[williamoss]

I had my battery tested today at Battery Plus. The battery needs to be replaced. But the small battery (maintainer battery) that they use to keep all the programs charged when they disconnect the battery has a plug on the end. They told me there normally is a plug under the dash on the drivers side to plug into. We were unable to find the plug. and then there is the fact that the size of the plug changed in 1996, and my 968 is a 1995.

 

Does anyone have a trick to hook up the maintainer battery someplace else instead of under the dash drivers side. What exactly can discharge besides the radio programming if we do not have the connection of the maintainer battery?

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[flash]

There is no such plug on the 968.  In fact, i have NEVER seen such a plug on ANY car.

 

There is an OBD1 plug on the car, but good luck finding a connector for that, and cars after mid 95 had an OBD2 plug, but that is not for charging.

 

Discharge is most frequently caused by leaving the removable faceplate of a radio in place.  NEVER do that.

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[az968]

I thought discharge was caused by the engine compartment light, now I learned it is my radios removable faceplate. I am such a slow learner ?

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[Waylander]

I know there is a procedure on Boxsters for maintaining power as they get all upset when changing battery's


It's only very low power, to stop it loosing some kind of settings


https://www.porscheclubgb.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=770011


Does not matter on the 968, the ecu re educates itself pretty quick

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[williamoss]

Yes but is there any part that needs to keep a voltage constant  when you take out the old battery and put in a new one? besides the radio? At battery Plus the had the battery pack with a OBD2 plug which of course would not fit in the OBD1. Where is the OBD! plug?

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[Waylander]

its under the fuse box19 pin round socket with a screw on cap, and nothing in the 968 to worry about other than you radio stations

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[flash]

the fuse box is on the left on left hand drive cars.  on left hand drive cars, the round connector is on the right side of the car, under the dash.

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[williamoss]

^{thanks for the location description}

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[ds968]

Yeah, learn something new every day I guess - I just removed the face plates on the two non-DD cars . Maybe I won't even need to keep the battery tenders on them now . Nah, something else will gradually drain the battery no doubt , but interesting to hear that a face plate with all the power off the car draws current, and why head units without removable plates don't ..?

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[ds968]

Is there a problem attaching a remote battery charger unit ( portable jump starter ) to the battery cables while you're replacing the old battery with the new one, to keep the voltage uninterrupted ? Would it , for those brief few seconds you'll have two combined power sources on the same cables, cause any kind of surcharge or is the voltage / amps way too low to really be of any concern ?


On some of the newer cars, if you interrupt battery power you need to manually reset not just the radio, but a million and one other driving functions and features, and also drive at least 100 miles in varying modes until the ECU fully reprograms itself to where it was before, so I'd rather not have to deal with all that if I can use a portable jumper to bridge that power interruption gap .


Although, I don't want to mess up anything and cause the ECU to go haywire trying to figure out why it's getting 24 volts all of a sudden instead of 12 Or does the voltage input not double ? Again, it would be only for a few seconds but I hesitate to take any chances - this is for the Maserati, and the computer is finicky enough to start with ..


Ugh, another partially hand built car from Italy ...by Giancarlo in the late afternoon. after a quickie with the mistress and a long chianti lunch , Not that there's anything wrong with that , lol

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[Kim]

Whay not simply plug a battery maintainer into the cigarette lighter socket or any other than stays on with the key off.  Change your battery knowing that a a small current at 12V is still available.

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[ds968]

I have one of those also , could be a good alternative if it works that way . Makes sense since they are also battery " jumpers " and although not quite as effective as the larger jumper unit , it should be enough to hold the memory data during the change.

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[Waylander]

The cigarette lighter is not connected with the ignition off

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[ds968]

Ah, good to know. So back to " plan A " , unless that's not an advisable method elther .

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[Kaj Hallstrom]

I am a bit confused in regards to the earlier comment of leaving the radio face in/out. It will discharge the battery...why? I have left my car with it in for a month and a half and no discharge what so ever.

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[ds968]

There are various things which draw a little current continuously, the face plate of some radios being one of those , but I think it's such a negligible amount that without anything else going on compounding the problem, by itself that radio might take several years to drain you battery .

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[Rap]

Why don't you take it to the dealership and get this done. Surely your time is worth more? If you're not sure about that call Flash!!
I just changed to a lite battery in my track car and had none of these worries!!

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[ds968]

Why don't you take it to the dealership and get this done. Surely your time is worth more? If you're not sure about that call Flash!!I just changed to a lite battery in my track car and had none of these worries!!

Not sure my time is worth $ 200 / ten minutes, considering I don't have my own business and thus no income opportunity loss when I do something myself . I think the dealer's minimum labor charge is 1 hr, regardless of how little time it may take them to do a job, ergo $ 200 for replacing a battery - yeah, not a friggin' chance I'd pay for that . And this is a Maserati / Ferrari dealer where you need to set up a service appointment, regardless of what your car needs , at least six weeks in advance ..if you're lucky that is, sometimes it's 8-10 weeks. So it's not as if I could just ask one of the technicians to walk away from wrenching those $ 400,000 Ferraris and help me with removal of four 10 mm bolts that hold the battery in place . Just trying to avoid the hassle of having to reprogram everything , so if the dealer has a safe power bypass mechanism that keeps the voltage in place when they replace bay erodes , maybe I'll be able to duplicate it somehow ..

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[az968]

But a Maz is so beautiful, even when just sitting in your garage with a dead battery! You can admire it when you get home from driving your 968 :-)

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[ds968]

So back to my original question : does anyone see a problem with connecting a portable battery jumper to the cables during the process or removing and replacing the battery ?

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