Battery Charging

[Bluetoon]

Hi,

Can you trickle charge a C43AMG via the power socket or do you have to go direct across the battery terminals

 

[LostKiwi]

Always best to go direct to the battery.

 

[Blobcat]

Hello and welcome

The power sockets can be switched with the ignition. If so it won’t charge

 

[mioba]

Battery all the way, ensures other items are not sucking juice

 

[Graveworm]

For mine I thought they said use the terminals under the bonnet and never the battery in the boot. Where I don't have power I use Solar through the OBD port which seems to work fine and has permanent 12V

 

[RhodieBill]

I personally would go for "straight to the Battery" - path of least resistance is normally always the best route...

 

[Graveworm]

I personally would go for "straight to the Battery" - path of least resistance is normally always the best route...

Makes sense but the manual specifically says ONLY use the under the bonnet connections as does this video for some reason -

There may be some protection or fuse issues I suppose.

 

[LostKiwi]

Not all cars have under bonnet connection points. If you have them use them in preference - much easier to route wires.

 

[RhodieBill]

I have connection points under the Bonnet of the w208 and I still charge directly to the Battery in the Boot. And always have for God knows how long! (Which coincidentally is what the Instructions say for my Automatic Charger).

But I guess at the end of the day just do what you dig man.... It's your car.

 

[Tony Dyson]

Two main reasons why advice is to use the terminals under the bonnet and not the battery terminals directly is for the sparking potential and accidental ignition of explosive gasses collecting around a battery, secondly as it is usual practice to connect the Negative terminal last, this is where the battery sensor is located and sparking at this location can at worst damage the battery sensor or at least cause anomalies with the systems reliant upon the sensors designed performance, to be safe, if charging a car connected battery it would be advisable to disconnect the battery Negative terminal from the battery taking the battery sensor with the post clamp or if you have under bonnet charging points simply use them. It makes no difference where the connection is made with reference to post 4, any consumers left working are going to 'suck juice' regardless, electricity doesn't work that way. I personally wouldn't use ANY output socket of a vehicle, OBD or Cigar Lighter to feed a secondary independent supply of any description back into a vehicle, this is wrong on so many levels, you are creating backfeeds, energising untold amounts of additional circuits connected to the same vehicle distribution units without correct fused protection and with supplies from battery chargers that may be providing unregulated outputs, voltages in excess of the vehicles components normal operating parameters, and/or of a questionable quality, using 'half wave or modified rectification' to produce pulsating DC, this may be sufficient to charge a Lead Acid battery but can do untold damage to sensitive electronic components.

 

[McDonald]

My C-Tek is clipped directly to the Consumer battery in the boot. I've been doing that for three years. It works wonderfully. If there was a custom made charging point, I'd use it.

 

[M80]

Besides the many other misleading comments,
what is the battery sensor?

 

[EmilysDad]

This is the reply of AN Other car site when I asked as similar question ..... if I only understood it!

modern cars have coulomb counting to get an estimate of battery charge capacity, if you go directly to the terminals, it confuses the system (it bypasses the current monitoring) and then you get a whole host of weirdness

which I think where the battery sensor comes into play

 

[RhodieBill]

Two main reasons why advice is to use the terminals under the bonnet and not the battery terminals directly is for the sparking potential and accidental ignition of explosive gasses collecting around a battery, secondly as it is usual practice to connect the Negative terminal last, this is where the battery sensor is located and sparking at this location can at worst damage the battery sensor or at least cause anomalies with the systems reliant upon the sensors designed performance, to be safe, if charging a car connected battery it would be advisable to disconnect the battery Negative terminal from the battery taking the battery sensor with the post clamp or if you have under bonnet charging points simply use them. It makes no difference where the connection is made with reference to post 4, any consumers left working are going to 'suck juice' regardless, electricity doesn't work that way. I personally wouldn't use ANY output socket of a vehicle, OBD or Cigar Lighter to feed a secondary independent supply of any description back into a vehicle, this is wrong on so many levels, you are creating backfeeds, energising untold amounts of additional circuits connected to the same vehicle distribution units without correct fused protection and with supplies from battery chargers that may be providing unregulated outputs, voltages in excess of the vehicles components normal operating parameters, and/or of a questionable quality, using 'half wave or modified rectification' to produce pulsating DC, this may be sufficient to charge a Lead Acid battery but can do untold damage to sensitive electronic components.

Aforementioned taken into consideration it might just be advisable taking it to a highly qualified professional Auto-Electrical Engineer because by the sounds of it anything could happen and the vehicle becoming unserviceable!
And just to be safe I would get the vehicle collected thereby negating the unfortunate occurrence of you having an accident whilst taking the car to said highly qualified professional Auto-Electrical Engineer.....

Or better still, just buy another car!

 

[Denis O]

My C-Tek is clipped directly to the Consumer battery in the boot. I've been doing that for three years. It works wonderfully. If there was a custom made charging point, I'd use it.

My SL is attached in the same way.

SWMBO's Range Rover has a permanently live cigar lighter socket in the boot and is connected through that. Both have been managed this way for 12 years for up to 6 months at a time and we always come back to fully charged batteries.

 

[Srdl]

Hi,

Can you trickle charge a C43AMG via the power socket or do you have to go direct across the battery terminals

On your 2016 car there will be under bonnet connections as per the post #7 video so use them.

 

[McDonald]

Two main reasons why advice is to use the terminals under the bonnet and not the battery terminals directly is for the sparking potential and accidental ignition of explosive gasses collecting around a battery, secondly as it is usual practice to connect the Negative terminal last, this is where the battery sensor is located and sparking at this location can at worst damage the battery sensor or at least cause anomalies with the systems reliant upon the sensors designed performance, to be safe, if charging a car connected battery it would be advisable to disconnect the battery Negative terminal from the battery taking the battery sensor with the post clamp or if you have under bonnet charging points simply use them. It makes no difference where the connection is made with reference to post 4, any consumers left working are going to 'suck juice' regardless, electricity doesn't work that way. I personally wouldn't use ANY output socket of a vehicle, OBD or Cigar Lighter to feed a secondary independent supply of any description back into a vehicle, this is wrong on so many levels, you are creating backfeeds, energising untold amounts of additional circuits connected to the same vehicle distribution units without correct fused protection and with supplies from battery chargers that may be providing unregulated outputs, voltages in excess of the vehicles components normal operating parameters, and/or of a questionable quality, using 'half wave or modified rectification' to produce pulsating DC, this may be sufficient to charge a Lead Acid battery but can do untold damage to sensitive electronic components.

Just wondering if my elderly car (2004) is somehow more robust than later models. It has wondrously complex consumer functions but doesn't exhibit the temperament you're describing.

 

[Tony Dyson]

Just wondering if my elderly car (2004) is somehow more robust than later models. It has wondrously complex consumer functions but doesn't exhibit the temperament you're describing.

What I'm describing isn't intended to suggest that complications are going to develop every time someone connects a charger to a failing battery! it is simply an explanation why the manufacturers advice is such as it is regarding the first two points, with regard to backfeeding a secondary supply into an output socket, there are far too many permutations of such an installation to comment on specific outcomes but it has to be understood that not all battery chargers are made the same and some wholly unsuitable to be connected to a car's electrical installation and if problems are going to develop then channelling that power supply via an OBD or cigar socket without adequate overload/overcurrent protection has the potential to do far more damage to your car's infrastructure than connecting it via appropriate methods. @M80 It isn't my intention to be 'misleading' the battery sensor is the little black device attached to the negative post clamp of the main battery and provides current flow and batt temperature readings to the BCM