50 pence in the meter

[Joloke]

Its Electrifying!

[xtriple]

It's a standard fit on the Bentley, not on the battery but separate, still does the same job. I do use it frequently as it saves the battery when arsing around with the doors open and six million interior lights blazing.

 

Very useful indeed. Every time it goes to the Specialists they use it constantly so has a 'professional' seal of approval!

[richardmorris]

I used to have one on the 2cv but it was a possible cause of poor voltage regulation and so it's off at the moment.

 

I also kept forgetting it was there and blowing the 30amp bypass fuse with the starter!

[pshome]

Hard to find decent ones these days. Most are cheap chinese crap and fall apart after some time, typically while overtaking on the Autobahn in a construction zone.

 

I use these instead now: Great!

 

P.S. If anybody cares: Tagora has screw less quick release battery terminals factory fitted.

[Urko]

I use one on my AMC as it sits long periods with no use and there is some current drain I've never bothered to find - mine's a big brass jobbie I bought at the Old Lorry Show at Donno.  No issues, but the AMC isn't the height of electronics - I can imagine these wreaking havoc with modern cars.

 

Edit - mine's the kind with no bypass fuse -it's either all on or all off.

[egg]

Didn't know you could get these!

 

Do you have a link for those ones you trust, pshome?

[barrett]

Basically, we fit these to any old car as a matter of course. If it's gonna be parked up for weeks or longer at a time it saves the battery going dead and yu dont have to worry about them spontaneously combusting when you're not around. Once even fitted one to a Panhard despite all Panhards having factory-fitted dash mounted cut off switches. Blame over enthusiasm.

[myglaren]

C5 has a very simple quick release clamp on both terminals.

Looks flimsy but had no problems with them and they work well.

May be possible to obtain after market.

Finding nothing on a search but will post a photo later.

[inconsistant]

Yes Joloke, I've got one fitted on the 924, I fitted it in Dec 2013 shortly after buying it as it had a slow battery drain so until I traced it I put this on. It was a cheap chinese rubbish off ebay, about £4 I think. I ended up leaving it on because it's useful. I can easily go 2 weeks without using the car and it just means I'm confident the battery will be fully charged when I do go to start it. Never had any problems with it, I keep it vaselined up to aid contact, when I replaced the battery at Christmas I cleaned up the battery and knob contacts but didn't really need doing.

 

It's useful when working on the car do just have to give it a quick turn to connect and disconnect the battery. Also another benefit is that someone wouldn't be able to jump in it and drive off even with the keys, unless they found the bonnet opener in the passenger footwell and then turned it on. Ok, they could still nick it but at least would delay them a bit. Only real disadvantage is the clock needs setting each time I drive the car.

 

Conclusion: Only £5 or less, no obvious negs, do it.

 

[dave21478]

Those quick release things Pshome posted can be bought from caravan accessory places pretty cheap or on the 'bay....

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Quick-Release-Battery-Terminals-Clamps-12V-Pair-Car-Caravan-One-Motorhome-/261319001655?hash=item3cd7d38637:g:7REAAOxyyUtSb9Qc

 

 

They are pressed metal rather than cast like his pictures but I have never had problems with them.

[barefoot]

......Only real disadvantage is the clock needs setting each time I drive the car.

 

Used to be advertised in practical classics with a bypass thing to keep the clock running.

[myglaren]

 

Problem with the C5 is that disconnecting/reconnecting the battery as an half hour procedure at best.

 

[fatharris]

Had one on the Xantia and it worked pretty damn well.

 

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

[Noel Tidybeard]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pair-of-Quick-Release-Heavy-Duty-Battery-Clamps-for-CITROEN-C2-/190807376378?hash=item2c6d0181fa:g:RJ0AAOxyzHxRNcgO

[sierraman]

No good on a modern car, putting the radio code in all the time!

[Pillock]

If you use the one with a bypass fuse, you still need to disconnect totally to do electrical work as 30A is still enough to damage stuff. They're more for anti theft.

 

So yeah, a modern and a full disconnect one will bug you with radio code, and possibly alarm and locking too. A more modern really won't like having the battery off every night.

[kirton]

The one at the top looks like the one I bought: broke one whilst tightening up the earth lead-lesson 1, don't put the whole thing on the battery terminal and then tighten the earth lead on. There is very little metal there and it looks like mazak (commonly known as shit metal) which doesn't bode well for along life, even if you don't break it first yourself

[Junkman]

I have a quick disconnect in my 405, because French, but I never use it.

Why would I have to disconnect the battery of a 405?

[dollywobbler]

I go for the shiter approach. The terminals are snug, but not over tight. So I can usually just pull one off...

 

This did backfire the other day, when the Dyane managed to throw off a terminal. While stationary. No, I haven't worked out how either!

[The Moog]

Yes got one on the Beast from the East  (Starlet) as it just sits when we arent there. Works fine for me. 

[Junkman]

I go for the shiter approach. The terminals are snug, but not over tight. So I can usually just pull one off...

 

This did backfire the other day, when the Dyane managed to throw off a terminal. While stationary. No, I haven't worked out how either!

 

If it was a haunted Rover, I could explain it.

[pshome]

Didn't know you could get these!

 

Do you have a link for those ones you trust, pshome?

http://www.ebay.de/itm/262064092586

http://www.ebay.de/itm/171699032877

[pshome]

I don't quite get the bypass thing, it will still drain my battery long term and no protection when working on the car. Clocks on my cars either don't work or are easy enough to set, who looks at a car's clock anyway?

Ok on preventing the car to start, but a hidden ignition cut off switch will do a better job than this rather obvious thingy.

 

By the way, here is the luxury version of it, a 300£ bargain. Wow, has LED!

http://www.armtech.co.uk/page6.html

[cros]

I have 4 of the screw up type and have had no failures over 4 years. However, as pointed out, by far the best and cheapest anti theft deterrant must be a small hidden switch interrupting coil or electric fuel pump.

Another novel device I've not seen for years is the key switched one way valve that you stuck in the brake line. When turned on and the key removed the valve allowed the brakes to be applied but not released, leaving the hapless thieving scum and your car in an embarrassing situation stuck in the middle of the road. I can't think of any downsides at all...

[Tamworthbay]

I have used the red key 'race' (yeah right) type a few times because I bought a job lot cheap at an auto jumble. They work very well with the advantage that you can take the key with you for security.