Came to start my zed after sitting for around 3 weeks and sadly the battery is completely flat. The car is no longer my daily or kept where I live so I don't get a chance to start and drive it as often as I should however I have a manual conversion booked for next Friday and will be driving a few hundred miles to get there so was thinking the best solution may be just disconnect the battery and have it hooked up to a trickle charger?

 

I was looking at this as I can't really spare much cash at the moment:

 

https://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/p/car-accessories/winter-essentials/winter-maintenance/battery-chargers/?549778951&0&cc5_145

 

Would this do the job?

 

Alternatively, is there anything else you would recommend doing?

I have a trickle charger which is smaller than that one and it works well. Just make sure you battery is fully charged before the trickle charger is applied.

I had no idea this wouldn't work with a flat battery.

Would getting a jump start and going for a drive be the smart thing to do before hooking up to charge?

I had no idea this wouldn't work with a flat battery.

Would getting a jump start and going for a drive be the smart thing to do before hooking up to charge?

 

Yes I would get a good charge in the battery first mate.

Not sure what Gary is on about here.

I have what you’d call a cheap charger and it’s fine.

I have a 2 or 6 amp switch on it, I only ever use it at the lowest setting.

I plug in and the indicator goes down as the volts go up, once it reaches 14.4v, it flicks to trickle and maintains 12.6v.

Pretty sure they all work the same way.

The link you put up is £19.99 at Argos fyi [emoji3].

Edited October 18, 20187 yr by phutumsch
more accurate with the voltage

Something to bear in mind if you are just using a smart charger - if the battery is absolutely flat (check with a voltmeter) then you may need to

jump a good battery to it for a couple of hours to get the voltage reading off zero. Smart chargers like the CTEK 5 Amp (the one I have) have a

dead battery (as in kaput) check at startup which can mean they sometimes won't start the charging cycle on a completely discharged battery

(as I found out myself).

What's wrong with solar units? Surely more practical

Would solar units even work when we have no sun?

Mine keeps my Z going all year

Would solar units even work when we have no sun?

 

It very rarely comes up in my garage.:blush:

FairPlay, but can be mounted externally and fed into where ever needed.

Had the same problem week last Sunday. Z had been under cover for a month, going to the airport that day so cover off & no go!

Flat no lights nothing! AA called, started car, checked if battery charging upto 6.5v.

Advised to run for 20 mins, I let it run for 1 hour. Then off to Gatwick an hour later.

Parked in airport Sunday till Friday, started first time. Going to start & run z every week now for 20 mins or disconnect battery.

Other option connect battery to a charger.

My charger goes from red to green when battery charged

My black zed has a dashcam wired into the back of the stereo, the red zed has a dashcam wired into the fuse box. I share driving both cars, but use the black one 2/3 of the time. I have to disconnect the dash cam on the red one if I'm not going to use it for anything 6 days or more. On the times I forget (and I do!) to unplug the dash cam, the car will be completely flat, I jump it with a pack I have and drive the 1.7 miles to work. After that it starts every time. I try not to let it happen too much, because ill kill the battery! Im taking the red car this morning actually, but I did remember to unplug the cam this time! *win*

 

Trickle chargers are great, both my dad and friend use them. Dads MX5 will be locked away for 3-6 months charging away, when he comes back and drives it, it always starts first time. his was 20 quid from halfords I believe.