Everything you wanted to know, and see, about the vital S-Type vehicle battery … how do we test it? … what do we measure, and how? … what is the best replacement? … and how do we keep it in tip-top condition? Finally, we learn of the new generation of really “intelligent” maintenance battery chargers.

The main subject material is in the attached “Battery 101” PDF file. The 2 added PDFs cater solely for the recommended charger.

1. Battery 101 for S-Type Jaguar
http://www.mediafire.com/view/s7ja8j...ype_Jaguar.pdf

2. MB3606 Manual
http://www.mediafire.com/view/wuge0c...606_Manual.pdf

3. MB3606 Features
http://www.mediafire.com/view/84yoo1...6_Features.pdf

I don't claim originality for all of this material. Some is pure Jaguar JTIS reference data. Indeed, before the knees of many, and here the primary gurus include [JagV8] among others, I learned the mantra “First, in any S-Type, check the battery” then before you shell out to replace some vital and expensive electronic control module which is flagging a deadly fault, “Check the battery again … and do it properly!”.

My primary motive was generated from over $3,000 in parts alone that were needlessly replaced as faulty, when they were not … the real culprit was a dying battery. I have adorned one wall in my workshop with many good parts similarly misdiagnosed. Please observe the usual warnings that you proceed at your own risk, but also be assured that the procedures here are well tested across a range of vehicles.

Again, I wish to record my sincere appreciation to Graham [GGG] for his computer-savvy help in producing the downloadable PDF files for your use. Thanks mate. Thanks also to my sole remaining cat [07-JAG] for the ills I inflicted on her to reproduce some of the pics for this write-up. As usual, any errors that remain, are mine alone. Please post your feedback so that all members can learn from shared experience.

Best wishes,
Ken

 

Well done. And your absolute best advice is to always suspect the battery whenever intermittent, unpredictable issues arise on these cars. I shudder to think of the absurd amount of money that owners around the world have collectively spent on unneeded repairs when all that was necessary was a new battery....

 

One other little item that might be useful in determining battery strength. For those who can check each cell, get a hygrometer from most any auto parts store. It will check the strength of each cell and will show if there are any weak or dead cells. If so, then replace..

 

Thank you for that info on the battery...

One of the best bits of advice I got from this forum - early replacement of what seemed to be a perfectly good 8-year-old OEM battery. It does seem that being in the cool of the trunk away from the engine heat adds a few years to normal life.

 

FYI - The PowerTech product line featured in the .pdf's does not appear to be sold here in the States.

A comparable product that is available here is the Battery Tender line of battery chargers. I bought one recently to keep my S-Type charged when not in use, based on the recommendation of another forum member.

So far, so good. Recently, it helped me rule out battery problems before diagnosing intermittent check engine and ABS codes. It was less than $60 US on Amazon.com.

Here's a link to their site (I don't work for them, but I AM a satisfied customer) - Battery Tender

 

Thanks for both the positive feedback, and the great suggestions that have been added ...

Again, with generous help from Graham [GGG] the Battery 101 pdf and the 2 Charger pdfs, are now available for download from the Forum's mediafire server. Thanks Graham ... and links are as follows ...

1. Battery 101 for S-Type Jaguar
http://www.mediafire.com/view/s7ja8j...ype_Jaguar.pdf

2. MB3606 Manual
http://www.mediafire.com/view/wuge0c...606_Manual.pdf

3. MB3606 Features
http://www.mediafire.com/view/84yoo1...6_Features.pdf

Special thanks to [Jumpin' Jag Flash] for advising non-US availability of Powertech. C-Tek is recommended, but I have learned off-forum of other, cheaper brands quickly appearing. The important feature (see write-up) is the ability of the "fully intelligent" charger/minder to remain connected whenever the car is not in use, by continually adjusting its charge up/down/off/on in line with changing battery condition.

 

I read your post and grabbed my multimeter to test my voltage. It read 12.2 after resting overnight.

The car starts and runs fine even though the ABS/Stability control/Cruise control are not working. The check engine light is on and sometimes the climate control display blinks or doesn't show all the characters.

Do you think I should change the battery?

 

Hello 55jag05 ... greetings and thanks for your feedback question ...

My first impulse to your question was a humorous quip along the lines of ...

"Nah, don't bother, but also don't be alarmed when more electronic systems, even perhaps transmission, join your climate, cruise control, ABS/Stability and amber check engine light ... all of which have already failed and are already signalling your have multiple problems, but from perhaps one common cause ...

