It's winter - best car jump starter?

helpimcrap

helpimcrap

helpimcrap

Soldato
Joined
13 Jan 2004
Posts
12,781
Location
Leicestershire
I have a petrol car with 3.4l engine and none in Halfords would do it. I've seen some on eBay which would do the job but are there any I can get from a local shop for a decent price?
 
In all seriousness, under what circumstances are you thinking you might ever need to use one?

My point, a properly maintained and frequently used car should never need a jump start.

There may be solutions other than a jump pack that might be more suitable for you if we knew what the reasons might be.

:)
 
How infrequently is not very often?

If the battery is good and the cars electrics are ok i.e. no bad earths etc it should be fine for a few weeks at a time and least, I'd assume you occasionally start it up and let it warm through and move it back & forth to stop anything seizing up?

At work we sometimes park up trucks for a month or so when work drops off, we disconnect the batteries as they have a lot of systems that stay powered even when the ignition is off and they seem to be fine when they are put back in the road.

I'd suggest having it checked over by a competent auto electrician and should he find no problems just disconnect the battery if it's going to stand for long periods of time.

If the alarm worries you I'd just remove something along with the battery that'll render it immobile.
 
It has a drain. You need to find it. Mine gets left for months at a time without battery issues, however it never used to. I found that mine had some wiring issues and an old tracker, basically it got to the point where is was draining almost weekly (there is a thread somewhere on 911uk). Got rid of these and it can be left for several months or more and still fire up first time

Find and fix that drain, a multimeter will be required!
 
Definitely just leave it on a ctek, I do that with an SL merc I don't use that often that has a habit of flattening it's battery quite quickly. Keeps it running well.
 
Could you use a solar powered trickle charger? I do not know if they are a gimmick or not, but, it might do the job if you don't have access to power.
 
Vince said:
Also the 996 will go full sleep mode after about 3 or 4 weeks :)
Click to expand...

Vince said:
It has a drain. You need to find it. Mine gets left for months at a time without battery issues, however it never used to. I found that mine had some wiring issues and an old tracker, basically it got to the point where is was draining almost weekly (there is a thread somewhere on 911uk). Got rid of these and it can be left for several months or more and still fire up first time

Find and fix that drain, a multimeter will be required!
Click to expand...

I know it goes to sleep after about 5 days. I was under the impression that because it has a cat 1 alarm of course it will drain it? :confused:

I think it has had a tracker and that has been removed however i'll look for a draw.

Until I find these are a problem I don't actually know it's a problem - the car is really clean so I don't like using it in the wet. I try and use it when I can but time has been a limited the last few weeks.
 
Howard said:
Get a trickle charger if you're that worried. It'll stop the battery from getting knackered as well.
Click to expand...

Better still fix the problem, either fix the parasitic drain or a new battery. The only time I have needed to jump start a car is with a duff battery, replaced it and it's been fine.
 
I'll run a multimeter across the terminals with engine off and with engine running once it's fully charged. It has enough charge in it now to lock it properly and activate frunk.

If not a good charge across terminals with engine off it will tell me if battery is goosed if not about 12.8x. With engine running it will tell me if alternator is kaput if not 13.5v.

Thanks for the feedback.
 
helpimcrap said:
I know it goes to sleep after about 5 days. I was under the impression that because it has a cat 1 alarm of course it will drain it? :confused:

I think it has had a tracker and that has been removed however i'll look for a draw.

Until I find these are a problem I don't actually know it's a problem - the car is really clean so I don't like using it in the wet. I try and use it when I can but time has been a limited the last few weeks.
Click to expand...

When I was looking for a drain on mine at the beginning the car was taking more than 1a/h out of the battery when the car was locked and sitting there. The OE Porsche battery had a 70 to 80Ah battery with a CCA of about 500 so with a drain of 1.3a or so, if I took the car anywhere and left it for a couple of days it would be cold dead, this could be as low as a couple of hours if the car went on a short run. The fact is the car was just sucking the battery dry. I replaced the battery and that one died within a few months.

When I investigated I found that the perm live and ignition live for the stereo were around the wrong way so the stereo was where the majority of the drain was. After that I kept pulling fuses and checking the draw this helped me work out the circuit where all the draw was for things like trackers etc. My car sitting on the drive locked after 30 seconds only draws 0.07 a/h from the battery. So a healthy battery at this draw should last several months or more without issue.

Put a multi meter inline and see what the circuit is drawing, anything more than about 0.2a and you can pretty much say that you have a draw somewhere.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom