Yes, I did do a search and saw a few things, but my question is - do y'all think it's ok to wait until my appointment on Monday morning or should I go in before then (no appointments left this week)? I've had the fault come up twice and both times it was gone the next time I got in the car so I'm not terribly worried it's just going to die, but thought I'd ask opinions around here. Even more glad now I went with the CPO!

 

First of all, let me properly introduce you to the Prince of Darkness, aka Joseph Lucas, founder of Lucas Industries that provided most of the electrical components for British cars until recent decades. Lucas, well known for its questionable reliability, has been the target of substantial derision over the past century. The spirit of Joseph Lucas is so strong, that it still haunts British cars to this day, including Jags, despite utilizing Bosch components.


Next, what error message do you get and when does it occur?

 

 

Yeah, I don't think there's a simple solution for either issue (charging fault or pollen). First one is an issue for the dealer and the second one an issue for the big guy upstairs.

 

 

Same problem here in the DC area. I carry an Original California Duster in the car to deal with it. Perfect for the application: The Original California Duster

 

The first suspect for your problem is likely to be the battery itself -do you do many short runs?

 

Define short. Do you mean mileage or time? Like my drive to work this morning - 4 miles, but takes about 30 minutes (until school is out, then it will be 15-20 and I love holidays that we don't have because it takes me less than 10 minutes door to door). I do have some shorter (mileage) trips, but most of them take forever because there is never a time around here without a ton of traffic. I did think of the battery, but I thought there was a separate warning for that, plus I'm used to when they start to go, other things start failing or the car turns over/starts slower, etc. If you think that's all it is, I'm happy to change the battery and save myself a trip to the dealer (I'll do that tonight instead of the gym since my fractured shoulder is bothering me today and I probably shouldn't go lift and aggravate it more). Of course that's assuming they don't have a dumb design like my last car where a body panel had to be removed to change the battery.

 

The battery is easily accessed if you choose to do this. Your trips are not enough to properly charge. When I fist got my car I monitored battery voltage with an accurate meter as I was driving under various conditions. The voltage never got up to a good charging voltage unless I was out on the highway. Consequently I put mine on a float charger every night. Your car is outside but you can use one of those small solar panels or run a cord to it at night. It is certainly possible that this is your problem.
Larry

 

If the battery is the original one, and particularly given your history of very short runs (4 miles) at low speed, then that is likely the cause of the problem - because that pattern of use is very hard on a battery over time. The immediate solution would be to charge the battery to full voltage. I note that your car is kept outside, not garaged. If it were garaged then the solution would be to fit permanently a battery maintainer such as the CTEK (this is not precisely a battery charger- it maintains the battery at full voltage always - my car is always on this: photo). But in your case you might be facing a battery replacement. In any case, I would eliminate the battery as a possibility rather than concluding that it is a deeper problem. If you DO get a new battery - you have to be aware that they are almost never fully charged at installation, so the first thing to do is to have it fully charged.

 

Supposedly a spot is being cleared inside the garage for me to park, but since there are currently 7 vintage motorcycles, plus all of his equipment for his work (which is why the garage was built in the first place), I'm not holding my breath. I'll show him this and maybe that will move me up the line on getting indoor space. That's just my drive to work, but yes, since I live and work in town, I don't go out much farther, although I'm in the car longer than that sounds like (and when I go to physical therapy for my shoulder or any other errands at lunch time, I do get on the interstate and have more fun than short bursts of speed. Still, since like I said, I know the fault this past weekend was after leaving my eye doc, going about 2 miles (if that), getting gas and it happened when I cranked back up, seems like a valid assumption. I'll get that taken care of tonight and look into the maintainer. I just didn't automatically go to thinking battery since everyone else seems to have weird little things stop working when the battery is going.

If I go and have the battery tested is there a particular number I'm looking for to know if it's not maintaining enough? I'm assuming there is a minimum voltage number we need? I suppose I could go look for myself but since y'all probably already know and I already have about 10 tabs open trying to research the proper carb for a 62 motorcycle, I'd rather not fall down that particular rabbit hole at the moment.

