Bean66 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 21, 2025 1:53 am
Hi Keith
Appreciate the comments.
I do pretty much the same tho i'm not sure my battery lasts that long.
I just wanted to get rid of the faff of getting the charger and extension cable out and setting it all up every couple of weeks, thats of course if i remember to do that before it won't start again.
I just don't know if the solar panel idea would work.
Cheers Bean
I deeply sympathise. My car was off the road for 15 years in total because it was in a flat battery/flat tyre loop. I have a mains supply in my garage and a short extension lead so that there's always power within 2 feet of the front of the car. If your garage doesn't have a 13 amp socket or the car isn't garaged then I can see the attractions of a solar-powered charger.
There is no reason why a properly made solar-powered charger wouldn't work, after all, it is just a source of electricity. But it would need to be made specifically for the job. I'm not sure if on cloudy days it's the voltage that drops, or the current, or both. But that's why it would need to be a purpose-built dedicated product from a reputable supplier. Halfords sell them, and there are several on ebay (other online sites and sellers are available) which claim to be able to do the job.
The illustrations show them as also having croc clips, so if it's digging out the charger and the extension lead that's the problem then you'd just attach the croc clips to the battery terminals and if the car's outside and the lead's long enough you should be able to put the solar array inside the car and close the door and bonnet carefully, making sure that you don't nip the cable between the bonnet, door, and the body.
Feeding the power from the charger through the cigarette lighter would, as you say, mean that it would have to become an unswitched feed from the battery, which used to be the case when cigar lighters first became standard equipment. It's only in the last 10-20 years that the lighter socket has been on a switched feed through the ignition to avoid anything plugged in to the lighter socket draining the battery whilst the car's parked - been there, done, that, got the T-shirt, and received GBH of the ear'oles from "she who must be obeyed" the following morning, we were on holiday at the time........
If you still want to use the lighter socket as the feed in from the solar charger then you must disconnect the lighter socket feed and replace that with a wire with, most importantly, an in-line fuse next to the battery direct from the red/+ve battery terminal to the lighter socket. But you will need to get to the back of the lighter socket to disconnect the existing wire, and make sure that you tape over the connector on that wire so that it cannot come into contact with anything metal or electrical once it's free of the lighter socket.
Here is a photo of a lighter socket for a Rover, not too sure if it's for a Metro/100 or a Coupe, or, for that matter why I have it.
Note there are 3 terminals, 2 on the socket itself, and one on the illuminated surround, which has an additional spring contact, you can just see it, to the metal body of the socket. The single terminal on the surround is fed through the lighting switch so that it lights up when you put the lights on, and you shouldn't need to touch that.
If you do go ahead and run a dedicated wire from the battery to the socket you will need to terminate it with a push-on female spade connector with an insulated boot and that goes on the terminal in the centre of the socket. The terminal to the side of the centre terminal is the earth contact. You will need to make up a short flylead with a female push-on spade connector, with insulated boot, at one end, and a flat male push-in spade connector at the other end. One end of this flylead with the push-on female connector goes to the side terminal on the socket, the other end with the push-in male spade you push into the corresponding side socket on the plug that you removed from the back of the lighter socket. This restores the earth connection to the socket. You can get spade connectors from Halfords, but take care when selecting the bubble packs from the peg hooks in the shop as the spade connectors do come in different sizes.
You will also need a suitable loop terminal, Halfords call them ring connectors, so that you can securely attach the new wire to the bolt on the battery clamp, and the piece of wire itself, automotive wire capable of carrying 15 amps should be more than adequate as you will be fitting a 10 amp in-line fuse, Do not use mains cable.
WARNING: Don't forget, you ABSOLUTELY MUST fit an in-line fuse carrier in this direct wire close to the battery, a 10 amp in-line fuse should be more than adequate. if you don't and for any reason the direct wire chafes and causes a short the resulting high current could start a fire or possibly make the battery suddenly overheat due to the short and explode. Also, make sure that where the wire goes through the bulkhead there is a grommet protecting the edges of the hole to stop the edges of the hole from chafing the insulation on the wire. The fuse will also protect the battery in case the solar charger becomes faulty, or something else that you plug in to the now-permanently live lighter socket has a fault/becomes faulty in use, or, heaven forbid, someone accidentally puts a piece of metal or tinfoil into the socket and shorts it.
You'll also need to remember that the socket is now permanently live and leaving anything plugged in that uses current when you leave the car could mean that you have a flat battery when you next go to use it, just as I/we did all those years ago.
This shouldn't be too difficult to do, the hardest part will be getting to the back of the lighter socket.
I haven't worked on car electrics for some time, other than sorting out a recent issue with the boot light not working on my Tomcat. In my younger days I used to love working on car electrics and was a dab hand, even though I say so myself, at fitting fog lights, both front and back, reversing lights, clocks, air horns, burglar alarms, car radios, electric aerials, cassette players, trip computers, additional instruments/substitute instrument panels, etc. to a Triumph Herald, a Jaguar XJ6, Austin 1100, 3 different Allegros, a Morris Marina, a Morris 1800S, a Princess, and 4 different Metros.