My F-pace is now over four years old and usually in previous cars I've owned by this time the battery should be getting fairly long in the tooth. Since I'm going away for five weeks (wheeeee, first Euro trip in over two years!) I would be interested in what others have done in similar circumstances.
I could easily put a battery minder on it but not sure it is needed.

 

My battery is nearly six years old and still working just fine. After three weeks of non-use I did get the error message, "LOW BATTERY, PLEASE START ENGINE". So.....for long periods of non-use I use a battery tender hooked up to the terminals under the hood/bonnet.


Stu

 

That's exactly the situation I'm in most of the time. Here in Texas, I could drive pretty much all winter long, but I don't. There's no car shows from November 1st to March 19th and I've got cars taken apart all winter trying to get ready. But spring, summer and fall, once a month is pretty typical because 1) that's the car show schedule and 2) the other three weekends are family, house and yard work. I keep my whole fleet plugged in all the time whether I'm planning to drive it next weekend or next month because weather/plans could change and I might forget to go back out and hook it up.

We do know that the lower the charge gets and the longer it stays that way, the more the battery is diminished by sulfation. Four weeks might not kill your battery, but it could take four months off the end of its useful life span. As long as you have a top quality unit like a CTEK that will shut itself off if it detects a problem, I'd say hook it up so you don't worry about your battery while you're supposed to be enjoying your trip.

 

There's one way to find out ......

I keep both my Jaguars on a CTEK when not in use. Not because I think it's either essential or necessary, simply because it comes under the preventative maintenance category and absolutely ensures I never get a low battery situation.

Graham

 

Mine is sitting in a garage in LAX for two weeks, I'll be an unhappy bunny if there's a problem.
It still seems happy on the app.

 

I always look at routes when anyone posts about Jaguar journeys and the US is never as big in reality as in my imagination. I thought Phoenix to LA would be around 1000 miles but it's slightly less than the distance from London to Edinburgh.

Your comment about the App prompted me to check if battery is one of the Vehicle Health Report parameters but unfortunately it isn't. Does the App still show both your location and the vehicle location regardless of distance apart?

Graham

 

It does I'm in the Kingdom of Fife and the car is in LA.

 

Especially in my case, as I have a house with an attached garage, I'd be hard pressed to leave a car unattended for a long period of time, in said garage, with a battery tender/charger hooked up to it. To me, the potential risk is too great. Yes, I store my Corvette, as well as my wife's XJ, during the winter, and yes, I do charge the batteries in both. However, what I do is, every couple of weeks, put the charger on the car for a couple of hours, until the battery is fully charged, then switch it to the other car, and do the same.

 

Mine is nowhere near as impressive!





It's never been far enough away to show a city map let alone a country!

Graham

 

Well it started fine and the stop start was functioning so I assume the battery was good.