Attaching aux battery charger

[Johnny R]

I don't drive my Corolla that often. Seems the 12V Battery will flatten so following Gray86's advice, I found the Jump Start terminal in the fusebox and have hooked up my new CTEC charger. My question is, has anyone wired the supplied CTEC socket for convenience? If you look at my attached photo, there's a single spade terminal next to the croc clip which looks like it's for this purpose.

[yossarian247]

I've wired up the CTEC socket to mine, but direct to the Battery in the boot. I find it more convenient to have the charger and extension reel in the boot, and find I can carefully close the tailgate down on the cable without crushing it. It allows the car to be locked as normal whilst it's charging, and everything's safely dry inside the boot in case of rain etc. 

[Johnny R]

That sounds sensible to me! I think I'll do that. Thanks for your feedback, such a big help. Makes clubs like this worthwhile 😊

[Mr Billiards]

On 5/18/2024 at 7:06 PM, yossarian247 said:

I've wired up the CTEC socket to mine, but direct to the battery in the boot. I find it more convenient to have the charger and extension reel in the boot, and find I can carefully close the tailgate down on the cable without crushing it. It allows the car to be locked as normal whilst it's charging, and everything's safely dry inside the boot in case of rain etc. 

Hi, can I just clarify please.

I'm new to Toyota cars and had a new 2ltr GR Sport Hatchback in October 23.

Re your CTEC charger. Are you saying on the 2ltr car with the 12v Battery in the boot you have permanently wired your CTEC socket positive and negative leads to the positive and negative terminals on the 12v Battery and it works ok and has not caused any issues with the cars electrics. 

I was advised to connect the negative lead / connection to a piece of bodywork / fixing etc.

Edited May 20 by Mr Billiards
added text

[yossarian247]

22 minutes ago, Mr Billiards said:

Hi, can I just clarify please.

I'm new to Toyota cars and had a new 2ltr GR Sport Hatchback in October 23.

Re your CTEC charger. Are you saying on the 2ltr car with the 12v battery in the boot you have permanently wired your CTEC socket to the positive and negative terminals on the 12v battery and it works ok and has not caused any issues with the cars electrics. 

I was advised to connect the negative lead / connection to a piece of bodywork / fixing etc.

The advice re connecting the negative clamp to the cars bodywork applied to old style jump leads where making the final connection of the circuit often generated a spark. This spark could theoretically ignite any hydrogen gas coming from the Battery and cause an explosion, hence making the connection on a different piece of metal well away from the Battery (and away from any flammable gas) .

That procedure is completely unnecessary with most Battery chargers, and particularly with ones such as the CTEK as there is no voltage to the clamps until the charger is correctly connected to the battery terminals, so nothing to cause a spark. I always charge car batteries with the charger connected directly to the terminals, and have done so on several Toyotas, and numerous other makes over the years with no problems. A decent smart charger such as a CTEK or NOCO won't damage the cars electrics in any way by doing this. 

[dannyboy413]

I have my CTEC 'extension lead' permantly wired to the '+' and '-' terminals of the Battery which is under the rear seat, (Yaris Cross). There is a little 'tail' that hangs out from under the seat into which I just plug in the CTEC - although I have not had to use it yet.🤞

[Mr Billiards]

1 hour ago, yossarian247 said:

The advice re connecting the negative clamp to the cars bodywork applied to old style jump leads where making the final connection of the circuit often generated a spark. This spark could theoretically ignite any hydrogen gas coming from the battery and cause an explosion, hence making the connection on a different piece of metal well away from the battery (and away from any flammable gas) .

That procedure is completely unnecessary with most battery chargers, and particularly with ones such as the CTEK as there is no voltage to the clamps until the charger is correctly connected to the battery terminals, so nothing to cause a spark. I always charge car batteries with the charger connected directly to the terminals, and have done so on several Toyotas, and numerous other makes over the years with no problems. A decent smart charger such as a CTEK or NOCO won't damage the cars electrics in any way by doing this. 

Thanks for the confirmation, much appreciated 👍

[Johnny R]

And from me as I'm about to do exactly the same!

[Corolly Poly]

Thinking of getting a CTEK MXS 5 and attaching the eyelets to my Battery which hides behind a side panel in the boot. This will mean its an easy job to plug in the charger occasionally.

The following looks useful as an indicator for needing a charge which I could leave hanging out of the Battery cover. Anyone else used one with their CTEK?

INDICATOR EYELET M6 | ctek.com

[Red_Corolla]

I've never got round to it but, since mine has a towbar fitted, I always intended to run a CTEK extension from the towbar socket up through the boot and connect it to the Battery via an inline fuse. That would allow me to connect a charger without even bothering to open the car (might need to unlock it while I connect, to prevent the alarm from getting upset).

