Cayman battery problems

[Guest]

I have a Cayman S 2006 manual which appears to suffer battery drain problems. Porsche Reading had the car for 2 days and said there was nothing wrong with the battery or charging systems. Internet forums suggest
that battery problems with the Cayman and Boxster are in fact very well known, with some dealers changing
clutch switches and ignition switches in an attempt to cure the problem, usually unsuccessfully. Do any of the
members have any suggestions as to what may be the answer from their own experience?

Mike Gregory
No 128502

 

[tscaptain]

How much does the car get used, for what distances and do you keep it on a battery conditioner?

 

[Motorhead]

What the cap'n says and how long does the battery actually hold its charge?

It would be useful if you could determine the actual current drain with the ignition off. If there's an earthing fault you could try removing fuses to see if you can track which component is causing the problem. A good vehicle electrician should be able to help you.

Jeff

 

[Buddy]

Mike, some have had problems due to defective batteries etc the general life of a battery is 4-6 years an edit is possible that you are about the time for a second replacement, however, it is always possible that you could have the dreaded "Intermittent Fault" of a light switch making and breaking, normally the door and hatch lights switch off if the door or hatch are left open for more than a few minutes but a switch that is breaking down will be able to switch the light on then it goes off and resets! The switch breaks again and ... or it could just be the behaviour of an old battery in the cold weather.

Ideally a plot of battery drain over a time would indicate if this is the case but few garages will have the necessary equipment, maybe a vehicle electrician would but the cheaper option is as the Cap'n says to use a battery conditioner or trickle changer, there are several on the market, Porsche have their own branded item to plug into the lighter socket but many have bought the units sold by Aldi and LIDL which connect directly to the battery ( I have one adapted to plug into the lighter socket ).

The lighter sockets on the Caymans are live when the car is switched off and locked and so you can plug into it ( ensure that any adapted leads are wired correctly ) and lead the line out through the door seal, just to give another warning, if the battery is not capable of identifying itself to the trickle charger as a 12V battery i.e. a cell is down or even pout then it may not charge sufficiently to work properly on a trickle charger.

I hope you have it sorted satisfactorily soon.