Thread: D4 not being driven

Originally Posted by ~Rich~

Hi all,
As I'm laid up not allowed to drive for another 5 months I am after people's opinions on best way to look after my start battery.
Should I:
A
Keep it connected to the car with a Ctec charger permanently connected to it.
B
Disconnect the car from the battery and again leave the Ctec permanently connected.
C
Leave the battery disconnected and only occasionally charge it back up?

Cheers Rich

Personally I’d go with A or B but you need to factor in the battery chemistry as well. A or B are identical really. The parasitic draw will be covered by the C-tec

I'd leave it on the Ctek full time - my very limited understanding of battery chemistry is that Lead Acid love sitting at 100%, and Lithium prefers 50% - 80% when in storage. Cycles kill batteries more than age does.
Depending on how you connect, it's also the simplest way to still be able to use the car if needed for some reason - just unplug and start. If you use traxide or the white plug to connect even faster.

Using the C-Tek as a battery maintainer will also keep all vehicle systems current (pun or not). My limited knowledge of D4s suggests they don't like low battery levels.

Have had occasional parasitic battery drain in the past so I have mine on a C-Tek charger when ever I am not using it.

I put my motorbike battery on Ctek 0.8Amp charger full time and it boiled the battery dry. I now disconnect the charger when the battery is charged.

Originally Posted by p38arover

I put my motorbike battery on Ctek 0.8Amp charger full time and it boiled the battery dry. I now disconnect the charger when the battery is charged.

That’s very unusual. CTEK are the premium brand for luxury cars that are rarely driven.
If you boiled it dry I’d have thought it was on the incorrect setting??

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

That’s very unusual. CTEK are the premium brand for luxury cars that are rarely driven.
If you boiled it dry I’d have thought it was on the incorrect setting??

or the battery was stuffed already, leading the charger to think it needed to pump voltage in maybe.

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

That’s very unusual. CTEK are the premium brand for luxury cars that are rarely driven.
If you boiled it dry I’d have thought it was on the incorrect setting??

IIRC there seems to be a bad batch of these that have boiled boat and caravan batteries as well. Also I believe electronic chargers can sort off go to sleep so it's good to turn them off and on again once a day so that they actually check and even charge the battery.