nell

I was told by my local dealer that I need to drive more or get a trickle charger to maintain the battery charge. I have a solar panel charger that VW used to ship the vehicles with. Think that provides enough juice to maintain the cells? Other question is that it is designed to plug into the cigarette lighter. Could that cause any issues if electrical energy is going from the charger plug to the battery cells? I could always rig up a couple of alligator clips to the male portion of the lighter plug and hook it up to the post under the hood. Just not as convenient.

Any thing I may have missed?

nell

Don't understand why my question was moved to Accessories/Mods? I was asking about the possibility of using a solar panel to charge the battery. Not selling anything.

KendrickGand

I think you have missed nothing as I have got similar charging system but still not sure why it is not working fine..

FormerE30Owner

Plugging into the cigarette lighter or any other socket outlet will not work when the key is not in the ignition and in the accessory position, since those are disconnected from the electrical system to prevent the battery from being depleted because of a forgotten item left plugged in.

You need to use the two posts in the engine compartment used for boosting. Your kit must have come with alligator clips, which you should use directly on the posts.

Hooking directly to the battery is also an option but not recommended, because that might "confuse" the battery monitoring system and cause electrical gremlins.

Salut, Bob P.

Gangplank

You could rig up a hard wire set up using some ring terminals and an SAE plug. Then you could leave that connected to the terminals under the hood and just plug in the panel when you park.

Tho I'm surprised you don't drive enough. Is it just a few miles? Take the scenic route a few days per week.

txag_530i

Get the Battery Tender 021-0128 from Amazon for about $50.


As noted above you cannot use the cigarette lighter type as the cigarette lighters are disconnected from the power supply when the car is off.