Nobbie Posted December 29, 2023 Report Share Posted December 29, 2023 A friend has a 981 with a flat battery, so can’t open the frunk. I’m going to jump from the fuse box to open it and get to the battery. Any hints on how to jump start it, remove battery to charge it? I seem to remember you should connect earth to the body somewhere rather than the battery terminal? Can you charge it with the battery connected? This works on my 986. @ATM you seem to be the expert in swapping batteries😀 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATM Posted December 29, 2023 Report Share Posted December 29, 2023 My new jump pack has super short leads, so jump straight from battery. Only connect charger to car earth - not jumpers. Nothing special about the 981 when swapping batteries. Or removing. Battery tray has 3 threaded holes for different sizes. You can charge it in situ. Positive to positive and either negative to post about 18 inches towards driver side mirror or to the negative on the battery. Opening the door isn't intuitive. You turn the blade in the lock and then return to centre. This activates the door handle so when you pull it it will work. Try both clockwise and anti - one will work. Obviously the widow won't drop. So bear this in mind when you are thinking about what you're going to do. You can't close the door properly without some electricity going through the car with window in fully up position. REMEMBER to drop the window if you give the car power again before you slam the door shut. The car might not know to do it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMA Posted December 29, 2023 Report Share Posted December 29, 2023 As said, jump straight to battery terminals. Once you've charged when starting leave it 30seconds before touching the throttle, lets the idle position reset if needed. While waiting set the top and bottom positions of the windows or you might not find the window drops correctly for the roof operation or door opening. In the past I found once the battery went dead that was it, never really held charge for long again so best to replace. https://www.tayna.co.uk/ was where I got mine from Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenman Posted December 30, 2023 Report Share Posted December 30, 2023 Obviously if using a smart charger (CTEK et al) you don’t need to remove the battery to charge it once the frunk is open. There is a charge point connection for earth just near the battery (pretty obvious if you are looking for it). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cocky Posted December 31, 2023 Report Share Posted December 31, 2023 I've used Tanya Batteries a few times I've just ordered myself a new battery for mine & GSF was the cheapest/ fastest I could get one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robporsche Posted February 4 Report Share Posted February 4 (edited) On 12/31/2023 at 12:12 PM, Cocky said: I've used Tanya Batteries a few times I've just ordered myself a new battery for mine & GSF was the cheapest/ fastest I could get one. I'm getting a red error warning light on my ctek charger so its time for a new one i think. which battery did you go for in the end from Tanya https://ibb.co/7vjVXn8 Edited February 4 by robporsche Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul P Posted February 4 Report Share Posted February 4 12 hours ago, robporsche said: I'm getting a red error warning light on my ctek charger so its time for a new one i think. which battery did you go for in the end from Tanya https://ibb.co/7vjVXn8 FWIW - my CTEK mxs5 started throwing a red light against my car battery about 6 months ago - I had another older ctex that seemed fine, I faulted out the mks 5 with ctek - under their 5 years warranty - sent them the amzon receipt and they shipped out a new one in a few days - asked me to recycle the original . So - perhaps the error is real or perhaps its a ctek issue - if your battery appears fine then consider a quick "halfords" driveby free battery check and see if their test kit thinks its ok Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATM Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 On 2/4/2024 at 9:40 PM, Paul P said: So - perhaps the error is real or perhaps its a ctek issue - if your battery appears fine then consider a quick "halfords" driveby free battery check and see if their test kit thinks its ok I'm probably a bit sceptical or just suspicious but I'd assume Halfords have to err on the side of caution and be more likely to recommend a new battery than not. For safety reasons and all that. Not for profit of course. God forbid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul P Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 10 minutes ago, ATM said: I'm probably a bit sceptical or just suspicious but I'd assume Halfords have to err on the side of caution and be more likely to recommend a new battery than not. For safety reasons and all that. Not for profit of course. God forbid. My experience with Halfords and Kwik Fit have been "plug the bosch battery tester in and if it gives a green light then good, else bad" - but yeah, they are trying to sell stuff so beware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATM Posted February 20 Report Share Posted February 20 Just been through this. Car been parked with half cover on for many weeks. Battery now flat. I think it's the original Banner battery as I can see some numbers on the negative terminal which look like 15 