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Charging the Macan

184K views 1.1K replies 103 participants last post by  JoeInBucks  
#1 ·
Caveat: The following is information only. Caveat Emptor. These products are not Porsche official products and your use is on you. What has worked for me, and the risks I take, might not work for you. The following is, in good faith, correct to my knowledge. If anything is wrong, say so and lets correct it. I’ve used a CTEK faithfully for almost 12 years, using it hundreds of times. They work. Most of this comes from experience, some gathered from info within the forum and there's too many people to credit or find who said what, from their trial and error, so I'd attribute it to the entire forum.

There are many threads on charging the battery or general battery information. Here are some:

New Battery what battery maintainer to buy
Replacing the Battery
Battery tender takes Forever
Are 12V outlets on late '15's coded to accept trickle chargers?

I’m going to try to give step-by-step directions on how to charge a Macan with a CTEK smart charger. CTEKs seem to be the de facto, go to smart charger for Porsches, for maybe a decade. AFAIK, Porsche chargers are rebranded CTEKs. This does not mean you can’t use anything else, but rather its what I know. YMMV. Try anything at your own risk. Feel free to add how to use any other charger to the thread. Here is the North American website for CTEK.

If you care about warranty, there are authorized dealers and CTEK specifically warns you against using unauthorized dealers. There are many versions of the CTEK but for general purposes, lets focus solely on what should work. Ignore the .8, 3.3, and 25 Amp versions and focus on the 4.3 and 7 Amp versions. There is also a 4.3 Amp polar version good to -22F. Otherwise, they are good to -4F. The versions have evolved to now the user interface shows 8 lights or there is the CT5 version that gives the number of hours left to finish charging. The 3300 does not have the capacity to charge the 92AH Macan Battery topping at 90 AH. The 4.3 Amp versions are good to 110 AH and the 7 amp version much higher. The 7 Amp will also provide constant power to the car while the others 4.3 will not. These are not Jump Packs. If you need a jump pack, then there are many small lithium versions or larger AGM battery jump packs like the Clore Jump N Carry. These units should not overcharge a battery. This isn't your grandpa's trickle charger. For a good overview of what is going on watch:


Like many others, I discovered the hard way that if you don’t drive modern Porsches every day, the battery dies. It’s as simple as this. I know I was pretty upset. My sports car was two years old and stranded with a dead battery. I had to call AAA for a jump and visit the dealer for a new battery. That was so much fun. :rolleyes: Porsche warns you to use a battery maintainer under certain circumstances. For example, from the New Car Limited Warranty & Customer Information Model Year 2019

"Your Responsibility for Normal Vehicle Use .
.. A battery maintainer is available at your local authorized Porsche dealer. It must be used to maintain your vehicle’s battery state of charge if your vehicle will not be used for several days.)"
“must be used”. It goes on to talk about 6,000 miles per rolling year. That’s about 16 miles/day. And so I learned that whatever I knew about other cars, no longer applied and no amount of being upset about it would matter. If a Porsche isn’t driven in a week, I plug it in to top off the battery. In the winter with colder temperatures outside, I might do it more often. I have used the 4.3 on the old style battery and the AGM. I do not think you are supposed to use the recondition mode on AGM. I have used it on the non-AGM battery and it worked. The 5 Amp version does have a recondition mode for AGM. I only use the snowflake mode on the AGM batteries. I’ve also used the tiny battery option on the 4.3 to charge a small motorcycle size battery used in a generator. It worked fine and it wasn’t on snowflake mode. In the following, Jay is holding up a 4.3. If its good enough for Jay, its good enough for me.


Determine whatever size meets your needs. I settled on the 4.3 because at the time I bought it, the 3300 did not have the 8 lights and the 7 Amp seemed like overkill. There are many accessories for CTEKs. You can see them all on their website.

I've found the 8’ extension valuable.


I find the rubber bumper a must have. Who wants to accidentally bang a metal box against the body work? CTEK Bumper 56-915

This is the cigarette lighter adapter


Eyelets. Caution, there are different sizes

The units might be splashproof but I doubt they are waterproof. If you use this outside, I would be wary of rain, ice, sleet, snow, or any precipitation.

