2003 VROD battery issues

I don't like battery tenders, but I have used them in the past. I had a 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo that was the picture postcard for "garage queen" - I practically never drove it. After several "battery" issues I finally wised up and bought a battery disconnect. It was $5 or so at wally world. Put this on the battery and after driving the car I would pop the hood, spin the disconnect, and then lower the hood. When I wanted to drive the car I would simply reverse the "procedure". Did this for over 5 years on a single battery and in that time I never had to charge - trickle or otherwise.

Every vehicle with some sort of security system (covers cars, bikes, trucks, etc) will have a small drain on the battery when parked, locked and secured. This is a normal condition. For your typical "garage ornaments", you either need to disconnect the battery, or put them on a tender.

Disconnecting the battery alone can cause all sorts of issues, from forgotten settings (auto up/down windows, radio stations, all the programmed and learned fuel injector and engine control settings, etc). For these reasons I recommend never disconnecting the battery on any modern vehicle. Most well equipped garages that work on vehicles will have a memory maintainer that they can plug into an active power point during a battery change to maintain these learned settings.

A battery tender can boil a battery dry, regardless of the quality of tender used. If you have a defective battery to start with, nothing will fix it, and the tender will continually try to bring it back to spec - which it will never reach - and that will result in a dry, toasted battery.

Of course, you can always ignore me, if you like. And, as always, YMMV.

chaissos said:

A battery tender can boil a battery dry, regardless of the quality of tender used. If you have a defective battery to start with, nothing will fix it, and the tender will continually try to bring it back to spec - which it will never reach - and that will result in a dry, toasted battery.

Of course, you can always ignore me, if you like.

Click to expand...

Based on what you posted above.. I think thats the good option' to avoid a discussion on fact vs outdated information and wives tales that never were real.

BTW how old is this battery? Where did you get it? W mart lead acid 6 months tops if you have a Battery Tender brand expect maybe 8 to 12 months if your lucky. I never had one last much longer than 6 months. Use a AGM type batteries, your disappointment level well improve.

A short list of some of the problems you might run into...
http://www.aa1car.com/library/battery_disconnect_problems.htm

A quick description of the proper way to do it (also covered in the above article)...
http://www.ehow.com/how_7695043_replace-car-battery-losing-memory.html

New bikes have the same ABS systems, some also have fuel injection and engine management functions controlled by the computer. My current ride is one of them. I don't know how disconnecting the battery on this one will affect it, but I suspect it won't be a big deal.