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Hello,

I've had mine for nearly 4 years now. One of the problems I have is the lack of regular use as I'm out of the country a lot. Eventually, I got a bit hacked off with using a booster pack starter to get her going all the time, and decided to put a negative battery break-switch. Sadly I have no power sockets near the parking location so this seems to be the best bet.
Since lead acid batteries self-discharge at a much slower rate than batteries that are hooked up to various bits of electronics (no matter how low the current draw), this method works really very well. I've been able to return back to the car after 3 months of non-use make the battery connection, unlock, and she started after just a few seconds.

So from a practical level it works great - of course, the clock is always wrong and I have to reset the stereo out of safe-mode...

However I wonder if anyone has any technical 'concerns' over this. Specifically I wonder if there are any volatile memory settings in the ECU? I own an electronics engineering company and I can't believe that it would be engineered so that any important settings in memory would lost in the event of a flat battery, but maybe some things got over-looked in the year 2000.

Well if you have any thoughts it would be nice to hear from you. Otherwise see the pics attached for my 'mod'. The battery is a decent high capacity Bosch one.

Cheers,

Tom.

I've been using a similar battery break switch on a classic car I own but with full oem audi 1.8t loom /ecu / engine and it has always been perfect for me. I often leave the car parked up for a number of weeks and it always starts first time.

Yep, I do this as well when I leave my car in storage and starts first time on return. As you say just have to remember that dam code for the stereo.

Never any problems doing this. Also saves killing the battery.

omg you just saved my life hahah with 5 cars its just drive me mad to charge all them batteries every now and then,just ordered few off ebay.cheers