Battery Charging

[Geordie]

@shieldsy

I have a 59 plate 2.0 Sport Tech. If I am not driving it is connected to my Ctek 3.8 charger and I have never removed or loosened the cell caps. It always starts instantly and I have never had any problems with it. I use the plug in connector lead which is permanently connected to the battery.
Kev.

As above Except my charger is the CTEK MXS 5.0. The plug in lead is very convenient. My car is Feb 2007 and the battery is original and absolutely fine.

 

 

 

[MickAP]

@Polisher

Hi Mick sorry but changing the subject ,I’m thinking of lowering my MX soon and I was wondering what springs you have fitted to your car as it looks about the height I want mine to be not too low. Cheers Martin.

PM sent.

[Mjdlfc]

@MickAP

@Mjdlfc

Hi,

Has anyone thought about doing what I do and make your mx5 your every day  car , there fore the  battery never becomes an issue l. Can’t go flat if it’s normally on the road.

They are even more fun on the frosty roads.

 

Michael 

 

Don’t be silly, it would get all that salt/grit on it and have  run through all those unrepaired potholes.

Just think of all those repair bills, for the sake of buying a cheapo battery charger.

 

 

 

You do have a point but winter frosty weather in an mx5 is more than worth the cost , fun level can’t measured .

 

Michael

 

 

 

[Zulu]

@rhino666

Zulu - glad you sorted out a totally flat battery with the optimate.  I’ve never let any of my batteries go far enough to get to that stage - the battery I had with low voltage was on the MK2 I bought a couple of years ago.  It may be that the charger is more flexible with the smaller batteries it was really designed for.

Mine does a test charge before either failing with red light or going into recovery charge mode. Failure happens fairly regularly, so I just restart the charger. Tried this several times without success on the low voltage MK2 battery.   

The mower battery wasn’t particularly small, perhaps about 20Ah.  But funnily enough, I got the red light when I connected it up on the mower, and it was only when I disconnected it totally that I got the yellow light.  I suspect that there was a tiny drain on it which the charger picked up and saw as a fault with the battery.  The mower battery gets the worst treatment of any - used once a week in the summer, and then left idle, uncharged, outdoors for the whole of winter.  I’m surprised they last a season, really, but that was the only time I have replaced one.  My car and bike batteries get treated like royalty in comparison.