...outside in high country Colorado winter. The friend who 'parked it' didn't take off the cables, so I took a charger to where it is parked (40 miles away in a no service area) to hopefully charge it. Battery is 1 year old, after original lasted 9 years.

First tried to start it and there was nothing. After attaching charger, I got lights and sound. But when I tried to start the car, only got rapid clicking noise. Then tried to jump it...same thing. Because it was such a cold winter, I'm thinking I killed the new battery, but I thought I might take it back to store to see if there is any way to recharge.

But thought I'd ask here if there is another reason for the clicking noise, before I make the 80 mile rt twice or buy a new battery.

Altho I rebuilt a couple of VW engines in my youth (with help of Complete Idiot book), I don't have any tools or mechanical ability with new-age cars.
I've just been lucky that my Jag has been good to me so far!

Any and all help very appreciated!

 

Belle, put the battery on a charger and get it back to 100% (the charger might fight you intially, but it will finally return the battery to 100%). From there, you should be able to start the car. IF not, open one of the doors and be watching the overhead light as you start the car. If the light goes out completely, then you hurt the battery and you are going to need a new battery. If the light remains fairly bright, then you have either a bad starter or a battery cable issue.

You can also connect a multimeter across the battery, but most people are not sure how to use a multimeter. If you want to learn, let me know and I will step you through everything. It is really easy to do the checks. Just need to know what they mean.

 

If the battery was well and truly dead AND it physically froze during the winter, there's a 99% chance that it's toast.

Next year, either keep a tender attached to the battery or remove it and bring it home to keep in a warm place.

 

Thank you both so much , Thermo and Mikey!

I'm headed out right now, will remove the battery and bring it back to be charged 'professionally'. Was advised my 'charger' is really only a 'booster' and that it wouldn't get the job done, even if I left it on for 24 hours. So will find out if the battery is toast or not, and then hope that she starts right up for me!

I knew I could count on those on this forum to help me....♥♥♥♥♥

 

Belle, it will be pretty obvious if the battery is dead or not. Granted, if you are having it charged professionally, have them do a "load test" on the battery. That is a measure of how much life is left in the battery. In your case, if they say that it is 75% or less, get a new battery. We have found that once the batteries start to go, the kitty just doesn't like it and it will start giving you all sorts of grief with erroneous error codes.

 

Glad it doesn't get that cold in UK . My Jags have spent their lives outside on the driveway!!

 

It's not a problem as long as the car is used once in a while so that the battery is kept fairly well charged, or a battery tender is kept attached for long periods of inactivity.

My S-type was used for several years as year round transportation and never once did it fail to start even in -30*C temperatures. The battery is now 7 years old.