Advice on trickle charging

**Akash** · 16-01-2017,04:52 PM

Hi all,

Quick q - I have a Ctek MXS 5.0 trickle charger I got back in 2013 when the old A6 battery kept dying due to the dash cams + not enough long travel-time to charge up the battery. Fast forward 4 years, the C7 could do with potentially having a trickle charger connected to the battery every so often again due to the dashcams.

C-Tek do easy-connect adapters so that they always stay on the battery which got me thinking - in the A6, is it ok to keep something like the easy-connect adapter to the jump-starting stumps under the bonnet?
Failing that, what about having it always connected to the battery directly?
Would there be issues charging up the battery on a trickle charger while the battery is still connected to the car?

In the past, I've always taken the battery out and indoors to do a trickle charge so it was never an issue but now it would be on an ad-hoc basis (1-2 times a month) - enough not to want to remove the battery altogether

Cheers,
AJ

**zollaf** · 16-01-2017,05:02 PM

connect the ctek up, either straight to the battery or to the jump start points, switch the charger on and forget about it. no need to disconnect anything, no need to remove the battery. leave it on all winter, the ctek wont overcharge..

**Akash** · 17-01-2017,10:04 AM

Originally Posted by zollaf

connect the ctek up, either straight to the battery or to the jump start points, switch the charger on and forget about it. no need to disconnect anything, no need to remove the battery. leave it on all winter, the ctek wont overcharge..

Perfect! Thanks for your advice as always zollaf. I guess I always knew but it was more peace of mind as I had read on here a few times whereby connecting to a trickle charger resulted in a number of various lights on the dash though I can sort them out with the vcds

I'll buy the comfort cable for Ctek and have it permanently on the battery in that case + have it hanging out the boot when I'm charging @ home
Going to assume there are no fumes issues - I think from memory the C6 had a pipe that exhausted fumes through a channel going towards the rear bumper?

**zollaf** · 17-01-2017,11:21 AM

allow a bit of ventilation if its charged in a garage, leave a window open a little . the alternator is banging 100 amps into the battery. the ctek does 5 at most.

**Akash** · 17-01-2017,11:26 AM

Originally Posted by zollaf

allow a bit of ventilation if its charged in a garage, leave a window open a little . the alternator is banging 100 amps into the battery. the ctek does 5 at most.

That will work fine in that case as it's a carport with electric gates so it's open...but covered. Final question and this is purely out of laziness - do you know what the default bolt size is for the battery? I think 8.5mm eyelets seem to be the standard so I'll probably just grab that but if for whatever reason the Audi is different and you know... failing that I'll get up and measure it up :- )

**zollaf** · 17-01-2017,11:41 AM

be an m6 or an m8..

**Akash** · 17-01-2017,11:45 AM

Originally Posted by zollaf

be an m6 or an m8..

An M8 - now that is a car I would not mind owning! Thanks again for all your help - I will update as and when I get the cable and get it wired up

**Akash** · 19-01-2017,06:44 PM

Originally Posted by Akash

An M8 - now that is a car I would not mind owning! Thanks again for all your help - I will update as and when I get the cable and get it wired up

So the good news is that I found the battery! (I knew where it was but that's about all the good news I have!)

The bad news is in Audi's wisdom, they have put a locking nut of some sort at the other end of the screw so while you can loosen up the nut for each of the terminals, you can never it seems, get the screw out altogether. This means that the "rings" for Ctek comfort module won't just slip over the terminal screw.

So any advice ?

What I have done is maybe something that should not be done so hopefully I'll get a yay or nay from someone on here - I snipped a small part of the ring to basically create a slight gap in the ring. This then slipped over the screw for the positive/negative terminal and then I tightened the screw around it.
So essentially I made the round connector more like http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/crimp-...ctors/1611819/ (but obviously a lot smaller gap than this link).
Is this a no no or am I ok doing this?

The upside is that the ctek module can see the battery which currently as expected is flashing red due to the battery potentially being low

**zollaf** · 19-01-2017,06:57 PM

thatll do nicely, thats a good fix.... yeah, the ctek can take 2 days to charge a battery thats not even flat, but then it does all its stages and refreshes it before charging. just leave it cionnected..

**geoff eeles** · 20-11-2019,02:28 PM

Hi, just to be sure in my own mind. I have a trickle Charger unit and I can charge the battery from the Jump Lead bolts that are located under the bonnet of my A6 C6?