How to connect the unit:

In the sports cars, the eyelet connectors can be directly connected to the battery permanently. The eyelet connector cap has an o-ring sealed from weather. It can be snaked through the windshield wipers opening, put a baggie on top for extra protection and then the car charged without opening anything. Unfortunately, the Macan battery is in the worst possible place I can image for ease of access, buried under the hatch floor, under the spare. Who is going to try to get to that in a snowstorm to jump the car? Watch around 2:30. There is no easy way to put the eyelets on because the connector does not unscrew.


@JoeInBucks mentions making some other kind of U connector but anything made is a jury rig. This was not designed to add anything onto it. Then there is the problem of how to run the cord out. The eyelet accesory probably isn’t long enough so you’d need to use the extension cord and where does it lie? Many people use a SUV as a SUV and throw all kinds of stuff in the hatch, probably not paying attention to where things land. I’d end up damaging the cord. I consider this a non-starter. This brings us to the connections under the hood for jump starting.

You can connect to the terminals under the hood, with the alligator clips and it does work. In order to close the hood, the clip has to lie nearly flat.

Image


The positive terminal is a tight fit to the bolt

Image


I’ve seen Macans in dealerships charging this way. But, that’s in a showroom with the hood up. The upside to this method is that if the power goes out, then the CTEK should restart from the beginning, quickly going through the 8 steps to the point it left off. However, if it were in pulse mode, I’d expect it would wait 10 days before going back to pulse mode.

There are two downsides. First, constantly opening and closing the hood is an aggravation. The hood release feels like a cheap piece of plastic that could break one day. The hood is huge and you need to get the clips to lay flat if closing the hood. Second, the moment you open the hood, then close it, you cannot get an oil level reading until you drive maybe 10 miles or so. YMMV. The downsides to this seem to outweigh the positive. Unless fear of a power outage is real, I do not see this as a reasonable solution with the alligator clips.

The last way to charge is via the cigarette lighter adapter. I don't know if the other outlets will work. Somewhere back around 2015, somebody mentioned that you could get the dealer to "code" the lighter to remain hot. I haven't seen this can happen recently. So this is under the assumption it shuts down after some short period of time.

Before going into the steps, there is one huge downside to all of this, and that's the user interface. It seems thats its mired in the mid-2000s while the world has moved on to "there's an app for that". By this I mean that I can sit somewhere else, BBQ some steaks, and know exactly the temperature of the pit and the internal temp of the steaks, remotely by looking at a tiny device or an app on a phone. I can turn lights on/off in the house from anywhere in the world. Yet, in order to see the status of these devices, one has to physically go to them and look at some lights. First world problems to be sure but IMO 10 year old technology. IMO, there should be an app for that, to include remote turning the unit on and off, as well as to know, reasonably close, the number of minutes left to finish charging. In 2008 this felt like magic, bringing a dead battery back to life. Today, the user interface, IMO, feels old. That's not criticism of the charging technology but my opinion that society has got me used to just looking at a phone, and getting an immediate answer.

Continued in the next post.
 
#889 ·
Solar BA9 by Clore Automotive is ~ $50.
This will be an inexpensive way for you to measure state of health for any battery. (S.O.H)
State of health is measured as a percentage of the measured CCA/spec CCA.

So if your battery measures 110 CCA and the specification is 900 CCA… SOH = 90%.


I think Clore is a USA company, unlike many Automotive tools, which are made by Chinese companies.


I bought mine from Amazon but, not the third-party seller JB tools.
 
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#890 ·
The more I read up on chargers, the more I don't want to use this Noco 10A charger of mine....especially on the regular lead acid with lower capacity. Yuasa EFB even recommends around 3-6A for charging. Ignorance is bliss.
 
#892 ·
Ctek Reconditioning does work on flooded batteries. It gave me about another year on my Cayman battery.

Ctek Reconditioning does NOTHING on AGM batteries, direct from ctek support




Reconding an AGM battery … does not help … , so we cannot recommend recond program on AGM batteries ….

Do NOT trust the BMS, they go bad and give false readings, trust the BA on the battery terminals

Do not take voltage readings from the jump points, they will be false

Do not trust the internet charts on AGM SOC. Trust your BA

Do not use CCA common for American cars, use DIN on the battery for SOH

YMMV
 
#893 ·
That's a little odd about the reconditioning of AGM batteries with the CTEK MXS 5.0 since the MXS has a specific AGM - Recondition program (in addition to a specific recondition program for non-AGM) and the FAQ / Support page for the MXS does not mention not reconditioning AGM's.

