My 03 X won't start, when you turn the key to the start position all you get are a couple of clicks, and a sound from behind the dash, again it sound like a whooshing sound. All the lighting, radio, HVAC work fine. I have a inexpensive battery tester and it shows the battery in a not running engine position as producing 5w to 12w. The scale on the tester show 12.5w as very good. I am assuming this car has the original battery in it. One more question, the present battery is a maintaince type. If I buy a new battery can I replace it with a non maintaince type battery? If someone could get back to me soon I would appreciate it, I am going into the hospital on Friday, and might not be home for a while. Thanks much.

 

Mine has a maintenance free unit. Mine was around a hundred bucks. Check the belts it's weird it went dead, but you put mostly city miles on it don't you? Did you leave something on? Mine has a rear 12 volt accessory plug that is constant, the lighter shuts off with the ignition.

 

No I shut everything off when before I turn the car off. I only drive it a couple of days a week, 97% around the city. So, my son and I are thinking this type of driving killed the battery? Thanks for the reply so a non maintenance type of battery will be OK. I just have to get the specks of the battery the same. cranking power and all that.

PS: Where is this rear plug located?

 

I charged the battery until this AM and before I tried to start it I checked it with my battery tester. The tester showed the battery charged and the alternator taking a charge.BUT now I have a check engine light. Any ideas what this could be? As always thanks!

 

I've got the Estate so under the trunk deck there is an Aux plug, mine is top right side. I run an aux up to the front from there for satelite radio. My radio has a pause feature so if I'm listening to something on Stern like this morning when Billy Joel was in studio playing piano I can pause it and it will stay paused for 45 minutes. Cool feature.
On the battery thing when my battery went dead I got a CEL too. went away after a couple of days, might be longer for you since my commute to work is 30 miles one way.

 

5W to 12w??? Batteries are measured in Volts (V) not Watts (W). A good battery should read about 13.8 volts. Even a bad one may read that till your turn the key and put the huge load of the starter on it. And what makes you think you have a "maintenance type" battery??? Those plugs you see are not made to be be removed to perform maintenance.
I just got a new Everstart Maxx battery from Walmart for $79. It looks identical to the Jag battery I took out. Also, the alternator does not take a charge, it charges the battery and runs the electrical system after the car is started. It sounds like you need a new battery.

 

the biggest issues with electrical sysyems on the X type is postiive and negative cables going bad. Icant count how many times a year I see this. If you think the battery is original replace it no matter what. Then go from there, you can enter engineering test mode to monitor battery voltage through the instrument pack. Press and hold the trip button, start the car and release the button when the message center goes into engineering mode. cycle through witheach press of the trip meter till you hit "BATT" this gives you live voltage. This allows you to monitor the battery and charging while you drive, many times its fine starting out but as you drive and everything gets HOT the voltage drops.. Yes the CEL can come on for low battery voltage and alot of the electrical issues I read from you can easily be related. A 100% fully charged battery is 12.6 volts....2.1Volts per cell X's 6 cells=12.6 100% discharged or bad is 12.0 or lower.
The message center voltage should read between 12.6-14.2volts depending on electrical load and battery charge. the less load and the battery at full charge useally yields about 12.6-12.8. most of the time however it runs in the 13's. if it goes below 12.6 especially after youve driven alittle while and the cables get hot..you need new cables. Theyre creating too much resistance when hot and the voltage the alternator is putting out is not reaching the battery. This slowly runs the battery down to a NO START.

 

I don't know what I was thinking I did mean Volts and not watts thanks for picking this up. According to my owners manual the battery fluid should be checked once and year and if low should be top off. I had this type of battery in my Mercedes and it had basically the same instructions.

 

The check engine light went off yesterday after I started the car three times. Also, I did do a check of the battery cables and they seem OK. I checked them after I came back home and they were not hot, there is no corrosion on anything. According to my trickle charger I am only getting a 80% charge after leaving it on all night. Also, I believe this is the original battery in the car. So after 7 years, I would think I need a new one. How about other things that have to be reset, there is mention of that in the manual but no procedures on how to reset anything. The Benz I had, had a complete page on resetting functions after the battery was disconnected. As I said in a earlier post I think this is a ploy to get U to the dealer to have it done. Finally my battery test showed a 12.5 volt condition after I charged it. Also after using the car yesterday and starting and stopping I test it again and it still showed a 12.5 charge.

Thank you all for the insight and help. I hope I can get this done before I go into the hospital Friday, as I might be there for a while.

 

The only thing you need to reset is the clock, f/c on ac display, and the windows to reset window one touch. Raise and lower each window 1 at a time. At the raise and lower postion press or light the switch and hold for 5 seconds to reset the limits in the modules for one touch to operate again. Your memory radio setting should be retained. And if you got 7 yrs from the battery replace it now. Also on the cables they most of the time "look" perfect when theyre bad so dont assume that not an issue cause they look good.(this is for all who are reading this)

 

Ok I have the same problem, but my terminals do have corrosion I'm going to clean them up today but if I decide to replace the positive and negative terminals should I go with the original jag part or choose the Walmart alternative which has clamp down post.

 

the issue isnt so much terminal corrosion but cables and you need jaguar cables from a dealer. theyre 2 cables on negative and 3 on positive. 1 to alternator, 1 to starter and then alt to starter

 

Everytime I open my engine bay even the very next day after I brought a new battery the corrosion came back. It's worse on this car than any other Ford based car I've owned

 

It's British....but I have an 04. Original battery and cables and (knocking firmly on wood) have had no issues. I pulled my battery to access the tranny fill location and had 0 issues with resetting anything except the clock. I also have no corrosion at all so that likely is environmental not a factor of the car itself.

 

Ok well I read somewhere that during hot summers (AL has those) to pop the battery cover off to allow it to breathe and put it back on during fall. Well both ways still produced corrosion (this is ALSO with the anti-corrosion spray).

Does anyone know the socket to use to remove the terminal post so I can yank the battery out? It's going to be one of them days...

 

I believe it's 10mm

 

did you hook the battery vent back up the goes outside the box and xtype battery cases like to crack at the negative terminal creating corrosion

 

Not sure what the "vent" is but I did remove the cover and there is a "strap" of some sort in the middle of the battery bolted in and I'm not fooling with it tonight. I've cleaned up my terminals the negative side was spot clean no issues, the positive side looks like a toilet. I've used battery/terminal cleaner and removed all the corrosion. Car still won't crank. Tried jumping it off still won't crank. When I put the key to on and try to crank I get a tick.

Couple of months ago I was getting a couple of ticks no engine turn over and my mechanic diagnosed it as a bad ignition switch replaced that and battery worked fine however still got battery indicator light.

I can say even with the corrosion gone, the positive cable looks black and burned, the battery itself has melted around its post and on the cover of the case where the 2nd terminal is there is a indication of a burn there as well. On the actual cable t looks charred.

I ran the Test Mode from the dash and I was getting 11.8 volts. I hooked the car up to be charged got 13.0 volts but still couldn't crank. I'm running out of options other that replace the cable and battery and I assume starter.

 

@ Brutal - friend I looked thoroughly and I have 2 connections per positive and negative...what would be the third? I'm on a 2.5L. But I assume its daisy chained to the alternator and starter instead of each having separate lines.

 

yes thats the 3rd, i also like to replace that link lead to the fuse box