Carrera GT

Does anyone have documentation on the installation, charging and "maintenance" of the lightweight Lithium Ion battery?

In my car, left locked for three days, the battery had just barely enough energy to crank over the engine and get it started. As soon as it had started once, it picked up enough charge to be able to start "normally" for the rest of the day. Locked on Sunday night -- borderline dead on Thursday morning. Something's not right.

mikymu

Do you have anything else running when car is off? My 5 lbs Voltphreak Li-ion battery can be left for more than 2 weeks without trickle charger and the car starts right up

No HTwo O

I agree with this thought pattern. For example, even a Garmin GPS cord will pull power, with the actual unit turned off. Mainly because the cord itself has a small light.

Juancooldude

I have a lithium battery installed and its working fine for me. Never had the warning tone come on. I plug in my charger if the car is going to sit for 2 weeks or more, as instructed in the manual. And yes, I have the manual...in every freaking language...

Juancooldude

Also, I have an extra LI battery if anyone is interested

Carrera GT

Is there anything useful in that manual (preferably in English)?

After the first time I found it flat, I was quite careful to have nothing plugging in, both doors and windows closed and the car locked.

Juancooldude

Not much that is not already well known...
- keep on trickle charger if car sits 2+ weeks
- warning tone comes on when battery is 25%, charge when tone sounds
- use 3 to 5A charger
- switch to lead battery if running car in ambient temps below 0 C

How are you gauging that the battery is "flat"? Is it slow to crank over?

Carrera GT

flat = no voltage, no remote door unlock, window doesn't lower itself, key gets "stuck" in ignition, have to jump to open hood, jump to crank over.

Funny how "li-ion" might be pronounced "lion" but this battery is really more of a "lamb." Maybe early adopter customers are the lambs to the slaughter. Or just Guinea Pig tests.

Anyway, once I jump the car, the lamb battery behaves as though it was "playing Possum" and had a near full SOC (state of charge) all along, but had switched itself off into some sort of discharge prevention safety mode.

I read (somewhere, before the first of the new RS's arrived) that the battery has some sort of factory "dormant" mode to prevent excessive discharge (such as being parked with an accessory drain such as a radar detector) but I haven't been able to find that information again and I can't remember what it said about the method to "re-arm" the battery once it had tripped into this dormant state. I assumed it would be as simple as putting the key in the ignition or lifting a door handle or something obvious. I know the Phreak uses a separate, remote wired switch. Presumably Porsche has something a little more integrated. How hard could it be? I still think there must be something to set in the PIWIS to say "it's a lamb battery ... don't forget the mint sauce."

Juancooldude

I would take your battery in to have it looked at. Sounds like the electronics on the battery might be faulty.

My battery definitely does not get "flat", regardless of how often I drive it within the 2-3 weeks before I plug in the charger.

savyboy

Unplug the power to your RaceKeeper box. Even when off, mine will for some reason pull the battery down. Other than this I have been running my LiON since delivery in April with no problems.

Carrera GT

I've got the RK set up so it runs off its own battery pack, which is also disconnected and left on the charger in the trailer. I make a point of even removing the OBD bridge so it's little LED status light isn't draining the system ... which I'm guessing would require about five years to deplete the battery, but I was in "no stone left unturned" mode.

PogueMoHone

I have your manuals..they are where you left them!

Carrera GT

Agreed. The car's at the dealer now for a bit of a "nut and bolt" for safety on the track (looking at coolant and power steering hoses "up close and personal") as well as checking the battery against another car with the same battery to see if the car has some anomaly (culprits include poor ground or positive lead, asynchronous tail lamp LEDs and depolarized door handles ... the usual suspects in a case like this ...)

Thanks.