FAQ - NA - MUS4.3, MXS5.0 & variants (ctek.com)
 
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#896 · (Edited)
15.8V is just the voltage limit the CTEK outputs. In case of the weakest imaginable battery, no car electronics should be harmed. In case the battery is in better state, the CTEK "hammers" on the battery with 5amp spikes, to literally get rid of the sulphur crust without letting the voltage rise above 15.8V.
 
#899 · (Edited)
Just came back after 2 weeks, Macan battery practically empty, 11.5V left, after opening the locked car and waiting 30mins. Funny thing was, after hooking up the CTEK under the hood, while measuring the voltage via CAN plug (in car's idle state the same reading within 10mV as at the jump posts) it did rise to some plateau at 12.4V quickly and charged to 14.65V over night. Assuming the charge state was at that voltage level around 12.4V it was about half full. This corresponded to some 10h charging at 5A to almost full. Starting the Macan and MFD voltage reading was OK. Wonder about this voltage drop to 11.5V, eventually one battery cell defective...

Rem 1: Drove 180km autobahn afterwards, no fault messages after this event, MFD battery display first at 12.1- 12.2V, then later rising up to 13.x V. After parking the car and waiting for an hour, 12.55V (= around 3/4 charged @7c) with a CAN-Bus plug adapter to leave the car untouched, when measuring.
I am really curious, what the situation will be tomorrow morning...

Rem 2: Next morning, after 21h, car not locked overnight, I measure 12.49V, which corresponds to a battery discharge of around 5% over 1d (derived from the a. m. battery voltage calculator as a differential, which could be reasonable. This cuts out some imperfection in the absolute charge level in that model). This is quite high, considering a 95Ah battery, almost 5Ah in 24h, which corresponds to an average discharge current of 0.2A, even with disabled alarm, due to unlocked doors. Pretty high, this needs to be investigated further.
After a 10km ride to the supermarket and back with front seats and steering wheel heating on, the alternator heavily charged @15.3V (MFD), leaving a battery voltage of 12.46V and 1h parking.
One can conclude from this that a short ride with heavy load from the seat and steering wheel heating is not enough to keep the battery charge level (from the day before). Next check tomorrow morning...

Rem 3: And here comes the surprise, after another night, coming from 12.46V the day before, today exactly the same voltage 12.46V (similar ambient temperatures between 0-5c)! Today, we will probably not use the car, so I'll leave the DVM connected and see what happens next.
Another thing to test could be the influence whether the car is locked or left open, measuring the influence of the alarm system.

It looks to me as if the Macan PCM does some irregular "nightshifts" to update SW (systems & nav maps), eventually repeating them if no wireless connection to public data networks was possible (the car is parked in a low field strength area) or even to our mobile phones via BT, since we were away...this might have led to the almost discharged battery after 2 weeks of absence!?
 
#902 · (Edited)
Just coming back to the quoted battery charge calculator avove.
Just found their "polynomial fit to data" calculation claim to be a perfect straight line at a given temperature.
To make it easy for mental calculation: [Full]V = [Empty]V + 1.00V, so every 10mV equal to 1% discharge.

Probably as good as any other method, charge your battery, drain the excess charge voltage (wait 1d or unload some few mins with ignition on) yields a 100% capacity value, subtract 1V and you know when the battery is empty. Every 0.01V step down in between is 1% discharge.;)
Have you checked that the battery post clamps are secure? I would remove them, roughen up the posts and re install to be sure and to avoid erroneous data.
Everything perfect, full SOH measured at the battery clamps (even when weakly charged).
Guess it was the PCM doing update stuff meantime. An indicator was that there was an immidiate discharge (~5Ah) the night after I charged the battery, then almost nothing anymore.
Since the battery was empty (by definition), the PCM stopped and then recovered operation when it detected the full battery.
Afterwards, voltage is now dropping by (very) roughly 10mV/24h (car not touched, not locked, just measured), which may be regarded as acceptable. Maybe discharging ~1Ah per day...
Still need to compare this to the locked car state, with activated alarm .


BTW. Need to correct my self with the straight line discharge claim from above, it is an S-curve turning at 50% charge level.
But the deviation at 25/75% is some 5%, so just an indication of a plateau around 50% (...nothing what the milk maid cares about)
 
#911 · (Edited)
So I got my new Genius5 and hooked it up yesterday. 12 hrs passed and I went to bed with the full lights on (>80%). This morning I woke up and saw only 2 lights. Basically <50% level based. What could possibly have happened or is happening? 2 hrs later it's back to full lights. Very odd.

