Hi All,
I have read that the STI’s battery is not the best as the tracker drains the power.

I was told that you could buy a special type of battery charger that will always top up your battery when its starts to be drained.

The guy who was telling me about this said its was only very small & had 3 or 4 green lights on the tops of it.
When the battery needs to be charged this automatically kicks in & charges the battery – then when its fully charges it goes off.

Has anybody got any idea what this is called & where to buy it?
Anybody got bought one.

Cheers

 

Most motorbike shop's sell them, datatool make them, and there about £40. Or oxford product's, i think it's called an "optimiser", again about £40.

 

Sound to me like your talking about an 'Optimate charger' they are a small grey box with 4 lights on the top and do 6 & 12 volt. Had one for my bike, but you can use them on cars.

You can also prewire the connectors to the battery terminals to a plug say in the dash area. Come home and just plug the car in, works a treat as long as its switched on your battery will always be charged.

Try any motorbike shop or have a look in the Argos book (think I saw them in there once) Cost from memory I paid about £45.

Cheers

 

Cheers guys for the info

I will have a look tonight!

 

To be honest m8 i wouldnt waste my money its under warrenty when mine failed they just replaced it with a bigger one

 

Believe me, even that can go flat!
I use an "Accumate" 6/12v Plug it in and forget it.
Got it from Shadowfax ProBike, 01604 660444 Around £47 next day delivery.
Well worth it if you own an STi with Tracker etc!!
JohnD

 

Shouldn't the RAC be doing something about the Tracker issue with the STi batteries..............

Mog

And yes I have got the problem

 

There is a fix available for the Trackstar which reduces the stand-by time from 6 to 1 hour. The drain this puts on the battery has almost been proven as the cause of 03+ battery failures, combined with the so called smart alternator which isn't smart enough to register the minute current draw from the Trackstar. Once replaced with a stronger unit under warranty, most people use the simple trick of keeping the sidelights on when driving all the time (easy with Scoobs as you can leave them switched on as they come on with the ignition). This creates enough constant draw all the time to keep the alternator happy. Allied with the Trackstar fix, you shouldn't have any problems, but if you do, it's worth getting a booster from Halfrauds or similar. I got one from Netto for just £20 which includes a compressor.