Hi. I'm new here so please forgive me if this has been answered elesewhere.

I have a 2003 2.5 S-Type which I purchased new and intend to keep, despite a litany of electrical problems, until it becomes a sought after classic or something. Everywhere one reads the advice "Change the battery!" in response to intermittent electrical faults. When it started throwing up a full house of warning lights earlier this year, I took note and swapped the original factory new 8 year old battery out for the (brand new) one in the my Defender.

The old Jag battery started the Defender just fine and the Defender battery started the Jag just fine - for a couple of hours. Then, full house of warning lights. In desperation I took it to the dealer. "Change the Battery" they insisted. "But it's brand new" I protested - "it's even branded Jaguar Land Rover". Nope they said. Let us fit a genuine battery and it'll be OK. So I let them, oozing scepticism from every pore, and that fixed it. Both 'old' batteries are now in different Land Rovers and working fine.

So what exactly is it about these batteries that makes the car behave badly? Not vague answers like faulty cells please - both these batteries can throw a diesel Land Rover engine over with normal voltage readings. Is it some high frequency impedance issue, or some other mysterious property? Or have I just been conned by a crafty dealer?

Why am I asking? Because the handbrake has just started beeping and the first response on here is "Change the Battery"! Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks, David.

 

Leedsman had some ideas https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/g...roblems-42594/
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...pacitor-53895/

What is happening with the EPB exactly?

 

Hi and thanks for the quick reply.

It beeps on parking and doesn't apply the handbrake. Not always, but it's got progressively worse. My mechanic has tried calibrating it but says that his diagnostic box can't read the EPB module when the brake is misbehaving (It's OK when the brake is OK), so he thinks it's an electronic problem. But I don't use the car much so voltage could be low.

David

 

The EPB could just be seizing up or otherwise faulty.

Most batteries are OK, but eventually with age (or misuse / abuse / non-use / etc) cannot keep enough voltage during starting. Some will be worse because the car has a latent problem such as poor ground or power strap and it will appear to be the battery though really it may not be. Hardly anyone cleans and remakes the vital power & ground connections (of which there are quite a few)....

 

Very interesting reading that link to Leedsman's thread. When the car was just over 3 yrs old it started very badly banging the gears and put up a gearbox fault message. Eventually I had to have a new gearbox which fixed it for another 3 yrs and then the same again. This time, the dealer got advice from Jag and they said "Don't do anything! Just change the plugs" which they did and that fixed it ever since.

Clearly ignition noise was getting into the gearbox controller and it's highly likely that I was diddled out of the cost of a gearbox on the first occasion, since the symptoms were identical. (Jag would not contribute to the cost although it was 3 yrs and a few days from new). Very interesting in respect of Leedsman's discussion of filter capacitors. I wonder if they forgot to fit the one on my car?