Hi all! Am using my CTek charger for the first time on my 2013 991C4S which has just recentlyreturned from 111 point check when I renewed Porsche warranty. When I plug in the charger, the green light shows as solid lit though orange light still flashes. Was just wondering if all is okay? Presumably the battery would have been checked out by a Porsche when the 111 point warranty renewal check was done. Any ideas guys? Thanks
Battery charger query
- Thread starter keneccles
- Start date
Which CTEK model is this? - there are quite a few models and lights of different colours mean different things. I have two CTEK chargers with different features.
If the battery is good enough to start the car the only fault a CTEK is likely to find is at the end of a period close to a week where it has charged it, and then allowed it to go through a few short discharge cycles, where it then might determine the battery is not holding charge for long. (The 111 point check will be too quick to check that type of fault.) I suspect if the the flashing orange is immediate then it's not showing a battery fault, it is more likely a connection fault.
If the battery is good enough to start the car the only fault a CTEK is likely to find is at the end of a period close to a week where it has charged it, and then allowed it to go through a few short discharge cycles, where it then might determine the battery is not holding charge for long. (The 111 point check will be too quick to check that type of fault.) I suspect if the the flashing orange is immediate then it's not showing a battery fault, it is more likely a connection fault.
As others members have previously mentioned it depends which CTEK charger you have (mine is a MXS 5). There are a series of orange LED lights (+ 2 green LED’s at the far right side) and depending the progress status the Orange LED lights will either be not lit, flash or be on. Once the charging process is complete all the LED’s are lit. For me it can take 10 or more hours before all LED’s are lit. Do you have your CTEK manual to check which version you have? If not you can search for them on Google.
Guys - many thanks for your replies. I have checked the box and instructions, and am struggling to actually determine which model it is. The tech spec states that it is three step fully automatic with pulse maintenance, and I only one reference on the outer box and the unit itself as IP65. It has four indicators shown as standby/power on, incorrect polarity, charging process and pulse maintenance. I picked it up from Porsche when I got the car, and was just considering using it now since it is unlikely that I will driving the car much in light of the current medical emergency. Car is starting up okay but I wanted to maybe top up battery when parked up. I have it connected through cigarette lighter socket, so am not sure it could be a polarity problem? As I mentioned, green light is showing on solid, with amber flashing. I am not sure then if the charger is actually contributing anything, or worse case, could it actually be defeating the purpose and discharging battery?
Ken,
I'm not sure what CTEK you have. Probably the best way forward is to go on to the CTEK website and see if you can identify it there to get more information and the associated manual, or failing that to contact them directly for advice.
I would have thought that you should only have the power light and a solid green light showing, but it could be that the flashing orange light just indicates that the battery is still being charged.
Are you connecting direct to the battery via the positive terminal and the body negative earthing post or are you using an internal power-point? If it's the latter then it would be worthwhile trying a direct connection.
Jeff
I'm not sure what CTEK you have. Probably the best way forward is to go on to the CTEK website and see if you can identify it there to get more information and the associated manual, or failing that to contact them directly for advice.
I would have thought that you should only have the power light and a solid green light showing, but it could be that the flashing orange light just indicates that the battery is still being charged.
Are you connecting direct to the battery via the positive terminal and the body negative earthing post or are you using an internal power-point? If it's the latter then it would be worthwhile trying a direct connection.
Jeff
Sounds like you might just have an old Ctek XS3600 version. Take a look at this link https://www.porscheclubgb.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=982173#982173 in the Tricks and Tips section of this Register forum for more info on Ctek.
If the outlet goes to sleep, it is either not live with the ignition off or it times out during the charging process. A flashing yellow LED usually indicates an incomplete circuit, so try this:-
Unplug the charger.
Start the car - just run for a minute and shut it off.
Immediately plug the charger into your preferred charging port. Start with the one in the passenger footwell if possible.
Immediately plug the charger into the wall outlet and select your charging mode.
If after 15 minutes there's no flashing yellow light, you're good to go. If you get the flashing yellow light, start over but this time select another charging port.
If all else fails, try hard-wiring direct to the battery by using the crocodile clips you should have with the kit. If none, then remove the lighter fitting and clamp bare wires 1 to the + terminal on the battery, the other to a good earth on the chassis. Use some bull dog clips or something similar and look for the result. If unsatisfactory reverse the wires.
