Is It Okay Charger To Battery Whilst Is Still On The Car

[C 5 Estate]

My 2006 C5 2000cc diesel estate is not being used much at the moment,  some times not for a few days.

 

I am opening locking/unlocking the doors quite a few times a day so having accidentally come across my battery charger I am considering connecting it up.

 

As computer based motoring is a new experience for me, and I do not want to inadvertently mess things up, I would like to know if simply connecting up the charger with the battery leads connected to the vehicle is ok.

 

This may seem a basic question but I dont want to give the car electronocs a chance to go wrong.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Tim

[paul.h]

I would not do this. It is better to disconnect the battery before charging. If the charger voltage went high it could ruin the electrics. It was discussed in here before and one other problem mentioned was the car would be sensing the voltage and the bsi would not shut down. Our C5 does not get used a lot, sometimes only once a month but the doors are not opened every day. Due to the alarm and possibly other things, after about 3 to 4 weeks the battery is low enough to possibly not start the car and I have found removing the towbar fuses reduces the current drain giving another week.

 

I would check the battery voltage to see how much it falls over the few days to see if there really is a problem or not. Also, have you thought about removing the things out of the car that cause you to keep opening the doors ?

[Johndouglas]

When you unlock the car the suspension pump brings the car up ready to start so each time the door is unlocked, it's an unnecessary drain on the battery.  

[C 5 Estate]

Thanks for your replies, since posting I remembered some one mentioning a digital volt meter connected into one of the accessory sockets as an indication of the battery condition.

 

I may go down this route initially to give me an accurate reading of the battery condition.

As the battery was new in April last year I am possibly unduly concerned.

 

Tim

[paul.h]

If you do not already have a multi meter I would get one of these instead since a reasonable one can be bought for £5 to £10 that will do most things such as this CDM10 for £8.39 from Machine Mart http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/cdm10-economy-digital-multimeter

You only need to check the battery once to see if you have a problem after a few days and then you are likely to be able to forget about it.

[coastline taxis]

Wouldnt worry to much as the economy mode will kick in and stop iit