My car has started to give the "adaptive suspension fault" code when I start the car. It is not every time. It seems to be most likely to happen when the car has sat for more than 24 hours. I know with the X-TYpe, it would start throwing random codes when the battery started to get old and was loosing its capacity. Is there a similar thing that happens with this car?

I think this sort of information may be useful for people that start getting that error that only appears once in a blue moon. For me, it seems like every Monday I have a rougher ride into work because the suspension is not doing what it should. I will admit that my battery is still the factory battery and is over 4 years old. So, it is probably due to be replaced.

 

I would say very likely to be the battery if it's 4+ yrs old. They are very sensitive to battery condition and it causes all sorts of errors and gremlins

If I were you I'd change it anyway (very easy to do) and see if that fixes it. If not you have a different issue - but either way battery was coming due

Let us know!

 

Before deciding to replace it I would take the car to your favourite battery shop and have them loan you a stock battery while they do a full test on your current one. It may still be fine. If you haven't seen "Battery low, start engine" warnings upon entering/exiting the car the battery may be ok as the car monitors the voltage and the rate of rise and fall to warn you about the battery condition if needed. It does relearn the battery from time to time by not letting it charge and monitoring how it behaves, but it should always warn before it gets to gremlin voltages if it is working correctly.

If you do change the battery remember that you need to tell the battery monitor to relearn the charge/drain rate for the new battery, or you may start getting low battery warnings (and systems being shutdown) even when the battery has charge. The car will tell you if it is shutting things down with warnings on the touch screen.

It is easy to reset with SDD, but I don't know of a different method. (I'm sure there will be one. Maybe leaving disconnected for a period of time? Hopefully someone will be along to advise.)

Not a lot of help, but:

I've fiddled around with my car a lot adding bits and pieces over the years and I have had the adaptive suspension fault message/icon appear when the front and/or rear bumpers have been off the car (harnesses disconnected). Not sure why but it is repeatable every time on my 2010. As the front bumper connector sees water it may need checking/cleaning? It is just behind the front of the front left wheel arch liner six inches from the top of the bumper. Worth bearing in mind if it is not a battery issue.

Other than that I've not seen that message on mine.

 

BritCars, I am all to familiar with batteries and I know how to do a few things to extend their life. Used to work around a battery capable of powering a small town (gotta have something like that on a nuclear submarine should stuff hit the fan). I was able to squeeze 10 years out of the battery in my truck. Granted, the Jag is a bit more power hungry with the car off, so, I am not planning on getting that many years out of the battery. Like you said, it is probably time and before things really start going south and having all sorts of madness happen, probably a good time to replace it.

xdave, I haven't started playing with the car and removing the bumpers YET!!!!!!! Got a few projects I am thinking about doing when I do. May have to get some help and simply measure what the battery does when starting the car. That will give me an idea of what the state of the battery is. The car is starting fine, but then, the X-Type would start fine when the battery was old, just took an extra spin or two of the engine to get it to kick over. Granted, I have noticed that the engine is taking that fraction of a second longer to start, so, may have the same thing going on.

The only time I get the "Battery Low, Start Engine" warning is when I have turned on the ignition and played the radio with the car off. Granted, I would expect that message under those conditions. But, normal day to day stuff (even with the error message coming on), I can't say I have noticed the warning. I do take a look at the instrument cluster as it does like telling you all sorts of stuff when things are not quite so.

 

Thermo, BritCars, and xdave,

Do you use a battery maintainer? If not, I recommend doing so.

I regularly use battery maintainers (CTEK) to keep my 2013 XJ and 2009 XKR batteries fully charged, and expect that will extend the battery life. So far, so good since I haven't experienced any electrical gremlins. A small price to pay for peace of mind.

Stuart

 

Stuart, as I understand things, the battery maintainer is only for vehicles that are not driven all that often to ensure the battery remains at 100%. Driving the vehicle every day would become a PITA to have to disconnect that device every time I went to drive the car (multiple times a day normally). So, it isn't the fact that the battery is loosing charge over a very long period of time. This is getting back to the fact that the battery is getting old and the plates inside are simply wearing out.

 

Our first XJ-L, the one that recently got "totaled', used to throw that message a LOT. In fact, on the day we picked it up, we were in the dealer's showroom, and our sales rep was going over some of the control functions with us. We had the doors open for only a couple of minutes, and the warning came on......with a brand new battery.


Had we kept the car, I was going to replace the battery this summer. My local dealer installs Interstate brand batteries, as replacements. Because of this, I contacted Interstate directly, and they recommended their AGM battery, as an upgraded replacement.


The only thing that concerned me, was the SUPPOSED need for the dealer to do the replacement, as some sort of "battery recognition procedure" has to be done, whenever the battery is replaced.

 

I'm not convinced the battery calibration is needed. I've replaced the one on my XF SC and on our LR4 (with the same calibration system claims) and both worked perfectly. Would be interested to know the reality if there is a Jag tech on here.

I never get the low battery warning on either car - and we often leave the radio on and doors open for 20+ minutes when parked with the kids

I agree the low battery warning should give you an indication but I've found I see random errors first (airbag warnings etc) when the battery is dying

The wiring harness suggestion is interesting. It's possible if it's not the battery that it's a connector on the harness that has come loose and triggered the error

 

I've replaced the battery in our '09 XF, too, without a "calibration", but I'm not sure with newer model years. I saw the mention of the calibration, for the first time, about 3 months ago, when researching battery replacements for our late, great XJ-L. I found a video that was posted by a Jag dealer.....

 

The calibration is to do with the battery monitoring system.

 

If you replace a reasonably charged battery that holds its current ok with a new battery of similar charge you are unlikely to see any messages. If you replace a discharged battery or one that cannot hold its charge with a new one it is possible that until the next recalibration the BMS may detect a current draw that it thinks will put the battery below its safe level and shut off non-essential systems like the infotainment, seats, etc. This becomes more likely if you have started to see "Battery low start vehicle" or "The infotainment system will shut down in 3 minutes to conserve power" messages.

Once the battery has been fully charged in the vehicle (the BMS detects that the battery voltage is peak and does not increase) it will perodically instigate a recalibration on its own. The documents don't explain what that period is. That will discharge the battery to 75% of its full charge, or to 12.2V (whichever comes first). It then times how long it takes and the amount of current needed to fully recharge the battery again, and it uses both times and loads to determine the health of the battery.

AFAIK all the BMS recalibration does is tell it to disregard what it has previously learnt, and to start again from fresh. If the battery is similar enough that no warnings are triggered then the periodic recalibration the BMS does will reset the values for you. You may get silent DTCs stored about the battery health, but they can be safely ignored.

If the new battery is fully charged outside of the vehicle and immediately after installing the engine is started and run for 5-10 minutes with a low electrical load then you may be able to trigger a recalibration straight away. I've never tried that, but it is worth a shot if you are doing it yourself.

On vehicles with a BMS fitted (which is probably all of the current ranges) you should not charge or jump a vehicle directly at the battery terminals, but instead from the positive terminal and a ground point near to the battery. That is so the BMS sees the incoming charge and adjusts accoordingly.

 

Thanks xdave. Very comprehensive and helpful

My takeaway is calibration is helpful if you are changing out a very worn battery. But even then after some error codes it will sort itself out