But this is not a topic for levity, whether good humor or bad. Your "next day" battery voltage reading of 12.2V confirms that your battery is holding perhaps only a quarter of full charge (ie 75% flat) ... and well below the accepted threshold for reliable operation. It is dying ..., and pulling down each of your electronic sub-systems, one by one.

As a test, I was able to locate and fit another older battery back into my S-Type having measured its standing voltage at 12.1V ... close enough to yours. Immediately the starter engaged and the car sprang into life ... but also with all 4 problems I have reported EPB/ABS/Stability/CEL lit. I didn't bother to test cruise control but no failure was reported. As soon as I replaced the new Varta back in the S-Type, all faults disappeared, and the car with all systems returned to normal.

As [JagV8] and our other techs have pointed out, this is not an absurd Jaguar oddity ... it is more the modern paradigm for digital comms on which advanced vehicles are being designed and manufactured. [Jon89] is quite correct (and verified by my dealer's misdiagnosis) that overlooking your dying battery can be an ongoing and expensive series of mistakes.

So the only realistic answer is "Yes, change the battery; remember to charge and re-test the new battery as you did for the old". Unless your S-Type is an everyday drive of some hours, please consider the <$60 Battery Minder recommended by [JumpinJagFlash] and leave it connected unless driving. Then, please post back here with your results ...

• old battery next day after full charge - 12.2V
• new battery next day after full charge - ???

The time taken (at least 1min) to change battery will ensure a "battery reset" so please also advise status of currently failing systems and CEL after the new battery is fitted.

Best wishes,
Ken

 

+1
Just want to correct Ken's statement - it is Deltran's "Battery Tender Plus" which I purchased for ~ $60 on (inc. 25' extension cable) and highly recommend. It can also be found elsewhere online too.

Note that Deltran has posted some really great in-depth but easy to read technical discussions of batteries on the Battery Tender website under the "Technical Info" heading. Even a non-engineer, non-battery expert like me can read and understand them. Well, most of them.

Detran states that "A fully charged 12-volt battery will have a terminal voltage of approximately 12.9 volts and a fully discharged (0% SOC) battery will measure 11.4 volts..."

Doing the math - the difference between a fully charged battery and one that is fully discharged is only (12.9 - 11.4 = ) 1.5 volts!

So a 12.2V charge might seem like more than enough juice for your car and will probably start your car straight away as it did in Ken's test. But in reality it is half way to being completely discharged! In other words, your battery is only .7V away from being completely flat.

When you realize you are asking a battery that is half way to being fully discharged to start your car and then run all your on-board electrical and digital devices -- e.g. computers, ABS, DSC, interior & exterior lighting systems (ever count the number of lights on these cars?), cruise, audio, HVAC, seat adjusters, engine sensors, power windows & locks, etc. -- it's easy to understand why a half empty battery might start the car without problems but won't have the juice to run all those other devices without throwing error codes.

Deltran says "The biggest danger to a battery is water loss, ultimately resulting from the escape of hydrogen and oxygen gasses during recharge." So the best advice, it seems, is to ensure each cell of your battery is filled to capacity with DISTILLED WATER, then keep it charged with a device like the Battery Tender. If the battery can't hold its charge, get a new one.

 

Battery story ends well.

Lovely 2005 S-Type R has been mainly (not entirely) a dream for 1.5 years of ownership.
Ran it to the store one night no problems.

Next morning...completely dead battery.
What the F?

Charged it for 14 hours...12.6 volts...for 5 minutes...dropped quickly to 11.2 volts.
Left it sit...a few hours later it was at 9...then kept dropping.

Replaced it with a battery from WalMart for about $130.
No problems since.

It did appear to be the original battery that lasted 9 years.
Not bad.
KMC

 

Its been posted about and discussed may many times here on JF.......If in doubt check your battery, then double check to make completey sure!!

Funnily enough, Peter's battery on his X type gave up the ghost a few months back. There were no real warning signs, no issues, it just died really quite quickly and looked to be the original at around 8 years old.

Thanks for a great post Ken

 

is this in reference to the s type going down to about 1100 rms and all the codes going across the screen and the check engine light coming on. This just happened to me and my wife. It happened three times on the way home from seeing our new grand baby and family. when I got home I turned off the car and turned it back on. all the lights and the check engine light went off. driving great. Oh, I forgot to say that when all this would happen we would pull over and kill the car and wait a few minutes and restart it. only the check engine light would be on and it would drive home. as soon as we made it home I am trying to figure out how to do the jaguarforum. can you all help me?

