[MarkTr]

I am hoping this will help anyone who is planning on running your charge plug from the battery posts under the hood to the outside of the car so you can charge with the hood closed.

I ran the charge plug for my Ctec 7002 out under my left turn signal. Not noticeable and easy to plug into with the hood closed.

I chose the left turn signal because there is plenty of room to run the wires up along the fender up to the positive and negative posts.

I ran the positive wire into the exiting joint of the rubber seals, then under the plastic to the brake fluid reservoir and then over to the Positive post.

I used the threaded hole of the positive terminal. Again l used a ring connector and screwed it down using a low profile crown bolt. I can close the plastic flap with no issues.

I unscrewed the negative post and placed a ring connector under it- then screwed it back down.

 

[MarkTr]

Guy88 is correct-- the positive post's thread is an M8 x 1.25-- very common. The negative post I believe is an M6 x 1.0- will confirm.

I simply ran 14 gauge (15 Amp) stranded wire which I had crimped on ring connectors from the posts and spliced/soldered in the common two-pin charger pigtail with a 7.5 amp fuse, which I slipped through a space under the left turn signal.

Tidied up with cable cover and zip ties.

 

[MarkTr]

From what I can tell from my real-time measurements and hearing the selenoids go off and on depending upon battery voltage- is that the system is always actively turning off and on loads when you have the car unlocked and the hood open. You will read different battery voltages based upon what the system has turned off or on based.

Once you lock the Macan- the system shuts down a number of parasitic loads and will come up to full charge faster and maintain a higher voltage over 24 hours then if you leave the Macan unlocked.

So-- depending upon where you measure and at what load(s) that have come on and off you will measure many different battery voltages over a short period of time.


I have my Ctec charger wired so that it is connected to the two engine bay terminals via ring connectors- and is accessed outside of the car under the left turn signal. Because of this I can measure the battery voltage with the car fully locked and the doors closed-- and in different parasitic load states. Using a professional Fluke multimeter I measured directly at the terminals when I had the hood open-- or at the charger input under the turn signal when all doors and hood was closed.

To keep this short I will report only four configurations.

1. Battery not on a charger, car not locked, hood open overnight. Not locked so car is in full awake mode and will shed parasitic loads only as the voltage goes down low enough to trigger the engine bay selenoids. Voltage measured at terminal-- 12.1V.

2. Battery not on a charger, car locked, hood open overnight. When the Macan is locked the system goes into a less active/ready mode so it sheds a good amount of parasitic load upon locking. I have heard that after 24 hours it may even shed more loads if kept locked-- but I am not sure of this.

Unlock the car and then read voltage at terminals 12.4V but as parasitic loads are now online due to unlocking car, the voltage goes down quickly to 12.2V and the selenoids start to turn off parasitic loads the voltage will go back up to 12.4V. Wait a few minutes and the loads drag the voltage back down to 121V and the selenoids again turn off loads. The cycle is repeated until the voltage is beaten down to 12.1V and stays there.


3. Battery on a charger, car locked, every door/hood/window is closed overnight. When locked the car is asleep with minimum parasitic loads

Unlock car, hood still closed. I go to the front and pull off the battery charger. By the time I insert Fluke leads into the charger input connector the voltage is 12.7V and goes down 12.5V after a few minutes. It keeps going down slowly until about 12.2V the engine bay selenoids turn off some loads and the voltage goes back up to 12.4V and repeats the cycle found in #2 above.

4. Battery on a charger, car locked, every door/hood/window is closed overnight. When locked the car is asleep, the charger has been able to bring the resting voltage up to 13.5V in short time due to minimal parasitic loads.

Direct reading at the battery charger inputs--pull off the charger, insert Fluke leads and the voltage goes down quickly from 13.5V to 12.7V. It slowly draws down to 12.5V and stays there for about 5 minutes-- I stopped watching after that but I assume off the charger and locked it will go down to 12.4V and stay there until what loads are still on the system will slowly drag it down to where more loads will be shed-- will go down even faster if I unlock the car.


