You can hardly stay without changing your battery every five years as a car owner, and the effects of a weak battery are just too frustrating to bear. If your engine is not taking longer than usual to start, you are at your technician’s workshop fixing electrical issues.
While memory savers are great at storing car operations and driving details, their prices are often a significant investment for average car owners. You can’t afford to lose your details to a battery change on the other end. Apart from data recovery being time-consuming, you have to reprogram from scratch again.
This article will guide you on simple steps to make a memory saver for your vehicle.
How Can I Make My Car Battery a Memory Saver?
Before we go into the nitty-gritty of the process, let’s peek at the types of memory savers. So, you know which is best for your vehicle. There is the cigarette lighter memory saver and the OBDII memory saver.
The cigarette lighter memory saver works only on cars whose cigarette lighters stay on when the vehicle is off. This variant would make a good fit only if your vehicle’s production date is less than 15 years. The OBDII, on the other hand, supplies power through a cigarette lighter socket or another battery with a power supply indicator. Both help to retain memories by supplying power to vehicles when the battery is disconnected.
So, how do you make a memory saver? Here are the steps.
Step One: Buy an OBD II Plug
Get an OBDII connector that can fit in your car OBDII. You can get one from a local electronic store around you.
Step Two: Sketch The OBDII Nomenclature
Once you have your OBDII plug, get either plywood and sketch the OBDII nomenclature precisely the way it is in the car on it.
Step Three: Nail the Pinholes
Next, hit two head nails into the pinhole spots on the plywood. While your OBD plug would have 16 wires, you only need two: the fourth and the eleventh pins. So, identify them starting from the top left side.
Step Four: Wind The Wires on The Nail Heads
Afterward, strap both wires around the head nails. Quick warning: ensure you use the correct pins.
Step Five: Connect The Plug To The Spare Battery
Now, connect the other end of the wire to your spare battery. With this, you transmit the needed power to run the system. The 16th pin wire goes to the positive head and the fourth wire on the negative side. It is recommended to use a transistor to ensure a direct flow of power into the vehicle for your connection. Furthermore, ensure you connect the wires correctly.
Step Six: Insulate All Exposed Wires
As you probably know, naked wires can be dangerous to you as a person and even to your vehicle. So, after connecting the cables to your battery, insulate all exposed cables. But, before then, tap on the OBDII screws to confirm they are not connected. Afterward, wind tape around the exposed areas.
Step Seven: Test Run The Memory Saver
Having made all the battery connections, now connect the memory saver to your car to test run the device. Connect the OBDII plug to your vehicle and check the current flow with a multimeter. If the multimeter reads zero at the end of the battery connector, your connection ideally provides a direct flow. However, if otherwise, retrace which step you missed out on.
Read Also: How to Change Infiniti Key Battery
Can I Use a Car Battery Charger as a Memory Saver?
Even though some car battery chargers can be improvised as memory savers, not all variants are compatible. A car battery charger that would serve as a memory saver must have a battery backup mode. You can check out the specification of your battery charger from the manufacturer’s manual. In addition, read about what the producer says about using the device for such a purpose. Until you are assured a car battery saver can power your car during battery change, it is advisable not to use it as a memory backup. People have lost their car operation details playing such hit and miss.
To use a car battery charger as backup, gently clean off dirt and corrosion from the battery terminals using any high-quality battery cleaner. Also, put off all running accessories in the car like the radio, CD player, and hood light. Otherwise, the car battery charger you are improvising might be drained before completing the battery change. Be as quickly as possible when changing the battery and ensure all connections are accurate. It is recommended to start the battery removal process from the negative terminal. Remember to insulate all exposed wires during all connections with other memory savers.
Know Also: Can a Battery Drain with Negative Cable Disconnected?
How Does a Battery Memory Saver Work?
As noted earlier, battery memory savers come as 9V and OBDII memory savers. Both types would make a great buy, and they mostly come with different battery connectors. Also, there are some with wall adapters, alligator clips, and in-built rechargeable batteries.
While they have similarities in their electrical design, these battery memory savers have distinctions in their working principles. Let’s find out what the differences are.
9 Volts Battery Saver
This variant is purpose-built with a 9 Volts battery and a plug which is to be connected to the cigarette lighter. Once you plug in the cable to your car, it supplies enough power to keep your car’s memories. Thus, you can change your battery without any fear. Since it works through the cigarette lighter, it can only be applied with vehicles that have one and stay on even when the car is not on. These are features you can hardly find in vehicles older than 15 years. Most old vehicles’ cigarette lighters only work as long as the car is on. If your drive is an old model, you can use the OBDII type instead.
OBDII Memory Saver
The OBDII Memory Saver is an excellent alternative for older vehicles incompatible with the 9V battery type. While the 9 volts saver works through the cigarette lighter, OBDII Memory Saver supplies power through the diagnostic plug. Plug it into the OBDII port and connect the other end to a spare battery to use this memory saver. Although you can use a wide range of batteries with an OBDII memory saver, lithium-ion batteries seem to have more credibility.
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What Happens When You Don’t Use a Memory Saver When Changing Your Battery?
As you know, a car’s battery powers all accessories in the vehicle. Thus, all settings, including your car operations and driving details, are only stored as power flows through the car. Anytime you change your battery without using a memory saver, you lose all your programmed settings, and automatically, you have to program the settings again. Apart from the loss of settings, there are no other known effects of changing batteries without using a memory saver. If you consider it unnecessary to make new settings, you may consider getting a memory saver or improvising your car battery charger.
Final Thoughts
Your battery change plan should include using a memory saver, and it saves you the stress of making new settings after the battery replacement. You can use the 9 Volts type or the OBDII variant, depending on the model. You can also use your battery charger if it is compatible. Check your manufacturer’s manual for the device specification. Either way, ensure you make your connections properly and insulate all exposed faces. If you think you can’t handle the technicality alone, you can consult a local vehicle repairer for help.
