Let's skip the trickle charger....

My new baby is home in the garage right now, and the weather is brutal and sloppy and it's a 3rd car for the moment. I drove it home on Satruday from the dealer, and Sunday I didn't start it at all. It's in a non-heated attached garage that maybe only gets close to freezing temps. Last night was -7, and tonight might get to -10 outside. Long set up, but here's my question. How often should I start the car, and if I don't plan to drive it, how long is good to have it run?

I don't plan to have the car sit for weeks. But I was thinking about starting it up today, and letting it run for a while....5min? Just curious what others think.

Hopefully the end of the week will be a little better and I will take it out and get some decent running time. This is only temporary as my older vechile will be moved to teenager mobile once said teen gets his license in April. Right now I'm just babying my LS while I can.

 

Not good to start a car and let it run.
Especially for 5 minutes.
You're not charging the battery and you're getting condensation in your oil.
You have to take the car on the road around a half hour.
Or you can just use a battery tender.

 

Good advice...

 

I hear you, but there are a lot of times that the car will be used for short trips.... to the trainstation, or to the store, to run errnands, etc. While not ideal, it is they way a lot of us drive. Start it, drive to the restaurant 5-10min away, turn off.

 

That is not the best for a car, but you have to do what you have to do. One thing you don't have to do is start it and let in run in the garage for 5 minutes. If you are going to do that, let it run for at least 45 minutes (maybe more in sub zero temps).

I don't know why you want to skip the trickle charger, that's your best option.

 

When I have to drive a short distance, I always take a round about way getting to my destination trying to get a least a half hour of driving in before I turn the engine off.

 

You are in fl too. The moderate temperature reduces warm up time a lot. Maybe just make it a point to drive on the expressway once a week for about 10 - 15 min if you don't already.

 

Mitty,
The answer to keeping the battery charged is a trickle charger. Just wire in a plug so that you can plug in and unplug quicjkly when you need to use the car. They even have these nice magnetic connectors that you just touch it to the receiver and it is connected..


Driving the car around the block or letting it sit and run should be last resort.

Good luck

 

Thanks for all the help. The issue should be resolved soon. It's just me being a baby about driving in this crappy weather. Soon it will be a daily driver. I just want to get through a few weeks of this really bad stuff.

I'm looking forward to full throttle launches on the on ramp soon!!!

 

All good, Enjoy the new ride. I have one at home that just stays on the charger till I am ready to take her out for a drive and the plug in is the way to go for me..

 

My GS sits a lot so I use a Battery Tender too and it takes less than 30 seconds to connect and disconnect the charger.
I use use the alligator clips too.

 

Has anyone tried to use Battery Tender connected thru the Cigarette Lighter? It eliminates the need to go under the hood...

Also, for those who do go under the hood on the 2013 LS460, do you need to remove the battery cover first to be able to access the battery terminals?

 

Never used the lighter version.
Battery Tender also has a quick connect wire set up so if your battery is covered,you don't have to remove the cover.




There's also a magnetic connector option that Scott posted about.

 

Could anyone post a link to the magnetic connector and the quick connect wire setup?

Thank you!

 

The quick connect attaches to the battery posts and then you just run the wire to an easy hook up area.

Mag connect.

http://www.qpcpv.com/topflightreproductions/id37.html