Hi all,

I own a 2006 S type Diesel.
A new battery was enstalled six months ago.
The car was not driven for a week weeks, and when I tried to start it last week, nothing except a faint blinker and clicking noise, which I suppose was the alarm draining the last energy for the battery.

Here comes the problem, I dont have access to the boot as the lock is broken, and i always use the fob or the button on the dash to open it.
After some browsing on forums I tried the following tricks:

- I bought a 12v booster with a cigarette lighter cable, no luck there.
- I attached a c-tek charger to an empty unused fuse in the fusebox under the hood, no luck either.
- then I read about that emergency + acces point under the right weel cover, which i found, attached the charger there, no luck either, the charger doesnt detect any battery attached
- I used starter cables to attach another battery to this + point and nothing happened either.

My question is, is it normal to get no immediate response whatsoever from the car , and should i leave that battery/charger attached to that + point for a while to allow charging, or might there be another issue?
Im out of ideas, except destroying the trunk what can i do

thanks for any ideas and help

 

When you say the lock is broken. Do you mean the manual over-ride key hole? What's wrong with it? Is it jammed or damaged in some other way? Could a Locksmith do any good?

 

Leave the charger on for a long while(4hrs+) on the lowest setting. It will bring the battery back up but it takes a lot of time on a 100% drained battery. Just keep an eye on it periodically and make sure the battery doesn't boil

 

As it will be a calcium lead alloy battery you will have to recharge for 20 hours. You will have sulphide build up on the plates which you can not get rid off. This will mean that the battery will never function to 100% again.

Check the voltage on the poles after it is charged to see if it is lower than 12.6 v. If so you will have to get a new one. You should be able to get it exchanged on guarantee as it six month old.

 

It's been mistreated so guarantee may not apply.

 

& the sulphide build up is proof of misuse. So don'y try it on. They've seen it all before.

 

make sure you have a good - earth point when using the jump cables . really
if you have a good jump battery connected to a good earth point and the pos connected to the jump point behind the under guard then the boot/trunk button should work .

what about the center arm rest in the back seat , do you have the ski pack to reach through for the seat fold cables ? fold the rear seats that way and pop your boot .

 

the lock is too damaged after a break in attempt, i ve tried even looking for the steel wire behind the chrome plastic jaguar lid on the boot, but no luck there

 

unfortunately i dont have the skipack option so behind the armrest is just complete metal, im going to attempt to push the plastic rod that unlocks the seat back lock with a metal coat hanger... i bough a micro camera wire to try and squeeze it thru and locate it

 

i charged a new battery to full and tested it on two chargers, its at 100 % capacity, if the car would not react when attaching this to the +port under the wheel lining and a earth point, what could then be the issue

 

I suppose measure volts at the terminal before connecting. Measure battery volts before connecting. Connect, measure volts now and current flowing.

If no current and no voltage drop something is weird unlike every other S-Type member who's done this. (Or you're doing something wrong.)

 

Finally after days of struggling we made it

- i took the lower backseat out completely , took out the sidepanelss and then unbolted the screws of the upper backseat , then had enough room to squeeze an arm in and to grab the stick that u have to pull to unlock the seatback to fold it, hurrraaayy...
- tested the battery , completely dead
- removed the boot carpet, removed the spare wheel ( all of it had to be taken out of the car thru the drivers seat door as the double locking didnt allow me to open any other door)
- took out the battery and replaced it by another charged one
Car started to beep and lights went on and it started without any effort

I tested the battery i took out and tried to charge it but the charger says the battery is a goner.. its a 6 month old varta battery ...

 

Try and get your money back it should not have failed like that. My car was left for one year at a dealers before I bought it and the battery is still good.

 

Dealers keep the battery charged, as one is required to do, or disconnect it. Leaving it connected but not otherwise charged (such as ctek) will kill a battery and is a breach of warranty.

 

i agree that leaving a battery unattended for a longer time is nefast for it, but i do find it peculiar that in just over two weeks of not using the car (no freezing or icy temperatures) kills this quite pricy new battery.
the old battery was in the shed for over six months was completely flat but started charging and was full in less than a day...

 

I don't see where you said two? It should be fine after just two (if fully charged first) but if not is probably due to a fault (drain) on the car. (Go troubleshooting...)