hi everyone,

well my '04 Cat that has been a reliable car has taken ill........list goes from water leak to electrical issues.
the car completely died recently and i've diagnosed the Alternator to be dead and thus shorted out the whole system............to verify i have split the 2 + lines to the battery just to be able to get the power back to the areas of the car that operate the trunk release for one.
the battery and cables may have been the cause, so i will want to replace the Alternator, cables, and battery with new.
the water leak issues have had several areas repaired/replaced and we're now down to the radiator needing to be replaced.

i am mechanically capable of doing the work, and am in no rush as there are other vehicles in our possession to keep us on the road.

so if anyone here can help me with part numbers and even sources i would really appreciate the help.

the car is in California, 2004 with 3.0 and auto trans.

thermals,
mike

 

The alternator and battery you should probably be able to get from autozone or o'reillys. The cables, I'm not sure, that's an unusual part. You probably would have to find them online from somewhere or go used.

 

Battery cables are easy. Take them off, go to your local auto parts store and you can match up cables to find the set that you need.

Unfortunately, the radiator is one of those things that you are probably going to be best served by either pulling out the old one and taking it to a radiator shop to be rebuilt or going to a junk yard and pulling a radiator out of a car that got rear ended. A new radiator through the dealership is going to set you back $327.00 (Jag list price).

 

hi Thermo,

i'm glad i asked as there are a bunch of radiators out there on fleabay land.....but it looks like i need to be careful and buy whats goes with the Automactic trans models yes?
radiator.com says they have them, but i need to talk to them so they match up what i need.

 

I got mine from partshotline.com Just enter what you need and a list pops up of all places that have them. I got 2 from them (different cars) and they came and looked like new.
Good Luck,
The DR!

 

summerwind, the jag dealership that I look up parts with shows two different radiators. I am not sure what the difference is. so, yes, you will need to pay a little bit of attention to which one you get. Worst case, if you are going to get one through a place like e-bay, send them a question first about the radiator and make them say that the radiator will work in your car (give them year car and engine size) and from there if it doesn't work, you have grounds to send it back to them and get your money back.

 

i've been told that an aftermarket battery from places like AZ or Pep Boys,etc., can cause the Alternator to go out...........any truth to this that anyone is aware of?

 

summerwind, all batteries (for the most part, more on this in a moment) are built using the same technology. They have some lead plates in them with some sulfuric acid in them to make the battery. Sure, some of them put in insulating blankets to help prevent early failure due to plate warpage or the like. That stuff by no means affects how the battery operates.

Now, with all this being said, it is possible that if you have a drained battery and use just the motor to recharge it, that you can over heat the alternator, causing it to fail. In short, what happens is the system voltage is low, so, the alternator can not generate a strong enough field, which keeps the system voltage low. So, the alternator is running at a max field current which cooks the field windings and causes them to short to ground, leading to a complete failure of the alternator. So, it is always a good idea to atleast do a voltage check of a new battery (verify it is at 12.6 VDC) before installing it. As a battery discharges, its voltage will drop. A battery at 12.6 VDC is at full charge or really close. This will garantee a minimal load on the alternator upon starting up the vehicle the first time. If the battery is not at full charge, then place it on a battery charger and get it to 100% before connecting the battery cables.

As for aftermarket batteries, you have a few choices. In short, you have 4 basic designs: starting batteries, deep cycle batteries, marine batteries, and the spiral wound (which may be deep cycle or starting) batteries. In short, you should only be putting starting batteries into your X-Type unless you are running some super duper electrical system and know what you are doing (even then, you should have a starting battery in that setup). A starting battery is just that, something to start the car and that is about all it does. With the engine running, all loads should be on the alternator and the alternator only putting a finite amount of charge on the battery to ensure it is at 100%.

As for the purpose of the other styles of batteries. A deep cycle is just as the name implies. A deep cycle battery is meant to be fully charged and then drained completely to be recharged. To keep a deep cycle battery fully charged all the time actually shortens its life dramatically. The same general idea can be said of a starting battery in that it should be kept at full charge and never deeply drained as that will damage a starting battery. Normally deep cycle batteries are used in applications where running an alternator off another power source is not desired (ie, boat or show vehicle for example).

A marine battery is simply a deep cycle battery on steroids. The internals of a marine battery are built heavier to handle the abusive vibrations that it will be subjected to. Some 4x4er's (aka, rock crawlers) tend to run these to power their winches and whatnot as they will take the heavy current draws (upwards of 400 amp discharge rates) and being completely drained over and over again while being slammed against rocks and whatnot. Again, this is one of those limited application things that should not apply to an X-Type.

Now, for the spiral wound batteries. These come in 2 flavors. Your starting batteries and your deep cycles. The benefits that these have over more conventional batteries is that they are "solid". They have a paste in place of the sulfuric acid. So, this allows them to be mounted in more obscure places and are not forced to be left in the upright position. This could be advantageous for say a show vehicle where they want to hide the battery in say a fender well and need to roll the battery on its side. These batteries tend to have slightly less CCAs than a similarly sized battery due to the products inside the battery. While they will work in your car, you will find that the only advantage to them is making your wallet lighter.

I guess there is one other type of "battery" I should talk about. But, this is not a battery at all even though they tend to advertise it as such. It is what is referred to as a "bat-cap". It is cross between a battery and a capacitor. It is a devise that is designed to have a very fast charge/discharge ability while having a large power storage ability. These tend to be rated in farads, not in CCA or similar battery terminology (for justifiable reasons). NEVER!!!! should these be installed in place of your starting battery.

