What do most Jaguar owners do, if anything, when needing to leave the car for weeks without driving it? I will be leaving my 2011 XF soon for three weeks. I'm worried about the battery being dead when I return, but I'm also concerned that disconnecting it could cause internal computer issues. I did have a dead battery once in an airport lot after 9 or 10 days, but that battery was 3 years old.

Is there anything that is considered common practice in situations like this?

I am paranoid about having a dead battery because last time it happened my car was in the garage, the key fob was in the slot, the emergency brake was on, and most tow trucks couldn't get up the hill to get to it. It was a nightmare.

 

The best thing to do is to connect it to a battery tender such as a CTEK while you are away, but of course you need access to a power point for that.
If you don't have access to a power point then maybe disconnect the battery - just take off the earth lead where it bolts to the floor of the boot - but double check beforehand that you can open the boot manually using the aluminium key in the fob.
Last but not least, make sure the car is double locked and all key fobs are at least 30 metres away.

 

interesting concerns that hit home, since I just experienced a catastrophic computer issue in my 2009 xf. Car was cranking slowly, then no crank so I disconnected and changed the battery. Immediately lost key programming, ended up at dealer on a tow truck, and $3400 later I bought a new kvm, fuse box, 2 new keys and an instrument cluster. Yikes. I am convinced sonething was draining the battery while car sitting, and somehow when i disconnected battery, i blew the whole thing up. Other forum members say they never heard of this, yet there are numerous threads about battery drain as well as hypersensitive procedures for disconnecting, changing, jumping or charging the battery.

 

I have personally changed the battery in both of my XF's and disconnected the batteries multiple times during repairs and never had any issues.

If you somehow shorted the battery to ground, that could have blown things up. Also, jump starting modern cars with another car is a big no no. I know people that have blow the $7K dash on the Murcielago simply by jump starting it.

Either your car was jacked up when you bought it, or you did something to blow it up. Just replacing the battery the correct way does no harm.

Battery disconnects are not a great option on our newer cars because of all the things the ECU learns from driving.

If your battery is fresh, it shouldn't have any problem with 3 weeks. If you have fears of it being dead, buy a jumper box so you don't have to jump it with another car. I have 2 of them in the house, and I take them on trips or put one in the trunk if I am leaving the car at the airport.

I have ones just like these:




Either works well, and as long as you don't short the battery to ground, you won't do any damage to the electronics using these jump boxes.

 

The Sears charger/tender I had, this one gave out after 9 years

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...r-sale-171336/

The Newer Sears tender (Yes its my replacement) is all automatic, and ALWAYS on sale for fathers day, for usually less than $30. It comes with all the connectors to wire it directly to your battery post as I have.

 

lotus...in my case it is possible the car was jacked up when I bought it and it is possible that I blew it up. Just don't know. I did not jump the car prior to the key programming loss. When I changed the battery as I have done for 50 years, I disconnected positive, then negative making sure the positive did not contact ground. Put in new battery, connected negative, then positive...lost communication. Battery was disconnected for a total of perhaps 2 minutes.???? And the dealer "asked" me to come get the car with the docking port still out of the loop and no resolution. Why have I seen other jaguar forum threads about battery drain even overnite, and some advocating locking the car even if in garage because it "puts the car to sleep"? Just wondering.

 

If I won't be driving the car for 2 days or longer, I put it on the battery tender. Never had any battery related issues with this method.

 

You do that in airport parking lots??

 

i go back to asking again...what is the concern about battery drain for days or even weeks with car unattented? I have left cars at airports while taking extended business ir vacation trips without even thinking about a dead battery upon return. I have left boats floating in the marina for months without starting and never a cranking issue. My 2005 s type sits in the garage for months and i dont have trouble with battery drain. Please....why is this an issue with the xf?????

 

I don't know but have been concerned too after reading all the stories

Now for some real life data?

My 2014 XJR with the factory battery (so it's 4+ years old now) was left for over 6 weeks at the airport parking and started without problems and I have never had a low battery indicator pop up. Long story but yes it was a GIANT parking bill!

The car has never been on a battery tender. Further I do NOT lock it in my garage and the keys are stored less than 10' away from the car. These have all been posted as things you DON'T do yet I have had zero problems.

I came from a 2005 S Type R that I put over 100K miles on and owned 6 years or so. The factory battery was over 7 years old when it needed replacing. That car also NEVER was on a battery tender either. No dying battery on that car either.