I noticed my door wasn’t locked this morning, but could that be the reason …and why?
 
#916 · (Edited)
The problem is the Macan never sleeps, no matter if e.g. driver's door isn't closed completely and alarm is therefore not active, or all doors locked and alarm is active.
Independant of this there are routines running from time to time, which consume much more energy than the above.
I measured several days when the Macan drained the battery by just about 10mV/24h. Then, suddenly 50mV over one night.
Very rough estimation means 10mV drop correspond to about 1Ah of battery drain and 50mV about 5Ah with maybe +/-50% accuracy (my Macan AGM battery DIN-rated 92Ah).

But if the battery (assuming still good) would really discharge from full to half over night you would notice something making noise, some main lights on, sthg getting warm, or better said burn and smell and you would probably get an error message.

A simple way to check is to connect a DVM directly to the battery or the jump start posts and check what really happens during charging.

When my battery showed empty by voltage reading (SoC - 11.5V after 30mins idle time with no engine start before, just unlock and open the car after 2 weeks of absence), 5A CTEK charging raised the battery voltage to a 12.4V reading after about a quarter to half an hour, then it took another 10h to finish charging in bulk/absorbtion mode, meaning the battery was about half full before, despite the low voltage. The battery was still rated as good as new (100% SoH) by my Porsche shop afterwards and my own evaluation before.
 
#917 ·
So if you leave the car unlocked, the cigarette lighter doesn’t shut off? Supposed to auto shut off after 30 mins correct? I have a Garmin Mini dash cam plugged in on that and that may have been the drain but that’s just a dash cam compared to a charger that’s capable of charging up to 5A.

So anyways I’ve simulated coming home forgetting to unplug the dash cam (sometimes I do) and neglecting to lock the vehicle too. I’ll check after 30 mins.

The charger was on single green light which indicated full charge, but when I started the car and shut it off after 20s, it went back to the 2 lights (50%). 20mins later ~80%. I guess that’s how long it goes thru the process of analyzing the battery.

Understanding this car and its battery is ….scratches head.
 
#918 ·
So if you leave the car unlocked, the cigarette lighter doesn’t shut off? Supposed to auto shut off after 30 mins correct? I have a Garmin Mini dash cam plugged in on that and that may have been the drain but that’s just a dash cam compared to a charger that’s capable of charging up to 5A.

So anyways I’ve simulated coming home forgetting to unplug the dash cam (sometimes I do) and neglecting to lock the vehicle too. I’ll check after 30 mins.

The charger was on single green light which indicated full charge, but when I started the car and shut it off after 20s, it went back to the 2 lights (50%). 20mins later ~80%. I guess that’s how long it goes thru the process of analyzing the battery.

Understanding this car and its battery is ….scratches head.
Are you trying to get your battery charged?

Are you trying to do this through the cigar lighter port? If so, it is possible using a CTEK charger. Connect the charger to the Macan,
turn to ON, then OFF, lock the Macan, plug in the CTEK. It will complete an entire charging process.

If you're messing around and taking battery readings and/or SOH readings...


Check this discussion thread's title
 
#920 ·
Yeah, battery chemistry is challenging to fully understand, still contemplating about this voltage drop.

As said, I've never used the cigarette lighter for charging, since the charger plug tends to pop out or give bad contact, even after a while when OK before. So I didn't check the 30mins thing.
When I got the Macan new I thought I could recharge it via CAN-Bus plug during menu exploration/configuration, this turned out to be not effective, voltage drop @5A charging current is too high, but it is good enough for measurement (had built a CAN-Bus adapter power cable). So I used this for long term voltage measurement with open or locked car...(independent charging done via the jump start posts and CTEK adapter under the hood).

After starting the engine it is of course always a new game when charging afterwards. Start current unloads all excessive voltage from charging before, so your charger recharges from less than 12.7V, so an inaccurate initial charging state display is comprehensible.
 
#923 ·
Some more misunderstandings to resolve here.

1) A 5A power supply will supply a steady 5A. BUT a 5A smart charger will provide up to 5A during the period of time it is needed, but not after that when it goes into a maintenance mode. Details will vary by smart charger maker. You CAN NOT rely on a smart charger to provide a reliable steady current. They are "smart", only if you are about what to expect from them. Specifically, relying on a smart charger to cope with discharges that vary over time in an unexpected way is not a sure thing.

