My Freelander 2 has given me a couple of warnings about low battery. It's four years old so I will be replacing the battery soon. However I have a trip to do and will be away for a few days, I would like to have charged the battery with my mates Ctec charger, but do I REALLY need to remove the battery to charge it?. I have never done it on any other car in over 50 years of motoring, I haven't heard of anyone doing it on here. What a faf ffs. I know I can take the air filter out to make it a bit easier, but it's still a bit of a ball-buster and then it has to go back in in the morning. At the moment I think I'll rely on the 120 mile journey doing the job. The stop-start has started to work again, so I'm thinking its maybe not all that bad.
What does anybody think?.

Don’t mess about and get caught out!
Buy a new one and sleep at night! One Discovery, gone
Now on third Freelander 2
2013 HSE Auto Orkney Grey

Longshanks,

I agree with the recommendation to replace the battery.

However that wasn't really what you asked.

To answer your question

- I typically recharge my battery with it connected

- If I was concerned about it I would remove the leads and connect the charge directly to the battery posts (you don't have to remove the battery just disconnect it)

- Just remember to connect the leads to the battery first and then plug it into the wall (mains?) and do the reverse when the charge is complete, disconnect the main first then the leads for the battery

For reference if I don't drive my Land Rover for 2 weeks or more I recharge the battery first before I press the start button.

Good Luck

Paul

Charging it in place won't be a problem c-tek do a perminate connection to make it easy to plug in the charger. I did mine yesterday no problems with it
Just put the earth to the chassis instead of the battery

If it's the low battery warning that comes on when you have been sat in the car listening to the radio, for example, then the battery is probably fine. It says something like " low battery warning. Restart the engine or the system will shut down".

The system is over cautious. On a couple of occasions I've had this and as soon as I've returned home I've put it on a CTEK to be certain and it's been fully charged almost straight away. driving on the right side

Think 'low battery warning' is well discussed on here in the search section ,I get it EVERY time I get in car.

As Anglaslt says it seems to always be there/ was going for one of those power bank things to keep in car but there's so many out there I'm struggling to find the right one as most I find are only up to 2L. If it wasn't so bad it'd be funny.

🐑
Freelander 2 HSE auto 2014 ( Florrie ) ..... Try again.
Freelander 2 GS 2012...... Gone.

I have a CTEK & try to keep it on charge as much as possible through the cold weather. Heated screen, heated seats, glow plugs etc., aren't half heavy on the battery plus the cold weather.

There is no need to disconnect the battery to charge it. I often connect my CTEK through the 13 pin trailer socket without a problem.

Bob 10MY (Sept 09) TD4 HSE Auto in Stornoway Grey (Now Gone)

08 FL2 TD4 SE Manual in Rimini Red (Now Gone)

I recently bought a CTEK 5 charger as my car is spending most of it's time in the garage at present due to illness, I plug the charger into the permanent socket in the boot

Too far from a wall socket out here in the sticks that's why I was looking at getting a power pack starter but as usual with me it's techy so a tad lost

power would be marvellous mind  If it wasn't so bad it'd be funny.

🐑
Freelander 2 HSE auto 2014 ( Florrie ) ..... Try again.
Freelander 2 GS 2012...... Gone.

My car's outside Jules, I just run an extension lead to it & have the CTEK wired socket directly attached to the battery. Current draw is tiny so no problem with a long lead. Leave the unit & extension lead plug under the bonnet. Some good ideas about how to connect.

There is a UK version which is tried & tested if you'd prefer to buy UK but I think it's probably made oversea's, the Optimate. Been using then on my motorbikes for years. The new ones do both.

I did have a problem with the button on my CTEK managed to get it working again.

There will be a fault code stored after a non start with a flat battery. Scared me to death before I researched it, it's called a crash code. Thought the car had been in a bump!

I have no evidence to support this but I think a lot of the electrical gremlins are due to low batteries. These cars have pretty complex computers on them now & one thing computers don't like is power outages.

Make sure you get the right battery if you've got stop start or you'll have more problems. They need to be the same as OEM Absorption Glass Mat type & it will take a while for the car to learn the new battery, especially if you just do short journeys, before the stop start starts working again.

...and remember that even with a good battery, stop/start won’t work below something like 5C or if the car is drawing too much power. I’ve had the stop/start work three time in the 6,000 miles I’ve had the car...and each time it’s cut out I have been so surprised by that I’ve immediately depressed the clutch and it has started again!  2005 D3 2.7 Auto
Previously:
2010 MY FL2 TD4e GS - Now gone at 199,500 miles, about 135,000 of them mine.
‘93 Defender 110 200TDi CSW
‘87 Defender 90 4 cyl Petrol
‘83 110 CSW V8 - best ever!
Range Rover 2-door V8 (not sure of year - 4-speed box and vacuum diff switch)
Series III SWB Diesel

Mine works a fair amount in the summer but I keep the battery topped up. Didn't know about the not working under 5C bit. Explains why it hasn't worked last couple of weeks even with a fully charged battery.