Nothing to stop you using a cig socket or aux socket, they are all rated at 20A so no problem with fuses or cabling.
I have my charger connected to the front cig socket which is permanently live in my car.
Battery charger won't give out anything like 20A unless it is exceptionally large.

I totally agree with point number 3 above.

I have a ctek 3600 charger. I connected to the accessory point in the boot using the ctek adapter. It was on for nearly 48hrs and still was showing that the battery wasn't fully charged.

I thought the charger was knackered, but I reconnected it to the battery direct and it showed fully charged within minutes.

Just a thought.
If you want to connect the battery charger in the boot and not use the aux socket you could connect the lead that comes with a Ctek into the 100A cable that serves the rear fuse panel and a local earth point.
Just undo the nut and connect it.
Direct to battery thro a 100A fuse.
That should be big enough to ensure you have no trouble with voltage drop / bad connections.

hmmm. I don't have the cTek variety of charger. Mine checks the battery and charges as necessary at 2,4,8 or 16 amps. I could wire directly to the live port and an earth in the boot and create a "plug" connector for the charger somewhere in the boot..?? Ashley
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2004 TD6 Vogue - Black with Sand
2010 KUGA 2.0 AWD
2003 CLK 320 Cab

Yes you could do that thats all the Ctek cable is
Interestingly the rear aux socket is connected to the rear fuse board and I would have expected it to work ok with a charger, it's only about 500mm from the fuseboard. Is the plug you were using a good fit in the socket, some aren't.

hi all,

had my battery checked this morning (47%. condition:- gut. advice:- charge so was the print-out on his bosch device) I was prepaired to buy a new one but the chap suggested hang it on charge over night he also asked how long (far) is the car used a on a daily basis well my answer was roughly about 10km to work and 10 back home so about 10-15 mins total running time!! that's your problem was his reply you need a good run at least once a week a good half an hour up the motorway he said!!
My question is though.......because I forgot to ask him, at what rate of charge overnight would be recomended? anybody like to finish off!!

Cheers me dears
Malc Current stock:-
FFRR Vogue
Smart 4-2 Passion
Yamaha RD 400
Yamaha Ty 250 x 2
Yamaha Ty 175
An exspensive mountain bike that don't break

About 6A for 15 hours should see some improvement to the state of charge.
Preferably once a week given your vehicle usage.
Half an hour up the motorway once a week won't do much.

M.D
What nicedayforit says, Im having similar problems with my TD6 and don't think 30 or 45mins up and down the motorway does much at all, certainly not enough to fully revive an exhausted battery. My Varta I1 battery is 17months old and lots of short trips combined with 3 or 4 times completely flat had pretty much killed it I think. Bought an intelligent charger from Lidl for £13 that's similar to the CTEK range so gonna give that a go

So - Anybody know the wiring specifics of an intelligent charger..?

Thought I would do the job professional like so opened up the back of my charger (it's a smart charge 16 - http://www.ringautomotive.co.uk/product_detail.asp?prod=1372 and I had a long car to car ciggy lighter charger lead of which I cut one end off.

Traced the main cables back to the board and soldered the live and neg wires in place (and checked I had them the correct way round)

Plugged it in an nothing..! Undid all the charger again to find at the board level the main cables for each (pos and neg) have another cable like a twin core cable. the small one goes to another point on the board. on the croc clip end the main fat cable goes to one side of the clip and the other small cable to the other side of the clip. Do they need to make a circuit to work when both sides of the clip connects the the batt terminal..?

In which case Ill struggle to mod this one as there is only one terminal on a cig lighter plug..!

Works a treat though if I just clip the croc clips from the charger to the ends of each cable going to my new plug and plug into the socket in the boot.

It looked really neat as well..! (until I had to pull it all apart again.  Ashley
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2004 TD6 Vogue - Black with Sand
2010 KUGA 2.0 AWD
2003 CLK 320 Cab