During the cold winter months, I normally put on my Deltran Battery Tender on my vehicles once a month to ensure the battery is at optimal conditions. Reading the manual, Acura references the location to place the cables for boosting. I assume it's the same location whether for boosting or if I want to maintain the battery. For the life of me, I can't remove the plastic cover that will give me access to that negative post next to the engine block. I'm going to have to have to take it to dealer so they can show me how to do it. In the meantime, I assume it's not a good idea to hook the negative directly to the battery? Or a metal part on the body?

 

You should remove the battery from car when plugging it to a battery tender..

 

That's a new one to me. Haven't heard that before, and for years when I used a Tender with my motorcycles I never removed the battery from the bike.

I've only used the Battery Tender on a car couple of times, and I simply clamped the negative clamp on a metal part somewhere under the hood. Same with my bikes.

 

That said, I did see the reference in the manual regarding removing the battery. I have used the Battery Tender Plus on five different vehicles over the years and haven't had any adverse effects. Need to find some wood to knock on now.

 

Just hold on to each side and pull straight up. It should not take a lot of force. Just pulling up from one side might work but would have the potential of putting strain on it and causing a crack.

Disconnecting the battery would be really inconvenient if you do this once a month, and radio authorization codes may need to be reentered.

 

Thanks for the advice! I ended up connecting the negative to the strut mounting nut and it worked fine.

 

I use a CTEK on my Audi. That car luckily has a cigarette port that is powered even when the car is off, so it can charge through that, but a few times I have used it to charge my dad's TL, and just hooked it up to the battery directly with no issues.

My sequence is always hook up negative, then positive terminals first before plugging it in. To take it off, I go in reverse and unplug first.

 

I have a CTEK also, but I installed the little plug on the batter terminals. This way I can quickly connect the charger to the battery. I also bought the Cigarette lighter adapter to connect my 12V air pump directly to the battery. No more blown fuses.

www.ctek.com