a5_fanatic

Greetings.

I store my A5 for the winter so I had a Deltran battery maintainer hooked up to it during that time. Worked wonderfully as long as it was connected directly to the posts of the battery in the trunk.

When I initially tried connecting the maintainer to the + connector (under the plastic cover, under the hood) and to the - bolt on the chassis, nothing happened. It gave a condition like there was no battery hooked up to it. The Deltran is a pretty small unit (1.25A) so I'm thinking perhaps it didn't have enough juice to overcome the resistance or whatever circuitry there is between the + connector and the actual + battery terminal.

This week some battery chargers/maintainers were on sale so I bought a different unit as a test (2A). Connected it the + connector under the hood and to the chassis ground with the same results - nothing.
This unit is maybe a little bigger than the other one, but not by a whole lot.

Has anyone successfully hooked up a battery maintainer to these connectors under the hood before? If so, how many amps was the unit and what brand/model was it? It's a bit of a pain in the butt to have to remove the spare tire and everything else just to get to the battery posts.

Thanks.

Tifosi

Can't help you regarding charging through the posts in the front, but if all fails, you might want to consider a CTEK charger (http://smartercharger.com/). They have terminal leads that can make the connection a little easier, so you will not have to remove the spare everytime you hook it up. I use one for my other car and it is very easy to use and has worked very well through the winter.

EurosportAMG

there must be something wrong with your terminals, i never had any issues with it, charges perfectly with my bike charger using same engine compartment posts.

this is what i have, exact model: bettery tender plus.
http://batterytender.com/battery-ten...-at-1-25a.html

4RINGSx3

I have both a 750mA & 1.25A Battery Tender and connect them as you described. They both work fine on my S5. Are you sure you're on the + post under the plastic cover? As I recall there are a 2-3 posts under that cover.

uberwgn

Same here, no issues using the under-hood posts.

I pick up my hot connection under that little plastic cover (see photo below), I pick up my ground connection on a post over near the A/C charging points; there's a large metal stud marked with a "-" sign.

a5_fanatic

Thank you! Thank you! Thank You!

You guys helped me figure it out, especially with that photo.

I didn't open that cover shown in the diagram, instead I was using that nut directly to the south of it (covered with a plastic cap). When I opened the hood and removed the first cover and saw the red terminal symbol I assumed that was the + connector. Doh!

DHH

I did the same thing this past winter, no issues.