 

Read the OBD codes. Put car details in your .sig, see mine:

 

Not really good news.

After reading this post I thought (hoped) some of my electronic problems were being caused by a weak battery. It read 12.2 after resting overnight.
As mentioned earlier: Flashing CC display, ABS fault, CE light etc.

So, even though the car started and ran fine I installed a new battery.
After about 10 days, everything is the same except I have to admit the car cranks and starts a little faster.

The good news though is the radio retained its memory so I didn't have to redo the presets or the bluetooth. The only thing I had to do was reset the parking brake.

 

Read OBD codes. Working blindfold now.

 

.
Well folks; here it is . . the fully revised write-up Battery 101 for S-Type Jaguars for which specific Regional Supplements have been added for each of the major markets to which these cars were delivered.

As these Jaguars range from 6 to 15years of age, many already have, and will in future, exhibit failing batteries. After all, a car battery is a normal wear item . . . and their imminent failure is often accompanied by well known patterns of symptoms. All are discussed here . . . along with correct factory specs . . . how to test your battery … and the new technology in smart maintenance chargers that are designed to remain connected to the vehicle whenever it is not in use.

Many hundreds of posts continue to emerge throughout these forums as newly arrived owners seek urgent help with what should be a simple, well drilled series of checks and tests. Hence, this write-up is both timely . . . and much needed.

We wish to acknowledge the learned and shared knowledge of JaguarForums many tech gurus, as represented by the likes of [JagV8] and [Gus]. Thanks to all the team for your generosity. To my co-contributors, and on behalf of all members, a very big thanks for your patience with our series of emails and questions . . and for your words and great pics. Finally, thanks to [JimC64] for his encouragement, and enormous thanks to Graham [GGG] whose black arts with all things downloadable make us wee scribes look smarter than Harry Potter! Any errors that remain are solely mine.

Few will bother to refer to, or download, all 5 sections; but here goes – all titles being links . . .

#1 Battery 101 for S-Type Jaguars (Main Write-up) . . by [Cat-as-trophy]
#2 Supplement for Chargers in Australasia (AU) . . . . . by [Cat-as-trophy]
#3 Supplement for Owners in UK & Europe (UK) . . . . . by [Timmyboy]
#4 Supplement for Owners in United States (US) . . . . by [Jumpin' Jag Flash]
#5 Supplement for Owners in Canada (CAN) . . . . . . . by [Mikey]

The suggested plan is that a JF Owner/Member in (say) the US would download the main write-up (#1) but extend and/or modify that by also accessing the US Supplement (#4). Best wishes in using this resource and of course, your feedback, plaudits, bags of money, and groans, will all be received graciously.

Cheers,
Ken

 

Nicely done Ken and co

 

This was a really timely piece for me. I just returned from a 6800km (4250 miles) roundtrip from Toronto, ON to Canmore, AB. My 2004 4.2L still had the original battery when I left home---never had any issues with it, battery was removed in winter and regularly charged, acid level was checked and adjusted regularly.

We travel with a Koolatron electronic cooler. Passing through Chicago around mid-day we were caught in stop and go low speed running for about 45 minutes. The traffic cleared a bit on the north side and I accelerated to about 50mph and discover I am in "limp mode"

I was able to pull into the Des Plaines Oasis and park up---got out my Mongoose clone and trusty laptop ran the DTCs---there were over 20 DTCs--all over the car--transmission HVAC, front and rear control units.

It suddenly dawned on me(as a result of reading this thread) that the Koolatron had pulled the battery voltage down and was the cause of my problem. I disconnected the Koolatron ,cleared all the DTCs, went for a coffee. Came back started her up and went on our way.

I installed a new battery at my destination---a Walmart Everstart Maxx(from Johnson Controls)--perfect fit,3yr free exchange,9 year pro-rated warranty,3yr roadside service all included for $149.99 Can. So far so good.

The car ran flawlessly, average running speed 123kph(77mph),average fuel consumption 8.3L/100km.

 

I read all of your quotes and put a battery on my jag. the problem was solved and has not happened again. Thank all of you very much

 

Just so you know I looked at my guages and all looked good so I decided I would "blow it out" I hit 140 MPH and it drove as if I was doing 55 MPH. I love my car. so far both problems, a gas tank lid, and a battery have been my fault and other than that it has been a great car