Battery worry
My brother-in-law had a silver oxide battery fitted to his 2005 Ford Focus diesel estate a few months ago. As he does not use the car very often, I wanted to connect my CTEK charger to the battery, but my charger is for the lead-acid type, so would it be okay to use? The connections on the battery completely cover the terminals, so if my charger is okay to use I would need to connect it to the vehicle’s connectors. Will this work?
Also, if I remove the connectors and leads from the battery, is there any engine management that needs to be reset after disconnecting and reconnecting the battery? Would a Draper 9V Memory Saver be of use on this vehicle? Also, would the memory saver be safe to use on a 2011 Suzuki Alto and 2015 Celerio?
Ernie Lawson
You have not mentioned which model of CTEK charger you have, but all CTEK chargers are smart chargers and designed to adjust to the required battery technology. While there is a range of CTEK chargers tailored to more specific needs, you should be able to charge the Focus battery without worry. Connecting to the terminals of the battery will charge it sufficiently and the CTEK chargers are designed to enable the vehicle’s battery to be
charged without disconnecting it.
If you did want to disconnect the battery, you'd need to reset the radio code because the parameters will be lost from the ECU, although these will be relearned after a normal driving cycle. After reconnecting the battery, when first starting up, the engine should be allowed to idle for three minutes before raising the engine revs to 1200rpm for a further two minutes. The vehicle should then be driven for five miles.
If the vehicle has electrically operated windows, the automatic function on these may also need to be reset. This is done by fully closing the window, releasing the switch, then placing the switch in the ‘up’ position for a further second. Then open the window, release the switch and operate it again in the ‘down’ position for a further second.
The Draper Memory Saver should be safe to use with all the vehicles you have mentioned.