I have not come across anyone setting theirs up like the way I have on my 2024 R. For this reason I thought that it might be helpful/useful to someone. This probably won't interest anyone that has a hard need/requirement to connect their charger to the back end of their car. Regardless, here goes nothing...

You would need this CTEK product, or an equivalent, to hardwire your connection port to the front area of the vehicle -->

https://www.ctek.com/uk/battery-char...ect-u-terminal

For whatever the reason this product does not seem readily available in North America. I brought it in from Europe. A bit annoying, but whatever...

I have seen some talk out there about putting the hardwired port in the grill area of the car for those who want it in the front. I'm personally just not a fan of that. I wanted something that would be completely invisible until one needs to use it, and I was hoping to locate it in an area that will be a bit more protected from the elements (despite having a port hood). I chose to mount my connection port in the front wheel well region on the right side of the car. With the way I have done it you can't see the port at all. It is nice and stable for plugging and unplugging, easy to access, etc...

The port, of course, gets hardwired to the positive jumper lead at the front right of the engine bay. I chose to mount the positive wire of my connection port cable to the positive jump lead by putting the wire inside the box where it lives. I've heard of some drilling a small hole in the positive jumper lead portion that lives outside the box and attaching there, but I don't like that idea. Feels a bit messy to me. Opening that box up is easy. It's 2 screws and 3 clips and you're in. You can see in the pic I provided for the internals of the box where I wired the red positive wire of my cable to (i.e.: The one to the very left of that particular image). There's lots of room to feed the wire into the box alongside the other wires that are already going into it.

The negative wire of the connector cable I hardwired to the dedicated grounding post that typically gets used in the engine bay for jump starts.

I used some small zip ties to tie my wires to existing cables to make things somewhat neat...

Then the connector side of the cable I routed to the right side of the car. There's a perfect spot to run it through to over there, and to bring it into the wheel well. You will see in the pics where I ran a larger zip tie to stabilize the connector once positioned. This guarantees, of course, that it will not move while plugging/unplugging.

Be sure to orient the connector such that the button on the attaching cable (i.e.: The one going into your mounted port) can face into the wheel well towards the tire. If you don't do this it will be next to impossible to connect/disconnect.

I filled the mounted port with dielectric grease as a precaution. It shouldn't take much weather in that location, and it has a hood, but still...Better safe than sorry I say...

That's about it I guess. It was pretty straight forward and not invasive at all. I'm personally very pleased with it for my needs, and the aesthetic is great in my opinion.

 

OzXFR beat you to that by a few years!

 

Not quite, my setup is similar but different in a few ways!

 

I have a similar set-up but keep the quick connect inside the hood, but my post is not about how best to connect the CTek.
I am just curious about how much others keep their cars plugged in.
I have no problem opening/closing the hood to access the quick connect because once in a while I like to check under the hood.
I also only connect the CTek when I expect to leave the car for weeks at a time.
Usually the car is driven frequently enough (not daily) that I have no battery concern.
Do others really keep their cars connected most of the time, or do they just not drive them?

 

I plug mine in around 90% of the time it is in the garage.
Because I do very little driving these days and mostly very short trips, and often two or three days with no driving at all.
Works for me, still on the original pushing 10 years old battery which is still going strong!

 

My Jag may not be driven for a couple of weeks at a time and during the winter it has sat for as much as 6 weeks. So I generally plug in the CTEK unit when I know I am not going to drive the car the next day or two.

That's a nice write up DMeister. But I still would be concerned about water and dust intrusion to the connector, rubber plug or not. I would keep an eye on it just to make sure that the plug remains snug and hasn't fallen out from vibration or gets hardened with age and is no longer snug. I don't mind opening the hatch to make the connection and while I was initially concerned about closing the hatch over the wire and weatherstripping, that weatherstripping is thick and pliable enough that it doesn't seem to be an issue with damaging it or the wire.

 

Doh, I must have missed that. I felt I hit the entirety of the Internet trying to figure out what was best to do. Guess not ;-)

 

What did you do differently?

 

For me that was the whole point of this...To make it so convenient that I would basically have no excuse to not plug the car in all the time. I personally just want to avoid all these battery problems that can crop up etc...This way I don't really needed to think of how long ago I drove the car etc...I plan to have it always plugged in...

 

Yeah, some good advice there...That's why I added the dielectric grease as mentioned, but yeah, it will be good to keep an eye. I personally think this area will take a lot less abuse than having it in the front grill. There's a trade off with anything I guess, but this plug is tucked up there pretty good. I'm pretty confident.

The viability of the rubber/plastics is probably the biggest threat...Hardening as you say...I guess I could drop some grease, or rubber treatment stuff like you put on the door seals, to avoid that as well...That's what I was thinking of doing, as these concerns did cross my mind (Only because the product was not that readily available, I wouldn't want to have to source another regularly, etc)...

 

Mine is plugged in 90% of the time it's in the garage. It's really a weekend car but even during the week if it's going to sit more than a day I plug it in. It's very easy with the pigtail inside the trunk/boot--just open and plug in.

A WORD OF ADVICE: Make yourself a nice laminated 8 1/2" X 11" full sheet of paper/cardstock that has written in big bold letters on both sides "BATTERY TENDER CONNECTED IN FRONT/REAR" and place it on the driver's seat when you plug in and leave the car. If you don't plug in every time, you will invariably forget to unplug it when you're in a hurry and although most tenders are technically a quick disconnect, you can snap the cord in half (or worse--pull the unit off its mount and drag it into the car or run it over). This is especially important if you have a significant other or someone else who uses the car and may not think to check if it's plugged in before driving it.

