Battery Maintenance

[SilverNitr8]

Has anybody done a battery maintenance on their stinger? I'm referring to using a trickle charger to keep the battery fully charge. If you have, did you connect them in the front of the vehicle or the actual battery in the trunk? If in the trunk, how did you pass through the cable?

 

[SteveCo]

Yes, I charged mine with a CTEK 2.2A intelligent battery charger, using the front connection points - worked great. The Stinger has a large AGM battery, and they like a long, slow charge vs. blasting with high amperage. I have a CTEK quick coupler pigtail that I'll eventually get around to installing under the hood.

I've used the same quick connect setup and charger for several years on my summer car (convertible) that I store over the winter months - it has a lead acid battery for now, though I'll be switching that to AGM at the next change.

 

[SilverNitr8]

Nice. Where did you ground your negative wire? There is a bolt on the hood designed for alligator clips. Is that what you used?

 

[SteveCo]

There is a large metal connection post on the passenger side inner fender, about half way between the front and the firewall.

 

[eflyguy]

I clip the -ve to the obvisouly-not-primed stud just in front of that power distribution panel. Also plan to put a pigtail in that will probably just sit in the windshield wiper tray under the edge of the hood.

 

[SKStinger]

The under-hood charging points work great. I have the same CTEK charger as SteveCo and mine's been trickle charging since early November waiting for spring...

 

[SilverNitr8]

Do you guys leave your hood up while charging? I'll be out of town for 2 weeks and not driving the car so I need to keep the battery charged.

 

[POS VETT]

I wouldn't worry about a two-week, a six-month hibernation is a different story.

 

[SKStinger]

Do you guys leave your hood up while charging? I'll be out of town for 2 weeks and not driving the car so I need to keep the battery charged.

I just lower it but don’t push it down.

And I agree, if it’s only 2 weeks you won’t need to trickle charge it.

 

[eflyguy]

Mine is driven often enough that I'm sure it doesn't need it, but it does concern me that the charger shows "charging" vs full whenever I connect it. So as I already have the chargers sitting around (multiple motorcycle owner), adding a pigtail and plugging it in when we have a week of weather isn't a burden. I've only ever bothered previously with vehicles that don't get driven for a month or more, like my truck at times.

 

[RVance]

Could someone post a pic of the underhood charging points (I see a good ground point)? I'm not seeing them. Manual says to remove battery from trunk to charge. Not interested in disabling the vehicle.

 

[eflyguy]

Top-left when looking at the engine from the front. Closest to the passenger door pillar. Plastic cover with a big red (+) on it.

 

[SteveCo]

Removing the battery from the trunk is just a precaution in the unlikely event that free hydrogen escapes inside the car itself, and doesn't leave in an orderly fashion through the vent tube.

I use the charging points under the hood for a light or maintenance charge, but the couple of times I've had to fully charge the battery from an almost or fully depleted state, I've disconnected the negative terminal at the battery to isolate the car, and put the charger right on the battery posts (with the hatch open).

 

[RVance]

Top-left when looking at the engine from the front. Closest to the passenger door pillar. Plastic cover with a big red (+) on it.

Thank you. Yea, I pulled the fuse cover off and looked under that red cross before I asked for a pic because I didn't see anything MARKED positive. There is a small stamped tab in that spot sticking up from the connector blocks. I guess that is it. Wouldn't want to try and jump the car from that connector.

 

[SteveCo]

Yea, I pulled the fuse cover off and looked under that red cross before I asked for a pic because I didn't see anything MARKED positive. There is a small stamped tab in that spot sticking up from the connector blocks. I guess that is it. Wouldn't want to try and jump the car from that connector.

Yes, the shiny, vertical metal strip under that cover is the positive connection point. And no, I wouldn't try to push a lot of amperage from there, for charging or boosting.

The negative clamping point is a bare bolt on the passenger side, under the hood about halfway down the fender.

 

[moinmoin]

Wouldn't want to try and jump the car from that connector.

NOT a problem! I've seen the dealer do it in the showroom (not on my car) and the CAA technician doing it to mine in the driveway.
Digging through the trunk and getting the spare out: not happening.

 

[SteveCo]

NOT a problem! I've seen the dealer do it in the showroom (not on my car) and the CAA technician doing it to mine in the driveway.
Digging through the trunk and getting the spare out: not happening.

As much as I respect the job the CAA people do, especially in a bitterly cold snowstorm, I don't expect them all to be experts at best practice boosting - especially when they are rushing through a long and miserable day, with multiple hour waits for service calls.

The KIA manual lists a pretty generic battery to battery boosting procedure, and based on the reference to using an engine ground on the boosted car I expect it was simply lifted from another manual. But boosting, especially when it's very cold, can draw a serious amount of amperage - and I'd rather not route it through those smaller gauge cables under the hood.

Pulling the spare to access the battery is a pretty simple job, even with gloves on - a few minutes at best. And hey, what else do you have to do while waiting for the CAA to show up?

Edit: Added 'ALL' to comment on CAA operators - hopefully most of them have at least been trained on best practice boosting ...

 

[moinmoin]

and I'd rather not route it through those smaller gauge cables under the hood.

Which is, after second guessing the car's operating manual, absolutely your prerogative.

 

[RVance]

Yes, the shiny, vertical metal strip under that cover is the positive connection point. And no, I wouldn't try to push a lot of amperage from there, for charging or boosting.

The negative clamping point is a bare bolt on the passenger side, under the hood about halfway down the fender.

Thanks for confirming! I saw the negative bolt, also.
I'm taking a long trip without my car and want to put a trickle on it. I thought the little fuse puller was a nice touch.

 

[SteveCo]

Which is, after second guessing the car's operating manual, absolutely your prerogative.

Not sure how I'm second guessing the owner's manual as it says (at least in my MY2018 version) to boost and charge only directly to the battery, but it's certainly the owner's prerogative to do so or not.

I did try charging my battery through the under hood connections one time after the battery fully discharged, but after connecting the charger and powering it up, the car (not the charger) made some unsettling rapid clicks like a relay was fluctuating.

After switching over to doing an uneventful full charge with the charger directly coupled directly to the disconnected battery in the trunk, the car then showed an electronic suspension fault after it was reconnected. Fortunately that was fixed by the dealer during a drive-through visit, using a diagnostic tablet to do a computer reset.

Was the computer error related to that attempt to charge the depleted battery through the engine compartment connections? Unknown, but it was highly coincidental.