Disconnecting battery when car not in use ...

[derolph]

If you are going to be working on a car or otherwise have it in a non-driving status for an extended period, do you have a general rule of thumb for how to manage the battery to minimize battery drain? For example, if you expect to not be driving it for over a week, would you disconnect the battery?

What's the proper procedure for disconnecting and connecting a battery? I mean the sequence of connecting positive and negative cables.

[2geeSEi]

The best thing to do is to put a float charger on it, but disconnecting it will keep the clock and other memory things like the radio from draining power. Just keep in mind that you will need to reset everything when you connect it again. Always disconnect the negative terminal first. If you are leaving the battery in the car, you can just leave the positive in place, as the circuit will not be complete with the negative disconnected, so no power will be drained.

[2geeSEi]

BTW, my comments were all for having the car in a non-driving status. If you are working on it, you always want to disconnect the negative battery terminal.

[derolph]

Thanks for the replies. I have a charger but it does not have a float - I presume that equals a trickle charge - charge feature. My charger is, as nearly as I can recall, over 15 years old. Perhaps I should invest in a new one. I've been doing some body work on my 88 LX-i and it's been sitting in the garage for weeks. I recently discovered the battery was fully drained. That's not good and I want to avoid that from happening again.

[2geeSEi]

You can get a cheap float charger from Harbor Freight for $5 with a coupon. I have one and it seems to work fine, it just isn't weatherproof, and you have to charge the battery fully before you hook it up. The waterproof "Battery Tender" one is $35-$50.

[lostforawhile]

I wouldn't leave anything with the words cheap harbor freight and charger, hooked to my car, spend the money and get a genuine battery tender or a name brand, harbor freight electrical stuff has a nasty habit of failing or randomly catching fire

[Rendon LX-i]

I have a 5 buck harbor freight lost charger works great lol

[lostforawhile]

I have a 5 buck harbor freight lost charger works great lol

good luck, i know of several people who had batteries destroyed by harbor crap chargers

[2geeSEi]

Mine works great also.

[Dr_Snooz]

There is a white wire running from the positive battery cable to the underhood fuse box. I usually disconnect that one if I'm going to be leaving the car alone for extended periods. It disconnects with a simple Phillips head screwdriver (or my pocket knife in most cases) and prevents parasitic drain very well. It's relatively clean and doesn't require that I find a wrench. The battery is still going to lose charge if left alone for long enough, so you'll want to top it up every couple weeks or so. It's best to fire up the car every so often too.