Battery Problems

I have had issues with the battery going flat in a matter of hours ever since we bought the car in January, it's been looked at several times, the tracker has been removed, the battery has been replaced, lots of fuse-out fault (not)finding and head scratching has gone on.. Anyway, I might have some positive news! We went to the open day at Porsche Service Centre Byfleet (formally known as Camtune) yesterday and spoke to David Simpson, one of the service advisors. He immediately suggested alternator regulator as was suspected by myself and many other helpful souls on this forum. Then came the Eureka moment... He suggested feeling the temperature of the alternator relative to the engine on a cold morning. I did that this morning and the alternator is what I would call room temperature whereas the top of the engine is brass monkeys. Schoolboy physics I know, I don't know why I didn't think of this before. If the alternator is using all that energy up, it's got to turn it into something - heat! The car is going into GTOne for a service on tuesday so hopefully Pete and Craig can swap the alternator for me under my aftermarket warranty and all our troubles will be over. Fingers crossed, Nervous and excited! Hopefully this might help anyone else who has a similar problem - wait til December and feel your alternator.

I've had the same problem since I bought mine in Feb. this year, so as soon as I read this thread I rushed out to the garage to check........ Unlucky for me the alternator is stone cold. Never mind, i'll just continue to leave it on trickle charge whenever I go offshore! Will have it checked out at next service.

Hi Dave, don't give up that easily! How cold is it in your garage? My car is on the driveway so the non heated bits got pretty cold overnight. I felt the alternator first and thought it was cold until I touched the other bits. Can you leave it out in a cold place overnight? How long does it normally take to flatten your battery? Mine would be on charge all night, drive 30 mins to work, sit outside my office til 5pm and be dead flat. Good Luck.

The garage is'nt heated or anything so it does get pretty cold in there. Suppose I could leave it out overnight and try again but I did have a good feel all over the engine bay and there was no temperature difference. I usually get about 3 or 4 days before the battery flattens, so I try to drive it at least every other day (minimum 30 min drive) and if I know the car won't be used for a few days I put it on trickle charge. When I go to work, I disconnect the battery and leave it on trickle. There's nothing worse than coming back from a 2 week trip, going into the garage all excited and finding the darn thing won't stsrt!!

You shouldn't need to disconnect the battery to charge it if you have a trickle charger. We have a CTek which we bought from G at Elite detailer on this forum. This comes with a handy little connector so you can bolt the terminals onto the battery permanently and just clip and unclip the connector to the charger every time you use the car. It saves the hassle of resetting clock, alarm, radio presets etc, not to mention fiddling about with battery terminals and covers and stuff!

I've also just noticed you are in Newcastle, I shouldn't question how cold it gets up North!!! 8)

I also work in Norway which makes Newcastle seem almost like the Med!! Cheers for the advice, I do intend to convert my charger so I can just plug and unplug as desired, just a case of getting round to it!

Mine used to go flat enough not to start if I went on holiday for three weeks with the car locked. The alarm cuts out after (I think two weeks. someone here will know) but by that time we are already pretty flat. Now I go away with the garage door locked but the car unlocked. Started after 5 weeks no problem. My old 3.6 964 Turbo would go dead flat after two weeks with the alarm on needing not a recharge but a new battery! Naturally my 5 series and my wifes SL can be left, alarm on, for 5 weeks with no problem.

Sorry, just read elswhere that the alarm in fact goes into sleep after 5 or more days not two weeks but still a drain on the battery .