So my car came with a c-tek battery tender. Never used it before because I drive the car at least once or twice a week and have had no issue. Today I decided to try it. Plugged it into the port in the boot, Over an hour and it's still showing the red light where the little battery symbol shows half charge. This is just after coming back from a long drive.

All my battery tenders I've used in the past on my bikes would stay red initially and turn green soon after.

Assumed if I didn't have a good connection I'd get the light with the exclamation point logo?

Any input?
Chris

 

It is a very low power charger, so maybe it will take a few hours to get there

 

I've got a CTEK 3300 -- there's a green light close to the car connector that shows up when you've got a good connection. Easy to see in a dark boot.

 

So I left the charger plugged in for at least 15 hrs and light still stays in the orange, it never goes green. I'm wondering if the plug in the boot is making a good connection.

Was thinking of putting in a battery tender pigtail wired directly to the battery (fused of course).

This would entail disconnecting the battery cables. Can anyone confirm, that all you have to do to disconnect the battery cables is hit the battery disconnect switch first so it doesn't kill all the systems and need a dealer reboot?

Chris

 

My suggestion is to allow it to be connected for 24-36 hours minimum. Orange indicates = charging...but it a "trickle" (.8 amps output) charge. A lot of variables are in play. Age of battery, how often and long car is driven, connections. Knowing the battery has never had a tender connected I'd give it a chance the way it's designed to work. The less electrical connections points the better in my opinion.

 

Thanks for the advice, I'll give that a try!

 

Chris, just a thought, but are you closing the boot after plugging in the charger? The reason being that, any time you reopen the boot, the interior courtesy lights come on which causes a drain which, in turn, causes the charger to go orange again. I notice this when I plug the charger into my Esprit cigarette lighter outlet in the dash and close the door. After a while the battery is fully charged and the light goes green (I can see it through the side windows). But, as soon as I open the door, the dome lights cause enough of a drain that it goes orange.

 

Thanks Karl, I haven't opened the boot during charge but I'll leave it hooked up for an extended period, just to rule out a bad connection. Just to very, the little orange/red removeable cap stays ON the end of the plug correct, that's what the manual shows.

 

So I plugged it back in and after couple hours Green! for go.

 

As I need a charger for my '04 DB9 and have found this OEM one http://astonmartinbits.com/models/4-DB9/parts/2226 which is for early cars that have a 3-pin connecter in the boot.

My car sports this 3-pin connector (see RED arrow) so I'm pretty sure its a straight fit.

However, reading about the CTEK 3300 here on the forum its a lot cheaper to get one of these any modify it correctly to fit the cigarette socket (see GREEN arrow).

Can I use the CTEK 3300 without causing issues or shall I go with the OEM 3-pin one?

 

Or you can just replace the connector on the CTEK with a 3 pin XLR connector from radio shack (which is what I'd do, since the XLR provide a more secure connection).

 

Even better indeed if it's that simple! Thanks for the tip.

 

Chaps,

One last thing: Since I'm in the other part of the world and on a UK-style / 240V network I'd asked CTEK the 240V / European equivalent of the CTEK 3300 (which is obviously the US-spec unit). They came back as follows:

Hello,

This charger is not big enough for the vehicle application. The UK equivalent of the the Aston Martin charger is the MXS 7.0: http://www.ctekchargers.co.uk/ctek-mxs-70.php

Kind Regards
Dominic

The 3300's maintenance voltage charges from 12Ah to 75Ah (charging) or 12-120Ah (maintenance).

This MXS 7.0 seems to be a bit bigger in capacity [as stated by Dominic]: 14-150Ah and charging at 7amps.

Could this be any issue or can I go ahead with the buy?