[Red_Corolla]

2 minutes ago, Red_Corolla said:

 

 

[Roy124]

3 hours ago, Corolly Poly said:

The following looks useful as an indicator for needing a charge which I could leave hanging out of the battery cover. Anyone else used one with their CTEK?

INDICATOR EYELET M6 | ctek.com

It has 3 LED.  Green, yellow and red. 

Mine showed Green after a trip,  Yellow shortly after, and Red if the Battery was low.

Effectively only yellow or red were relevant.   I interpreted this as 'Charge' and 'Charge'.

I returned and got a refund.

[Roy124]

1 hour ago, Red_Corolla said:

That would allow me to connect a charger without even bothering to open the car (might need to unlock it while I connect, to prevent the alarm from getting upset).

I had a tail fitted. I could lock the car and charge as required.

[Corolly Poly]

1 hour ago, Roy124 said:

It has 3 LED.  Green, yellow and red. 

Mine showed Green after a trip,  Yellow shortly after, and Red if the battery was low.

Effectively only yellow or red were relevant.   I interpreted this as 'Charge' and 'Charge'.

I returned and got a refund.

Isn't that what it is supposed to do? What was wrong with it? 

[Roy124]

9 hours ago, Corolly Poly said:

Isn't that what it is supposed to do? What was wrong with it? 

Correct, but what exactly is it telling you to do?  Yellow means it will  need charging and red means it will need charging.

Now if the Battery remained with a Green indication for a few days before going yellow that is useful.

It is not the connector that is pants but its use in the Toyota.   Better an actual voltage read out so you can make an informed decision.

Now my BM6 is showing red 47% charge and 12.38v.  I expect the car will start and I know I am going to be driving 2x30 minutes today and 90 minutes tomorrow. I will not need to put it on charge. 

The State of Charge % warning levels are user settable. 

[yossarian247]

11 hours ago, Roy124 said:

It has 3 LED.  Green, yellow and red. 

Mine showed Green after a trip,  Yellow shortly after, and Red if the battery was low.

Effectively only yellow or red were relevant.   I interpreted this as 'Charge' and 'Charge'.

I returned and got a refund.

I have one of those fitted to my Corolla and I agree, it's a waste of time. After turning off the car it reverts almost immediately to yellow, and sometimes red, even after a journey lasting a few hours. Checking the Battery with a voltmeter shows it's actually at a reasonable voltage so clearly the LED indicator is too sensitive. I've seen a review where someone noticed the same on a conventional diesel BMW with a healthy Battery, so it's not just hybrids they don't work well with. 

[Corolly Poly]

Thanks both, I won't bother

What is your BM6 @Roy124?

[Corolly Poly]

Presume the standard M6 tail that comes with the charger fits Battery terminals OK?

[Roy124]

Just Google BM6 Battery Monitor.  Amazon lists BM6 and BM2.  I don't think there is any significant difference.

Install the App using the bar code then play around with the settings.  BT range is modest and I usually get a reading in our kitchen which is 4-5 m from the monitor on the far side of the car in the garage.

You can also download the dataset for the whole month at 2 minutes interval.  When i do that I mainly look at midnight to midnight for day by day change.

Like the CTEK it comes with M6 rings.

[Corolly Poly]

Are their any issues when you disconnect the Battery to attach the tails? I had an old Vectra that threw a hissy if the Battery was disconnected for any reason.

[Johnny R]

In my Corolla 2 litre, I didn't need to disconnect the Battery. There's an earth point with loads of spare thread on the bolt and if you remove the red cover, the LH of the two terminals has spare thread too. You just need two nuts... sorry not sure of size. Simply bolt the eye terminals on top...easy, took me 10mins.

[Roy124]

I did the install on 1.8 Corolla, same as Johnny, I slackened the -ve bolts and a +ve bolt.   The +ve Battery bolt was larger than M6 so I attached to a different bolt in the +ve wires. 

[Johnny R]

Hey all....just checked the container and the nut size you need is M6. It's awesomely easy and the beauty is, your connection is via a fuse meaning even safer!!

[SDR]

3 hours ago, Johnny R said:

In my Corolla 2 litre, I didn't need to disconnect the battery. There's an earth point with loads of spare thread on the bolt and if you remove the red cover, the LH of the two terminals has spare thread too. You just need two nuts... sorry not sure of size. Simply bolt the eye terminals on top...easy, took me 10mins.

On my 1.8 (which has the Battery under the bonnet, of course), I just removed/replaced the clamp nuts.   Both 10mm.

[DamoGR]

Afternoon all

I’m wanting to connect my ctek leads to the Battery in the boot of my 2.0 TS

Im not super confident working with electrics, so after some advice please.

I am pretty certain I connect the negative to the bolt I circled blue on the pic, and the positive to the red (not the yellow or green)

If so, is it best to add a new nut to each, or undo the ones on it and try and keep the lead attached to the bolt whilst doing so?

Any help much appreciated 🙏