New member and first piece of advice please re Elise trickle charge

[Morty]

Hi..Finally a Lotus Elise 220 Sport owner and newly joined MLOC. I’m really looking forward to some events this year and meeting many of you.

First bit of advice please....is there an easy way of keeping the Elise on trickle charge without having to remove the front panel each time !

Thank you................

 

[Phil S1]

Hi Morty,

Welcome to MLOC, lovely looking car you have there, is it your first Lotus?

There's sure to be some Sunday morning run outs just a soon as the weather settles so keep an eye out for those and of course there will be our main event - Lotus in the Peak in July.

On my old S1 Elise I wired a jack plug into a spare switch on my dash. I'm not sure what folk do on the later variants but someone will be along soon to advise you I'm sure.

PS

I've moved your post into the 'General Talk' section

[Morty]

Hi.   Thank you for the reply and apologies if listed in the wrong section... I have finally fulfilled a boyhood dream of owning a Lotus, so yes it’s my first. I live in the Peaks and looking forward to LIP as an owner this time ! 
👍
 

[stockhome]

These work well with a ctek charger mine is an early s2

[Morty]

Thank you.  I’m finding the battery on my 220 sport discharges after couple of weeks... maybe I should start using it more 😁

[Lithopsian]

I thought the cigarette lighter was permanently live on the S2, so you can charge through that.  Or did they change it again on the S3?  It was live on early S1s, then went to ignition-only on later S1s.

[The Cakes]

Why don’t you just connect straight to the battery in the boot or am I missing something? 

[amoss]

CTEK battery connection lead - have this on both my Excel and my Mini Cooper S - straightforward

[Morty]

👍

[Bill Hassell]

Hi Morty,

welcome aboard! As a relative newbie I can confirm you will be made very welcome.

I use the CTEK battery connection lead as per amoss post and it works fine. You need to remember to disconnect before driving off! (I always leave the engine bay open as a reminder!)

[JsExige]

9 hours ago, Morty said:

Hi.   Thank you for the reply and apologies if listed in the wrong section... I have finally fulfilled a boyhood dream of owning a Lotus, so yes it’s my first. I live in the Peaks and looking forward to LIP as an owner this time ! 
👍
 

Where about in the Peaks?  I’m in Brassington.

[Morty]

Dovedale area 👍

[JsExige]

I’ve only just seen your reply.  I think I spotted your car from a distance whilst on a bike ride. My eyesight could just about recognise it was a lotus from the road.  Looks like a farmhouse. 

[mollydog]

on my S1 I had to mess about with the screen wash bottle to get the crocodile clips on to the battery terminals and the bonnet un latched to charge/trickle charge the battery, I soon got feud of this

so I wired directly to the battery terminals and brought the ends of these wires to the front grill, now it’s only a case of getting out my Aldi or Lidl trickle charger (I have both only around £13 and have had no issues with either of them over the past 7 or so years)
 
at the grill I fitted the DIN power plug, much better for connecting to the battery to charge or to use 12v DC tools from, like tyre pump or 12v DC power jack

I also have a power plug in the boot,

here even with a cigarette converter plugged in

 

[Morty]

👍👍👍