911sport

This morning failed to start on the coldest day of the winter so far (25 degrees).
Put a trickle charger on around noon, and it's still charging after 7 hrs.

The OE battery is not the maintenance-free variety. Porsche says $200 for a new battery--not maintenance-free!

With 37K miles, is it time for a new battery? I haven't driven much the past couple of weeks, and picked the coldest morning to start up after a week, so all is forgiven, so to speak. I only drive 5-6K miles per year, and just bought the car 8 months ago. It's Porsche-certified, no problems to date.

I'm inclined to get a maintenance-free battery if I get one. Any recommendations? Thanks.

Macster

just over 180,000 miles on it. That's a lot of starts! Also car has build date IIRC of 10/01 and I bought car new in Jan 02 so battery built sometime before Oct. 01.

Left car parked over a week while away and when I got back battery too low to do anything but click starter when I tried to start engine. Enough juice could open trunk.

Yanked out old battery and went off to nearby Porsche dealer/parts counter for new OEM battery. $199/tax. A bit high, but given the service the original battery gave me I decided to stick with the devil I know...

BTW, replacement battery bigger slightly and offers more amps/cranking power/etc than original battery. Parts counter told me Porsche upgraded the battery and this new slightly bigger/more powerful battery the recommended battery now.

New larger battery fits right in the same hole as old battery, but battery hold down moves out to next hole in base of battery tray. I checked there is a nut in that hole.

Looking forward to another 180,000+ miles and 6 to 7 years of trouble free life out of the new replacement battery.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Tool Pants

http://www.renntech.org/forums/index...950&hl=battery

Turboflyer

Three too 5 years. With the location of the battery it only makes sense to get something that is not going to be an acid bomb. It is simple enough to modify or buy and adaptor for a gel RG type battery. Check out Zims. They have a nice plate adaptor if your not inclined to fab yourself. Best to keep very low usage batteries on a float charger.

911sport

The 2 amp charger light read full charge after 12 hrs. Kept it on overnight another 10 hrs until this morning. The car still did not turn over, but it sounded a lot closer than yesterday. Almost kicking in.
Put charger back on. Still read full charge at 2 amps (?). So I set to 1 amp, and it changed to "charging".
Don't understand that. Reads fully charged at 2 amps, charging at 1 amp. This is a small Black and Decker charger with switching to floating charger and overload protection.
I just called the Porsche line to get a jump start. The car is Certified.

The dealer said the battery light will stay on if it's the alternator. Hope it isn't the alternator. Have been through that before with a previous car.

Any insights into what is happening here? Could be the trickle charger needs more charge time.

GMS

Trickle charger won't charge the battery if really dead. Use a 10 amp one.

Interstate MTP91 battery is a direct fit. Always have the power connected (use a spare battery) when swapping over batteries as vehicle will retain all computer memory and radio codes.

911sport

I finally got the car jump-started on the Porsche assistance plan. It turned over with some difficulty and gave off a lot of white smoke. No idiot lights on the dashboard. The guy who jump-started it said the battery might be OK--to check for water in the gas. I put a bottle of dry gas (isopropanol) in at the local gas station, and drove on the highway for 30 minutes or so. Came home. It restarted right up in the garage. Everything seems normal.

I think the trickle charger probably worked, but it was tough to turn over and start. Had to give it some gas. Maybe the ethanol in the gas had some water in it which froze on the cold morning, I don't know.

More likely, just a weak battery. No driving for a week, then starting on very cold morning.

I hate spending $200 bucks on a Porsche battery which isn't even maintenance-free.

I looked up the Autozone Duralast 48-DL battery for an 03 Boxster, and it's available locally for about $100 bucks.

But are there any tricks to install without screwing up the on-board computer and radio? One poster said something about keeping the power connected with a spare battery. Not quite sure how to do that. Can the vendors do this (Sears, Autozone, etc) on installing, or is this something only a Porsche dealer can do? My old SC didn't have such problems changing batteries.

GMS

There are probably plenty of ways to change the battery.

Our proceedure: Keys out of vehicle, small motorcycle battery, one lead to ground the other to the vehicle battery cable positive terminal, disconnect the vehicle battery and remove, install new battery and connect terminals, disconnect the m/c battery leads, install battery holder and vent tube then check car. Works every time.

axhoaxho

Get one of these jump start systems (cheap ones are about $50 eveyrwhere like Target, Pepboys, etc.), and get one that has a cigarette lighter adapter. Plug the system into your Boxster's cigarette lighter adapter, turn on the system.

This way the system supplies temporary battery to the car's radio and computers. And then you can change the main battery of the car, and after you are done, turn off and disconnect the jump start system from the cigarette lighter adater. Done.



I just did the exact thing on my 2000 Boxster S. After 7 years and 29K miles, the factory battery finally gave in, and I put a $100 Interstate battery (with the vent tube the fits the Boxster just like the factory battery) in the car and it worked great.

With best regards,

Tool Pants

Get over it. You need to replace the battery rather than playing around with what you have.

911sport

I suspect my 2 amp Black & Decker charger would suffice as a "jump start" system to plug into the lighter. The only problem is the adapter for the lighter is bigger than the Boxster lighter! The dealer says you have to get the Porsche charger with the right size adapter for Porsches.

911sport

Can a 2 amp Black & Decker charger replace the motorcycle battery?
Seems like it might be difficult to disconnect the old battery with the positive terminal connected to the motorcycle battery.

Bull

"Trickle chargers" are not designed to fully charge discharged car batteries and won't. they are designed to keep a charged battery from discharging....big difference. Have your battery checked at a place where you can buy the right Interstate, as it is probably a gonner. Even if it started after 30 mins of driving, it likely won't last very long sitting parked. BTW, miles driven doesn't have a lot to do with battery life...in fact, less miles will usually mean shorter time to battery failure unless the battery is kept on a battery maintainer when parked for long periods.

AlpharettaRK

Actually a 9 volt transistor battery plugged into the lighter socket will keep your radio from losing its mind while you change the battery. There is a rig technicians use that is exactly that. In any event, if you have your radio code it's no big deal to just change the battery and re-set your clock and radio presets. You just can't pass an emission test until you've gone enough drive cycles after disconnecting the battery is the only real issue. A 48 series Delco or Interstate battery will be far better than the factory battery, IMO
Cheers
Randy

Macster

and I had radio code (from card supplied when I bought car -- there may be a way to query code from radio but I don't know the way).

Removed battery hold down clamp.

Disconnected negative lead. Made sure could not touch metal. Disconnected postive lead.

Disconnected battery vent hose from old battery.

Removed battery.

Vacuumed out battery box and surrounding area. Saw no signs of corrosion.

Installed new battery. Pushed all way to driver's side and installed battery hold down.

Connected positive lead.

Connected negative lead.

Connected battery vent hose to new battery.

In car, turned on key but did not start engine. Left key in 'on' position 60 seconds. Shut off key for at least 10 seconds. This resets e-Gas.

Started engine.

Lowered windows. Raised each window and held button down for 5 seconds to reset window limits.

Turned on radio and entered radio code.

Oh, before you remove battery lower both windows. Auto window retract when you open door with battery removed (or dead) does not work.

Not a problem really when you open door but when you go to close you might break window.

Anyhow, after all of above took car for nice 30+ minute drive and over next day or so repeated this several times just to make sure alternator charging system working and battery good.

Upon start engine cranks/fires right up, as good as it ever did.

So far so good.

New rear tires go on Saturday and then car becomes my daily driver once more!

Sincerely,

Macster.