I made this mistake once with my previous BMW and never again now that I have the sign. Luckily, it only ruined the CTEK and nothing worse.

 

Lol, also probably sound advice.

In my case I'm the only person driving this car, it will be part of my routine to plug/unplug each and every time, and I literally have to walk over the cable to get to my driver's door so I figure I'm good...

Famous last words as my front bumper cover ends up off the car as a result of my supposed good idea here...LOL ;-)

 

DMeister, congratulation on your installation. Nice job, on both the installation and the posted description.

However, FWIW, I think I need to take issue with a couple of things regarding that post.

One is that while the CTek North American website may not have that specific part number, it does include something that looks exactly like it. I know 'cuz I bought one. (And I do think this one is preferable to the similar connector part that has the battery indicator, as that would have a - agreeably very minor - drain on the battery. )

https://smartercharger.com/collectio...18733954433124


Second issue is more complex. By using the under-hood connectors for the CTek installation, you're bypassing the Battery Maintenance System (BMS). Those connectors are great for starting the car, and for actually keeping the battery charged. But it's not sufficient for maintain the car's electrical system.

For example, when fire up the ignition on a fully-charged battery, the BMS reads voltage on the battery as high, and adjusts the input voltage from the alternator to a lower level. If you then take the car for a short drive, you'll find the battery voltage level low because it hasn't been receiving a full charge from the alternator. Not good... esp. since these cars are finicky enough already.

There have been multiple threads posted on this forum about this. Here's a helpful link that had previously posted a couple of years ago in one of those threads (thanks Dwight Frye).
https://howtune.com/articles/548-ins...-jaguar-f-type

IMHO, like the above, the only proper way to install a battery maintainer like the CTek MXS 5.0 is to connect the red wire to the power distribution block in the trunk, adjacent to the battery. By doing so, the BMS is fully integrated with the smart battery maintainer.

For my installation, I ran a long extension (using the above Comfort Connector) which runs from the trunk out through the partially-opened the driver's side window and connects to the CTek installed on the left wall of the garage. When driving, I tuck this extension cord out of the way. Not the best solution for cars parked outside, but it works for me.

In response to CJSJAG, my F-Type stays in the garage most of the time, with the CTek installed and on. After all, it's supposed to "maintain" the battery anyway, is it not?

 

I am aware that the unit comes with a similar connector cable for hardwiring, but it is very short. I actually had a different idea originally that needed it to be a bit longer so I went with this option. Even for what I did in the end, I probably needed the longer length this cord delivered. There's always options of cutting and soldering etc, but I wanted to avoid that...

As for the bypass of the BMS, I am aware of that issue. My research says that you are incorrect on that. The only way to bypass it is by going direct to the battery in the back of the car, which is NOT recommended for the reasons you are stating (as I understand it based on my research). Hooking up in the front of the car, or using the bus bar in the back, both should keep the BMS in the loop.

Hooking up in the front is what ALL dealers tend to use when the cars are on their floor, and it is their recommended approach as I understand it.

I'll take another look, but I'm pretty sure I got this right?

There are differences between older and newer f-types as well. Older ones I believe had 2 batteries, so that could also be playing into your thinking? For the newest cars like my 2024 I'm quite certain connecting in the front is one of the preferred ways of doing it.

 

I leave it others more qualified to debate the BMS functionality.
All I can add to this discussion is that I have used the front charging location for 3 years without having any issue.
I also have a "plug-in" voltmeter in the "lighter" socket. So far as I can tell, this displays normal charging underway.
This is not a contest, so I really do not care how others choose to maintain their batteries!!
I am just glad I was alerted to the battery issue on this forum when I bought the car and followed the recommendation to use a CTek, in my case, periodically.

 

Lol, yeah, no competition for sure...It's what meets yer needs...

BUT, if someone has smoking gun info telling me charging from the front is problematic then I would consider it for sure. All I can say so far is that the info I came across says the front is fine. Seriously, if anyone know differently I definitely do want to know.

 

AIUI, the BMS sits between the -ve battery post and ground, so any charger using a -ve ground point rather than the battery's -ve post will cause the BMS to be in the charging circuit.

 

Sounds like I'm good so far ;-)

 

My apologies. I admit that I was forwarding information about the BMS and battery maintainer connections I've seen on previous threads, which did made sense to me. After all, one would think that you'd want the minimal amount of resistance between the battery and a charging connection, without all the stull involved with the rest of the vehicle electrical system. I guess that's just old-school thinking.

However, today I found a document that indicates the F-Type BMS control module connects directly to the battery. So, it would seem that it's damn difficult to bypass it no matter where you connect a battery maintainer.

It's nice to know that connecting the CTek to the under-hood posts is fully functional, even though it doesn't work in my case. (Wrong side of car. Can't get to it when inside the garage)

With regards to the CTek connection module you were complaining about, I guess I just have a problem with online rants without specific reasons. It would have been nice to understand just why it was that only the European supplier had this all-important port missing from the North American inventory. It definitely helped that you later specified that it was the (too short) length of the NA part. FWIW, I had the same problem. My solution was to get the short North American part with the eyelets, along with the 8 foot extension cable, then splice, crimp, and heat shrink them together. That'd save the hassle of a European order.

 

Rant? Where in this thread was I ranting? I simply stated that the cable I desired was not readily available in North America. That is all. It wasn't that big of a deal. I ordered it from Europe. It was the right length and ready made. I wanted both of those things. Having an 8 foot extension cable to run the wiring for this within the car the way I was wanting to clearly is not ideal.