So I am not sure. I do believe what the others are posting and doing but I have a lot of Jaguar experience that just does not point to any problems or anything different from any other car on the road?
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Hello,
New guy here. Hopefully, I can contribute. Disconnecting the battery from the vehicle is a good recommendation when away from a battery maintainer. If you can use a maintainer, they have ones that can plug into your cigarette socket. Worst case, you could get one of those lithium jumpstarter batteries and use this on a dead battery. -Jerry

 

Jerry, if you disconnect the battery for an extended period of time, aren't you begging for memory loss? And again I ask, why are we even talking about battery drain, disconnecting batteries, battery tenders etc with regard to this car? I don't get it.This discussion is unique to my 50 year history of car ownership. Please forgive my ignorance. I'm just asking for an explanation as to why this is even a topic.

 

Because people seem to take it as a badge of honour to keep a battery alive for as many years as possible. I just see them as a consumable that needs changing every three years or so.

The XK's re very sensitive to weak batteries and I had no end of issues until I changed the one on my '07 XKR. After that it only saw a a battery maintainer if I was putting a prolonged drain on the car. e.g. leaving the doors open while spring cleaning or doing repairs.

 

Jake, the internet and forums are an interesting thing. Its just like your doctor tells you, "When you have a medical problem, come to see me FIRST and DON'T try to look up your symptoms on the internet." The thousands or millions of patients who've been treated and got better just go about their lives and you never hear anything about their illness. The only people who post on the internet are the tiny minority whose condition defies diagnosis, resists treatment and has become chronic. If you read their posts, you'll make yourself sicker just from hypochondria.

Its the same thing with automotive forums. A few dozen Jaguar owners have their batteries go flat prematurely, post about it and suddenly, everyone on the forum, all couple of hundred of us, are buying battery tenders. Probably 98% of owners have never read an automotive forum, never think about such things, rarely experience any problems and just pay for a new battery without question when they do.

Now, if you regularly leave your car parked for days or weeks at a time, there is some logic to it. Batteries deteriorate faster as the state of charge becomes lower and the longer they are allowed to remain in a discharged state, the less charge they can take when they are recharged. Using a maintainer to keep the batteries topped up can extend the life of the battery a couple of years or more as well as keeping it ready to drive.

I like lotus idea of buying one of those jump starter units to put in the trunk when you're going to park at the airport and don't worry about it. The other benefit is when some damsel in distress has left her lights on, you can be her knight in shining armor. (Eventually I'll find a use for every emoticon.)

 

thanks for input. Good info. Fyi...I'm scared poopless of ever changing the battery in my xf again. I just went thru major automotive surgery at a dealer after i simply changed my supposedly dead battery and blew up all communication in the electrical system.

 

In your case, you should just plan to pay the ransom at the dealer for your next new battery. It will be something like $500 instead of the $150 we are all paying when we do it ourselves, but you'll sleep better.

 

plus the tow truck to get it there since I probably won't know it needs a battery til it needs a battery

 

I would NEVER consider leaving my car at an airport parking lot. There are many other options.

 

If the car is parked outside, you can try a solar battery charger.


No affiliation, haven't tried it.

 

Thanks, Oz. Because I am going to be away for three weeks, I decided to leave the car at home instead of in an airport parking lot. So I will either get a CTEK and plug in or just do what I can to boost the battery before I leave and hope for the best. Both of my previous disasters happened with batteries that were three years old. My current one has only been going for five months.

The main thing I will do differently is NOT apply the emergency brake. Knowing how to use the mechanical key to get into the trunk, learning the ribbon trick for putting the car in neutral, and figuring out how to use the handle of a plastic spoon to release the mechanical key from the fob when it's stuck in the slot didn't accomplish anything last time because the emergency brake was on. It took a long time and a lot of money to find a tow truck of
the lift-and-****** type instead of the drag-and-leave-skid marks type.

It seems to me that the design flaw is in the attitude of basing everything on the electrical system and then providing inconvenient, overly complex, or undocumented mechanical workarounds in the case of what Jaguar must see as the RARE case of battery failure. But it isn't rare. Why should I have to put a ring on the mechanical key for leverage, get down on my knees, and twist as hard as I can just to open the trunk? Yes, batteries die, and I accept the expense of replacing them. But the hurdles I have to jump over to do so are beyond ridiculous.