Not very rigorous or scientific but it did give me some insight about how the Macan tries to maintain the health of the battery and why it warns you to put it on a charger or to drive it- like you really want.

This is why if I am not taking out the Macan for a few days I charge with the Macan locked and the hood and windows closed.

 

[MarkTr]

My Macan S averages 15.2V when fully heated. I am in the tri state area, it's very cold. I normally have the heater running high temps and heated seats on. Does this mean my battery is not well charged?

I assume that the nominal charge voltage is about 14.7V and it is normal for the charge voltage to go up when the ambient temperature is cold. I would guess that 15.2V may be the upper limit of normal in when very cold.

I think that you would get a yellow or red warning if you were overcharging or if the battery capacity has gotten low.

 

[MarkTr]

Thanks for those pictures. That was pretty much how I was thinking of attaching the leads to the posts but hadn‘t figured out where to end the leads to plug into the charger. Are you able to close the cover over the positive jump post? The cover on my Macan is pretty flush with the top of the positive lead and didn’t seem like it would fit with a lead and another bolt or screw to hold the lead to the post. I ordered another positive post (it was only $4.00 before shipping) and was going to grind down the bottom of the post about a 1/4 inch so that the top would be a little lower after being tightened down. Do you tuck the end of the leads back up behind the lights when not in use?

Joe-

Yes --the cover closes with no bulge.

I keep the Ctec connector right where it is under the turn signal-with the rubber cover installed when driving. You cannot see it unless you bend down and look for it under the turn signal.

I used the Ctec battery connector with the M8 rings- and the fancy flashing LED-could not find the old plain version-- and the long Ctec extension.

I cut the Ctec extension to length and used quick connectors so I can pull the extension cable out anytime I want. I had to cut the extension anyway to thread it under the turn signal because the connectors are too large to fit through the gap in the turn signal plastic and the block off plastic plate. This is an SE.

I wrapped the cable with a cable cover and used zip ties to secure.

 

[MarkTr]

Good! So the positive post, you just found a screw that fit and screwed it in?

For the negative post, what did you do? Just unbolt the post, put on the ctek connecter and tighten down?

And last, why not just feed the connect up through the plastic near the wiper blades and leave it hanging there?

Grim-

Yup- found an M8 bolt in my stash and just had to mill about 20 thousand off the top.

Again yup- simply unbolted the negative and screwed it back down with the M8 ring connector under it.

I did not go up to the windshield because I did not want to compress down or cut the foam seal at the base of the windshield and the engine bay.

For me, it was cleaner to come out the front where there was a nice gap for wires, and I can easily have my charger on the floor and not on a stand or on the car.

 

[MarkTr]

(I can never get multi Quote to work for me on this forum)
wspollack & Mark TR, Great job with your testing!

BTW, a better way to measure your battery voltage from the jump start points may be to have the car locked so the computer is off. That is how I do it when I use my CTEK to charge the car. I use 12V adapter through rear window & car locked & when charge done, unplug from wall & do NOT unlock or open door. I had already popped the hood so can open hood & check w/o waking up the computer. If you routed your charging cable to access w/o opening hood...so much the easier!

Yes-- that is what I measured in #4 configuration I outlined above.

In my closing statement this is how I charge my Macan:

"This is why if I am not taking out the Macan for a few days I charge with the Macan locked and the hood and windows closed."

 

[MarkTr]

(I can never get multi Quote to work for me on this forum)
wspollack & Mark TR, Great job with your testing!


Re MarkTr’s testing, I find it very surprising that apparently the load from the car waking up & from unlocking & opening door can drop the battery voltage from ~ 100%% charged to only 50-60%!

Forgot to answer. It could be that my AGM has low capacity. It had its battery installed 8/18 and has pretty much been not driven. In the US it has been sitting in a dealer's lot with only 5500 loaner miles. This fact alone puts it the "non-warranty" coverage from disuse.

I would not take my values as normal- I would trust the indication that there are different loads on the battery when the Macan is in different configurations. And that the Macan electrical system tries to manage these loads to preserve the battery.

