757driver

Good Morning Gentlemen,

Went to get the car out with this nice weather in the NE over the next few days. The battery is dead and the CTEK can't seem to revive it this time. The battery is dated 11/2012 so I'd say it did very well! It is a Deka Gold 648MF. From everything I have seen It is no longer made, or at least very hard to find. I was thinking I'd do an Anti Gravity Lithium, but I don't want to spend a grand with a new lithium specific charger. What more traditional batteries are people using these days? I did a search and seems most everything that came up was 7-10 years old. I figured there are likely some newer products available.

Thanks!

RAudi Driver

If your battery is low, your Ctek probably won't kick into 12 volts as needed. If my batteries are low, my small Noco and CTek will think they are maintaining a 6 volt battery and will never be able to complete the job. If I take my rolling battery charger, like carry on luggage size, it charges them up nicely. However, if they lose charge quickly, then it's time for a new battery.

I've had success with the Odyssey PC925, in a Rennline Battery holder and on a trickle. It's been rock solid for me. Not too pricy either.

ngng

buy the biggest, heaviest agm battery you can. dead car sucks. esp if your frunk gets stuck. you should be able to revive your dead battery by boosting the voltage. could probably get it going using some jumpers to a running car's batt. it'll likely die though and it sounds like you had a good run

jonwb

A month or so back I had a situation where my car had sat for a few months and of course the battery died. I had some gyrations I had to go through to get the frunk open, but I sorted that out. I put my trusty Schumacher charger on the battery, and it charged to 58% which was enough to (barely) start the car so I could move it. After that I put the charger back on and again, it would not charge past about 60%. I thought I had 'killed' my $200+ AGM battery that was only a couple years old.

As a bit of a hail-mary I followed the recommendation of a friend to try one of these inexpensive microprocessor controlled chargers from Harbor Freight. It was only $30 at the time so it was worth a shot. I put it on the battery and the next morning it showed it was still charging, but after a couple days I checked again and it was showing 100% charged. Ultimately I'll find out if the battery is really OK (or not) in a few weeks when I get the car out of storage.

To your original question 757, I think it still basically boils down to choosing one of two main camps... 1) some Lithium-Ion battery solution like the Antigravity unit or, 2) a decent AGM lead-acid battery.

RAudi Driver

I have a Schumacher charger and love it but if the battery is totally dead, the Schumacher will think it only has to charge a 6 volt battery. It won't be able to fully charge a 12 volt battery a sphere isn't a setting, at least on mine where you can tell the charger what voltage the battery is.

rileyracing1

If you don't want to break the bank for a Lithium a good quality AGM battery would be the best way to go and nothing less than 800cca . A good AGM battery for a little more than the cost of a regular wet cell battery will give you excellent performance and longevity.

RAudi Driver

Then don't get a PC925 as the CCA's are low. I don't drive my car much and it sits on a trickle so I'm good but others who drive on a regular basis and don't want to plug in every night, should not go with the PC925. Two weeks off the charger and your car will feel it.

jonwb

Mine has some buttons where I can change some settings, including 6/12VDC and even that it's an AGM battery. But it didn't seem to know how to get the battery fully charged after being fully dead. I was pleasantly surprised that cheap HF charger did the trick.

Bxstr

Run an Interstate MTP-48 H6 D9 in mine. Not the best photos, but figured they'd be helpful for reference.

My car sits on a battery tender even if not being driven for a week (CTek 3300).

I'll probably consider an Antigravity next, more for the restart feature and other cool nerdy battery monitoring features.

jonwb

I really should start to follow that SOP.

Bxstr

With the cigarette lighter adapter it makes it so easy. I pull into the garage. Grab the charger from the side of the garage and just plug it in. Takes 30 seconds and I know next time it'll start. Sometimes I plan to drive it more often than I do so this ensures it's always charged.

jonwb

That's a good idea. You have to use the plug in the console storage box correct? I think the one in front of the shifter is switched.

The better solution would be to drive my car more often, but that just doesn't seem to happen and before I know it several weeks slip by.

ngng

i added a pigtail to the battery in the front and keep the hood popped. 2 birds with one stone

JB911

While dealing with the battery, pull out the positive cable going into the firewall. You can clean the contact and spray some cleaner/protector to ensure it's ok. There are some older 997 examples with a very corroded pin. The quick release pin was eventually replaced with a threaded one and a nut/washer. Some people did this conversion, which is a bit difficult from inside the car. So cleaning the pin periodically with scotchbrite and spraying the pin and female side on the cable is a good idea. Pull the red clasp to release it and brig the positive cable out.
I did this and cleaned, protected and re tightened my started my starter cables a while back. There was nothing wrong with the starter, just humidity and bad contact in these areas.
I went with a Bosch AGM from Pep Boys, almost 1000 CCA, 4 year warranty


It's a larger one and requires a new nut on the battery tray for the tab that holds it in place. I took the tray out and had a friend weld the nut at the bottom, the way it is in the existing hole for the stock sized battery. If there's a high amp battery like mine but regular size/oem, I'll try it next time I need one. I keep it going with the Cetek 7002 which also has a "recondition" feature.

I like the Antigravity option with its features, but it's too much money unless you're tracking, an
d add the cost of a new charger for it-

ngng

imo the antigravity is too much even if you are tracking. you can buy a lot of driver mod for the price of that battery