CTEK Charger and Comfort Indicator Panel installed

[Disclaimer: As I started writing this, I realised that it's a fairly easy mod for RHD cars and somewhat more involved for LHD. YMMV.]

Since I only use the car on weekends (and there's a drain going on) I often had battery issues at the worst times. My old charger was not the best and never seemed to help. A battery test seemed to show that the battery was fine, so I bought a spiffy CTEK MXS 5.0 charger instead of an Optima battery. I also bought a "Comfort Indicator Eyelet" so that I could connect the charger to the battery terminals without tearing apart the back of the car and see the "charge level" of the battery through the hatch window. When it turns red, I know that I must charge to some extent before starting the car. (The CTEK MXS 5.0 comes with two Comfort connectors; one with clamps and one with eyelets. The chargers plugs into the comfort connector and then into the mains.)


To charge I had to open the hatch, plug the charger securely to the comfort connector, keep the hatch open, switch the interior lights off and position the charger where I could see its progress lights. Not ideal.

Wouldn't it be better to have the comfort connector and indicator on the dash, perhaps in one of those spare panel receptacles? That way the charge level can be seen from outside and plugged in easily. CTEK thought of that. This is the Comfort Inidcator Panel M8 3.3m (11ft) [cable not to scale].

First problem was making the panel opening bigger to fit. I removed two of the ridges, first by hack-sawing into the corners and then along the side and bottom, making sure not to cut any wires behind.
Removing the plastic sills on the right hand side was fairly straightforward. Note: The B pillar cover is a bit tricky. Tip: Remove the cover from the seat belt bolt and then push the seat belt down until the bolt fitting is pointing to the floor. Then you can pull out the B pillar cover over the bolt.
The sills on the right hand side contain the 12 volt battery cables in one clip and the rear window washer fluid pipe in another. There’s enough room between those clips for the cable to sit snugly. The cable routing from the rear door sill to the battery takes some trial and error, but there is a safe path.
Second problem was that the 3.3m (11ft) cable was too short by about 10cm (or about 2m /6' for a LHD). I cut the CTEK cable to retain the eyelets and the fuse close to the battery and crimped in lengths of heavy gauge wire.

The front panel flashes green, yellow or red (too briefly for this photo) to indicate charge level... [stray wires are for iPhone, GPS power, routed behind the steering wheel]

...and charging is as easy as passing the cable through the driver's door or window and plugging in. The orange button is a clip that holds the connector in place.

Less likely to drive off with that connected!

Why didn't just connect under the bonnet? That would be normal.
Here's the full story and pix from my blog parts one and two.