Porsche Winter Battery Charge Question

After going through one Chicago winter requiring the purchase of a new battery I purchased the Porsche Battery Charger. Last year it worked like a champ.

This year I'm experiencing something different. When I attempted to use the unit I noticed the cigarette lighter fuse had blown. I replaced the 15A fuse and all seemed fine until the lighter started ejecting the charger connector. That never happened before.

So...

Any ideas about what could be happening? Is there an electrical issue? Or...

Clearly the unit can not be used during the winter with that kind of behavior.

Thanks in advance.

Paco

Reply to
Carrera 996 2000
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The charger should only be able to put out 1 to 1.5 amps and therefore, the charge current would not blow the fuse. I would then guess that you have something wrong in the charger that is causing it to draw current from your car and obviously more than 15 amps. I do not know how what causes a lighter to eject but if I had to guess, I would think it was related to heat in some way. That may point to the problem in your charger being inside the adapter that goes in to the lighter socket (short).

When this happens, is the plug on the end of your charger hot?

Have you tried this in any other cars?

How long after you plug it in before it is ejected from the lighter socket?

Do you have a DMM (Digital Multi Meter) or any type of DC Voltage measuring device? If so, there are several things you could easily check.

Does the lighter work in the car (if not, you may have a problem in the lighter socket).

I also have a Porsche Charger that I have a question about. I do not see the red light lit on mine. If I unplug it for a few hours and plug it back it, the red light does come on. I have read the directions and it said the red light is only on when it is charging. How often did you see your red light lit on your charger las year when it was working?

Thanks!

Dan

Reply to
Dan

I never liked the idea (or price) of that unit, bought a "Battery Tender +" for less and it not only maintains perfectly it has a lot of other benefits built in. Maybe Porsche will replace it?

GP

Reply to
G. Patricks

Dan,

Thanks for the excellent post. Frankly I'm embarassed that I had not thought about a rational approach to isolating the problem.

Having said that I checked the charger. After ten (10) minutes the lamp turned off. Note: my recollection from last year is that the lamp remained lit all winter. The lighter portion was not warm which prompted the lighter test and that was also negative and the fuse is still in good working condition.

Given these results it appears I have a wiring problem.

So once again thank you for the response. It was very helpful.

Paco

Reply to
Carrera 996 2000

Paco,

I recall the red light being on every time I checked it last Winter, but I have not seen it on yet this Winter. Unfortunately I keep my Boxster in a "Bubble", so it takes a while to get in to it. I plan to see if I can take the charger apart and measure the voltage where the wires connect both with and w/o the charger plugged in. Of course, that will take some special driver I may not have to get it apart. But doing that I should be able to measure just the battery voltage and the voltage with the charged powered up.

Have you determined the problem with yours yet?

Dan,

Reply to
Dan

Some additional follow-up. I just checked my charger. The battery is at

13.6 VDC without the charger being connected to the AC Outlet. When I connect the charger to the AC, the voltage goes to 13.8 VDC and the red light does not stay on. So I am assuming it is in a low "Maintain" level. It is doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing.

Reply to
Dan

Dan,

Thanks again for all additional investigations.

No, I have not done any additional investigation. With the lighter not working I will have to do some tracing next spring. I have to get that working because my Valentive depends upon it!

As a backup I've purchased the Battery Tender Plus; actually it's the Interstate Battery private label version. So far what I've read and seen is impressive. Tomorrow I will install it and see how it performs.

I rarely drive the Porsche during the winter with all the salt on the roads. Hence I have stored the car with little regard for working on it -- in other words it's a pain to do anything so I do as little as possible during the winter

Thanks again. I suspect after I figure-out the problem I will find myself with two good battery charging devices!

Paco

Reply to
Carrera 996 2000

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