Jaguar - the only car that punishes you for doing something nice. So I thought I would give my car a much needed detail and leather care treatment this weekend. I proceed to do so, then drive it around for five minutes afterwards to make sure the battery is ok and pull it into the garage. Dead battery this morning. This is the only car I have ever owned stupid enough to kill its own battery. It's ridiculous. Every other car I have ever owned I have pulled straight into the garage and never had a problem. I baby this one and it won't start te next day! After starting that very same day!

What is with the British and electronics! No other car drains it's battery like a jaguar! Lesson learned - don't leather care and trade in before it goes bad. End rant.

 

You want to trade your car in because it has a dead battery? Frustrating, for sure, but whoa, that's OTT. Is this a one off or has it happened to you repeatedly with this car or other Jags (hence the comment "no other car drains it's battery like a jaguar")?

FWIW the same thing happened to me several years ago with an X5. When I detail now, I open all the doors first, and then switch off the interior lights and make sure ignition is truly off (not just in accessory) - never had another problem. Cars have a lot of electronics these days, and the battery is asked to work pretty hard.

 

Sorry the car didn't start, but that was quite a rant...

 

Jaguars are particularly known for beig temperamental with their batteries. Am I going down to the dealer tomorrow to get rid of the car - no. This mornings rant was just that. I had a busy day and didn't need this delay. But is that new XJ this spring looking as promising, no! The car had a mild seizure this morning. Flashing lights, random unending beeps, moving wipers. That is not normal. Combined with the self breaking headlight tabs, rattling headliner artfully fixed with grease covered hands and this, yes, the appeal of this car and the service network has worn off. When i work as much as I do, i want things to work properly. If they don't, I lose patience quickly.

It's unfortunate. There really is nothing comparable - maybe the Ghibli.

 

Re: flashing lights etc. - these were the same symptoms that preceded failure of the 'Body Control Module' in my old XFR. Perhaps it isn't the battery.

Can't say my experience with multiple German cars has on average been any better from an electronics point of view, though.

Re: rattles and headliner grease - LOL, exact same experience here. One thing I can say is that my service experience with German marques (BMW in particular) is on an entirely different plane than that of my local Jaguar dealer, so I hear you. Not so sure you would find Maserati dealers a big step up from Jag, though (except maybe for price).

 

Flashing lights, wipers etc is all from weak battery. Your battery is now pushing 4yrs why not replace it. Jags have nothing on my nissan. Every 2 yrs im stuck somewhere so i replace them every 2 and dont have near the electronics a jaguar does. And its those short starts and then stop and sit that many times pulls a weak battery down to dead. Once the battery gets to a certain low state the car wakes the modules up from low voltage running it down all the way to no start

 

CaviarJag,

I had the exact same problem with my BMW 3 series. After diagnosed by dealer I was told that electronics stay alive even when car turned off unless the car is actually locked. They did replace my battery and I started making sure that everything was actually locked whenever I left the car. They also recommended using a battery tender once or twice a week which I did and I never had electronic problems with that BMW again.

In fact, I continue to use the battery tender at least once a week on my XF and lock everything as much as I can. This actually puts the computer asleep and so far everything has worked fine on my Jaguar. A good battery tender is inexpensive and does great things to prolong the life of your battery. It causes no damage at all to the car. I have now been using them on all of my cars. Actually, I recently went to my Jaguar dealer and an Audi dealer and both dealerships had all of their showroom cars on the same battery tender that I have. They had one battery tender per car right on the showroom floor.

Ed

 

Appreciate the responses. This mornings post was mostly out of frustration of a delayed start to a busy day compounded by rain. That said, it is odd that car the car worked fine the previous day would all of a sudden be dead te next day - particularly where it had been driven between the detailing and dead battery. I will jump it tonight and drive it around for a bit. We will see what happens tomorrow. If problems, new battery it is I suppose. Is the battery covered under the 2011 warranty? If so, Anyone had issues getting the dealer to replace it?

 

And, come to think of it, I may not have locked it last night. It seems silly though that not locking a car equals dead battery. No such problems with any other car I have previously had.

 

Locking the car has nothing to do with it going to sleep. After 45 minutes everything should be shut down.

It's not hard to measure if you have excessive current draw and you might?

Your car is under warranty so put this on the dealer and make them fix it.
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The car goes to sleep in less than 45 minutes. Want to see how much time? Flip the sun visor down and open your wifes makeup mirror to turn on the vanity mirror lights. When the lights shut off the car is in sleep mode. I think its down to less than 20 minutes or so now. But dont leave the smart key in the car, that has been shown to keep the car awake

 

I had repeated problems with the battery. The dealer said the battery was fine several times and finally just before the warranty ran out, they replaced the battery. But then, 4 months later, dead battery again. This time they found the problem to be the battery, and I got another new battery.

Say Brutal, when you say the car stays awake when you leave the smart key in the car, what about if the key is not in the car but 50-60 feet away outside the car? Does the car's sensor still pick up the smart key as though it were in the car?

 

Yes I think it does. About 30-50ft away when it senses the key, i think the car wakes up. There have been a few incidences when I was walking towards the car and I had a passenger with me and they open the door and the alarm would go off, and I have to dig in my pocket to turn it off. Which my first thoughts were wasn't the door locked? i always make sure I lock the door after i get out. usually by pressing the button on the door once or twice until i hear it lock.

 

no 5 meters or more, when we program and verify keys we move each one more than 5 meters away and the car wont sense it.

 

I suppose if I open the door and the start button doesn't pulsate, then the key isn't close enough for the car to sense it right?