Last weekend I installed one of my V1s in my GT R and used the Valentine Savvy as the power source. The Savvy plugs into the OBD II outlet as I’m sure all of you know and is very convenient, BUT even with the car turned off there is always a slight draw of current into the Savvy from the OBD II socket even though the V1 is off.

Well after just 5 days of not driving the GT R due to bad weather, etc. the battery in the car is completely dead, and I’ll have to jump start it tomorrow.

Moral of the story: do NOT use the Savvy to power the V1 in your GT R unless you constantly unplug the Savvy, or you are driving the car daily. The above probably would not effect other variants of the GT series that don’t have the Li ion battery as standard, except that ultimately it would even discharge a lead acid battery if the car was parked and not driven for quite some time.

Bish

Bish:

Why not hook up the MB Battery Tender you got with the car and check back later/tomorrow. It’ll be working while you are enjoying other things.

Best Regards

Jerry

Jerry,

I read in the manual that the battery tender will maintain the battery charge in the Li ion battery but won’t actually ‘recharge’ it.

Is that not correct? If so, I’d rather do as you mentioned.

Bish

I think it will sense that the battery is lower than it should be and bring it up to the point where the battery will resist any further charge. It’s a trickle charge which is why I suggested plugging it in overnight to see how it did. I can tell you that it won’t over charge the battery. I use this charger and a similiar one on my Harley for many years and have never had an issue.

Try it and see. It may bring it up to the point where you can start the car and allow the alternator to add a more rapid charge.

I hope it works.

I’ve got it on the jump/charge points as I type, Jerry. Unfortunately the red ‘fault’ light has come on once already so I’m not confident that the MB trickle charger/battery tender is going to recharge the battery, which shows on the charger as completely discharged.

Will see what happens overnight.

Thanks for your help btw.

As long as the battery is good and the trickle charger senses that it is low it will albiet slowly replenish the charge. The trick as you know is to disconnect the drain source and get the charge to the point where you can fire up the motor and let the alternator take over for awhile—go for a drive. Then back on the charger for a few sessions until all is good.

What I like about the trickle chargers is that they are electronically prevented from/will not cook the battery. These batteries are $$$$.

Best Regards

Why would any smart charger “cook” a battery?

The tender will charge the battery to full and then maintain it at a constant level. Battery chargers just keep amp current going regardless of charge. The chargers will fry batteries if you forget to remove it.

ive used the supplied charger. The battery was extremely low in winter and the car wouldn’t start. I hooked up the tender. It fully recharged the battery and then maintained it fully charged for months.

So the MB battery tender needed a jump start too before it would do it’s job.

Now we all know what to do.

Many thanks.

Sounds like a plan..