My FT has developed the dreaded Low Battery Message. I've gotten it on occasion over the life of the car, but this time it is very strange. A couple of weeks ago I got in the car and had the message. On the very rare times that I've gotten it, a drive on the highway takes care it. This time it didn't. So I put the tender on it. After 24 hours or so, I still had the message. I drove it anyway about 2 miles through town and parked it for 30 minutes or so. When I got back in, no message. Drove it home. The next day I had the message. Put it on the tender for a couple of days. Still got the message. I figured that a new battery was in my near future - not surprising for an early 2014 with almost 50k on the clock.

I left it in the garage for a week without the tender and got in it today to move it. No message.

No electrical gremlins. Charging voltage is well above 14VDC and battery voltage with the engine off is well above 12VDC. The car starts and runs fine. The only thing that doesn't work (besides me) is the stop/start function which I assume is that the other battery has passed on the battery graveyard.

So, Oracles of the Internet, what say you?

 

Did something get plugged into the ODBII slot a couple of weeks ago?

 

Your battery is well past the point where most have had to have them replaced. The warning coming and going seems to indicate a marginal battery, probably on its last (reliable) legs. If it had the OBD issue with the battery control module, it would not come and go. It would stay until the module is reset.

 

I guess I'm very lucky that my original on my '14 has been fine.

 

If you balance the interest you can make on the cost of a battery for whatever remaining life you can eek out the original vs the pain in the *** it's going to cost you when you can't get home from the restaurant one night (in the rain, the car's locked, and you have to find your way in)

Maybe you should buy a new battery. I did on my MY14 last year. I hadn't given me a lick of trouble - it was just time.

 

Ditto.

 

Lizzardo's answer for the win. Uncheel's answer for the convincing.

 

When I had my 2004 XKR I experienced electrical gremlins so went to a local shop to buy a replacement battery. The shop guy insisted on testing my battery and pronounced it "good" so refused to sell me a new one. I ordered one online with next day delivery, fitted it and had no more problems.

 

I am having the same problem. New battery. I did have the car inspected recently so they did plug in the computer.

 

Having a new battery and something plugged in the the OBDII, just disconnect the negative terminal and reconnect. Maybe give it a charge as well. You may have to reset your windows afterwards.

 

Thanks!

 

Had my battery die just like this last spring. Time for a new one.

 

The AGM batteries won't last forever.. 5-6 years from what I've read. your symptoms correspond to a dying one. I was lucky enough to have the battery in my 2017 replaced under warranty last fall, after giving me the same messages. JLR tech said it was 'seeping'. Not sure if that meant voltage or liquid, but whatever, I got a new AGM and install.

 

My original 7 year old battery is still going strong.
I put that down to plugging in the battery maintainer every time I expect not to use the car for any longer than 24 hours.
One more point about a new battery - quite often it has been sitting on the shelf for months and is not fully charged, so you should hook up a charger/maintainer/tender to it and make sure it is fully charged before you install it.

 

Recently I've been getting this low battery warning every now and then too when unlocking the car. I'm just a bit puzzled because the battery is just a couple of years old and I charge it fully with my CTEK every now and then. Age wise this battery should be nowhere near the end of its life.

Sure, I know that these cars are sensitive on the battery side, I often don't drive it for a couple of days or even a week and some of the trips are pretty short, but still it seems weird to me that it would show that warning within about a week after a full charge and after only a couple of short drives.

The car lives in a warm garage so there shouldn't be anything temperature related affecting this. There's been no use of the OBD port. Once I also double checked that everything shuts down properly by checking that the warning triangle light goes out a couple of minutes after locking the car. There's nothing plugged in that could be sucking power while the car is not in use. Neither of my previous two XFs with presumably a similar electric setup and use never threw any such message under similar conditions.

It's not a big deal and I usually just hook it up to the trickle charger overnight after getting the message but it seems a bit strange for such a new battery. Thoughts?

 

I left my car for two months without being used and got a low battery message on restart, but it often sits unused for a week at a time with no subsequent messages. I'm still on the original battery, so nearly 5 years old. I do drive for at least 20 minutes when I use the car, maybe your short journeys aren't long enough to replace the charge it uses for starting?

 

Are there date markings on the original batteries? Or some kind of SECRET CODE?



We got our F used, so we don't know how old the battery is. Haven't looked under the boot floor to see. (YES I am lazy! Humor me)

PS: the Start-Stop on ours still works, so THAT 'secret code' indicates that our secondary battery is still healthy....

 

I switched to a Lithium with 60mA and I am so happy... 27kg vs 7kg the new one... Every month, not more than 2% less capaticy, very nice...

 

Could be. Depending on the weather I do also take it out for longer blasts. I wonder how many starts and short journeys the battery should be able to handle when it's fully charged without displaying that message. Now I get the impression that it sometimes displays this after only a handful of starts and shorter journeys. I've never experienced anything similar with any other car. The fact that my previous Jags never displayed anything like this and Valerie's comment above make me think that something perhaps isn't entirely right. I have about 1,5 years of warranty left and will probably check it with the dealer if it doesn't improve.

 

Wow, that's quite a weight difference! Any link or model name you can share?