Technical Isolating or disconnecting the battery

[jonkino]

HI Everyone, I'm a newbie on here so thanks for having me. I have a question and was not too sure where to post it, I hope it is fine here.

Please can someone advise me, My partner and I live in a hot climate in Southern Italy and my parter has gone back to the Uk for a couple of months and she wants me to disconnect the battery whilst she is away because last year when she went back to the UK 3 months and came back the battery had gone flat with it being connected and not used for three months. We had to have a new battery on the car even though it was not even a year old. The garage told us if leaving the car unused for any long period it is adviseable to disconnect the battery especially as in the. summer it is often 40 degrees here.

So if I want to disconnect it for a short period like 2-3 months what is the best way to do it? Should I disconnect it completely, like all three cable (as shown in the pic) - though I am worried that this would make the battery forgets the computer settings and cause issues when we come to reconnect it and then we would maybe have to reset everything. I just went in my local Fiat garage and he said just dis connect the Earth cable (that is all I need to do) the earth I believe is the one that connect to the pin on the right hand side negative terminal. Or he said disconnect the earth and then the negative. i am confused cause I always thought to isolate and disconnect one would always take of all the cables ( the earth the negative and the positive). Anyone know for sure.? Would appreciate any accurate thoughts. I havee disconnected the earth and now there is no power to the car - will stop the battery from draining or will it still discharge gradually if left for 2-3 months unused? I hope someone can advise me?

 

[steveras57]

HI Everyone, I'm a newbie on here so thanks for having me. I have a question and was not too sure where to post it, I hope it is fine here.

Please can someone advise me, My partner and I live in a hot climate in Southern Italy and my parter has gone back to the Uk for a couple of months and she wants me to disconnect the battery whilst she is away because last year when she went back to the UK 3 months and came back the battery had gone flat with it being connected and not used for three months. We had to have a new battery on the car even though it was not even a year old. The garage told us if leaving the car unused for any long period it is adviseable to disconnect the battery especially as in the. summer it is often 40 degrees here.

So if I want to disconnect it for a short period like 2-3 months what is the best way to do it? Should I disconnect it completely, like all three cable (as shown in the pic) - though I am worried that this would make the battery forgets the computer settings and cause issues when we come to reconnect it and then we would maybe have to reset everything. I just went in my local Fiat garage and he said just dis connect the Earth cable (that is all I need to do) the earth I believe is the one that connect to the pin on the right hand side negative terminal. Or he said disconnect the earth and then the negative. i am confused cause I always thought to isolate and disconnect one would always take of all the cables ( the earth the negative and the positive). Anyone know for sure.? Would appreciate any accurate thoughts. I havee disconnected the earth and now there is no power to the car - will stop the battery from draining or will it still discharge gradually if left for 2-3 months unused? I hope someone can advise me?

What you have done in the picture is disconnected the battery negative lead which means nothing in the car can operate as the circuits cannot be completed, this in itself will slow down and discharging of the battery, however ALL battery's naturally slowly discharge over time so therefore the best plan would be to also disconnect the other (positive ie red) battery lead as well ,and occasionally top up the charge with an appropriate battery charger! (wet cell battery's need a different charger to agm or lithium iron battery's) to keep the battery in top condition for when you want to re-use the car, you should not have to many issues when reconnecting other that having to re-set the clock etc as all the major parameters for the car are stored in the ecu computers and will not be affected by disconnecting the battery!,
Alternatively why not just keep everything connected up as normal and take the car out for a drive for an hour or so each month that should maintain it in normal shape!( longer and faster drives will be better than around town)!