Apologies in advance for the long message.

Here’s my situation,
I have a 2019 Vantage which has a magnetic charging port above the rear license plate
My battery is 6 months old and is non-AGM battery
I am using a new CTEK MXS 5.0 battery maintainer

I recently bought this maintainer, because the one that I had, a CTEK Multi US 3300 was occasionally giving me an error light when I used it. It didn’t happen all the time, but I thought perhaps it was going bad, so I bought the new one.
The MXS 5.0 charger has an 8 step display that shows the phase of charging it is in, but it never gets past the first light. Then after some time it lights the error lamp. The manual says that if the error light comes on, that the battery may be bad, but the battery seems fine, and as I’ve stated, it’s fairly new.

I also tried connecting the maintainer directly to the battery connection points under the hood and it worked perfectly. It went through all 8 stages and then went into maintenance mode. Which made me feel that something could be wrong with the charging port or the connector.

As another data point, when I connect the charging port connector on the car and use a volt meter, I see 12V at the cable end of the charging port connector, so it appears that the charging port is working.

Has anyone else used this charger on their Vantage? Does anyone use the charging port as all?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Hello- I don't use that type charger but based on your notes I believe the magnetic connector, port on the car, a loose or bad wire or fuse could be the issue. Maintenance modes usually means battery is fully charged and the maintainer is working at a 50% duty cycle or "float charge" and is acceptable. I agree, seems like your direct connection under the hood proves your point!

 

I use this charge port all the time, I wonder if you might have an open wire within the magnetic dongle. Do you have a continuity tester? KH

 

Hi KH. Yes, I tested the dongle and it seems fine. For some reason it seems to be working more consistently now, which I think may have something to do with the steps to connecting it. If I plug the charger in to wall power and then connect it to my car, it errors, but if I connect it to the car, and then connect the charger to wall power, it seems to work.

I actually had the opportunity to speak with someone at AM service about this, and they say that the order of connection shouldn't matter, but for my car at least, it seems to. They also say that the charging ports are typically trouble free, and it's not a common AM problem. So at this point I'm going to continue to use the car connection first process, and hopefully it will continue to work.

 

Funny, I have developed a similar approach:
-Connect magnetic connection
-start trickle charger
-adjust connection from dongle to cigarette adaptor until the proper lights illuminate
-gently let the wires hang

No idea how or why . . .

 

I will add that I find the magnetic connector a bit fidly. I need to really make sure it is seated correctly when I connect it. It takes a conscientious effort. Can’t just snap it on and expect a decent connection. I have the Ctek 5.0 charger and it works fine with my mag connector, regardless of sequence, as long as I am diligent about seating it properly.

btw…no idea what “ dongle” you folks are talking about.

 

I'm using ctek mxs 5.0 as well and a magnetic connector to the rear magnetic port.
Your method of identifying the root symptom is correct, I’d do the same.

• Since the ctek charger is working fine direct to the battery, it’s either the mag connector or the mag port that's the problem.
• If you tested the charging port as well, direct to the conductor part, you would know if it works or not.
• I have a female cigarette to magnetic connector as well so I can test if the connector are both working.
• I can use my female cig to test other 12V accessories with cigarette plug if it will work. If not working but the charging port is working based on the tester, the ctek magnetic connector is the problem.

Purchased my ctek magnetic connector here https://ctekadapter.com/products/ast...r-comfort-plug and it still works after 1 year.