My 2000 S-type is completely dead again. Let me tell you what I have tried over the last few months.

New Battery (twice)
New Battery Cables ( yes clean and tight)
New Alternator
Checked ground on alternator
Made sure no lights or accessories were left on. (including trunk light)
Car is kept in warm clean garage
Trips are both city and highway

It will run great for a week or so with no issues at all. Then again when I went out this morning its completely dead and not even a light will come on. Once jump started it will run great again for a few days or a week and then dead to the world. I have a voltmeter and a headache so any advice would be welcome as my wife's 96 Sunfire keeps showing up my jaguar.

Daryl

 

Most likely there's a parasitic drain somewhere, possibly intermittent. I refuse to acknowledge that electricity actually exists and am therefore not able to assist with fixing it.

 

Daryl, in lieu of two new batteries and alternator, there's obviously an electrical fault that's continueing to energize a component. With car on then off, measure voltage/amp. Betting the issue stares you in the face.

 

I have an update that may or may not help. It was dead completely but after only twenty minutes on a trickle charged it fired right up and works fine again. Battery is putting out 13.7 volts when running and I checked all fuses and made sure all connections on the positive and negative cable are clean and tight. But sure enough in another week or two same will occur again.
Any ideas where to check or suspects?

Thanks

 

As already pointed out - something (a module) is causing a parasitic drain of your battery after turning your car off. There are a number of modules that could be causing this drain.

Search the forum as I have read some useful advice how to test voltage and modules after you turn the car off. One thing you can do is feel the relays about 30 minutes after turning the car off - the one that remains "hot" should point you in the right direction.

 

Definitely go with the existing threads as some have very detailed help including lists of suspects.

 

Thank you and I will check for a warm module after 30 minutes. The car may not repeat this event for another week or two so being intermittent makes it so tough to find. I have done all repairs and parts for the last 40k on the car. (bought with 88k now 130k.)
I will check other posts and I have also looked on Jaguar Forum UK for similar issues. Unrelated question: I know I have a sealed 5 speed transmission and no leaks or problems to date. Do I have any fluid to check or change? If so do I just drop the pan and how do I fill it? Or do I leave it alone if all is well?

 

In the unlikely event that you are using an Ultragauge to monitor codes, if it's not setup properly with Force Protocol then, at shutdown, electrical drain to some components will continue (instead of being discontinued within 30-45 seconds), and the battery will eventually run down.

 

Perform a forum search on the following: "5R55N" - yes, I would certainly consider and invest in a filter/fluid service at this point - grab a beer and read up on the forum - lots of useful info....

 

There is a common enough source of battery drain on early S-Types. I had it - the car behaved itself impeccably as usual until it was parked up for a couple of days. Then, on starting I'd notice the battery was noticeably weak. Once I sorted this out I could (and can) park her up for a week and more with no battery drain issues whatsoever. There is a pair of wires in the boot/trunk, beside the battery, that end in a little connector block. I think they're for a lamp-cluster connector for a trailer. Anyway, the connector block corrodes after a good many years, shorting the wires and causing sufficient battery drain to cause difficulties after a few days. Replace the connector, or use electrical tape to insulate these two from each other.

 

That's for the transit isolation relay and yes can be problematic, mainly if you have damp in the trunk which itself is a big no-no!

 

Oh. Well, they leave it dangling a bit, don't they, with an el-cheapo little connector block saving you from a dreaded battery drain! I don't have damp in the trunk per sé - just eleven years having it's effect on a little piece of metal.

 

They don't leave it dangling, there's a specific thing they do with it but I expect either a few PDIs (pre-delivery inspections) don't get done properly or far more likely some owner(s) mess before we buy the car

 

Basically get yourself a voltmeter with a 10 amps range, disconnect the positive terminal and connect the meter between the terminal and the battery +ve post with everything off.
You'll need to wedge the boot light switch off.
That way all the current the car draws goes through the meter and should settle down to a few tens of milliamps after some minutes.
A good random source of drain is the glove box lamp not going off.
Set a cell phone on record video, put it inside + open + close the lid a few times.

 

Ummm... No one has mentioned the ignition switch yet???

Remember Brutal talking about a faulty switch not letting the car go to "sleep".

Please do a search on that as well... My money is that the switch "feels" off but doesn't let the poor car get any sleep...

Hence why the charger on it stopped the drain...

 

Yes, the little 'door' can stick as you say.

 

Don’t forget the REM as that can fail to go to sleep too. One of its functions is to stop battery drain which could prevent the car from starting. You can test this by leaving the trunk lid open. The light should go off somewhere around 45 minutes. If it does not then something is keeping the car awake. Either a failed component or an actual current drain. Remember that the shut off timer in the REM resets if there is any activity such as opening a door or trunk or glove box.

As you can see there are many things that can cause this.

If you get it fixed please post back because we are only guessing over the internet and we are totally dependent on your description of the problem.
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All Awesome suggestions.

 

Update on the battery drain. Was dead again the next night. So I took my multimeter, removed the negative cable. (Someone said you can use either cable but safer from damage if you use the negative.) I used a clamp on the boot to keep the lights off and here is what I found. With the door open it was around 7.0 but shut and a few minutes later it is just .70. So I pulled each fuse and relay starting with trunk, then the engine fuse box. Still no change and I did not know if .70 is normal current drain. Then I pulled each fuse from the passenger side inside the car. Still no change. I put it all back together and went to bed. For two days now not a problem. So my problem is intermittent and hard to figure out. My boot area is dry and clean with no evidence of a leak ever and remember new battery, alternator, and cables with no change. I will check the cables in the boot like someone suggested and look for any corrosion.
thanks and keep the ideas coming and I will post any updates.

 

Hmmm....might be time to fit one of these and kick it out of the garage in favor of the Sunfire:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...-s-type-64372/

Trons are very fickle and frequently require one skilled in the black arts to discern their movements....