2) In my own experience, the Macan will shut off power to cigarette / cigar lighter and accessory ports after about 30 minutes WHETHER OR NOT the car is locked.... UNLESS you are charging through those ports in which case I have not seen the connection interrupted even after weeks or even after a power failure drops charging and then resumes later.

For me, accessory port charging has been reliable on and off for over a year and a half. Your experience may be different. I highly suspect that those who have had issues have either not seen to it that the connection is closed by connecting the charger within 30 minutes of shutting off the engine or have not turned the ignition on briefly while connected and charging or have had the plug in connection fail somehow or be moved loose. If using a CTEK charger, make sure that one of the upper row charging LEDs is lit before walking away. The lower row LEDs only signify WHICH charging mode is selected and DO NOT indicate that charging is taking place. CTEK could make their user interface more clear than it is.
 
#924 ·
2) my experience is not the same. Center cig plug shuts off after 30 mins when locked…. however didn’t when unlocked. Chargers were hooked in the engine bay, not cig plug. I can’t remember if I’ve connected the chargers within 30mins of shutting the engine. Myb I’ll test it tomorrow.

Shut engine hood. Connect the battery (hood is open). Lock the car. Wait 32 mins and see if my dash cam is off / on by then.
 
#926 · (Edited)
From what I have seen in the (not up to date) Macan schematics, there is only one relay (SOCKETS RELAY; controlled by the front BCM) which turns off power to the front "cigarette lighter" connector (CENTER CONSOLE CIGAR LIGHTER), rear seat area power connector (REAR CENTER CONSOLE REAR PLUG SOCKET 1; which is an USB connector nowadays) and trunk connector (LUGGAGE COMPARTMENT SOCKET). Front and rear connectors have different fuses though.
There is also some "emergency" (battery cut off) relay, which is able to cut power from the battery to the jump start posts and all the electronics in front, in case of airbag tripping to avoid fires.
Anyway, all traditional "sockets" are controlled at once and are independent of e.g. interior lighting turning off after a door wasn't closed (properly). However the new USB connectors may be dependent from the PCM...


A late rem:
The question remains as to how the BCM recognizes a connected charger. There are no connector sensors (which detect physically plugged connectors), only the battery voltage sensor.
I suspect that the BCM detects both absolute voltage and voltage change.
At low battery voltage (no charging, e.g. <11.x V) it will turn off the sockets to protect the battery, at high voltage (after or during charging, e.g. >13.x V) it's easily detected as well, since the battery itself will not keep such a high voltage without being charged.
Interesting case is when the battery was low and is currently charged, but within the assumed voltage range above. Then the only way to detect a charger is to look at a slowly rising battery voltage.

This creates some uncertainty as to what happens ("what the BCM thinks") if there is a charger power failure, or if the charger finishes bulk charging and shuts down (to a minimal maintenance current, less than the Macans idle loads - incl. OTA updates, key or keyless-entry system activation to stand-by mode), or the charger trying to sense the battery's residual/open circuit voltage, or enters a "pulse" mode. In such cases, depending on the charger's maintenance strategy, long-term maintenance could fail...

Directly connected chargers (to the battery or jump start posts) do not involve the above sketched BCM/charger interaction, nor potentially unreliable connectors.
 
#927 ·
This is REALLY good information. Thanks for providing it !

Following your line of reasoning: For the Macan provide a sustained connection to the battery from the power ports after a charger is detected (within 30 minutes of ignition off), I'm guessing that it is firmware driven. i.e. Once a reverse current is detected, it causes the connection to remain connected despite what subsequent voltages are detected and even when there is a power failure to the charger and power and charging are resumed later. With no device sensing this set of events other than the battery management device, it must be responsible for this capability, not an electric device. The logic probably resets to default with a new ignition startup. What do you think ?
 
#931 ·
So, the question still remains unanswered as to how is the decision made to disconnect or to keep the power sockets connected ? I tried to ask PCNA (Porsche Cars North America) this very question and they refused to answer it for me, instead sending me to a dealer. It seems ridiculous to have to conduct our own testing to discover what Porsche knows, somewhere in the bowels of the company. I can't help but think that there is some evil engineer in the company who reads our posts and laughs at us as we try to figure out what that person knows. Anyway...