Let us know how you get .
Regards,
Clive
If the outlet goes to sleep, it is either not live with the ignition off or it times out during the charging process. A flashing yellow LED usually indicates an incomplete circuit, so try this:-
Unplug the charger.
Start the car - just run for a minute and shut it off.
Immediately plug the charger into your preferred charging port. Start with the one in the passenger footwell if possible.
Immediately plug the charger into the wall outlet and select your charging mode.
If after 15 minutes there's no flashing yellow light, you're good to go. If you get the flashing yellow light, start over but this time select another charging port.
If all else fails, try hard-wiring direct to the battery by using the crocodile clips you should have with the kit. If none, then remove the lighter fitting and clamp bare wires 1 to the + terminal on the battery, the other to a good earth on the chassis. Use some bull dog clips or something similar and look for the result. If unsatisfactory reverse the wires.
Let us know how you get .
Regards,
Clive
Guys - just an update - I unplugged the charger from the cigarette lighter port a couple of days ago as suggested, and this time plugged it in to the 12v port in the arm rest. For about the first 40 hours or so I got a solid orange light without any flashing. Then on checking last night, it had gone to the solid green light and it has stayed there since. I have not actually tried starting the car up yet as I wanted to let it complete the charge, so am hoping the port change has done the trick. Must say I was a bit wary about leaving it still connected, but the advice appears to be that this is okay? Will fire it up in the morning- much obliged for everything so far. Kenny
Kenny - all the CTEKs I've known have been designed to be plug-in-and-forget (for the whole winter, often). That's the good thing about them - they monitor the battery and give it just the charging it needs (or none if it doesn't).
The down side of them is that, although well designed, some of the electrical components they use are of poor quality. I've had two where the "mode" button as become intermittent and then failed. (Can be fixed by opening it up and giving a good spray with contact cleaner - but it should not be needed).
The down side of them is that, although well designed, some of the electrical components they use are of poor quality. I've had two where the "mode" button as become intermittent and then failed. (Can be fixed by opening it up and giving a good spray with contact cleaner - but it should not be needed).
I agree with your comments Mark. My old CTEK has been in year-round use for more than 9-years without problems, but more recently the Mode button operation has become a bit flaky.
Interestingly, a while ago I found a YouTube video by an electronics engineer who stripped down a CTEK conditioner and who was very scathing of both the quality of the components and of the design and construction too, so who knows?
Jeff
Interestingly, a while ago I found a YouTube video by an electronics engineer who stripped down a CTEK conditioner and who was very scathing of both the quality of the components and of the design and construction too, so who knows?
Jeff
Due to the ongoing limitation in not being able to use our cars, I have been using my CTEK battery charger more frequently to keep the battery charged. I connected the CTEK battery charger via the lower passenger 12 volt socket.
With the connector from the Charger to the v12 socket it has 3 LEDs which indicate the state of your battery when connected, using red, amber and green flashing lights. I had the charger connected to trickle charge the battery for over 12 hours late last week. When disconnecting the charger, but keeping the CTEK 12Volt connector plugged in, the green LED was flashing to indicate all was good, however after a few secs the flashing LED changed to Amber and then red!
So the following day I connected the CTEK battery charger again, however the same thing happened. The car is only 4 years old from new so I would not expect to need a new battery just yet. The CTEK battery charger has 4 modes to choose from: Bike, Car, Cold weather, and Recondition mode. I normally leave the setting on 'Cold weather', however the last time I tried the normal 'Car' mode but it made no difference. I think now I will try the 'Recondition' mode to see if this makes any difference.
(just to also mention, on the CTEK battery charger the Power light is green and not flashing, so the unit appears to be OK).
Question: When have you needed to replace your battery on your 991? As the car is under Porsche warranty I expect this will mean that I will have to have it replaced with a battery from the dealer?
With the connector from the Charger to the v12 socket it has 3 LEDs which indicate the state of your battery when connected, using red, amber and green flashing lights. I had the charger connected to trickle charge the battery for over 12 hours late last week. When disconnecting the charger, but keeping the CTEK 12Volt connector plugged in, the green LED was flashing to indicate all was good, however after a few secs the flashing LED changed to Amber and then red!
