scoobynutta555

Went out to the P1 today to start it up after nearly 3 months, knew the battery was going to be dead as it was always dead after being left for 48 hours without being moved

Tried the battery jump start kit I have no joy

Followed the instructions to the letter, ie red clamp to red terminal on battery and black clamp onto non moving metal part of engine.

Am I confused or is it bad news to connect red to red and black to black on the battery itself? Warns against doing this in the pack

What is the proper way of doing this?

Also to prevent this happening again, ie not starting, will just keeping the engine running for a little while every few days give sufficient juice to the battery to stop it going flat? I know there is a drain somewhere, there must be, the battery is only 2 years old. Its either the tracker, which was reinstalled as it wasnt working when i checked with trackstar, or its a laser jammer thing i have on the car.

Brendan Hughes

Where's mj the battery expert?

I used to connect terminals. Sometimes got a lovely sparking effect.

Your running for a little while idea needs to refill the batt from the cranking that you used to start it - cost you a fortune in fuel

Why not get a new-fangled trickle charger?

Nicks VR4

Jump Start kit ????

Using another car or a Jumpstart Booster ?

Some Boosters only have a low cold amp cracking around 400 amps
This may not have been enough to jump it
I need a battery or booster that has over 570 cold crank amps to start my VR4

I'm always confused about this putting the earth lead to a metal part of the engine
Its meant to stop the ECU getting fried AFAIK I have also heard that turning lights on after engine starts get rid off access volts ????

simo

my STi did this last year & I tried to just start the same way as you described to no avail.

Called Subaru assist who jump started in on the battery terminals & it fired straight away. Guess what I am doing when it does it again (usually after a week's + holiday away)

Simon

Dracoro

Get a multimeter (less than £5 at maplin) and test yourself where the drain is. Cheaper than buying a battery every two months (each time the battery drains, it reduces the amount of charge that it can hold)

scoobynutta555

Its a yellow jumpstarter kit from Halfrauds, the yellow not the one with the compressor.

rgv_stu

the reason your supposed to connect the ground to body is that when / if it sparks then it wont set fire / explode the battery. think the battery gives off hydrogen gas ?? or sommat like. ive never seen or heard of one going pop myself but you never know.

scoobynutta555

1 hour 20 mins and still no van from subaru assist...........

mj

brendan, I had a quick look into this and unfortunateley all I could find was

scrappydoo

rgv
so its suppose to spark at the ground point then is it? I nearly shat myself yesterday when i switched off the mains and went to unclip the ground wire from the chassis. It just doesnt seem right when it sparks.

rgv_stu

yes it will spark to some extent.
as when you connect the battery terminals you instantly start pulling charge/ current from the battery. the more amps it pulls from the battery the bigger the spark really.
what you have to remember is that some stuff is allways powered with or without the ignition on , ie your alarm etc

Spoon

Do what I do on any vehicle sitting around not doing much most of the time.

http://www.accumate.co.uk/it010003.html

I fit the connectors on full time (to the battery) and run the wires out of the engine bay to wherever it's convenient (usually the grill) to just plug it into the mains everytime you come back home and have the battery monitored.

King RA

I've got a solar powered trickle charger I use on mine. £40 from maplins for a big doobry or £20 for a small one.

gsm1

I was told that you shouldn't connect the -ve terminal directly because it was more likely to drain the donor battery - Not sure how that works!

I'd be careful jump starting any modern car, I'd rather disconnect the battery and give it a boost charge. The AA shagged two alternators on the same model vehicle with their jump start equipment for me.

I witnessed a biker getting a jump start from a car once - great fireworks!

Starting the car sucks the most out of a battery so starting every few days and leaving it running a little will make it worse, you'll never charge it back up in that time unless you take it for long run.
I'd check the battery fluid level first, even if it is only 2 years old. Unless the battery is totally sealed it's not maintenance free, whatever the label says.
Also, have you changed a bulb recently? Last time I had this problem it was down to fitting a single filament bulb in a twin filament socket.

mj

my mate's mechanic fried the electronic dash on his Audi URquattro the other week with a jump start from a booster pack.

unclebuck

What a way to treat a P1. Some people don't deserve to own nice cars.

simo

Can you leave it plugged in whilst away on Hols (ie 1 or 2weeks?) also, can you lock 7 arm alarm with no problems?

cheers Simon

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

Park it on the downslope of a hill.....

rgv_stu

simo you can leave em plugged in for months, its quite an inteligent charger

a lot of the biker folk use and swear by them

Spoon

Simon,

As answered above this post, you can leave them on for months, or at least I did on a vehicle that only went out 5-10 times a year.

I didn't have an alarm on the car, just a couple of immobilizers. I can't see it being a problem however as it would only maintain battery power.

It monitors the battery and then gives it a charge if required as opposed to being "on charge" permanently.

Spring Heeled Jack

I've got an Optimate. Superb for motorcycle batteries. Don't know about car batteries though.

SHJ

MrShades

Optimates and Accumates are designed for bikes with peak Ah rating around 20-40 Ah (0.9A max charge)... I've just looked into this prior to buying an AccuGard Car (all made by the same company I think) - good for up to 100Ah batteries, with peak charge at 1.8A.

See here: http://www.dry-it-out.com/accugard.htm

Very good bit of kit.... wired in permanently, with connector accesible through lower air-intake (MY03 STi) - and as others have said, when you come home plug it in and leave it. Always got a charged and ready battery then.

Works a treat...

Shades

scoobynutta555

I own three cars and just sitting in a P1 to go up and down the M1 for 17 miles each way in rush hour is TBH not worth it in any sports car. Also noticed I had a bad back within 3 miles!!!!! And reminded me why I got the golf for long trips

Well, the recovery turned up a whole 2 hours after I made my first call to subaru assist. They had a 'heavy duty' charger that showed the battery was at 14 amp (?) which apparently means it was working ok. He connected black to black as well.

I like some of the suggestions there, as the P1 isnt in a garage I like the idea of a solar charger.

simo

so do i get the accumate or the accugard? Looking like the accugard as more car battery based.

cheers Simon

Spoon

Simon,

Go for the ACCUGARD for the few quid extra. It is after all car based.

I however used the ACCUMATE on a Group A Cosworth battery for 4 years without a problem.

I believe the ACCUGARD wasn't available then anyway, had it been then I'd have bought it.

scoobynutta555

Well I finally got round to buying a solar charger from Maplins to sit on my dash. Hopefully now if the car is left on the drive for over 2 days the battery wont be dead!

£20 the geeky till jockey charged me.

Only thing Im a bit concerned about is, is the battery actually charging up. My cigarette lighter works when the engine is switched on, but doesnt when no keys are in Having never smoked in any of my cars I havent really used the *** lighter before, is this normal or is it knackered?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Quite normal on most cars for the *** lighters only work with the ignition in position 1.

You'll need to either re-wire the *** lighter to a permanent live (via a fuse of course) or find another way to connect it. A hidden connector under the dash tapping off radio power supply would be what I would do.

scoobynutta555

So this battery charger using the cigarette lighter wont work unless the keys are left in the ignition in position 1?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

On most cars, yes.

If the cigerette light doesn't work with the ignition turned off, the charger won't work either.

scoobynutta555

Bugger.