Well, not sure what happened, but when I went to start my car up today, there wasn't enough juice to crank the engine. Weird thing is I then tried to shut off the ignition and everything else died as if the battery was COMPLETELY dead, i.e., no lights on the instrument cluster, no response to the remote or door locks, nothing. BUT the headlights remained on from the initial attempt to start the car. No response from the start button and also couldn't shut the lights off from the control stalk. Was finally able to get the lights to go off after hooking up a charger. Will let it charge a while and see if things go back to normal.

I know there are known issues and recommendations to keep the car on a battery tender, but I drive the car almost daily and just drove it last night with no issues. Does this sound like the typical problems or is it possible the battery is just going bad naturally? I don't know if the battery is original, but I guess it would be about right to replace it if it's original from 2012 or 2013.

Any suggestions to keep this from happening again other than keeping it on a charger even though it's almost a daily driver? Should I get the battery checked out or replaced even if it charges up for now?

 

What is the present battery voltage. It should be 12.6 volts at rest. If you don't have one get one of these cheap volt meters that plug into your cigarette lighter port.

 

I just went thru this last week. Check the battery date to see how old it is. There should be a sticker on the battery with month/year. Mine was 5 years old so I replaced it. You could get it tested and charged up if it's 1-2 years old and keep it on the maintainer to extend the life but it's possible this may happen again if it's 3+ years old. You don't know how the previous owner cared for it.

Good luck!

 

Just because you drive it daily doesn't mean it will stay charged, are you driving short or long trips? My Wife drives our XK daily and after a long while it will suffer from a low battery. I put it on a maintainer once a week usually. Her typically trip is a couple of miles. The constant start of car and then short trip at low RPM's just means the charging system doesn't recoup what was exhausted starting the car, so we run a daily deficit on battery electricity. As a cumulative affect it will be too low after a while.

This is a common culprit not the only possible outcome, it could be a bad battery or alternator. What type of charger do you have and what number of amps? If it is a low number, like 2, you will need to charge it overnight.

 

If your battery was 4 or 5 years old, that is almost certainly the cause of the problem. Daily use, as you have already been told, does not guarantee either full charge or long service, particularly in cars like these with very high electrical needs. I had to replace the battery in my wife's daily use X-Type in December. The X-Type does not have anything like the electrical needs of the XK - and the battery was finished just after its warranty expired. Perfectly normal these days.

 

I've let it charge at 10a for a while now but still not enough to start. I cant get to the battery because it died with the top down and I can't get the top to work. I did install a Jag Wrangler the other week and I can hear the relays in it when I tried to do the top, but nothing. Is there a way to manually raise the top?

The charger is supposed to be able to jump start the car if you switch it to 30/50a but I still just get clicks even at that setting. Starting to get worried. Any more suggestions / thoughts?

 

Take the charger off and wait a few minutes and take a voltage reading. You may have a dead cell which will not charge nor will it start the car.

 

Simon,

You may have caused the battery to run down when you installed Steve's remote control convertible top module last week. To raise the top, see posts 8 & 9: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...latched-52822/

Instead of attaching your charger directly to the battery terminals, you can use the remote battery terminals in the trunk. See the photos in my post # 3 in this thread: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...3/abela-87566/

Hope this helps!

Stuart

 

Got a voltage meter and it's reading 12.2
after a few hours charging. So I assume this means bad battery?

Im thinking of buying a sears agm battery as a replacement. On my old BMW I remember having to get the car "registered" or reprogrammed to the new battery. Does this hold true for the xkr as well? If so, how do I go about it?

 

Mine charged up to 12.4 after failure and the car cranked and died and immediately measured 11.8 after that so I replaced it.

The service manual says the battery monitor system needs to be reset by a dealer after battery replacement. I have not done that. On the XF forum I read that after a few drive cycles it will learn the new battery and work normally. Makes sense to me and it seems to be charging property.

 

What did you get as a replacement battery?

 

Autozone duralast gold. It was $149. They have an AGM also for $189. Autozone is local and I use them a lot. Plus I had a coupon

 

It's not just what the battery charges up to. It's whether or not the battery can hold the charge, aka the load drop when you crank it. There are two ways to test:

1) Put your meter on it and have the wife crank the engine. If voltage drops below 9.4 volts, the battery is toast.
2) Bring it in to the local auto parts store and they will load test it for free.

Based on high level symptoms you're describing, she's a goner. If you replace, go with AGM. They have a better lifespan than standard lead acid. (and if it were me, I would pay up to go for the 72 or 80 month battery)

And of course, I see you've already been scolded for lack of a maintainer

 

Sears has a sale on a Diehard AGM for $163, so that's what I'm planning to get but what I'm trying to find out is if there's some sort of reprogramming to do when switching to AGM.

Did you have to do anything after switching to AGM? I remember on my wife's BMW, you had to have something done to have the car charge the battery correctly after installing.

 

I believe the reprogramming of the charging rate you're referring to is unique to BMW ECU's. The Jag should be plug and play.

You will of course have to reset some functions on your car, windows, radio, vert top.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...acement-54583/


I believe there are different charge settings for an AGM vs lead acid if you elect to install a maintainer.

 

Simon, you got this straightened out I assume? You get the Sears AGM?

 

As I understand it for MY 2010 to 2015 you need to reprogram the battery module. The charging system was changed with the 5.0L cars and the battery is charged based on different parameters in the ECU.

 

Thanks again to everyone for all the advice. I did go with the Sears AGM battery and everything seems to be good so far. I called my local dealer to ask about reprogramming the ECU, and the tech that answered didn't seem to know what I was talking about. Just told me they charged $300 to install a standard battery and didn't know about anything needing to be done with an AGM type. I called an independent Euro shop as well, and they said "registering" the battery was unique to BMW. So far so good without any reprogramming.

 

The CTEK MUS4.3 automatically adjusts the charge rate depending on the battery type, flooded or AGM.

 

Thanks Stuart. I suspected it might but as I don't have a cute model, I wasn't sure. Glad you got it sorted out Simon.