 

[MarkTr]

When you charge your Macan, do you always check the battery voltage with your MM, after charge finished & charger disconnected?

I do. I used to get 12.7 V or slightly higher & now get just under 12.6 V so ~ 95%. Which I assume is bc my Macan battery is > 4 years old. I suspect this will progress over time so, in future I'll be only able to charge to 90% & then 80% etc.

Yes- I always measure Voltage at the charger connector with the Macan locked and charge finished. My voltage initially starts at 13.5V as soon as I pull the charger off and hook up the Fluke--and then drops to 12.7V. There is still some parasitic loads dragging down the Voltage even with the Macan locked for 24 hours.

I have not run a capacity check on my battery yet-- still using the same voltage value-to-% charge you use. I could go down to Autozone and borrow their capacity tester to get a feel.

 

[MarkTr]

I have a huge old battery load tester that has a twist knob that you use to remove the surface charge before you read the voltage and look to see what color region the needle is in. The colors indicate the "condition" of the battery.

 

[MarkTr]

40 miles x 2 x 52 = =~4K miles. Nowhere close to the minimum 6K for warranty coverage. So what do you think?



This is true for your 911 too. There are some here who put on 15K per year. They might get 6 years. The other thing not good for you is location. Heat is a killer.



38/5 = 7,600 miles. Your good. And, you are doing it right. The killer is driving the car 5 miles, make a stop, 8 miles, get lunch, 3 miles, stop at a store, 5 miles home. Thats 21 miles but FOUR starts. The car is not being driven long enough to get recharged from starting. So the battery drains. That kind of driving is "severe" driving. It deserves the "severe" maintenance schedule and not the routine schedule. Most people drive like this. Stop and go traffic is bad. Lots of red lights is bad. OTOH, highway miles are easy miles.

Your temps are good too. Sounds like few 90+ days and no freezing days. No big variance. Heat is the killer. Batteries in the south go quickly compared to batteries in the north. They say the heat "ages" the batteries and then the cold "kills" the battery. I've seen at least two people the other day getting jump starts and car towed. And its not even cold (thank you global warming, its been a mild winter ).

I've been doing this a long time, that is, worrying about these stupid batteries about 12 years. The Porsches just don't get driven enough. They are just toys. Wife goes to the store, 4 miles, comes home 4 miles. Not driven enough. Go get Groceries? Sure, 5 miles each way. These are all killer activities. No long 20 mile rides each way. I have to go drive to just drive to do that. I know the batteries are dying. So, they go on a tender once a week to get a full charge. Its the price of ownership. I did this today. Everything I need to go to is within maybe 6 mile radius. 4 miles to small shopping center then home. 3 miles to a restaurant and home. All "bad" driving.

However, I'm not going to get an analyzer. When @iconoclast talked about it, I looked at them. I see the Clore version. Topdon gets a lot of reviews. The best seems to be Foxwell at twice the price. I see some do give the exact numbers and others like the CTEK version just tell you good or bad. Its too much information. I'd look at it and worry about it. Instead, I PLAN for the battery to die.

Feb 9, 2014

How did we ever live without all these digital toys?

BTW, one thing to watch out for is anecdotal data. Some people will say "I got 8 years and good". So what? What is the average? What are the conditions. Were the miles all highway miles at 70 degrees or was he in the desert, 110 in summer? How about ice and cold? Anecdotal data is meaningless.

I'm beginning to think a better idea is this CTEK CTX Battery Sense

But this BT device gets virtually no reviews, no one buying it? There are a few others but they just don't get many reviews on Amazon or anywhere else.

Grim-- I would assume that the Porsche battery warning system which monitors the battery is using the same or similar technology as the small handhelds and perhaps sensor module of the CTX. It just flashes yellow or red.

 

[MarkTr]

That is why the first thing I did when I bought my SE is to install a hardwire connector directly to the terminals so I can easily attach my Ctec.

As far as judging the true health of the battery--- I am thinking that the yellow or red battery warning light could be based upon capacity testing that the BCS constantly measures. When the yellow battery light pops on you know that you need to start looking for a new battery.