Hi
my 2002 x-type lost power today. when I was puling into a parking lot it rolled to a stop and needed to be pushed the rest of the way into the lot. After maybe 5 min it started back up and ran beautifully. This happed to me one other time and we found the battery connection was loose. We tightened it up and I hadn’t had any problems for more than a month. And then today it did it again. I drove to Les Schwab and the checked the battery and electrical system and said everything was good. Any ideas ? Could it be a fuse issue ?

Thank you for your help

wendy

 

Wendy, I want you to humor me with a test. I want you to first get the car to where you can put a charge on the battery. Get the battery up to 100%. Now, having let the car sit for 8ish hours, I want you to start the car and while at idle and letting the car warm up, turn on the seat heaters (both), the dash fan on high, rear defroster, and headlights. Let the car idle like this for say 5-10 minutes. After this time, open the hood of the car and cup your hand OVER!!!!! the battery terminals one at a time. Does one fee much hotter than the other? Do either/both of the battery terminals feel a lot hotter than other metal parts under the hood. If yes, then you have a bad battery cable and that should be replaced. Odds are, that is what caused your car to do what it did. If you need more assistance, let us know and we will help you along.

 

Thank you I will give it a try.

 

I tried your suggestion the battery posts stayed cool. However I checked the cables before I tried your suggestion and I was able to tighten the left hand cable. The right hand cable was tight. I don’t know if that would make a difference with my issue.
Thank you for your help.

p.s. how do I change my log in name that everyone sees ?

 

Wendy, normally, for the engine to just cut off, you either need a lot voltage on the whole car or the ECM needs to loose power. If you haven't had your ECM messed with in the recent past, then the fastener should be tight there. So, then this leaves loosing voltage to the whole car. This is one of those things that I have only seen 1 time in my life and it happened because a large wire grounded to the hot engine, shorting the battery to ground. The best advice that I can say at this time because of the randomness of your problem is to open the hood, start up the car and let it idle and you start grabbing various wiring harnesses and giving them a gentle tug. Move them around some. If you move a harness, go down 2 more feet on it and tug again. Move as many of the harnesses as you can. When you get into the car interior, reach up under the dash and gently move stuff as you can. Otherwise, find open spots on the dash and give them a good thump with your hand. What you are looking for is to move something during these checks and have the engine either cut out or atleast hiccup. Right now, the problem could be in a lot of places.

The other question I will ask and you may need to think hard on this as some time has passed, both times that the car died, was it raining? Had recently ran the car through a car wash? had a lot of water hit the windshield? I ask this as the ECM is at the base of the windshield and I have seen a few problems here where the plug has developed a leak and the pins inside the plug for the ECM built up some corrosion and that caused the ECM to start acting funny. Adding water would make this problem much worse.

As for changing your name, find a member by the name of GGG, He is one of the moderators. Tell him what you want your new name to be. he may be able to change it. Otherwise, I would say since you have so few posts, simply make a new login and call it good. When you log in under the new name, just reference your old one so we know that you are just changing names.

 

Hi Thermo

No, no rain either time. The only work I’ve had done was to the passenger side door had problems opening and I had it worked on and months later after opening and closing that door the dome light would not go off so that door had to be worked on again. After that is when the car first stalled on me and then wouldn’t start. Five minutes later it started again and I drove it back to my parents house and Dad saw that on the hot side of the battery the cable was loose and he tightened it down and I didn’t have any more problems until it stalled on me the other day. About three months between the two incidents. The reason the cable was loose was I had to wait about a month to get the door fixed and Dad disconnected the battery so it would not drain from the dome light not shutting off.

 

Wendy, from the sounds of things, you are getting a little bit of corrosion on the battery and that is causing issues. Keep the posts tight and you should be good. These cars are not really known for having issues that has the engine just turn off for some unknown reason. This is why your problem is a bit interesting to me. But, from the sounds of things, it is the loose battery terminal that is your problem.

 

Hi Thermo

It looks like I need a new battery any suggestions on the best one I should get ? I don’t drive very much or very far ;-}

Thank you, Wendy

 

Heed year make in post #4 as there are 3 different ones depending on mfg year =

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...battery-10458/

I got a good deal on mine at Wal-Mart as Thermo states in the above link, there are only like 3 battery manufacturers. They just "case & sticker" them for different retailers.

 

katLady, like was said, do some looking around, stick with the biggest battery that you can get. Should be getting an 800 CCA battery. If they try to sell you a 700 CCA one, walk away. Does it work. Yes. Will you be back in 2 years replacing it again, odds are. As Dell said, there are 2 battery manufacturers that put whoever's name on the outside. So, the difference between a $100 battery and a $300 battery is the warrantee. In your case, probably not worth spending the extra money on a warrantee that you will never use.