I have observed that my CTEK MULTI US 7002 will remain connected long (days or weeks) after it goes into maintenance mode, and regardless of whether there is a power failure (once power is restored to the charger). This argues for my theory (unproven) that once the "decision" is made to retain the connection in tact, nothing but an engine re-start will cause it to go back to its default behavior (disconnect 30 minutes after ignition shut off unless a charger is connected within that time frame).

While I have not tested every possible scenario and time frame, it seems to be reasonable to assume that IF the connection remains in tact following power failures and NO charging (as would be the case during maintenance mode) or low levels of charging AFTER THE INITIAL "decision" is made to keep the connection in operation, we all would be guessing that there is also some logic to disconnect the sockets at some point. I have tried to get that to happen and can not make it do so in any way that would affect my usage case.

Most people can argue that using the jump posts is more reliable (if more inconvenient) BUT it MAY NOT be the case. We really do not know for sure.
 
#932 ·
So, the question still remains unanswered as to how is the decision made to disconnect or to keep the power sockets connected ? I tried to ask PCNA (Porsche Cars North America) this very question and they refused to answer it for me, instead sending me to a dealer. It seems ridiculous to have to conduct our own testing to discover what Porsche knows, somewhere in the bowels of the company. I can't help but think that there is some evil engineer in the company who reads our posts and laughs at us as we try to figure out what that person knows. Anyway...

I have observed that my CTEK MULTI US 7002 will remain connected long (days or weeks) after it goes into maintenance mode, and regardless of whether there is a power failure (once power is restored to the charger). This argues for my theory (unproven) that once the "decision" is made to retain the connection in tact, nothing but an engine re-start will cause it to go back to its default behavior (disconnect 30 minutes after ignition shut off unless a charger is connected within that time frame).

While I have not tested every possible scenario and time frame, it seems to be reasonable to assume that IF the connection remains in tact following power failures and NO charging (as would be the case during maintenance mode) or low levels of charging AFTER THE INITIAL "decision" is made to keep the connection in operation, we all would be guessing that there is also some logic to disconnect the sockets at some point. I have tried to get that to happen and can not make it do so in any way that would affect my usage case.

Most people can argue that using the jump posts is more reliable (if more inconvenient) BUT it MAY NOT be the case. We really do not know for sure.
Interesting postulate, eventually they did program something like this, what about other's experiences in this forum about the subject?
Concerning Porsche`s reaction, I think they just want limit potential discussion since probably nobody is working on this BCM SW anymore, so no one to ask any more (think how long the Macan is on the market...)
 
#934 ·
2 tests:

My Macan was connected to the CTEK MULTI US 7002 for a few days with the green upper LED lit (maintenance mode). I disconnected the charger from the rear power socket and left it for a minute. After about 20 seconds the CTEK upper LED went out and the lower LED remained on confirming that it was still powered up but not doing anything. When I plugged into the car's rear socket again the CTEK upper LEDs lit up in sequence from left to right as they normally would indicating that it had resumed charging and that the connection to the battery was good..

I then removed power from the CTEK AND unplugged it from the rear socket. I already know that with only power removed from the CTEK while still plugged in to the rear socket, that upon resumption of its power, it would go right back to charging the car and the Macan would allow this with a socket connection that still works. I want to see if removing the unpowered CTEK from a connection wth the car will allow the car to still allow charging to resume once everything is re-connected after 3 hours with nothing connected. I left the car locked with the rear hatch up for the entire time (it's in my garage). Will be back later with the results.
 
#935 ·
After 3 hours with nothing connected to the car, the CTEK was plugged into the rear hatch area power socket and powered up. It went right back to charging with the upper LEDs lighting up in sequence indicating a connection to the battery.

Who will try the test next ?
 
#937 · (Edited)
Yeah, go ahead testing!
I haven't tested charging via the cigarette lighter socket yet because our parking position in the garage doesn't allow the tailgate to be opened.
In the '23 version the front lighter socket is hidden away by some rubber mat in the can holder, but it is still there. Never invested in that CTEK cigarette lighter adapter due to my bad experiences with misfitting mobile phone chargers and other appliances (air pumps, flood lights etc.). All chargers had to be reworked or fitted with pads to secure them.
If I would ever use the lighter sockets, I would replace them with a fitting round 12/24V DIN/Merit (HELLA) connector. They are inexpensive and reliable.

