Hi Guys,

My S-Type only really goes out weekends and holidays but I do my best to ensure she gets enough miles in to keep the battery topped up (no driveway so cannot plug a battery conditioner in)..

This Sunday I found the battery was stone flat. I pulled it out (yes the boot lock did work thankfully - always had to rust treat X308 boot locks to get them to work) and popped it on charge and at that point looked, stopped and went out and brought a new battery..

The reason being that the battery that I pulled out of my 2007 S-Type was the original Jaguar battery making it 10 years old! I have partially charged it and stuck in storage for the moment but have never had any car battery last 10 years before.. My S-Type is now one happy bunny with its new battery :-)

How has everyone elses experience been with the original Jaguar batteries that came with their cats? Is 10 years the norm or is it just me?

 

10 years is a pretty good span!!!! I think most manufacturers recommend replacement between 3-5 years

 

In all my previous cars have got at most 5 years life hence my reaction as soon as I saw it was the original battery lol .. straight out to get a replacement.

My Jag has never drained the battery before, and it was the coldest night for a long time so as soon as I saw the age of the battery I figured replacement rather than spend a week or so seeing if a recharge did the job.

 

In cars that I depend on I routinely replace batteries in the 3-4 year window, but I am a preventative maintenance kind of guy. I value start reliability way over extracting max life from the battery.

To me 10 years , in UK conditions is a tribute to both the battery and how well its protected in that model.

 

That is remarkable given your S-Type has done well below the UK average mileage and is therefore unlikely to have been a daily driver. Perhaps the PO had used a CTEK.

My last five Jaguars have averaged replacement batteries at five years. The AGM (Absorbent Glass Mat) battery in my current XK is over four years old and I'll be interested to see if this has a longer life than the old lead acid type. The VARTA website suggests three times the endurance of conventional batteries:

https://www.varta-automotive.com/en-...ery-technology

Despite close scrutiny, I can't find any guarantee of this!

Graham

 

When it comes to batteries and how long they will last, part of it is how you treat them and part of it is dumb luck. Keep in mind that in a lot of cases, all the batteries that you see (from the hundreds of manufacturers) all came off of 1 of 2 assembly lines. The only difference between a top of the line battery costing $300 USD with a 3 year warrantee and a $100 Walmart special battery with a 1 year warrantee is the warrantee. Look at the plastic cases that they sit in. You will probably only note 2 difference cases with lots of different stickers on the outside. So, how long it lasts is up to how good the materials were when the battery was built and how much care was taken assembling the battery.

Besides coming out of the factory, the other fact is how the end user treats the battery. In a daily driver where the car sees 20 minutes of non-stop engine run time, the battery should last a long time. You start sitting in the parking lot, listening to the music for an hour routinely, this will shorten the battery life (starting batteries do not like to be discharged). You leave your lights on and kill the battery completely, this can have a serious negative effect on the battery, potentially killing it right then and there. So, if you are good to the battery and use it atleast every other day, then it should last you a long time. Letting the car sit for two weeks, then driving it, letting it sit 2 more weeks, etc, then you probably will not have a battery that can last more than say 3 years.

With all this being said, I am talking about a standard lead acid starting battery. If you look, you will find a lot of variations with batteries (ie, coil, marine, deep cycle, etc). These all have their specific uses and their own special needs. But, these batteries are for the 1% that have a special need for that type of battery. Kinda like if you put a deep cycle battery in your car, it will work great for the first few months. But, I can almost garantee that by the end of 3 years, you will be pulling the battery and putting in a new one unless you monthly sit in the parking lot and drain that battery completely and then recharge it using a battery charger (hell on the electronics of your car).

I have gotten 8 and 10 years out of a battery. I'm on year 7 with the wife's car with no signs of it failing and my car is on year 5.

 

Hi Thermo,

Long time no talk since my X-Types issues exceeded what I could afford/manage to keep her.

I have to admit that if I had checked the battery more closely on buying my S-Type I would have probably tried shaving a bit more off the price (which was already below market :-)) but my jaw dropped when I pulled it out to put on charge, and I realised it was 10 years old :-)

I have never had a battery get much beyond 5 years before so I was curious if anyone else had had original manufacturer batteries last this long.

And yes, the S-Type is one of those cars that goes out weekends and holidays leaving the little C1 I now have for the school runs :-) so I suspect my replacement battery with three years warranty will last the more usual 3-5 years :-)

 

My last XK8 the battery was original and still going strong at 9 1/2 years old when sold. My current car has the original and still going strong at 8 1/2 years old.

I shall let you know Steve if I go past 10 years.

 

LOL, it never ceases to amaze me how somethings on our Jags last way way beyond what you would expect, whilst other components seem to be designed to give issues lol.. but I have to admit to being gobsmacked when I actually looked at the battery I had pulled out and found it was the original.. I am known for buying 3 year warranty batteries and getting 4 or 5 years out of them, so 10 years for me was way out of the ballpark