jenk12m

well i know this has been a problem in the past with porsches in general. however, i didnt think i would be going through this already with my 997gt3 and only 4k miles it 1st started when i tried to take the car off the trailer at Barber 2 weeks ago. turn the key and its just rapid clicking followed by the flashing idiot lights. get the car charged and after the 1st session it was fine. now i get back home and the car sits for a couple days when i think, lets go see if the car will start and guess what, NOTHING. key gets stuck in the ignition and i have to go through the fuse box just to open the hood 1st and then jump the battery. in the end i end up using the tender that i let a friend of mine use for his turbo to try and keep the battery juiced and i still have noting.

so now should i try and see if porsche will the replace the battery under warranty(which i dont think they will). or just go out and look for a red top optima to replace the oem. im not concerned about losing weight. i just want it to start when i want it to start.

iLLM3

Damn wtf, i guess I have been lucky with my previous one's, no dead battery issues :/ You should just go ahead and get the CF lightweight battery from Suncoast

jenk12m

hmmm, havent heard much about that one

iLLM3

Here you go!
http://e-partssales.com/Merchant2/me...y_Code=braille

930man

wtf.... i know you have to take key out of car never leave in ignition,,,, everything still "running" with key in,,,,, drains battery pretty quickly... the replace my gt3 battery for me after this lesson

chardonet

iLLM3:

Thank you on the Braille battery lead. Will these units last several years with the car being started and driven 2-3 times a week (25-50 miles driven per start)?

iLLM3

To be honest I have no clue ! The guys over at sunset are pretty straight forward try asking one of then that deals with the battery, or starting another thread on this topic. I might get the middle weight battery so I don't have any issues, its like twice the weight as the race but still so light in comparison to the oem.

WSH

Porsche should replace the battery...Ellis replaced mine (993) no problem, they just said they would only replace it once due to the low mileage.

Best thing you can do is get of the Porsche battery chargers...I have 2, one for each car. Battery in my Turbo is 6.5 years old and still going strong. Plugs into cig lighter, couldnt be easier.

Bill

SpeedGeek

Lead-acid batteries do not like deep discharges - a few deep cycles will kill them. The longer a car sits undriven, the deeper the discharge. Garage queen batteries don't last long at all unless they're fed constantly with a trickle charger. A car that's driven only once a week or less might kill a battery in a year or so, compared with 4 to 6 years for a DD.

Also, a new car might have a battery that's been through deep discharges while in transit or at the dealer. Such a battery probably won't last long at all.

jenk12m

i will check with the dealer when i get back in town

GoFastKindaGuy

I had a rash of bad OEM batteries on two cars over a few months time. The S6 Audi was my wife's daily driver and, after several years on the original, went through two new OEM batteries in two months. Audi would not step up. I sold the car. I also bought a fancy charger which diagnoses internal battery faults.

The GT3RS failed the original battery at 3 months; the replacement one month later. Both had internal short circuits. I always removed the key and turned off the radar detector. The dealer technician measured the battery draw down, but nothing was out of spec. Interesting that the draw was much higher with the V-1 radar detector plugged in (even though turned off). Higher still with the key removed, but the car unlocked. Now, I unplug the detector, remove the key, plug in the battery minder (if it will sit a week or more) and lock the car. Made it through Winter storage!

I believe there are simply many more badly manufactured batteries than any of us want to believe -- especially the suppliers!

YellowDragon

+1

Also don't forget to check battery fluid level on a regular basis.

Been doing that on all my cars and one of my BMW still has its original battery now going into 11th year!

SpeedGeek

11 Years on the original battery? There's got to be some sort of award for that!

340Elise

I have owned 5 brand new Porsches in the past 6 years: 986, 996, 996, 997, 997. I never had a single problem with the battery on any of them. The 986 was a leftover so it had the oldest battery when I bought it, and was the most likely to have been discharged from sitting around at the dealer; it was also the one Porsche that I most treated like a garage queen. I live in Albuquerque where it can get very cold in the winter and it does snow here.

With that said, I have never had a single problem with any of my big, heavy Porsche batteries. And even though the cars may sit for a few days without use, I never really used any of them for short trips except on a few rare occasions.

Once you discharge these types of batteries they will never be the same and you might as well replace them.

As for the light-weight Braille batteries that Suncoast sells. They are not CF. They are just small sealed batteries that start at 6 lbs and go up to about 21 lbs. The CF models are either CF look, or it is real CF, but only a thin sheet on the outside strictly for show. Look at the non-CF ones that Suncoast sells vs. the CF-look ones and you will find the weights are the same. The only difference is that the CF ones cost about 50 bucks more! This makes me think that they are not a fake CF sticker, but a thin sheet of real CF; but still, just for show. And since our batteries are hidden away anyway, I see no reason to get the CF one.

OK, now on to the reliability of the Braille batteries. They will be worse than what you have in the car now, but they do save significant weight. If you use the car as a daily driver, then no problem. But any time you go for more than 2 or 3 days without driving, then you will need to use a battery tender if you have a Braille battery.

I had the 11 pound version in my Elise and had to have it replaced twice within one year because it went completely dead and I could not bring it back to life. They did do this under warranty, because the batteries have a 1 year warranty. But each time you get a replacement, the 1 year does not start over, it begins from date of original purchase. And the ones they send you are used, reconditioned units.

You can forget the 6 lb Braille battery for sure. I had problems with the 11 lb one on my Elise which probably does not draw as much power as the 997 when they are just sitting in the garage. I know that the alarm for the Elise did drain power (even when off) because it was monitering for you pressing the key fob; the same is true for the 997.

The next size up is a 15 or 16 lb one, and then a 21 lb I believe. So if you want a lighter battery, and you get a Braille, then I suggest you go with at least the 15/16 lb unit, and save the 50 bucks on the CF look which does nothing.

One more thing. I bought by GT3 on December 8th, and it was plenty cold here this winter. Although I have a garage, it is not heated, and I drive my expensive cars the least in the winter time because of the sand on the roads from when it snows. There were a couple of times this winter that I went about 5 days to maybe even a week without driving my 3 and it started right up each time. If I had a Braille battery, I can almost guarantee you that would not have been the case if I did not use a trickle charger. They are even more sensitive when it is cold, and if you drive the car every day in the cold with an 11 lb Braille, I would still use a trickle charger every night unless you have a heated garage.

JimG

I bought my 2006 997S with a CPO about 18 months ago. The build date was Nov 2005 if I remember and the original owner replaced the battery one time. The dealer replaced it again after the CPO inspection and they replaced it again about 6 months ago. The car started very slow yesterday on my way home from work. The battery on my 2001 boxster lasted 3 years and was good until I traded it for the 997.