I left my lights on and the battery drained completely. Recharged it fully started with 6amp then 2 amp for two days. Started fine but later it was hesitant to start and once it did was rough idle for a few seconds. Next the temp gauge climbed to max instantly. When driving and accelerating it would “sputter”. Windows lost the ability to go up automatically, etc.
I disconnected the battery for 10 minutes to clear any issues from the prior slow drain to no avail.
Im hoping I don’t have to have the control unit reflashed. Any help is appreciated.
2006 XType base

 

Jeff, odds are, you hurt the battery with the deep discharge. I would start with getting a load test done of the battery. If it is less than 75%, replace the battery.

With the low voltage that was seen on the battery, your GEM Module more than likely lost the programming for the auto up/down feature of the windows. You can restore the feature by simply starting with all the windows up. Start with the driver's window and press and hold the button in the down position. Allow the window to go all the way down. Once it hits the bottom, keep holding the switch in the down position. After about 3 seconds, you should hear a faint click (may or may not hear it). You can then release the switch. Then hold the switch in the up position and hold it there till the window reaches full up. Continue holding in the up position for an additional 3 second or so (should hear another faint click). At this point, you should be able to give the button a quick push and the window should do the full travel automatically. Repeat for each window (one at a time) to restore the up/down functionality.

 

I’m pretty sure the battery is no longer reliable after a total Discharge and will get a new one, but you think that that would be the only reason that I’m getting the weird electrical issues with the engine and gauges?

 

Jeff, our kitties are very sensitive to a good battery. They will do funny things when the battery is not "just so". I have heard of all sorts of bells and alarms going off that were solved with a new battery. Worst case, a new battery is normally Step 1 when you start getting random alarms for no apparent reason.

 

Yes, I’ve noticed if I haven’t driven it in a week or so I get the “battery light”…jeez! So demanding these cats are! I’ll put a new one in tomorrow and see how that goes. Thanks for the help!

 

If I can speak in Defence of the X type The two X types I've owned over the last 19 years have always been left outside all year round, generally only doing short local runs. Every Winter, each one was left untended for two weeks while my wife and I went on a two week vacation and on return they would always start first turn of the key, no warning lights, no alarms, no worries.
I say this just to encourage you and that if your X type is carefully and fully maintained and a good quality battery of the correct capacity is fitted, your X type will reward you with dependable reliability and always be a pleasure to drive.
I hope it all comes good for you for many miles to come.

 

An even smarter move, and one that will significantly increase life of battery as well as avoid these issues, is to invest in a "smart" charger or battery tender . . . ie one that can cycle on and off to maintain the battery at 100% charge. The X-Type, as Astromorg says, can be forgiving especially compared to the XK8/XKR and, even more so the S-Type, but why throw away what could be 5 years of expensive battery life by this deep cycling and sulphation for which these batteries are never designed.

We wrote up a detailed "How to . . . " in the S-Type Stickies on these solutions, but the application and there are numerous "smart" chargers at much lower cost than the popular C-Tek brand. Just make sure it cycles back on whenever the charge falls away.

Cheers,

 

An even smarter move, and one that will significantly increase life of battery as well as avoid these issues, is to invest in a "smart" charger or battery tender . . . ie one that can cycle on and off to maintain the battery at 100% charge. The X-Type, as Astromorg says, can be forgiving especially compared to the XK8/XKR and, even more so the S-Type, but why throw away what could be 5 years of expensive battery life by this deep cycling and sulphation for which these batteries are never designed.

We wrote up a detailed "How to . . . " in the S-Type Stickies on these solutions, but the application and there are numerous "smart" chargers at much lower cost than the popular C-Tek brand. Just make sure it cycles back on whenever the charge falls away.

Cheers,

 

So, I replaced the battery as it was five years old anyways, and my rule of thumb is to always replace them at five years, especially if they were drained. It made no difference and still have the same three problems. (With the exception of the windows are now working fine, thank you for that information.)
1. Hard starting like it is not getting fuel.
2. The temp gauge after a minute will climb all the way to HOT.
3. At 30,000 RPM it stammers.
Is there a special sequence to starting after a complete battery drain?

 

If you have an OBD11 scanner, can you determine if you have good fuel pressure (approx 50 PSI).
Fuel pumps can wear out and fuel filters can clog giving you poor fuel pressure.

If however you notice that it starts reliably but always takes a long cranking time to get it to start, then it can be a bad crank position sensor, meaning the ECM takes a longer time to successfully determine firing position if crank sensor malfunctioning.

 

Jeff, a way to prove the fuel pump is starting to go is to try this: When starting the car, turn the key to the RUN position (not START!!!!), wait like 5 seconds, then finally roll the key to the START position. If the car starts much easier, fuel pump is going. If you haven't changed your fuel filter in the last 15K miles (25000 KM), then that would be a good thing to do as that may be all that you are suffering from. Rev'ing the car up to 3K RPM and having it stutter like you are seeing should be throwing a code. Read the codes and see what they say.

 

+1 . . . especially the first, waiting 5 sec.

 

OK here we are one month later and I was finally able to get around to researching this problem and it does start a bit quicker if I turn the key on and wait five seconds or so.
Here’s the list of error codes.
P24A04 02 sensor error
P1646. Linear 02 sensor control chip
P1111. System pass
P0117. Engine coolant, temperature circuit low input.
P1643. Engine and trans control circuit.
P0443. Evap Purge control valve.
Didn’t have any of these before the battery failed and I replaced it with a brand new one and charged it overnight before installing it. I don’t know, but my thought is when the battery drained it did something to the main control.
Again, the three problems I’m having are:
Temp gauge goes to HOT within 30 seconds
Cuts out at 3,000rpms
Slow to start.

 

If the temp sensor is faulty and not feeding a cold signal to the ECU, then too weak a mixture may cause your slow starting. Similarly, that high reading sensor will also cause the signs of overheating in the shape of a Red warning light, a MIL (maybe on second occasion of Red warning if codes have been cleared) and a 3k rev limit on the engine

 

🤔 interesting. That makes sense. I’ll replace the temp sensor and see what gives.
thanks again!

 

you are correct. My problem was associating the dead battery with the other problems that started at the same time. Once you mentioned the lack of a cold signal to the ECU and might limit the revs it clicked in my head.
The CULPRIT was a chewed thermostat wire by a mouse!!
all the problems disappeared and is running perfect now.
Thanks for everyone’s input. I appreciate you all.