i read a thread that the battery light can be caused by a faulty + cable. i took a quick look at it and where it connects to the alternator its for a cover on it. is it just bolted on top? can i use a generic bat cable or does it have some sort of special connection.
as some of you know its my girls car so i cant just go start rippin in to check things at any time.
we called the jag dealer and they wanted $80 or $90 for just the positive cable...that seems a little extreme especially since i was looking at some at canadian tire for under $15

should i replace the negative at the same time?
ive heard on other forums this could be the cause of HIDs flickering or turning off randomly which is another issue im having right now.
ont he CTS its usually a ground cable that comes loose on the fuse box....is there anything like that on the X type that is common?
also someone said to pour water on the cable to tell if its bad....what would i expect to see? sparks?

 

Mike, I actually spliced mine so can't help with that. Doubt there is any generic one that would work as a replacement though. One place to check is at the very lowest point of the cable run. On My '02 it ran right across a bolt head, wore through the insulation and when it arced it caused a bit of a smolder. Anyways, instead of replacing the cable, I spliced it, heat shrink wrapped the splice and then put a cover over the cable.

 

i dont see why a generic cable wont work as long as it is long enough.

how does it connect to the alternator?
it seems to only connect alternator to the battery, and no where else.

where does the negative connect to?

 

i think i found the problem, the + cable going from the bat terminal to the fuse box looks like it was about to catch on fire.... replaced it with a generic one for $15 with tax.
the only thing i had to do was bend the eye connector on the end that goes into the fuse box...i could bend the end on the battery a little but there isnt really a point...it sticks straight out and its not in the way of anything...sure beets dealership prices.
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Cool, you got it fixed. I was going to say the flickering of the HIDs was due to low voltage, but I think you pretty much discovered that on your own.

 

ya i hope this was the issue, great cheap fix if it was.
the only thing was i checked the voltage at the power in to the ballast and it was 12V so the voltage was good, i think it was just getting the proper load of current flow because of the condition of this cable.

the bat light was intermittent and it was off today and yesterday, still off after changing this cable, so we will see in a couple days, if it stays off then its probably all good.

one thing im wondering about is there was a harness coming out of the fuse panel that was taped on to the original wire i just swapped out... but its not plugged into anything...any idea what this is for? its got a clip on the end with a connector..2 wires so i assume + and -
the whole time shes had the car it hasnt been plugged into anything.

also i was looking at the bat wire that runs to the alternator, its just bolted on so you can use a generic bat cable as long as the gauge, length and bat connectors all fit, should be fairly easy to figure out. the hard part is finding one with a connector that has a bolt on it for this wire i changed today.

 

I think you are talking about that little connector that goes into the back of the battery box, just below the lid. I dunno why, but it plugs in there.

 

ah ha....so CAA did steal the battery box...
when she first got the car i was at work and the bat died...CAA came and put in this battery that is too big and if its not pushed all the way to the right the waterpump hits it and it has a mark on it from when caa installed it and it was pushed against the waterpump.
so no battery box...no use for that wire i guess.


ok now more bad news...this didnt fix the low beam issue..both low beam HIDs did not turn on and she couldnt get them to turn on with the switch.
for some reason this car every time you start it the lows are automatically on as well as the DRL small bulbs in the high beam housing.

good news is the bat light was not on..so this wire may have been the cause of the bat light, but not the hid temperamental failures.

 

so i just changed the battery....nopth lights have worked every crank for the last 2 days..
it looks like ive got a lot of little things contributing to lowering my voltage causing the lights to not go on... only wat to tell if im right is to keep testing for about a week, if they turn on every time, i declare myself a evil genious.
thanks for the help guys... ill click thanks on your posts

 

I wonder if the connections to the headlights are corroded, too. A standard Bosch relay will fix all of your problems with low beams, just be sure to fuse the constant lead from the battery.

 

everything seems to be working perfect still (knock on wood)
new battery and new cable seemed to do it. i actually replaced all lighting related relays a few weeks back before doing the bat cable.
im going to be replacing the negative bat cables just so they are also fresh.

couple days ago the spring in the driver door handle snapped and the handle was flopping around... couldnt find just the spring anywhere but i found a $20 jumper cable set with a very similar sized spring in it... such a waste of bat jumper cables but hell of a lot cheaper than a new door handle from the dealer....
its all together now and working, my girl can now relax knowing its fixed and didnt cost a insane amount.