Several members have recently used and recommended the Solar B-9 battery and system tester. I notice that the instructions are to attach clamps to the 12 V battery terminals. (You can see where this is going.) Since the contacts under the hood are much easier to access, my question is whether this is an acceptable alternative to attaching directly to the battery which is so cleverly hidden in the rear? I suspect someone has already tried this and compared the readings. I would be interested in hearing your opinions.
yes, toyota recommends it. the charger company would not know what every possibility is with every car model.
First, I should explain that the Solar B-9 is not a charger. It's a tester, and as such it should be attached directly to the battery since it is intended for battery diagnostics. Attempting to include all of the wiring from the front port (under the hood) to the battery in the analysis would probably eliminate any hope for accuracy. After a bit of searching i found the following submitted by our member, Mendel Leisk Feb 3, 2016. (I trust today's electrons are the same.) Mendel, "It's critical to connect it directly to the battery posts, doesn't read right through the fuse box jump start point." Thank you, Mendel, your knowledge is appreciated!
I believe "BA9" is the exact name? Yeah, the intructions with my BA5 said to connect directly to battery posts. I did try the jumpstart terminal one time, and it was not happy, didn't work. Didn't give an "off" reading; there was some kind of error message. I forget what exactly. It's sometimes hard to get the clamp teeth right on the post: I've gotten away with clamping to the cable clamp, right at the battery, I think. I do try to get contact direct though.
