Problem with battery maintainer in cigarete lighter

[SA321]

Weird problem. I got CETK and tried to plug it into cigarette lighter socket or 12V sockets in the luggage compartment. It doesn't charge a battery at all. The same charger works great when I hook it up to + and - in the engine compartment. So the charger is OK. all sockets and fuses are fine, but once I plug CTEK into sockets it starts showing in circular fashion empty battery, half, fully charged and then again empty, half ... and on an on etc etc. Battery doesn't charge.

is there some sort of protection in Cayenne that cuts of those sockets? What is the best place internally to connect it to?

P.S. Cayenne 2009

[odix]

I have an '04 S and have used the front (passenger footwell) and rear seat lighter sockets with my CTEK 3300 and no problems. Have not yet tried the rear cargo area sockets. Have you tried your front or rear seat sockets?

[JFP in PA]

Which model Ctek do you have? Reason is that some models with more features such as the 7002, tend to “test cycle” the battery more frequently, giving the impression it is not fully charging, but will eventually settle down and the green “steady state” light will come on, sometimes after several hours. I have both 7002’s and 3300’s, and the 7002’s cycle much more frequently, and when you put the 3300 on the same car, the cycling is much less frequent. As the Optima’s using both model maintainers continue to load test perfectly, I would not be concerned.

[70Sixter]

Hope is not like the X5 my wife drives. No power to any outlets unless car is on.

Weird problem. I got CETK and tried to plug it into cigarette lighter socket or 12V sockets in the luggage compartment. It doesn't charge a battery at all. The same charger works great when I hook it up to + and - in the engine compartment. So the charger is OK. all sockets and fuses are fine, but once I plug CTEK into sockets it starts showing in circular fashion empty battery, half, fully charged and then again empty, half ... and on an on etc etc. Battery doesn't charge.

is there some sort of protection in Cayenne that cuts of those sockets? What is the best place internally to connect it to?

P.S. Cayenne 2009

[SA321]

many thanks for the answer but the issue is that ctek 7....(something something) only cycle when plugged in 12v outlet or lighter socket but not when connected in the engine compartment. i also got totally dead battery as a result. this is such a pain. I park in a communal garage and cannot leave charger in engine bay as it is hot. leaving charger outside means someone will cut it off...

[JFP in PA]

As I have not encountered any problems with any Ctek equipment to date (I own several of their 3300 and 7002 units) I would have to say that there is something wrong with the vehicle if you cannot charge the battery via the lighter socket as Porsche expects you to. Either you have a bad battery (which happens, even with brand new batteries), excessive current draw somewhere in the system, or your lighter circuit is faulty. Time to start testing............

[SA321]

This is where I have ended up. Tried to charge through sockets and 3rd party cigarette lighter plug with no success. All fuses in the 3rd party connectors blow out. Finally connected directly with wires to sockets under glove compartment through a fuse. Minimum strength fuse that I have found is 7.5A while anything less blows up.

White connector on CTEK is of poor quality, pins tend to come out and even if they dont come out contact is very unreliable. Had to clean pins, put silicon grease, made sure connection is secure and only then it started charging. Any problem in the connection CTEK charger starts cycling through the battery condition lights and doesn't charge anything.

[JFP in PA]

Simple problem with an easy fix: The Ctek has a US spec lighter plug on it, your car has a European spec lighter socket, they are two different sizes (your socket is slightly larger than the Ctek plug). Either swap out the Ctek plug or your lighter socket for the matching sized unit (we do this all the time for early Porsches up to about 2003, which have the same problems. After 03 they came with US spec sockets in them). We buy the US spec lighter socket from Porsche and pop out the old one, takes about 5 min. and cost about $20 US........

[geoff]

Simple problem with an easy fix: The Ctek has a US spec lighter plug on it, your car has a European spec lighter socket, they are two different sizes (your socket is slightly larger than the Ctek plug). Either swap out the Ctek plug or your lighter socket for the matching sized unit (we do this all the time for early Porsches up to about 2003, which have the same problems. After 03 they came with US spec sockets in them). We buy the US spec lighter socket from Porsche and pop out the old one, takes about 5 min. and cost about $20 US.......

My Ctek cigarette lighter plug had a little red ring on it. I think if you pull out the red ring it might fit the Euro-sized cigarette lighter socket better. I lost the little red ring on mine and it was loose in my US spec Porsches and Ctek doesn't sell just the red rings. It was easier to just buy a generic cigarette lighter plug and solder it on to one of the unused connectors that came with my Ctek charger, and I found it fit better than the stock Ctek cigarette lighter plug. If it's a plug fit issue, you might want to just take one of your unused Ctek comfort connectors and splice in a Euro size cigarette lighter plug

[SA321]

your car has a European spec lighter socket,

A. my car is US spec

B. PET shows only one type of socket for all markets

C. size of plug and socket was not an issue but fuses and connectors were

[JFP in PA]

your car has a European spec lighter socket,

A. my car is US spec

B. PET shows only one type of socket for all markets

C. size of plug and socket was not an issue but fuses and connectors were

A. The US cars came with Euro spec lighters in them until fairly recently.

B. We use Porsche parts 997-652-101-00-A05 (lighter) and 996-652-102-10 (socket) for 986/987/996/997's that demonstrate this problem.

C. The fuse blows because the plug is moving around in the socket, sometimes shorting.

[SA321]

i am confused about your point. according to you i have Euro spec socket (even though Cayenne only have one type of sockets for all markets and not sure how 996/997 issues are relevant to me with 2009 Cayenne but be it as it may) into which i tried to plug Euro plug, which I made sure doest short anywhere. You suggest I change sockets and connectors? Or should I just put a higher fuse of 7.5A and make sure white connector is secure which is what I have done and what works for me?

[JFP in PA]

For many years, all US spec Porsche's came with the Euro lighter in them from the factory. This caused no end of issues with battery maintainers, radar detectors, cell phones and anything else plugged into the cigarette lighter, because the US charging cord ends (what I believe you are calling the connector) were way too loose and even fell out of the dash socket. As all the cars (I'd have to check on the trucks) used the same lighter assembly, Porsche made available a US "sized" replacement socket that goes into the dash, and a suitable sized lighter to fit it. With the new socket in the dash, the US sized cord end connectors now fit correctly, ending the issue. As the parts are OEM, the dash looks exactly the same after the conversion. Costs about $20 US.