[jgoens]

My SA said for people like me who do many short drives it is good to hook up a battery charger once a month. I went to hook mine up and noticed the positive terminal is hard to access. Tried putting the clip on the top of the terminal but it does not get enough bite. Do you have to take off the whole red connector piece on the terminal to hook up. Seems like a pain in the ass. Every other car, I could just put the clips right on the terminals. Or could I use the jumper in the engine compartment? Just wondering what other people do.

[fazman]

Originally Posted by jgoens

My SA said for people like me who do many short drives it is good to hook up a battery charger once a month. I went to hook mine up and noticed the positive terminal is hard to access. Tried putting the clip on the top of the terminal but it does not get enough bite. Do you have to take off the whole red connector piece on the terminal to hook up. Seems like a pain in the ass. Every other car, I could just put the clips right on the terminals. Or could I use the jumper in the engine compartment? Just wondering what other people do.

NEVER CHARGE or JUMP START the vehicle from the actual physical battery in the trunk. If you do that, you run the risk of blowing out the junction box behind the glove box and that's about a cool $1k to get fixed/coded.

All battery charging/jumping is suppose to be done in the engine bay, there is a red caped connector on the passenger side, you slide up the red plastic cap and then put your positive on to that jump point. The Negative can be conntect to any ground bolt or if you look near your passenger side headlight/fender there is a hex bolt that seems like it does nothing... it's your ground bolt for jump starts/charging.

As always... be sure to RTFM and lots of

[jgoens]

Originally Posted by fazman

NEVER CHARGE or JUMP START the vehicle from the actual physical battery in the trunk. If you do that, you run the risk of blowing out the junction box behind the glove box and that's about a cool $1k to get fixed/coded.

All battery charging/jumping is suppose to be done in the engine bay, there is a red caped connector on the passenger side, you slide up the red plastic cap and then put your positive on to that jump point. The Negative can be conntect to any ground bolt or if you look near your passenger side headlight/fender there is a hex bolt that seems like it does nothing... it's your ground bolt for jump starts/charging.

As always... be sure to RTFM and lots of

Thanks for the info..guess that's why it is a job getting to the positive terminal in the trunk. I have used the engine jumper before when I accidently closed the trunk with the battery disconnected and had to get a jump.

[sankohuy]

Originally Posted by fazman

NEVER CHARGE or JUMP START the vehicle from the actual physical battery in the trunk. If you do that, you run the risk of blowing out the junction box behind the glove box and that's about a cool $1k to get fixed/coded.

All battery charging/jumping is suppose to be done in the engine bay, there is a red caped connector on the passenger side, you slide up the red plastic cap and then put your positive on to that jump point. The Negative can be conntect to any ground bolt or if you look near your passenger side headlight/fender there is a hex bolt that seems like it does nothing... it's your ground bolt for jump starts/charging.

As always... be sure to RTFM and lots of

Wow I never knew that! I was about to get a charger, plug into the trunk battery, and do my flashing!

[fazman]

Originally Posted by sankohuy

Wow I never knew that! I was about to get a charger, plug into the trunk battery, and do my flashing!

Glad you clicked on this thread today!

[NotQuickEnough]

Charger recommendations?

[jwalker87]

I recommend the Battery Tender Plus (LINKY). It works perfectly for leaving connected for long periods of time and is reasonably affordable. Also, it comes with connections so you can hard wire it and have an easily accessible connector.

If you want a hefty charger, I have a Schumacher SC1200A (12A charger, LINKY) for the big stuff, and it works flawlessly.

Combined with their 12' lead extension, I have my Battery Tender hard-wired to the factory jump point in the engine bay, and routed to the front kidney grill. It's tucked in there so barely noticeable, but I can pull it out and connect it in my garage without even having to open the hood. There's a weather tight cap on the end of the connector so water spray is not a concern either.

[NotQuickEnough]

Originally Posted by jwalker87

I recommend the Battery Tender Plus (LINKY). It works perfectly for leaving connected for long periods of time and is reasonably affordable. Also, it comes with connections so you can hard wire it and have an easily accessible connector.

