Flat Battery......

[Drac01971]

Well I've been a Lotus Elise owner for 62 days now and have just had my first flat battery.

The car doesn't get as much use as it should and will sometimes be parked up for a couple of weeks at a time.
I've done a bit of digging and found this is very common in Lotus's and it seems most people recommend either disconecting the battery or running a trickle charger to the battery in their garages.

Saddly neither of these are going to be a viable option. My car has to live on the street, so no garage and power supply, and I don't want to disconnect it as I want my alarm primed at all times.

My question then: has anyone tried the Solar powered trickle chargers that sit on the dash and plug straight into the cigarette socket?

These perport to keep the battery at 100% and will work in most daylight conditions. They are on ebay for £10 for a 1.5W, 12-17V type or Maplin for a £40 12W, 12V model. Has anyone tried these, do they work?, and indeed can you charge the Lotus battery via the cig. socket or are there electrics in the way which would prevent this?


As ever your experiences would be well recieved.

Cheers

D.

[renmure]

I bought a similar solar charger (think it was a Maplins one) to try to maintain my lawnmower's battery in the summer. (ok.. not exactly the same thing) but it really was a waste of money (or else I got a dud).

[Corranga]

Run an extention cord out to the car every weekend or so if you're not gonna use it (weather dependant of course)?

[Matelotman]

Drive it more !!!

[ninja]

Drive it more !!!

LMAO

that was going to be my answer!

ninja

[campbell]

The alarms can run off with a lot of battery, IIRC, and in some types you can disarm the ultrasonics bit leaving just door sensors and of course immobiliser armed. What your insurer would think of this is another matter, so the best solution, after "drive it more" is...save up for a place with a garage

[Drac01971]

So general opinion is: these solar trickle chargers are just a gimik and dont work ?

Naturally I will try and drive it more and start saving for a bigger house

D.

[basil]

If your battery is failing to hold its charge for a couple of weeks then I would be checking your alternator and battery as my S1 can start first time after a month or two without needing trickle charged.

[espritstu]

hi ,buy a new spare battery and change it before you drive and charge the other one at the same time,or jump start the lotus with the spare batt.then give her a good run cheers espritstu.