: Hi Lucky Nice R, I bought this for my Spyder as its SORN over the winter months http://www.frazerpart.com/acatalog/Charge-o-mat_ba... Very helpful guys so if you want to give them a call and discuss I found it really helpful to know what I was buying. Its also the newer version they are selling (not the one in the picture) which has various conditioning options. Same make and model as the Porsche branded version for around half the price. Also recommended by RAC who came out to start my car last Spring when the battery was fully dead. Simon If you are in the market for the C-Tek that deal seems the best around .I believe you can buy a solar charger try the likes of Maplan .I also saw a device advertised that you fit direct to the leads needs no power ,no idea how it works was around £70

Car batteries like to be kept fully charged ALL the time. If a car isn't in regular use (once a week or more) then a battery conditioner makes good sense. Nothing kills a battery more effectively than a cycle of charge, run down, charge, run down etc. Just because they can survive 3 weeks parked at the airport doesn't mean they're enjoying it!

LuckyNumber7 said: Thanks for the tips.....main problem is no power to the garage as it's in a block away from the house. Does anyone know why sometimes you can jump start a car and the battery will be knackered and need replacing and other times it'll be ok Once the battery goes pat a certain stage of discharge then it will never recover according to the RAC fella. He also said that after starting the car once , it will take a drive of about 8 miles to recover the power used to start the car in the first place. So makes a mockery of all those people that pop out to start the car to check the battery or let it idle to "top it up". As for the CR - Mine lasted over 4 weeks with no problem and I had alarm , tracker etc. As stated , they do go into hibernation to preserve the battery after a couple of days.

LuckyNumber7 said: Thanks for the tips.....main problem is no power to the garage as it's in a block away from the house. Does anyone know why sometimes you can jump start a car and the battery will be knackered and need replacing and other times it'll be ok If you need to leave the battery in the car disconnect the terminals and it will keep its charge much longer, or remove it from the car and trickle charge it at the house.

Klippie said: If you need to leave the battery in the car disconnect the terminals and it will keep its charge much longer, or remove it from the car and trickle charge it at the house. Not so easy if you need the alarm and tracker active. OP , have you considered any of the solar trickle chargers ? You could put it on the roof of the garage out of sight and run the lead inside and through a doorshut into the cigarette lighter.... just thinking out loud...

parked mine up 2 weeks ago, went to start it yesterday, battery is as dead as a hammer,checked history and it had new battery fitted at Porsche last year. Managed to get bonnet up and battery on charge over night, started today and dash lit up like a xmas tree with warning lights airbag and PSM light Pretty s t I reckon, would be sick If I had parked it at an airport to go on holiday to come back to it not starting, cant say I have never had a battery discharge itself in such a short period of time on any car I owned, does the typical Porsche owner accept this as the norm ?

this whole battery life thing is weird seems like no two cars are the same, i can gett a month out of mine no probs others struggle with 2 weeks wonder why?

Vehicles with tracking devices fitted will drain a battery more quickly than those without.

JeffC said: parked mine up 2 weeks ago, went to start it yesterday, battery is as dead as a hammer,checked history and it had new battery fitted at Porsche last year. The questions isn't when the new battery was fitted. The question is how the car has been used since the new battery was fitted. Anyhow, what's the warranty period on that battery?

Ozzie Osmond said: JeffC said: parked mine up 2 weeks ago, went to start it yesterday, battery is as dead as a hammer,checked history and it had new battery fitted at Porsche last year. The questions isn't when the new battery was fitted. The question is how the car has been used since the new battery was fitted. Anyhow, what's the warranty period on that battery? I'm not sure that should make any difference,my car had been used most days since I bought it until parked up a couple weeks ago,have to say I was quite surprised when It was dead after a such a short period of time. No idea on Porsche but Cheaper batteries come with minimum 2 year guarantee, pretty sure something like a Bosch will be 4 year, for my thinking the only way that the battery should go flat is if something is draining it ? looking at the options that my car has fitted over a standard car nothing should be powered up after I turn it off.

Put my R away 4th Dec. started it for the first time on Saturday and started on the button..

28 days later.............it started fine. Seems like it really does vary, I never do short jouneys so I'm hoping that's kept the battery in good shape. Drove it 40 miles for a good recharge and a reminder how fun it is

Just had to buy the big ctek charger for mine as the small 3.6 was not enough to pull the battery up i was getting false info as the trickle charger was on every 3 weeks but only just topping it up but when i came to start it the whole thing shut down with the usual psm error and all other things not working phoned porche and they said buy a much bigger charger .see how it is tommorow

freddy the frog said: Just had to buy the big ctek charger for mine as the small 3.6 was not enough to pull the battery up i was getting false info as the trickle charger was on every 3 weeks but only just topping it up but when i came to start it the whole thing shut down with the usual psm error and all other things not working phoned porche and they said buy a much bigger charger .see how it is tommorow I bought the MXS 7.0 and haven't had a problem. Due to my particular living arrangement the 997 GTS is cycled, i.e. it gets charged every week or two to nearly full, rather than being trickle charged. With 7 amps, this usually takes a couple of hours.

Was at my local OPC yesterday picking up my car and decided to just buy their trickle charger - I know I could have got one cheaper but I was there and they had one and I just couldn't really be bothered ordering one. Now plugged in to keep it topped up.

after my car wouldnt start a few weeks ago I remembered I had a maintenance charger in the cupboard that I bought for my Caterham a few years ago, from memory I paid £5.99 for it from local motor factors and that is doing the job, car is now starting first crack every time . Still cant see why my battery should discharge itself though .

JeffC said: after my car wouldnt start a few weeks ago I remembered I had a maintenance charger in the cupboard that I bought for my Caterham a few years ago, from memory I paid £5.99 for it from local motor factors and that is doing the job, car is now starting first crack every time . Still cant see why my battery should discharge itself though . Because they are s t. I wonder if the 981 batteries are any better.

Lidl will be stocking battery chargers next week http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?actio... Check you local store though.

993AL said: Lidl will be stocking battery chargers next week http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?actio... Check you local store though. What a bummer - just bought a CTEK, and have seen elsewhere this is internally the same - and has 6v as well.

Just checked new bigger charger after 24 hrs on charge and will only charge 50% so battery is f----d car just over two and half years old and needs a new battery. well i will be putting a Varta blue seal on at £85 porche can poke the £270. Does anybody know if anything will need recoding once battery is disconected its been showing psm failure and various other things wondering if they reset themselves once new battery is fitted

freddy the frog said: Just checked new bigger charger after 24 hrs on charge and will only charge 50% so battery is f----d car just over two and half years old and needs a new battery. well i will be putting a Varta blue seal on at £85 porche can poke the £270. Does anybody know if anything will need recoding once battery is disconected its been showing psm failure and various other things wondering if they reset themselves once new battery is fitted when my battery went dead I had airbag light on which I cleared with Launch and PSM fault which didnt clear but from what I have read it will once I drive it up the road and lock the steering from left to right.