Charging Batteries in modern vehicles

**The_Hawk** · 09-05-2015, 11:21 AM

Charging batteries in the car? Whats the go?

Things like CTEK talk about "safe to use in place"?
www.ctek.com

And there is a range of options from places like SCA that look like they have similar features:
Supercheap Auto - Search Results for charger

And then there is the old school $30 jobs form KMart with no features at all. I already have one of these sitting in the garage that I sued to use to charge the VR6 battery in place, something I never had issues with. But with the MKVI there is a few more electronicy bits that I don't want to go bang.

So what's the go? Do I need a fancier charger if I don't want to disconnect the battery? If so, what's recommended and where can I get one in SE Melbourne?

**brad** · 09-05-2015, 12:00 PM

Ctek - will do everything. You only need spend about $100

**The_Hawk** · 09-05-2015, 01:34 PM

The van is 12.xxV dipping to 10.xxV on cranking, so is fine...
The Cab on the other hand is reading 11V and dips down to 7V on cranking... It's getting a lot of very short runs at the moment so I might get away with a decent charge... But it's just over 3 years old and those short trips aren't likely to change so a new battery might be on the cards too.

**brad** · 09-05-2015, 01:53 PM

I'm surprised the ECU is allowing the Cab to start.

Did that model come with a big mofo battery or was that the period when they were fitting the small batteries in the large holders?

**The_Hawk** · 09-05-2015, 08:13 PM

It was being read by a 10 yr old... so it's always possible he misread it.

I dropped by a Battery World today and had them use all the fancy tools. The guy I spoke to seemed to know his stuff, said the battery was fine, just waaay down in charge. Said good things about the VW batteries and said it's normal to see them go strong for 5-7 years

When I asked for recommendations for a charger he pointed straight at a CTEK unit and basically said it was best option, overkill in most cases, but the best option. Even though I asked about the higher end models he said the MXS 5 (the cheapest one they had) was more than enough. When I asked about other brands I got much the same answer, CTEK have a better warranty and are cheaper.

Now I'm sure I could have gotten it cheaper than Battery World prices, but I was there and it was in my hand so I bought it anyway.

I decided to install the screw in connector into the car, which may have been a mistake since the nuts/bolts on the battery clamps were cross threaded. The positive terminal wasn't too bad, but the negative terminal ended up needing a new bolt. What should have taken five minutes ended up taking two hours including a trip to the shops for new nuts and bolts as well as a VCDS scan to clear all the codes disconnecting the battery causes

Codes cleared and it's been happily charging away for a few hours now, I'll keep an eye on it and see how it goes, but everything is looking good. I will probably throw the charger across the Van's battery too tomorrow (because I can).

**FJ Steve** · 09-05-2015, 08:59 PM

I have been running a CTek charger on my motorbike for some years now. It kept the OEM battery going for 8 years, before I replaced it this year.

Move forward to the cars.....bought a CTek MXS 7.0 (to handle the Touareg, R32 and the Polo). Very very happy WITH CTek.

**Idle** · 09-05-2015, 09:07 PM

I've also been using a Ctek for quite a while.
Does the job nicely.

**Martin** · 09-05-2015, 09:07 PM

CTek are bloody awesome

The CXS 5 is a ripper - it's newer and has some benefit over the MXS 7
If you get into sealed motorsport batteries you need the MXS 5 because it's guaranteed to not exceed 15v
This is important because over 15v causes the motorsport battery values to open

But remember, if you flatten a car battery and leave it in that state for 24 hours,
you can try to charge it but it will be 50% down on capacity

Cars sitting around not being used don't do any good for the battery, hence CTek is a great caretaker

**warrick** · 09-05-2015, 11:21 PM

hi
i would like to get a CTek charger for use on my 2011 3.6 cc.with the battery in the boot is it safe to use with the battery connected? would the MXS 5 be a suitable choice? i use the car only a couple of times a week usually and only one of those is a reasonable run.
cheers
warrick