On charge now.
Leads are a decent length and you get both ring terminals and clamps. You attach whichever you want to use via one of those nice asymmetric plugs.
The charger is an 8 stage automatic type that will charge anything from basic lead acid through AGM and stop/start to Lithium.
It detected that mine was a stop start AGM and just started charging through the cold weather setting. You can over-ride the settings if you wish.
The only down-side is that it doesn’t have a display for how much charge is in the battery and how close to being finished it is, it just stops and the light goes from flashing to solid so you know it’s finished.
If it is close to freezing and the car is stuck outside in the snow, then the higher charge voltage available on Snowflake is useful for a quick boost. (It is also how the chemistry works: colder means denser acid and slightly more volts needed.)
In the garage however, under shelter and out of the wind, then if it has been on charge for a while the chances are it is nowhere near freezing.
So in general, if just putting it on maintain and inside, then no Snowflake.
Yes, a reasonable rule of thumb but if I had followed it, I would have bought the too weedy 4 amp version as my engine, despite being a stop start diesel is a 2 litre.
I would agree with GarethC, I wouldn’t be without mine. Why the battery looses its charge when standing for a few weeks I don’t know, But I do know that if you fit a cut off switch in the battery lead and switch it off thereby disconnecting the battery power from the car, the battery stays charged up for a lot longer.
I don’t know whether the ND is an exception, but disconnecting the battery on modern cars can cause a certain amount of inconvenience by resetting adaptive systems and settings. On some cars there are procedures that must be followed when disconnecting the battery, e.g. waiting a minimum period after switching off.
I’d guess that, being Japanese, the MX-5 is more straightforward but it might be worth checking if battery disconnection is the plan. If one can leave a smart charger connected it simplifies matters a lot. At the moment, with lockdown and freezing weather, some people are having all sorts of problems after their batteries have gone flat.
The ultrasonic interior alarm consumes power when parked up (on an NC at least) but can be deactivated with the key whilst still leaving the doors, boot and bonnet protected. All CTEK chargers are good, even the 1a ones will maintain a fully charged healthy battery, although would take days to recharge a drained battery.
It’s a bit of a shame that the power socket switches itself off in the MX5, otherwise a Halfords solar panel could be useful. It would never charge the battery up, it might even struggle to maintain a full charge but it should at least slow down the rate of discharge.
Not a particularly difficult or expensive DIY job really.
Just a matter of disconnecting the switched 12v feed to a live 12v feed.
Finding/routing the wire being the time consuming issue if it’s an issue?
OK here’s a lead that will do. (But from China, look for local stock.)
You just need to change the croc clips to something suitable for your solar panel, and depending on the panel also add a suitable blocking diode to prevent any potential night-time (literally) ‘dark current’ leakage.
Be careful. If you pop the Room fuse the car won’t be going anywhere.
I wonder if the Halfords panel might have one built in?
It would make sense as it is specifically intended as a maintenance charger for a car battery and even has a plug for a car power supply socket attached.
Judging by the reviews, early ones did, later ones maybe not.
Halfords do sell this lead, but it has the Ring charger connector and I doubt it has the blocking diode or a suitable fuse.
In my opinion there should be a small fuse (5A or less).
The blocking diode is essential, because the various panels on the market vary from excellent and no dark current, to dreadful enough to flatten the battery overnight.
We are drifting off thread. If someone can point to an available CTEK-connection lead to the OBD2 that would be relevant, but I’ve yet to find one.
The Noco GC012-X OBD2 lead I ordered last year from Az (I have several Noco chargers and panels) was cancelled - no stock . However I found it as item 372591889176 on eBay recently and it should be arriving on Monday.
Didn’t spot that
The connector is the same as for the Halfords smart chargers and it says the lead is suitable for connecting to their Solar chargers, so it looks as though it should be plug and play.
However, as you say, the electrical one-way valve that is a diode and a suitable fuse look to be very likely to be missing, despite being highly desirable in this situation.
(I have to bow to your superior knowledge here.)…
Mine works a treat. I had zilch battery. Connected the c-tek for three days - battery charged to 7 on the scale. I now try to run engine and go out once a week; if I can’t it’s connect up the c-tek! I would get one - mine is an older model, which continues to work well.
Cheers, Elaine
I have a similar problem. The BSM malfunction warning on my ND RF came up last week, then the car shut down completely. Had to get recovery company to come & start it so am looking for a suitable trickle charger. Like you, my car isn’t garaged & lives on the drive. Interested to hear where you have positioned the CTEK charger & where you are taking the mains cable out from the engine compartment?
I was considering a solar charger which I could plug in via the OBD II socket link
Has reasonable reviews on Amazon…
Hi Em… Sorry to hear your BSM malfunction shut down your car and you had to get it recovered! Maybe if the voltage drops substantially, this can happen, though not heard of that before. I’ve only used mine once, using the crocodile clips on the battery with charger alongside - though I did leave bonnet up, so mains cable just came out from the opening… Am sure there is somewhere it can sit if you need to close bonnet during charging. Possibly the cable coming out from under the car… Rob
I’ve got my old Triumph TR4 on a C-TeK battery conditioner, but also have a NOCO Genius as they were recommended by Auto Express its a great chunky piece of kit .