So the following day I connected the CTEK battery charger again, however the same thing happened. The car is only 4 years old from new so I would not expect to need a new battery just yet. The CTEK battery charger has 4 modes to choose from: Bike, Car, Cold weather, and Recondition mode. I normally leave the setting on 'Cold weather', however the last time I tried the normal 'Car' mode but it made no difference. I think now I will try the 'Recondition' mode to see if this makes any difference.
(just to also mention, on the CTEK battery charger the Power light is green and not flashing, so the unit appears to be OK).
Question: When have you needed to replace your battery on your 991? As the car is under Porsche warranty I expect this will mean that I will have to have it replaced with a battery from the dealer?
Hi Dyln, I set my CTEK battery charger to 'Recon' and its been connected for the past 4 days, I would have expected that the 8th LED would be alight now but not yet, all the LED's are lit up to the 7th LED. I plan to disconnect the charger to tomorrow and see what status I get with the CTEK 12volt socket with its 3 LED's.
Thank you for asking about the ankle, I think the healing is just about complete now after 10 months I still get a few aches. I supposed it will never be as good as before the break. However I have started running again doing about 3.5 miles per session at least once a week so if I can do this it can't be that bad [
]Hoping you and Linda are all fine and well.
Thank you for asking about the ankle, I think the healing is just about complete now after 10 months I still get a few aches. I supposed it will never be as good as before the break. However I have started running again doing about 3.5 miles per session at least once a week so if I can do this it can't be that bad [
]Hoping you and Linda are all fine and well.
I've always found the 8th LED very difficult to see whether it is lit or not. The 7th LED shows when it is fully charged, I wonder if the 8th is on intermittently and only when it is actively pulsing. Manual here
Hi - the chart on page 5 of the manual that Ralph shared suggests that the CTEK charger can remain at Stage 7 for 10 days before progressing to Stage 8, so this may be the reason.
From all the posts on the forum around battery charging, this whole area seem a bit of a minefield which is a bit of a shame given how many Porsches must be stuck in garages / on driveways right now!
Cheers,
Keith
From all the posts on the forum around battery charging, this whole area seem a bit of a minefield which is a bit of a shame given how many Porsches must be stuck in garages / on driveways right now!
Cheers,
Keith
Thank you all for the tips on the CTEK charger. I have the manual already but I do find the information quite vague and not particularly informative. I confess that I did not see the correlation on page 5 were its states for Stage 7 "After 10 days Charge cycle restarts if voltage drops" then for Stage 8 "Charge cycle restarts if voltage drops", would necessary mean that for Stage 8 to commence will only start after 10 days? If so I can blame the language translation from Swedish to English. I have watched various YouTube videos relating to the charger to try and gain a better understanding but they appear to skip over this bit of information. From searching the web it appears I am not the only one who has the same query, but unfortunately no answer.
For what it’s worth, my car has been on an un-interrupted charge from a CTEK MXS 5.0 for a fair while, and I have just noticed that it has now reached Stage 8 with all LEDs now lit up correctly (6 amber, 2 green).
I have not been keeping exact timing, but I think this is about 10 days after the point it reached fully charged status (i.e. LED 7), so it appears to correlate with what the manual was saying (for me at least).
I have not been keeping exact timing, but I think this is about 10 days after the point it reached fully charged status (i.e. LED 7), so it appears to correlate with what the manual was saying (for me at least).
Apologies for resurrecting this discussion but I thought someone may be able to advise. I have a CTEK MXS 5.0 charger which I used on my 2014 Boxster GTS for two years by simply plugging it into the 12v socket in the armrest. I now have a 991.1 GTS and try to do the same so far without success. After about 20 mins all the lights go out on the CTEK except the power light which flashes. This indicates it’s gone to sleep, ie. it’s not doing anything. I presume this is because the socket in the armrest isn’t able to receive charge. I’ve tried various sequences of doing things, as advised on the Porsche Techequipment site etc. ie. ignition on then off then plug the charger in etc. but it still goes to sleep ( The Porsche Battery Conditioner is made by CTEK so it’s the same really) . I note that some of you use the armrest socket as well with success, so what exactly do you do to make it work? Any advice would be welcome. Thanks.
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