G'Day All, I am guessing that you can leave the battery hooked up while using the battery tender

Trail

Yes no problems leaving battery terminals connected while tender is connected. I leave a note to self on dash "battery clips" just in case wife jumps in and turns key without removing tender! Ok... Its in case I forget!!
I have monitored battery voltage without tender use and still good to go after 2 weeks of no starts, but not 3. I mainly just leave tender on and not worry about it. Its also one of those solar jobs. Works a treat!

Thanx, XDragon8, I would be interested to know some more details of your solar charger etc

Its basically an eBay/ Amazon job that I have had for years. I think it was a gift. It pretty much keeps the car battery between 12.7 and 13.2 volts. You can get all weather panels but I only have the "indoor" cheap type which just means leave it undercover, so not in the rain. I think you can actually plug it into accessories socket and leave ondashboard, but this only works if your car is parked outside. I just bought an adaptor and sit it outside but undercover. No issues at all. Couldn't tell you the technical side of it, It just works.

This is the one I use for my 2008 40th Anniversary Edition RX8 and it works great. I use it indoors in my garage. If you protected it from the weather, it could work outdoors,under cover.

Thanx for your help

The only item I never had time to measure was if leaving the hood open causes the battery to drain faster than hood closed (alarm activity and system check related). I noticed my battery appeared to drain faster when I left the hood open (to remove engine heat in between uses).

what you have is a small draw from one of your system that is using a little volts/amps about 80% is it the radio, what you can do is take a voltmeter to your fuses

Hello again, I am still working on the battery maintenance charger job, I have bought a multi stage battery maintenance charger , (Project AC040), with the idea that I will leave it on all the time when the car is in the shed, but I am wondering whether I need to remove the engine and battery covers, just thinking about battery gas emitting during charging, and if that could create issues??, I would also be interested to install the chargers pigtail adaptor hard wired, and would like suggestions as to how to go about setting that up. If anyone can help? Pictures would be good too
Thanx again
Trail

I don't think there is likely to be any issues with the battery or fumes as long as its just a trickle charger.
Although in this pic taken previously the batt cover is in place you may be able to see the blue pigtail from terminals to deans plug that i just adapted to solar panel.
Even with engine cover in place the plug is always handy but easily tucks out of the way. This allows me to quickly and easily use a voltmeter before fire up. IMHO one of the best free modifications i have done. BTW i am also pretty happy with my unrelated catch can that is tucked away (but visable in pic)!
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...816dbd4b23.jpg

Ahh - finally someone mentions this hood switch. I was waiting to see if it was ever discovered to be a problem relating to parasitic draw. Its only a tiny microswitch and being it is at the front of the car, it must be a very high quality one to tolerate nature blasting it for its entire life. I found mine to not be working every time when searching for a reason my door locks would sometimes not flash the lights and sound the piezo speaker. (think it was the molex connector plug more than the actual microswitch)
I pulled and electrocleaned the switch and plug! It would be nice if there was an underhood light activated by this switch, so I could see if it was working. I see no way to determine this other than a draw test with the hood catch open and then depressed with a screwdriver. Dont forget to release it before slamming the hood down :)

Yes i leave the battery hooked up while using the tender. That is really the point, not to interrupt any battery power to all the switches and alarms . Works great for years now, no problems. I do remove the engine cover and battery cover, and set to the side. Easy to pop back on before I take the RX8 out for a ride. Cheers

All lead acid batteries lose about 1% of their charge every day so after 30-60 days your specific battery may not be in a state of charge to start your specific vehicle.

Hi Kiwiaudio, I would like to know the exact position of the microswitch please
Trailblaser

Hi Trailblaser, its located on the side of the hood catch mechanism. Not easily seen unless you remove the plastic panel surround.

me too !
 

my 2004 RX-8 similar issues ------ now can completely rule out batter issue, because I just threw on a brand new battery, about two weeks ago without any problems, last night, it died and the lights on panel dimmed, and blinking like mad, another two very nice gentlemen helped with jump start, power station start, after staring, several minutes dies ....

Any of you get a fix, kindly please let me know ... thanks a million ! :)

I had this happen to me.

Shop insisted battery tested fine, for months. I tried all the simple things before taking it back and testing one last time. Finally found the manager who immediately confirmed it had a bad cell, replaced it, new one has been solid.

It could still be the batt. Mine gradually got weaker on day 2 until useless in about 3 months.

Thanks, I can exclude battery issue
 

Thanks. I can 100 percent sure not a battery problem... Because each time after replacing with new battery,it runs like new, after half month to one month, it will die... so I'm guessing somewhere suck the electricity or alternator failed (I will try to test it later this week)

My temporary solution is : everytime after turning off, disconnect the battery negative cable. Hoping it's life can be a little longer before I identify the root issue....

If disconnecting the battery does help then you have some kind of parasitic power drain somewhere. If it doesn't, it could be the alternator. If you go to Autozone or NAPA they will test your alternator for free.

I can share that I had 2 batteries go dead if I did not drive the car every 2-3 months during the winter. I had a third battery explode in my shiny engine space after adding a trickle charger. Got smart finally and purchased a float charger for it. No problems now.

Has anyone seen parasitic draw by the blutooth module? (and if so is it easy to remove?) Mine actually died, but I started getting an occasional a "dark"/parasitic current problem that comes and goes around the same time. Sometimes parked a couple weeks is fine but occasionally will draw the battery down in 3 days. Not sure a current test will do much since not only is it occasional, I suspect disconnecting the battery will "reset" everything to a "good" state and therefore not exhibit the issue.

Recently read that Honda's have a similar problem with bad bluetooth modules which is why I thought of it.

The smaller Battery tender "junior" charger/maintainer products say that they will charge smaller batteries like on a motorcycle or lawn tractor, but only maintain a larger car battery. The two i have put out 750 and 800MA respectively and come with the SAE plug wire to connect to the battery permanently like Dragon did. Both mine however will indeed Charge a car battery. It just takes longer ! I've never used a junior on a seriously discharged car battery though, so cannot say how long that would take. Several days i bet.
I pop the hood and plug one in whenever i anticipate not using my truck, car, motorcycle, or tractor for a week or so.

My wife drives an RX8 and I have had to get it started for her quite often. If you don't drive them at least 1 time per week they drain the battery. If your battery gets completely drained it will not last for its rated life. Simple solution I used for my wife was to put a trickle charger in the garage with a quick disconnect connection. Thank goodness she has not driven off without disconnecting. it. LOL. This worked a charm. BTW if it gets flooded it won't start.....remove the fuse for the fuel pump and crank it. Replace the fuse and it should start. Tried this and it does work....not always the first time.. Good luck. They are nice looking cars.