Tech Tuesday – Sooner or later it is time for a new battery for your Classic Porsche. I went to start my 1986 Porsche Carrera 3.2 the other day and it would not crank, even a little bit even though the battery is on a trickle charger. I also had to replace the battery in my 1973 Porsche 914 2.0 last year. In both cases the cars are connected with battery tenders to hold the charge between drives, but sooner or later the battery just gives out.
In the 914 I was running a battery that was at least five-years old because that was how long I had owned the car and had never changed the battery. The 914 battery is easily accessible so it was a quick trip to Advance Auto for a new Optima red top battery. The choice was pretty simple because I wanted a sealed battery to avoid acid corrosion issues in the dreaded hellhole battery tray of the Porsche 914. I went the Optima Red Top without much thought because their advertising over the years had conditioned me that they were the best.
The battery for my 1986 Carrera 3.2 is a different story. I have owned this car for over 22 years and since the car is an all-original, low mileage Porsche I didn’t want to put just any battery in it. The current battery in it was a Deka battery. When we stilled lived in Michigan I used an independent Porsche shop for repairs and this was their choice. I was curious when I last changed the battery and after going through the records I realized it was in 2008. Twelve years on a car battery! It shows the importance of using a battery tender to maintain battery life on Porsches driven intermittently.