wedgemorgan

Two weeks without driving the S, Mr Clifford 600 Alarm has completely drained the battery.

I'm going to charge it up, and will be ready with the remote to disarm the alarm if it goes off.

Rather than removing the battery, with all the hassle of alarms going off and stereo codes being reset, I thought I'd charge it "in car", but the instructions on the charger say I should do this only in an emergency and connect the negative lead to the chassis, not the battery.

Can anyone verify this? What is the reason for this, and do I need to disconnect the battery anyway?

Any advice would be gratefully received. Thanks.

Tonky

The only reason I can think of for the advice given is the possibility of shorting between the battery terminals and the car body from charging leads not securely connected to the battery posts, with the inherent danger of them slipping off... particulaly if the car is unattended. Even worse of course, the danger of one battery post being shorted across the other!

I regularly used to charge my battery in situ on the car with both positive and negative terminals still connected. As long as you make sure the crocodile clips or whatever you use to fix the charging cables to the battery posts are secure, I don't see a problem. I could of course be wrong.

wedgemorgan

Thanks Tonky

The ultra-conservative documentation I've read says you should not charge with the battery connected, because of risk to the car's instruments., so I took the safe option and disconnected the battery, after talking to the alarm installers, who said I should put the alarm in "Valet Mode". However, the battery was so flat, it wouldn't go into valet mode.

I've got an early start in the morning, so I'll reconnect the battery to the car, and see what happens to the alarm. Fingers crossed, I'll have lightning reactions if the alarm goes off, or the neighbours are heavy sleepers!

I'm still a bit clueless as to how the battery could charge if you have the charger's positive lead connected to the battery, and the negative lead connected to the car's chassis - don't you need a current running through the battery to charge it?

Thanks again for your comments of encouragement.

Mans Best

because the negative terminal is connected to the chassis of the car.

AdrianEagle

Well here we have seen a very positive answer to a negative situation! Just what the Forum is about!
Charged with excitement and absolutely alarming!

Bassoctopus

Have you been taking lessons from Dr Fox, Adrian?

sportyking

Don't be too sure it was your alarm.
My S started losing charge in two weeks, which over the following 4 months reduced to 5 days!
The AA man that came to its aid said that Hondas in general are very incredibly reliable but if they are called out it is usually for a battery, or if the cars are over 4 years old a radiator related snag.
I don't know how old yours is but mine showed the firs symptoms at 14 months old with the battery being changed under warranty (no quibbles) 4 months later. A strange thing is the original battery wasn't labelled "Honda" but the replacement was?
If you are close to the end of warranty, get it checked now!
If you are using a cheap battery charger definately disconnect the battery, modern electronic systems are very sensitive!! It would be prudent to do this regardless unless inconvenient.

wedgemorgan

Thanks again everyone for your comments.

With this incident, it's difficult to tell whether it's the alarm draining the battery or the battery itself - I hadn't driven it for a couple of weeks, and had left it alarmed.

My battery is the original - the car was registered in February last year, so I have a couple of years left. I'll monitor it closely, and if it even sniffs of total failure, I'll be down to the dealer for a new one.

I charged it up overnight and it was fine today, and I am pleased to report that when I reconnected the battery, the alarm armed itself, and the whole incident took took place with no premature waking of the neighbours.

Actually, now that I've read the point about the negative being attached to the chassis, I recall that I noticed that when I was reconnecting it.