12. So hopefully you can see the window is parked proud of the roof seal as I've just yanked the door open. I can confirm the key blade needs to be turned clockwise. So it goes in horizontal and then unlocks when you turn it from 5 to 6 o clock. It's quite stiff. Then you return the blade to horizontal or 3 o clock and remove. Then operate the handle again. Then hopefully you can see I have accessed the fuse box. And then pulled out the red thing which is near the top of the fuse box on the 981. Positive goes on here and negative I attach to the door latch thing. After a bit of fiddling of the cables and panicking eventually I got the frunk to release. Battery now in the house on charge. Fitted a little LiPo battery to the car just temporarily to operate the alarm etc. I could then open windows slightly and pass door and boot to remove the cover. You have to sit inside the car with each door closed to wind the window up to the top by pressing the button. It will then drop fine and park properly as per usual when you next open and close the door. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMA Posted February 20 Report Share Posted February 20 1 hour ago, ATM said: Then hopefully you can see I have accessed the fuse box. And then pulled out the red thing which is near the top of the fuse box on the 981. Positive goes on here and negative I attach to the door latch thing. According to the manual the negative should be on the door check strap (the bit in the hinge area of the door). I know of someone who struggled to get the frunk to open using the door latch but as soon as they changed the negative to the check strap it worked straight away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATM Posted February 20 Report Share Posted February 20 54 minutes ago, CMA said: According to the manual the negative should be on the door check strap (the bit in the hinge area of the door). I know of someone who struggled to get the frunk to open using the door latch but as soon as they changed the negative to the check strap it worked straight away. Ok thanks, hopefully I'll remember next time. Maybe my method today had to effectively charge the main battery through the door latch until it had enough juice to operate the froot release. Not sure but obviously it worked eventually. Question - Isn't the check strap black - so it's painted? Although the door latch is silver I guess it could be painted also. So the same situation of earthing through paint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMA Posted February 20 Report Share Posted February 20 14 minutes ago, ATM said: Ok thanks, hopefully I'll remember next time. Maybe my method today had to effectively charge the main battery through the door latch until it had enough juice to operate the froot release. Not sure but obviously it worked eventually. Question - Isn't the check strap black - so it's painted? Although the door latch is silver I guess it could be painted also. So the same situation of earthing through paint. Looking at mine there is some plastic surround or washer behind the latch between it and the body, which could affect conductivity, the check strap is black, but is bolted direct to the chassis without plastic surround/washer. But if it worked that's great, just flagging from experience, if someone follows this and has trouble try the check strap instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lonewolfgjp Posted February 20 Report Share Posted February 20 Sounds like a decent result and at least you didn’t end having to strip the front wheel well to find the pull cord like I had to which wasn’t fun😩 My battery was a banner battery but I got a varta replacment for about £180 delivered next day 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATM Posted February 20 Report Share Posted February 20 My banner still on charge and soaking up the amps. Hopefully it will come good but I know its getting old. Right now I have more vehicles than good lead batteries. I'm not sure if I should try to adapt the car to work with a small LiPo or just soldier on with the massive lead lump I have and replace with another lead lump if necessary. This was my first test fit with a little LiPo and I found the battery cables unwilling to stretch enough to accommodate the much shorter length battery. If I'm brave I will cut them off to do it right .. maybe I'm not that brave!!! I didn't realise there was a pull cord. Why would you need that if you can do the jump leads thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lonewolfgjp Posted February 20 Report Share Posted February 20 Mine had gone flat in the garage and I couldn’t get in the drivers side to access the fuse box also I hadn’t got any thing use to power up bonnet release. Yes there is a emergency pull cord in your passenger front wheel well behind all of the plastic liners, I found out about it online was led to believe it was on the drivers side hence I ended stripping both wheel wells 😩 When I finally got to my battery and put the charger on, the car was doing weird things, lights flashing odd noises and there was a burning plastic smell. I think the smell was actually from my antique battery charger 😂 but I thought better safe than sorry and ordered a new battery. I fitted it and everything powered up as normal no warning lights or anything I just had to reset the clock 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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