I am still collecting material for my permanent external Magcode 15A charging/sourcing solution. Yesterday I had the "plenum" and B+ distributor terminal covers off (latter carries the jump start post) to check for available connection points. B+ is no problem, an eyelet can be simply added on top of an existing thread bolt. Also found a suitable ground point in the schematics (GP-15), still needs to be verified...this way one can keep the car locked, no cables through door seals and the waterproof external socket remains switched off until the mating connector is plugged...
 
#939 ·
I understand your concern about a plug-in adapter causing fit and potential reliability problems. I was very pleased to discover that the CTEK connector works flawlessly for me and has never caused me an issue.

I also respect that the solution you are working on is extremely elegant and in the end may be better for you and others with similar use cases. My own solution works wonderfully well for me because I have the luxury of parking in a secure private garage where the rear hatch is very close to a power outlet.
 
#938 ·
...and here is another idea concerning defined charging the Macan through the cigarette sockets:
There is this sockets relay in the schematics, when pulling it out and inserting an appropriate jumper/bridge in the relays socket, you will gain a permanent-on solution (fuses still work). No 30mins issues or turn-off problems anymore...charging forever! The only thing is you are responsible to control all plugged appliances' power consumption (like phone chargers, cameras, plus the new rear seat USB-plug charger?) to protect the battery from getting drained over time.
 
#940 ·
...and here is another idea concerning defined charging the Macan through the cigarette sockets:
There is this sockets relay in the schematics, when pulling it out and inserting an appropriate jumper/bridge in the relays socket, you will gain a permanent-on solution (fuses still work). No 30mins issues or turn-off problems anymore...charging forever! The only thing is you are responsible to control all plugged appliances' power consumption (like phone chargers, cameras, plus the new rear seat USB-plug charger?) to protect the battery from getting drained over time.
A nice idea with its own pros and cons which you have described.
 
#944 · (Edited)
Finally installed the MagCode Pro charging/sourcing connector to my Macan T. The unused air intakes of the 2.0 engine are ideal to reach from both sides.

Fortunately the hole came out precisely. Glued (water soluble) a printed paper template (.ppt) on the plactic cover for drilling and filing the catch. Turned out to be very effective to achieve a quarter right-angled offset for symmetrical bayonet closure.
Image


The mounted MagCode socket. Lots of space behind, took the boost pressure sensor out to reach the inside by hand. Sealed with a Butyl string applied on the MagCode washer and pressed into gaps with by tightening the nut.
Image


Homemade 2.5mm² wiring harness and click-on fuse holder (15A) in the back of the jump start post's cover. Grounded on an unused ground post on top of the left wing area. Screwed the hot wire on top of a used threaded post next to the jump start post. No need to disconnect the battery or other leads.
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With connected bayonet MagCode Pro plug and 7m of super fine stranded 4mm² cable to the CTEK on the rear wall.
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Looks like around 0.1 Ohms total from the CTEK connector to the jump start posts according to voltage drop.
 
#945 · (Edited)
[/QUOTE]
It would be better if we had better data and more data to evaluate. You are correct, some people have reported problems using a power socket for long term charging. I am concerned that we do not really know why. There are a few possibilities that could explain this while still allowing for my theory to be true at the same time. e.g.
  • charger not set up to charge properly by making the connection while the ignition is on or within 30 minutes of an ignition shut down. i.e. charger is connected and on BUT no upper level LED is lit. This is an easy mistake to make on a CTEK charger or any charger.
  • plug in connection coming loose. Although, simply plugging it back it should get charging / maintaining again work. I need to test this as I have only tried unplugging power to the charger while it is still plugged into the socket.
  • different charger designs, cars, regions etc - variables that may cause the system to work differently

Given your apparent expertise and involvement with the subject, i invite you to do the same test I did. Get everything plugged in and working, lock the car, then remove power to the charger for 2 hours or more. Re-apply power and see if the charger resumes charging with the socket connection in tact.

I extend this invitation to others too. It would be interesting to see what results others obtain.
After I had installed a DIN power socket in the trunk of my Fiat500c for charging its lightweight (-9Kg less on the front axle, compared to AGM!) battery and an electric tire pump, etc., I also ordered some newly developed configurable cigarette/DIN plugs, basically fitting in any car outlet (quite well!).

So I hooked up the Macan's hidden cigarette lighter socket and tried out several things regarding its power status.

Interesting findings are:

- A locked or unlocked Macan T didn't have an influence, neither door opening or closing during the 30mins phase.

