Flat battery fun

[Jalf]

Today I had another flat battery episode with the X6, decided to bin the LED puddle lights and LED boot lights (surely to blame) now I'm looking at getting a charger for it, the one I have is a huge Clarke power tools thing on wheels and I want a smaller/modern one.
Whats the sort of thing I need to look for? the BMW genuine parts site shows a 12V (thought diesels were 24V? ) unit for about £90, are there any other cheaper options?

[dirtymonkey29]

Costco are doing a ring automotive battery charger for £30 or £40 at the moment.

Car batteries are 12v, motorbikes 6v, think 24v are for lorries and busses

[X5Sport]

24V? It's not a blasted great lorry. The yanks may call em 'trucks', but we don't. Heathen! Shouldn't be allowed to own a BMW........

If you just want to keep a maintenace charge running then you can't really do better than the CTEK range of chargers. You can leave them permanently connected and they run in 'maintain mode', or bring a dead battery back to action in a few hours in 'charge mode'. Had to use ours over the weekend on the E46 as it had been left for about 6 weeks. Two hours on charge and it started.

Can't see your LED's as being the cause. More likely lack of regular use or just plain old & dying battery - mind you, yours isn't that old is it?

My CTEK is an 8-stage charger in the 7000 Series, but all the models have been recently revised. I got it on offer for about £70 I think.

[Jalf]

Cheers guys, its shopping time

Is the CTEK one of those plug in the boot type chargers like the BMW one?

[AW8]

On E53 my Ctek 3600 connects to jump posts/connectors under bonnet.

3600 since superceded by the MXS 3.6

[X5Sport]

Same for the one I have. You can buy a cigar lighter type lead for the unit though (some kits include one), or an 'eyelet' type for connecting onto the battery itself. The battery charging lead has a connector about 18" or so from the end so you can change types.

If your X6 is like mine, the cigar lighter points go dead after 16 mins anyway so you won't be able to charge via that route. it's annoying as it means car fridges shut down as soon as the car goes to sleep!

[X5Sport]

[quote=""Jalf""]Cheers guys, its shopping time

Is the CTEK one of those plug in the boot type chargers like the BMW one?[/quote]

The current BMW Chargers do look very like the CTEK models..

[pvr]

The Aston Martin ones are CTEK ones as well, 100% the same except for the word CTEK has been replaced by an Aston Martin sticker.

Oh - and they cost twice the amount at the dealer