As you can see, I know a little bit about batteries. I used to help maintain a battery designed to power a small town for a few hours. We used this battery on my nuclear submarine. I had to learn more about batteries than I care to admit to. Toss in a good familiarity with the car stereo and boating worlds, I have seen about all there is to offer.

 

Another interesting tidbit of info is that all batteries in the US are made on 1 of 2 assembly companies (Exide and Johnson Controls). The only difference between a $400 battery and a $90 battery (of the same size rating) is the warrantee. Look at the tops of the batteries. You will notice how a lot of them will look exactly the same and only the stickers on the outside differ. Coincidence, I think not. If you do some looking, you can find where people have figured out who makes whos batteries.

 

Thermo,

thank you for the education on batteries..........with what you said i have and am checking the battery which had just been replaced about 4 months prior to this breakdown.
what happened is that the wife was on her way to a destination about 4 miles from the house........about halfway she said the car just died....kaput.
no power, no nothing. i was out of town. the tow truck driver that came was clueless as he couldn't get the car out of park. when i got home the first thing i checked was battery voltage which showed zero. OK, so i disconnect the battery and put the charger on...........an hour later it was reading 12.9 volts..........1 hour rest and it was still showing 12.4.........sat for a month and still showed 12.3...........so finally i started working on the car this week and after a 6 hour charge at 2 amps (i know, still not long enough) it is reading 12.58.
so i'll assume at this point that the battery is good, but before i put it back into service i'm taking it down to AZ and have them load test it.

now back to the alternator, and the way it just dropped dead, is there something else i should look for before installing the new one?
i asked the wife if any lights were lit up on the dash before it died, but alas, she's one of those who drives the machine, not worried about what it says to her

one thing i did hear when trying to hook the juice back up was that the alt. made a humming noise and of course a tidbit of smoke, so pretty sure it is toasted.

the car has 107K on the clock.

 

summerwind, if you let the smoke out of the alternator, Lucas sells some replacement smoke that you can put back into it. LMAO. Sorry, had to. If smoke came out of the alternator, then it is toast. Disconnect the battery cables and get a new alternator. From the sounds of things, the rectifier assembly failed on the alternator and it is now shorting the positive wire to ground. So, it is very possible that the battery was just able to start the car or it failed right after starting up and it sucked the battery down pretty fast. See what things are like with a new alternator and go from there.

 

Ok this may be a silly question.....i have a new Positive battery cable ordered........since the car is 10 years old with 107K miles on it, should i go ahead and replace the negative cable as well...........?

 

summerwind, do you have to? NO. But, for peace of mind, if you can afford to, I would say to replace it so you don't have to have that pondering question of whether it was good or not.

 

really starting to love this car more and more.

after reading all the how to's on the forum about replacing the radiator, alternator, or any other related parts that involve removing the fans and whatnot i discovered (at least to me) that by just spending an extra 5 minutes (OK maybe 6) and removing the front cover and bumper, that the whole process becomes not only easier, but rather a joy to work on these areas.
at this time i have the radiator and lower hoses ordered, and finally found the last remaining water leak which was a crack in the radiator that was hiding behind the fans......all other upper parts have been replaced.

thx to this forum i have decided to replace not only the + cables, but the - cables as well.
only mistake i feel i have made thus far was to order a New aftermarket alternator,
New Alternator Jaguar 2 5 3 0 x Type x Type 2002 2008 w Clutch Pulley | eBay

i am sending it back.

i have come to 2 choices, and would appreciate anyone's opinion and advice.
choice one is to get the one that Gaudin sells for $403.00

or this one which is an increase in amp output.
Jaguar X-Type High Output Alternators

these pictures show how much room there is to get in and out......be glad to take and post any others if anyone wants.

 

a little update....all but the alternator has been sourced out, and for as long as i've owned this cat, it's well worth the money, or what little i've had to put into it to get it back into top shape.

the radiator is easy and the choices are more than you might imagine.
for this time around i went with a Nissens which is a dead on match, and cost a whole 170.00 kitties.
after doing some research in regards to Behr (the OE builder), i could not justify spending more as Nissens is solid.

the battery cables........well.........only stock will do for this guy, and of course they can be had for around 120.00 for both.

thx to Gaudin for having the parts needed, radiator seals, hoses, serpintine belt etc.

the alternator has been a roller coaster ride as finding anything other than OEM is tricky.
found a place online that builds one from the ground up for you, but the word on the street is "watch out"............same with the China copy, looks good, but the one specified to fit this car is lacking amps compared to original.
the Bosch is a best choice as far as remanufactured, but i have found another builder that i'm shipping my alt to tomorrow that has a good rep, and will even dial in some more pop...........when it comes back i'll post info and pictures for those interested.

 

I agree with Thermo, if you let the smoke out of the car, it won't work anymore… (hahaha)

 

just a followup for those who may run into these problems.

radiator is an easy find.............Nissans replacement is very well made, and can be had for $179.00 shipped.

alternator is an easy one as well with the "Rebuild Factory" that does rebuild work for most any part you can come up with...............total time from my sending the alternator to receiving it back in new health was 1 week.
cost was $258.00 including shipping...........nice part is that it remains the original.

headlight adjusters were an easy fix, and well worth the $50.00 i spent on parts.

replaced the battery cables too, and no, those are non bargain items as many already know.
so all in all, the Cat is ready for another couple years or more and is working flawlessly so far.

 

Thanks for the update

 

been a month now and the alternator is working perfectly......no battery light coming on, and charges like it did before it died.

for those of you that may run into an alternator issue, don't hesitate to send it off to Kobi at "Rebuild Factory".......time it took from my sending it off to return was a week.