- It looks that a ONCE connected OPERATING charger let's the socket relay keep power on for more than 30mins (after ignition off, tested >1 hour), probably permanently, until the ignition is turned on again and afterwards NO significant charging takes place for >30mins. The socket relay is also only released (switched off) when the battery voltage is below 12.9V after ignition on/off, detected 30mins later!

- The charging hookup (cigarette lighter/trunk sockets or jump start/battery terminals) makes no difference keeping the sockets relay supplying power to the sockets, even if nothing is connected to them!


...and that means, a ONCE connected charger within the first 30mins after ignition off, will keep the Macans power sockets on, even after the charger had been disconnected. Considering the power consumption of the socket relay itself plus electronics (eventually associated rear USB-charging outlets) leaves an additional significant idle load to the battery, draining it significantly faster than expected.


This could have been the reason why my battery was almost down after 2 weeks absence. I did charge charge the Macan directly before leaving and then removed the charger. Probably the socket relay electronics was on for the whole time and additionally drained the battery.


My 2 cents for longer parking periods is therefore,

- to keep a charger connected for the whole time

or

- do a one-time battery charge AFTER 30mins of ignition off (which wouldn't work on the sockets, which is some kind of deadlock!), then remove the charger to obtain minimum idle drain.
 
#946 ·
...and more regarding charging the Macan:

I was tired of hooking up a DVM all the time to the MagCode connector to analyze what the battery charge state was.
So I installed this BT DVM module (BatteryGuard) with Smartphone App right to the battery poles. It lets you check voltages and other stuff from the distance, even from the parked car in garage into the building (<10m but brick walls). The inner case of this module is even IP67 protected and operates from -30 to 80°C. Drilling two holes for small zippers into the outer honeycombed structure and 4 according ones into the battery case cover fixes the module properly and provides an astonishingly good BT radio connection from the subfloor trunk.
Btw., the current consumption of the module is on average a negligible 1 to 2 mA, price about 22€...

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Below is the App view. I am using the German vendors App version, so the GUI is in German, but there are other vendors with other language support for sure (probably always the same SW and HW from China, but vendor specific adapted)

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The real interesting thing I found out regarding keeping the battery in a healthy state is watching out for long periods, where the battery idle! voltage drops below 12.4V (Varta recommended limit, my preferred one because of the Macan idle load dropping the ideal battery idle voltage a bit) or 12.5V (Banner).
The measurement above was taken directly after moving the car in the garage twice incl. locking and unlocking, so the displayed voltage is not the final idle voltage after recovery, typ. reached some 3h after leaving the car alone. Also one can immediately see when the car electronics is activated over the internet, e.g. when using the My Porsche App via CarConnect, the idle voltage drops immediately by a quarter Volt or so for some minutes.

This way one can judge whenever it is really necessary to hook up a charger to Macan to obtain max. battery life without doing it every time.
 
#947 ·
After all, I think I made a big advance now in keeping the Macan battery properly charged.

Since my wife and myself (together w wife) are driving mostly in Normal Drive Mode, there is always this regularly implemented Micro Hybrid function active (but not in Sport/Sport+ modes).
One part of it is the Start/Stop function, which can be disabled by activating the Start/Stop button memory function (was originally not activated in my German Macan build),
the other, more important function, is regenerative battery charging while braking (Rekuperation).
This seems responsible for keeping the battery idle voltage (or charge level; ~12.5V-12.6V) quite low, sometimes this leads to the battery falling below the recommended operating voltage (>12.4-12.5V).
This leaves almost no extra capacity for long time parking (e.g. at airports), frequent opening and closing the Macan or wireless Car-Connect and automatic map upgrades (while not starting the Macan).
To overcome the poor battery charge level in Normal Driving Mode usage scenarios, it is possible to deactivate the Rekuperation function, hosted in the Macan's Gateway module, by disabling the REK functions.
After a few days testing, the battery idle voltage now remains around healthy 12.9V or 100% SoC, which gives a nice capacity margin for various situations, avoids extra re-charging and even preserves generator and poly-V belt.
 
#948 ·
I'm seeking informed opinions about trickle charging my 2022 Macan S. It often sits for 1 to 3 weeks at a time so I usually put an AGM compatible trickle charger on it every 7 to 10 days to keep it topped off. The trickle charger often will take 2+ days to fully charge it. Am I extending the life of the battery or doing any harm?
Thanks for your input