Anyone had any problems with the small black tabs on the cigarette lighter plug breaking off on your CTEK battery maintainer. Same question applies to the Porsche branded one which I have. There are two of the tabs on the plug. I have had two of the Porsche ones since December and had one of the tabs break off on each one. My dealer replaced the first one under warranty. The second one just broke today.

Once the tab breaks off, you can see metal conductive parts of the connector inside the plug. I am concerned if I plug it in that way, I may blow the lighter fuse. I am going to just try and place electrical tape over the hole where the tab should be an see how that works. I do not know why the little flimsy tabs are on the adapter plug. My iPhone charger does not have them.

I have attached a photo of the plug showing the spot where the tab was.

 

i think you can get just the plug adapter on amazon for a few dollars

 

Yep, but the problem is that on the Porsche charger, the lighter socket plug is connected directly to the wire that leads into the charger unit, so you can't just replace the adapter plug. For that reason alone, I would recommend buying the CTEK unit since the lighter plug/adapter is just an attachment that can be replaced as you said.

I haven't looked at he plug closely enough to determine if it can be disassembled and disconnected from the wire, and then install a new plug/adapter.

I still can't figure out why the adapter/plug has the flimsy plastic tabs. As I said in previous post, my iPhone adapter does not have them and I just looked at a friends NAPA battery maintainer and his lighter plug/adapter does not have them. They just have the two spring loaded metal tabs that the CTEK unit also has.

 

I'm going to have to go look at mine. I had a black tab break on mine, I thought it was from the charger. I didn't think much of it.


So are you saying it may not work anymore?? Can we place tape over it??


Is the CTEK as easy to use as the Porsche brand? I'll switch if I have to.

 

I had this happen. Connection became undependable, charging unreliable. Purchased new wire and plug from amazon vendor. End of problem (until this one breaks neway). Be gentle but firm when inserting

 

Ctek is oem for Porsche, save the extra $$ you pay for the logo

 

I am in the process of seeing if it will work with the tab broken. I did place a piece of tape over the hole left when the tab broke and the charger seems to be working OK. The plug inserted into the lighter socket just as it did before.

Yes, the CTEK is as easy to use as the Porsche brand. It is essentially the same unit. As I said previously, one big advantage of the CTEK unit over the Porsche branded unit is that the lighter plug is a separate attachment that can be easily replaced if it breaks where the Porsche plug is hardwired directly to the wire that runs to the charger. So replacing the lighter plug on the Porsche unit is not as easy, if even possible.

Can't figure out why the tabs are on the charger plug, and why so flimsy. I am very careful, especially after my first one broke this way, and yet the second has now broken in same failure mode as the first. I even changed from using the lighter socket to the one in the footwell in case their was a problem with the socket causing the tabs to break, but I had one fail in each socket.

 

Amazon has 3 or 4 different types of CTEK maintainers, I'm not really sure which one I should purchase. I have a 997 2012 4s cab. Might you know?

 

Get then bigger one.

 

I think the Porsche one that is made by CTEK is the 3300. I think any of them will work, it is just that some have additional features that you may or may not need.

http://smartercharger.com/battery-ch...ti%20US%203300

 

Great, thank you. I'll look into it.

 

If you get the CTEK unit, remember, you need to order the cigarette lighter adapter separately if you want to connect the charger that way.

 

Ok ,thank you for telling me that, because I would not have noticed ,until it was time to put into storage.

 

I bought one on amazon that came with the plug already supplied. Or, maybe it was ebay. Getting senile.

 

I guess not many others have had one of the tabs break off or are not aware of it. Can't believe it has happened twice to me in six months.