 

These cars seem very sensitive to battery voltage, but you would need to know the accurate voltage at the time you get the fault indication. The transient voltage after driving the car, even a short time, is going to be higher. Frankly, nobody is going to do a test that will be conclusive. The best advice is above, fully charge the battery. Then keep it on a maintainer. Your driving habits just welcome trouble with this car's charging system.
Larry

 

I've passed all the information along to my husband, but I think the current feeling is that since it's still new to me (haven't even had her 2 months yet), and this will be the dealer I go to until warranty runs out in 2020 (bought from a dealer in Florida), we'll probably just keep the appointment to make sure there's nothing else going on. I know I'll pay more to get the battery through them if that's all it is, but I'd rather just know at this point for sure that everything has been looked at. In the meantime, I'm looking at battery tenders/maintainers, so that once this is done, I'll be ready to start that (I may not park in the garage, but close enough to the back of the house to run a cable from the outlet to the car while we figure out long-term, less redneck solutions - I'm sure the neighbors won't mind the bright orange extension cord coming over the top of the fence every night).

 

Not as long as it matches your bright orange car.

 

DJS just posted on the "Battery Advice Please" that a battery replace requires a BMS system recalibration (don't know what that means), but I don't think the members that switched to lithium batteries mentioned this. Maybe they could lend some insight here. If under warranty dealer is always a safe bet.

P.S. See referenced thread for debunking of this requirement by OzXFR.

 

I was following that as well. Glad to know in the future I don't have to worry about that. I still have my appointment scheduled for 7:30 a.m. on Monday. Since my main boss will be out of the state, if it's looking like just a quick battery replacement, I may just wait for them to do it, otherwise, I'll take the loaner (which will disappoint the guys at the gym my physical therapist works out of when I go there at lunchtime). Kind of fun to have a retired NFL player asking about your car and wanting you to take him out for a spin one day.

 

Update: Apparently there was a software update for the gateway module and the battery power supply that needed to be done (that's according to the text, I'll know more when I have the actual paperwork if anyone is interested). Was covered under warranty.

Also, this past weekend I started getting the "Service needed in x miles" pop up which I thought was odd since that would put it at around 11k miles and they just did the CPO stuff a few months ago so you'd think serviced then. Since we couldn't find anything on the records I was given indicating an oil change recently, I elected to go ahead and do it just so we know when it was last done. Everything else looks fine, so hopefully I get to go turn in the Rover that's my loaner today and get my baby back.

And now for something completely different - I passed my motorcycle course this weekend (one of only 2 with no experience and I actually got the 3rd best score on the skills test)! It was hot and miserable and for some reason they gave me the bike that had issues (leaking fuel all weekend, clutch almost non-existent and just tall enough I had to be on my toes (literally and figuratively) all weekend). My car was the hot topic of conversation as well. When we first went outside for the on-bike portion the first day, one of the instructors asked who had the Jag and then the flood of questions from everyone. It was amusing to me that we were in a motorcycle class and everyone was ignoring the beautiful BMW bike that one of the instructors rode so they could drool over my car.

 

Surprise! That didn't fix it (came on again yesterday morning first thing). They didn't have any loaners available yesterday so she set me up with an appointment this morning. I sent her the information from the other thread I had read when this started (and I was hoping that wasn't it), so we'll see what they do. At least my loaner today isn't a Rover, but IT'S HUGE! They gave me an XJL and while I can appreciate the massaging seats, I can also see myself falling asleep in that thing. Heck, I may move into it if they have my car for multiple days - it's as big as some apartments and with the heated/cooled massaging seats.......

I'll update again later.

 

Latest update - they had ordered a dual battery junction box and it didn't get here until late Monday, so they put it in yesterday and did a couple of short test drives yesterday (since I told them most of my trips are short(ish) and always dynamic and sport mode. They kept her overnight so they could do another this morning since the last time it happened it was after sitting overnight. Got the call 15 minutes ago that it came on again for them so now apparently they are going back through everything. They said since it hasn't fully failed, that makes it harder to find what's failing. So I guess since it's raining, it's not too bad to have that big *** XJL. At least it happened before I got there and not once I got home.

 

BATTERY! The battery as the source of this problem (especially given the car's use history) should be eliminated before throwing parts at the car (under warranty or not). Critical thinking is in short supply these days...Now, the battery might well not be the problem, but until it has been removed from the list of suspects (and it is suspect #1) the techs have not done their job properly.