My 05 Cabrio is stored for the winter and was wondering about trickle charging it to keep the battery up. Any problem just hooking one up to pos and neg terminals and letting it go for a couple of days on trickle? I know there's a ton of electronics so just wondered if anyone has any info on what to look out for.

 

Maybe a battery tender would be a better option as it will not continually charge, but rather condition and top the battery off.

 

If you're going to be storing it every winter, you might consider a battery tender. It uses computer wizardry to maintain the battery, not just feed it a trickle of power and potentially over-charge it.

 

Does the battery need to be disconnected from the car or can I just use the Tender while battery is still hooked up?

 

No need to disconnect.

 

Cool...thanks.

 

So I too plugged in a battery minder plugged into cigarette ligter that I bought from Mini last fall when I put my 07 MCS Cabrio away for the winter , went out to start Sunday DEAD , put charger on it for 24 HRS it started up first try .

 

Also just went down to set clock OK , it's giving me a EML & no radio , so does this mead I have go to dealership to have reset . The cigarette lighter was working .

 

Verify that when you "put charger on it" you connected directly to the battery and not through the cigarette lighter.

Thanks.

 

Mini dealer said the one for my 07 MCS was the one that plugged into cigarette lighter.

 

Guess they were wrong.....
Most every minder i have seen is a pair of wires you connect to the battery, and some type of quick disconnect you can leave in a convient location in the car to connect/disconnect the minder....it just works as a very low amp battery charger...automarically keeping it optiomally charged.
Plugging into the cigarette lighter, you were trying to backfeed power into the car...generally not a good idea. Not sure how the gen2 is wired, but it sounds like the minder got disconnected (possibly by mini desgin) at some point from the battery, and the battery ran down....
sounds like they tried to sell you tge super easy to install as seen on tv type of battery minder....i would ask for my $$ back, regardless of the time if it was the dealer...the item obviously does not work in your application.

 

Thank You I will be making a phone call to the dealership .

 

Would not be the first time that a Mini dealer propagated some misinformation.

 

that battery tender works very well!! highly recommended

 

Caprisun , so how do you it was working , the battery was dead , how do I test it to see if power is going to battery from cigarette lighter from the tender .

 

Do you have a model/make on that battery tender?
This thread was kinda a genaric bettery tender in a gen1, then a question on a battery tender on a gen2 that pluged in through the aux plug...the dealer happened to sell it, but many dealers sell both mini/bmw stuff, and other 3 rd party brands....

 

It simply won't work. You need to connect the tender directly to the battery.

In 1st gen MINI (maybe 2nd gen as well), the cigarette lighter is disconnected from the battery when the ignition key is in the off position. This is clear from the wiring diagrams. It is also simple to confirm. With the car completely off, check whether there is any power at the cigarette lighter. No power means it isn't connected to the battery. If you try to feed power in, it won't reach the battery either.

 

FYI, the nice black Mini (and BMW) battery charger that they sell for 60+ dollars is really a repainted and rebadged Battery Tender. Amazon has the best price:

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender...4782774&sr=8-2

And for those who don't know, the Battery Tender is top notch. You can leave it connected to the battery and plugged in indefinately and it'll keep your battery fully charged and in top condition without over charging it.