Porsche Trickle Charger? - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

hjkim550 · 04-09-2008, 01:56 AM

914,

IMO, I think your battery is shot. 6 volts after a full night of charge? I think your battery is as sulfonated as it gets.

So far as replacement battery goes... stay away from Porsche OEM..... it is overpriced and terrible. I think they wanted to charge me $120 for a replacement.

You can search this forum and you will find different opinions.... Duralast from Autozone (what I chose), Braille, Optima and Toolpants recommended a cheaper battery from Walmart. You will find that he is quite knowledgeable and he found a battery from Walmart for about $60 or so. I found his thread after I bought mine from Autozone for $85.

I will try to find his thread for you after I try to go to sleep.

9fourteen · 04-09-2008, 08:38 AM

At lunch I'm going to run to Autozone and get a battery. Even if I fight with the dealership and got them to replace the battery I would just be getting another crappy OEM. Its not worth the hassle.

I went to Autozones website and when I punched in my car type it came up with a 94R-DLG batter for $125, 650 CCR, 8 year. The 48-DL which is the one which was recommended in the "battery suggestion" posts is $85, 700 CCR, 7 year. The 94R-DLG looks just like the OEM battery. I'll get the 48-DL since that is what most people are recommending.

Thanks everybody for your help. Hopefully I'll have it back on the road tonight!

9fourteen · 04-09-2008, 11:24 AM

Autozone tested the battery and it was bad. I bought the 48-DL battery for $85 vs the 94R-DLG battery which they recommended. The guy gave me a bit of a hard time because he said the 48-DL battery is not for the car.

Anyways, did I get the right one? Is there any reason why this battery would not work? The other posts I saw concerning this battery said that it fit right in. I noticed that it about 2 inches shorter than the OEM battery. Width wise it looks about the same. I'm just wondering if it will mount tight with the existing clamp. I guess I'll find out tonight when I try to put it in.

2000SoCalBoxsterS · 04-09-2008, 11:36 AM

I don't think the size of the battery matters that much as long as it is secured well in the holder. As long as the Volts and Amps and all that sort of stuff are correct for the car the size shouldn't matter.

For example, take a look at the Braille lightweight racing batteries. They are small and light but also have models for everyday use.

http://www.brailleauto.com/

hjkim550 · 04-09-2008, 12:46 PM

Hey 914,

2000SoCalBoxsterS is correct, you just need adequate specifications... i.e. 875 cranking amps and 700 cold cranking amps.

I bought the Duralast 48 as well (which we could have bought cheaper at Walmart or Costco.... I did not know). I am not sure why your battery is smaller. The battery that I picked up at Autozone for the same price was the exact same dimensions as my battery from my 2004 SE (OEM). It fit perfectly without any problems, continues to hold its charge and turn over the engine without any hiccups.

If you look at some of the other posts.... people swear by Braille, Optima and so forth. I think it all works well.

p.s. If you store your Boxster over the winter months like I do.... I would recommend a battery maintainer.

9fourteen · 04-09-2008, 07:11 PM

Battery fit without any problems. It is smaller than my OEM battery. The battery tray has multiple mount points for the battery clamp so you can have different size batteries. Those Germans think of everything.

All my warning messages reset except I still get a System Fault message. It seems to be trying to reset. I took the car out for drive and the light would go off every time I came to a stop and was idling. As soon as I got on it it would come on. I took it back home, shut it off and then restarted it. The Fault message never came on again but the engine sounded slightly rough. I'm guessing the computer hasn't fully reset. Is there a trick on getting the computer to reset? Or will it eventually figure it out on its own?

One thing that I found strange was I never got locked out of the radio. The battery was out of the car for over 24 hours.

I had the Porsche charger plugged into the cig lighter. I bought it when I bought the car and I always plugged it in when the car was parked for more than a week. It was plugged in the entire time I had it stored for the winter. I'm thinking the battery was already bad when I bought the car and it was just a matter of time before it completely failed. Is there a better battery maintainer than the Porsche one?

hjkim550 · 04-11-2008, 01:19 AM

Sorry 914,

I am not even reading the whole thread. Your first post talked about how you have been using the Porsche trickle charger. It should have been the first clue for me that your original battery was entirely sulfonated.

I have not heard anything bad about the Porsche battery maintainer. Your battery problems should be just a distant memory with the gorgeous summer ahead.