External battery charger installation

[GrimLemur]

Wanted to show y'all a solution I have to the weak battery problem some of us have.

My 2020 GT350 battery has been replaced at 500 miles and has died completely after another 500 miles.
When it had died it only had been sitting for 4 to 5 days without starting! I do occasionally get into the car to grab stuff but I leave it locked in a cool garage most of the time. I do have a hardwired dashcam setup (with an auto-shutoff voltage thresh hold of about 14.1 volts), but my battery died the first time before I installed that so I believe that is not the issue.

Installation:

1. Since my battery died so often, I wall mounted a Noco battery charger which has jumper cables.

2. I got tired of opening the hood and removing the large plastic piece to attach the cables every time. Since these nice chargers have tons of accessories I bought the hardwire extension (ours is the M6 1/4 in eyelet size). I recommend removing the terminal completely for eyelet installation. I attached the fuse wire to a sticky cable clip in the battery box (next to the positive terminal).

3. I cut out and pushed the plug thru the metal mesh in the plastic cover. I'm pedantic so I put a warning label for anyone working on it so they don't damage the cable. I mounted the charger plug to the front of the plastic trim that's exposed to the elements and it stays in place with another sticky wire clip. You can see it has a rubber covering, which I'm not sure how waterproof it is. Either way, I don't drive this car in the rain if I can help it and if I can't then I can tuck it under the hood and plastic battery cover.

Here it is charging. My car is almost as easy as my phone to charge.
View attachment 483914

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[TxGT350-52]

Nice write up. I did the exact same thing to my car, except I did not add the sticker...

I plug it in every time I get out of it without raising the hood and I have never had to replace my battery.

 

[proeagles]

You need to find out what is killing your battery. I've let mine sit for 2 weeks and it starts right up.

 

[matthewr87]

You need to find out what is killing your battery. I've let mine sit for 2 weeks and it starts right up.

Yeah I've had mine sit for up to 4 weeks and it started just fine.

 

[Bluelightning]

Definitely a draw somewhere. I only drive mine once a month or so, and it is on the stock battery from 2017 with no issues.

 

[lenFeb]

You need to find out what is killing your battery. I've let mine sit for 2 weeks and it starts right up.

+3 Exactly. My seating at the garage month without charging and it's fine next time I started. Something is wrong with yours.

 

[GrimLemur]

Very strange indeed. I will ask the dealer what the deal is since the last battery went bad very quickly.

 

[Frank.Herbst]

Take a look at the attached picture. Other post have covered the need to not charge the battery directly on the battery posts. It has something to do with the way the system keeps track of voltage in and out of the battery. Notice power charge cable to fuse box post and ground to body at shock tower.

 

[lenFeb]

the positive cable can be placed directly on positive battery terminal. But negative cable need to be on body ground.

 

[DCShelby]

I have left mine for three weeks with no tender and it starts right up. You have some sort of current draw that is killing your battery. I’d start pulling fuses and use a meter to jump the fuse terminals and find it.

 

[460Fred]

I don’t know what is worse....the quickly draining battery or some of you are only driving your cars once a month. ;-)

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