Fitting permanent charge connector to A6

[prophet]

I’ve had issues with my battery getting completely drained after a couple of days. It doesn’t happen all the time. A garage has monitored over night and sometimes there is nearly 1A being drawn. They suspect the sat nav or the amp. It had a brand new battery last year.

Anyway I’ve decided to buy a CTEK charger which have the quick connect “comfort connectors”. I can get a comfort connector with round terminals to permanently attach to the car. Obviously we are supposed to charge from the jump points in the engine bay and not at the battery itself. I was going to run a connector to the grill, and can easily plug it in every night to keep topped up. However there doesn’t seem to be a positive screw terminal there, so can’t work out how to permanently connect the cable. Any suggestions?


55plate Audi A6 Avant. 3.0Tdi S-Line Quattro.

[Amo Zirins]

I would check rhe reason why it drains first.


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[FrenchAudi]

For starters, if you can't check it yourself, take it to a garage that can do better than "suspect the sat nav or the amp".

[prophet]

There’s a big multi connector that goes into one of the boxes on the left in the boot. If you disconnect that, then it stops the drain and disables the MMI system. Replacing either of those on a 13 year old car sounds expensive. Much cheaper to just keep the battery topped up if I’m not using it for a few days.

So, has anyone connected a CTEK connector? Have you done it from the engine bay, or on the battery directly?


55plate Audi A6 Avant. 3.0Tdi S-Line Quattro.

[FrenchAudi]

As I don't use my Audi every day, I have a CTEK XS 0.8 charger connected to the battery terminals (there are no jump posts) with the crocodile clips supplied with it. The charger sits in the space in front of the pollen filter, and I open the bonnet and hang its mains cable out via the top of the bonnet to connect it to an extension cable. The clips are left on the terminals permanently, but I move the clips back and forth occasionally to make sure the connection is good.

The car is kept in a garage, so it's not a problem to leave the bonnet unlatched and a connection lying on the floor.

The 3.8 A model would be probably more suitable for your use, with the extension lead to connect it as you suggest, if the car is kept outside.

[prophet]

Thanks for that. I’m just slightly concerned that I’ve heard you shouldn’t connect directly to the battery as that bypasses the power management system and it likes to check what charge is going into the battery.


55plate Audi A6 Avant. 3.0Tdi S-Line Quattro.

[FrenchAudi]

I don't have a power management system, I've managed to do that by myself for many years

However, if the system want to "see" the power going into the battery, you could connect the +ive charger lead to the alternator +ive, but maybe someone with expert knowledge of the Audi system should advise on this.

Audi says:
"The power management controls the distribution of electrical energy and thus helps to ensure that there is always enough power available to start the engine.

If a vehicle with a conventional electrical system is left parked for a long time, the battery will gradually lose its charge because certain electrical equipment (such as the immobiliser) continues to draw current even when the ignition is off. In some cases there may not be enough power available to start the engine.

Your vehicle is equipped with an intelligent power management system to control the distribution of electrical energy. This significantly improves reliability when starting the engine, and also prolongs the life of the battery.

The main functions incorporated in the power management system are battery diagnosis, residual current management and dynamic power management."

Obviously it's not doing the job too well Are you sure your car has it?

[prophet]

Yeah it does have it. Just something is. It going to sleep properly, or is waking up again. The car doesn’t get used every day, and if it was as simple as just plugging in a charge lead into a connector in the grill, then I or my wife could do that daily.

A little more hassle to have it in the boot as would have to shut lead in the boot every time. I know it’s not ideal but don’t really want to replace an amp or a sat nav.


55plate Audi A6 Avant. 3.0Tdi S-Line Quattro.

[FrenchAudi]

By "completely drained" do you mean that after "a couple of days" even the interior lights won't work, or that there isn't enough charge left to start the engine?

Your garage said "sometimes" "nearly" 1A is being drawn, but did they connect a recording ammeter to it, or connect an ammeter in series with it and just take a look now and then?

It is possible your battery is not fully charging when you drive the car - do you make long enough trips to do so? Even a steady 1A for 48 hours should not completely drain a 95 Ah battery.

Also, is the battery old, and unable to accept/ hold a full charge?

You could try disconnecting the battery negative, to remove any current leakage through the car's wiring, connect a 10W bulb across the terminals, leave it like that, so that it loses 20 Ah every day, and check how long the bulb stays lit.

If you decide to connect a charger when the car is not in use, it occurs to me that the power management isn't doing anything anyway, so why bother if you bypass it by connecting directly to the battery terminals?


I recently drove all day into Spain and stayed overnight in a hotel (so my battery was as fully charged as possible), disconnected the coolbox in the back while we were unloading, and put the contents in the hotel's fridge.

In the morning I reconnected the coolbox before breakfast so it would be cold when I put the stuff back in. We loaded up, did a bit of shopping for food, and were ready to leave less than 3 hours later, but the car wouldn't start, and I had to call my recovery service for help.

The coolbox draws less than 4 A, so the battery lost only about 12 Ah before it would no longer start the engine.

I bought a set of jump leads for the car, and replaced the battery with a new one as soon as we returned home.

[Novica]

I have used Ctek, and I have connected it in engine bay with crocodile clips, never directly to battery.

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