I have a 2006 Acura TL with 130K miles that I no longer drive on a daily basis, but am keeping for practical reasons, since my newer car is small sports car. The Acura is not in a garage, but rather exposed to the Texas 95-degree heat. I always drive it at least once a week for errands. Within a month of its semi-retirement, its battery went dead. Repair shop said the charging system was fine and replaced the battery. However within six weeks of replacing the battery, the new one went dead. I assume they are going to scold me about not driving the car enough.
When they replace battery, should I just keep the new one on a steady, constant 2 amp trickle charge? Honestly, I would probably only drive it once a month (bad weather days, hauling big stuff) if I weren’t trying to keep its battery alive. But if a handful of errands once a week isn’t going to get it done, then maybe I should just use it in case of emergencies. But will constant trickle charging be good for the battery?
I use a solar trickle charger that plugs into the lighter socket. Unles I neglect the truck for a year , it is generally ready to go every three months or so for the Home Depot run.
— But ----
With a vehicle parked outside, you should consider covering the tires.
At the same O’Reilly’s that sold me the solar charger, I got RV tire covers for my 79.
They’re sold in pairs for single axle boat trailers and such , so you buy two sets for cars and trucks.
Tape measure the outside diameter of your tires.
Not a trickle (constant amp) charger - use a ‘battery tender’ (I got mine on Amazon). A trickle charger will overcharge a battery eventually.
But driving it once a week (for at least a half hour) should keep the battery charged. I wonder what is draining your battery? Any aftermarket accessories? Alarms? Amplifiers?
Battery Tender is the way to go. Also, most cars the cigarette lighter is not powered when the car is off. That means you can not back feed it with a charger.
A cheap trickle charger plus a household timer set to charge an hour or two per day would do the job.
Draining a new battery in 6 weeks is too soon. You should get a parasitic drain test.
This problem might have been around for a long time, but not show up when driving every day.
I learned the usual hard way that a constant 2 amp trickle charger can boil a battery dry in about 30 days. Please heed the advise of the current (pun intended) posters.
Use a float charger instead of a trickle charger. They are available from .5 amp up to 4 amps and generally cost about 2x as much as a trickle charger, which isn’t that much to begin with. The float charger will shut off when the battery is fully charged and them monitor the battery. When it goes down a preset amount, it will come back on and recharge again.
Battery Tender is a brand of trickle and float chargers.
Harbor Freight too…Another option, just disconnect the battery…Some may argue that will confuse the computer but I have never had any problems…Your new dead battery should be able to be charged…A new battery will survive this once or twice. It will need 5 amps for 10 or 12 hours. Don’t expect the cars alternator to do it…It may hurt itself trying…