New User - Seeking Some Help on Solar Battery Tener
 

Hello everyone. I am a new user to the board. I have been perusing the board for a little while and made the decision to join.

I have a 2003 ES-300. I was wondering if anyone out there has ever used a solar battery maintainer. I bought a 5W model from Deltran and hooked it up to the OBDII port on the car. As background, I park my car on the street and often don't use it for a few weeks at a time since I walk to work.

I hooked it up about a week or so ago and the battery was completely drained. I know that the battery is OK and typically lasts for a week when I don't have the tender plugged in. So, I was wondering if hooking it up to the OBDII port could actually act as a drain.

Has anyone out there ever had something like this? Curious to hear others' thoughts. The maintenance folks don't really know the answer and can't seem to understand why someone wouldn't drive a car every day.

Much appreciated .Happy to try to help out others on this board over time.

I have not ever used the OBDII connection with one, but I've used battery temders/maintainers consistently for 15 or more years on cars and bikes. I've had enough junky Deltran units to start my suspicions there.

If the car was a-ok before you plugged in the unit, the battery should have lasted a week even if the charger was DOA. So perhaps there's a short in the Deltran unit or wire harness and it drained the battery. Alternatively, the battery could have been week, the charging unit faulty, and the battery went down on it's own and both are faulty.

I'd 1st take a voltmeter and verify the unit/harness is putting out a charging voltage. If not, then replace it - and in that scenario if you can get a refund or credit, try a Shumacher unit.

Thanks, Oro. You had the same thought I did with respect to running a test on the battery. I was also going to test to see if there is a drain when it is connected -- should be simple but I just have to buy a multimeter.

I wish I didn't have to use the OBDII connection to charge but I think having some wires running out of a car on a city street might draw unwanted attention.

Thanks for the advice.