If you want a hefty charger, I have a Schumacher SC1200A (12A charger, LINKY) for the big stuff, and it works flawlessly.

Combined with their 12' lead extension, I have my Battery Tender hard-wired to the factory jump point in the engine bay, and routed to the front kidney grill. It's tucked in there so barely noticeable, but I can pull it out and connect it in my garage without even having to open the hood. There's a weather tight cap on the end of the connector so water spray is not a concern either.

Cool thanks. I have a mini one wired for my bike, and I've been very happy with it. Will go with Deltran again!

[Wilt]

Ctek is highly recommended brand, with a number of different models of different levels of sophistication. I have the CTEK (56-864) MUS 4.3, 12 Volt Fully Automatic 8 Step battery charger

[DASHOCKER]

+1 on cteck chargers

[Welcome to NBA Jam]

Just buy these:

http://www.amazon.com/CTEK-56-158-Au...3SWXFQ95XQPAVR

http://www.amazon.com/CTEK-56-263-Co...bxgy_263_img_y

Or get this:
http://www.qvc.com/qvc.product.H2845...242&cadevice=c

Then you can plug it into your cigarette lighter.

[Wingnut335]

The battery tender plus listed by jwalker87 looks exactly like the OEM battery tender.

[Wilt]

Originally Posted by Welcome to NBA Jam

Just buy these:

http://www.amazon.com/CTEK-56-158-Au...3SWXFQ95XQPAVR

http://www.amazon.com/CTEK-56-263-Co...bxgy_263_img_y

Or get this:
http://www.qvc.com/qvc.product.H2845...242&cadevice=c

Then you can plug it into your cigarette lighter.

Charge thru a place which gets actively switched off (i.e. no connection to battery) when the car goes to sleep?!

[ajaye]

I bought a $30 charger from Harbor Freight back in the winter when I was in a bind one evening to use as a temporary solution, and so far have found no need to replace it. Hasn't exhibited any issues, no signs of unacceptably high A/C any of the times I've tested it, 10 amp mode until fully charged then automatically goes to 2 amp mode. I would never use it as an overnight/unattended float-type charger like when storing the car, but its been great when I'm working on/detailing/etc the car to keep the battery from discharging too deeply. The benefit over a small maintenance charger is that this can push a bit of current to allow you to use the car's 12V without running the engine ie. bleeding the coolant system, checking diagnostic codes, powering a compressor to top off tire pressure, etc. Like I said, it was a last resort purchase initially, but it appears to work fine if you use it properly. All these things are made in China no matter who is selling them or what brand they are I guess.

[Welcome to NBA Jam]

Originally Posted by Wilt

Charge thru a place which gets actively switched off (i.e. no connection to battery) when the car goes to sleep?!

Surprisingly, it does work. I've used a cigarette lighter battery charger on my E46 without a problem. A guy with an X6M in my parking garage does the same. As it turns out, the OE BMW charger also uses the cigarette lighter.

http://m.eeuroparts.com/Parts/33037/...d-82110026663/

[Wilt]

Originally Posted by Welcome to NBA Jam

Surprisingly, it does work. I've used a cigarette lighter battery charger on my E46 without a problem. A guy with an X6M in my parking garage does the same. As it turns out, the OE BMW charger also uses the cigarette lighter.

http://m.eeuroparts.com/Parts/33037/...d-82110026663/

But the E46 has an always-on cigarette lighter power source; I know with certainty, I could leave a mobile phone plugged in recharging when its battery was low. So I would expect a charger thru the E46 cigarette lighter socket to work without issue.

E46 was what I owned for 12 years prior to selling it and buying the E90, which has the battery management system which puts the entire car to sleep and shut off power to so many things, except for a few monitoring circults (like for the keyless entry system). I can no longer charge a mobile phone while inside a restaurant, so the circuit between the cigarette lighter plug and the battery is broken by the battery management controller...which I why I would not think some power input (battery charger) works if it is not really 'connected' to the battery after the car goes to sleep!

