so here is the deal;

car used daily from new (Sept 06)

left for 4 days locked and had to be jumped

left on a conditioner for 2 weeks and completely dead when I returned the conditioner reporting that the battery would not retain charge.

OPC today told me that the battery passed their tests and until it reports a fault then its not a warrenty change!

they were almost suggesting that you can not leave the car for more than a week without some form of charging!

what do you think?

If the battery was fully charged when you locked it up and left it and if it was on a trickle charger during that time and still didn't hold a charge than I'd say faulty battery or charger. As reported here before the car uses a lot juice when locked and I'm not terribly convinced that Porsche delivers them with a fully charged battery to start with. Routine driving alone may not get the battery fully charged if sufficent speed and distance is not achieved as the Owner's Manual warns.

You need to promise the Cayman that trip to Spa for the F1 race...

Well drove the car from Manchester to London the day i picked it up and the daily commute is around 70 miles round trip so would have thought the battery was charged?

Charger is OK works on other cars fine.

btw SPA is booked in so she will get a good run then

Something to add: We purchased a new battery for another Porsche after 6 years, and felt that 28K miles and trickle charger were sufficient to keep battery charged. It was purchased from other than dealer, but was still expensive. Seller stated most warranties are dependent on use of the car, e.g. driving activitity, and that NOT driving car could be used as a reason NOT to support warranty, if that was determined. We never heard of such, but other than daily drivers may want to be aware. Do any of you have any experiences which support this attitude by battery manufacturers?

I can't say anything about Porsche but I can say when we had a MINI Cooper, at one year service I knew the battery was bad. Sure enough, a cell was bad. MINIUSA DENIED warranty coverage on the battery because they claim "the car is meant to be driven 10,000 miles/year". We had driven the car about 5,000 miles. Despite my protests, they answer was something like "warranty denied"

Texas Red, yes that is Porsche's policy re batterys. This is a good read by the way:
What causes car batteries to fail early? They key to battery life as I understand it is achieving periodic fully saturated charges. Something that a lot of Porsche owners never do.

This lack of charging issue is new to me. I have a 2000 Corvette in which I finally replaced the original battery this year (2007). I alway have the intention of charging it's battery every month during the winter when it is in storage, but it never happens. I just charge it in the spring and it works perfectly all summer. We also have 4 vehicles and only two drivers in our household. My wife only drives her XC90 and I drive the other three. So some of my cars sit for a long time without being driven. I never have any problems with any of the batteries. Also my boat sits from Oct to May every year and starts without issue.

exactly my point, never have i had to condition a battery if i intend leaving it for a while, my friend has a 993 that is left for long periods and starts first time every time!

and i don't agree with the argument that modern cars have a lot more charge draining kit on them that adds to the problem, when locked up its just the alarm+door receiver module that should be taking power.

look at the thousands of cars left at airports for weeks on end, I have a bad battery and until I can get my OPC to agree I either live with it or pay £250 plus for a new one!

I've not had any battery problems with my CS, but it's a daily driver & is usually left unlocked in my garage to lower power consumption. I also periodically put it on a battery charger as needed. After a recent trip leaving the car locked for about 10 days, the battery was down to about 60%.

The 993 is notorious for draining its battery when left locked for even a week. BTDT. And, the 993 doesn't go to "sleep mode" like the CS. The battery just dies. Drop by the 993 board at rennlist.com & try a search for "dead battery."

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Dan

Howi,

I tbelieve that for whatever reason the current Porsche cars draw higher then average current when parked. The Porsche is programmed to turn off it's remote lock/unlock receiver after 4 days to conserve power.

I was having problems with my Boxster S starting up. I would drive it for 45 minutes and park. You would think that would be enough to get to full chage. I then had trouble turning it over after sitting for an hour. It never stranded me or needed a jump but that time was fast approaching. Went to the dealer as my warrenty was near the end and they said the battery was just tired and nothing was wrong with the system, so they would not replace the battery under warrenty. They seem to regard the battery as a "wear item" like brakes and clutches and they will only do a warrenty replacement if a real problem is detected.

Your problem seems to be comming on sooner then is reasonable and I would try another dealer to see if they can find a problem. The bottom line seems to be, no identified problem - no warrenty fix on batteries.

yea good point Mike, they are just calling it a tired but not faulty battery which after 6 months of normal ownership I am finding hard to accept!

If you use a battery tender make sure it is a float charger, quick charging with the wrong kind of charger does more harm than good. A deep discharge (leaving the lights on for example) will also considerably shorten the life of the battery.

Sulfation from water loss, undercharging, electrolyte stratification, excessive temperatures or prolonged periods of non-use account for most of the deep cycle and starting battery failures that are not used weekly, vehicle charging systems cannot by themselves cope with certain driving habits (short trips with high loads leaving the battery constantly undercharged).

Average battery life has become shorter as energy requirements have increased. In general car batteries last three to five years on average. Life span depends on usage; I've read that only 30% of all batteries actually reach the 48-month mark.

A battery is like a piggy bank. If you keep taking out and putting nothing back you soon will have nothing.

Since Porsche cannot control the owner's care of the battery I can sort of see why they treat them like brake pads but when something happens on the extreme short end of the expected life like Howi's you have to think the call is awfully close.