[Welcome to NBA Jam]

Weird... I wonder if the BMW battery charger does something to wake it up? Or if it's just not for the E90.

[Wilt]

Originally Posted by Welcome to NBA Jam

Weird... I wonder if the BMW battery charger does something to wake it up? Or if it's just not for the E90.

The E90 shuts off cigarette lighter power IMMEDIATELY when the ignition is shut off...the radio can still work, but the power is cut from the lighter immediately...when my GPS is plugged in, it immediately detects the external power loss and puts itself to sleep (running off its internal battery)...the car is not even 'asleep' yet!

On the Turner Motorsports web sight, the product that you listed has ONLY these 3-series listed as 'compatible':

"1984-1991 E30 BMW 318i 318is 318ic 325e 325es 325i 325ic 325is 325ix M3
1992-1998 E36 BMW 318i 318is 318ti 318ic 323is 323ic 325i 325is 325ic 328i 328is 328ic M3
1999-2005 E46 BMW 323i 323ci 325i 325ci 325xi 328i 328ci 330i 330ci 330xi M3"

and if you use the Turner compatibility checker, the E90 years will NOT appear as OK to work with this product!
http://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-41...ng-system.aspx

The most recent models which remain compatible with that product are:

2004-2010 E83 BMW X3 2.5i X3 3.0i X3 3.0si

[Welcome to NBA Jam]

Well I learned something new today. Thank you! Now I know not to waste money on a cigarette lighter charger. In searching around, I saw some people create some neat cigarette lighter solutions in their trunk for that very reason.

[Wilt]

Originally Posted by Welcome to NBA Jam

Well I learned something new today. Thank you! Now I know not to waste money on a cigarette lighter charger. In searching around, I saw some people create some neat cigarette lighter solutions in their trunk for that very reason.

It IS possible to simply connect the wires from an aftermarket cigarette lighter socket to the battery terminal connector in the trunk. Then a male cigarette lighter plug from a charger could be inserted quickly to establish a connection. That is 'possible', but not 'recommended'... I presume because the IBS could be bypassed, so the IBS has no idea of the real state of charge put into the battery. (No one, including BMW, ever gives a 'why not in the trunk' if you ask!)

Ctek provides a quick connect cable -- better than the cigarette lighter solution -- as standard with its charger, it has a snap cap cover to protect from inadvertant shorts for the end that remains connected to the battery semipermanently. For a brief period I used it to connect the chargerin the trunk, but then after hearing 'you should not do that' from others, I puzzled out the bypass-IBS possibility for why not, and now I connect under the hood. For me it easy enough to use standard battery cable clamp connection, and not the QC cable. But if you lived where you did not want to leave the hood unlatched, the QC cable would be a way to connect at a connection point in the grill of the car, for example

[jwalker87]

Seeing how this thread progressed, I figure I'll throw up some pics of my routing of the Battery Tender cable. It's bolted to the factory positive terminal block right next to the jump point (if you remove the little plastic cover, there's a free bolt and everything!) and one of the shock mounting studs, then routed to the front grille.

I have the same thing on my wife's 335xi (which has a black grille) and it is undetectable. With the chrome it depends on your personal preference, but with a black grille, its a no-brainer.

[BMW ONLY]

Originally Posted by fazman

NEVER CHARGE or JUMP START the vehicle from the actual physical battery in the trunk. If you do that, you run the risk of blowing out the junction box behind the glove box and that's about a cool $1k to get fixed/coded.

All battery charging/jumping is suppose to be done in the engine bay, there is a red caped connector on the passenger side, you slide up the red plastic cap and then put your positive on to that jump point. The Negative can be conntect to any ground bolt or if you look near your passenger side headlight/fender there is a hex bolt that seems like it does nothing... it's your ground bolt for jump starts/charging.

As always... be sure to RTFM and lots of

What if you remove the ibs and take out the battery and charge it to max and return it to the trunk?