My battery died this winter, twice infact, so some helpful people on this forum suggested I get a CTEK charger, it was also the recommendation from Jaguars main dealership too.

I'm writing this review of all the products I purchased so that it might be helpful to someone getting a charger/voltometer in the future for their XJ.

My battery is a Jaguar Varta RC 150 battery which is rated at 950amp cold crank (90Ah).

I purchased the following items:

CTEK charger it self, model MXS 5.0 so that I get 8 step charging.

Extension cable, as the one that comes with the charger isn't quite long enough. I wrapped this in good insulation tape to make it waterproof/weatherproof, though it does say it is somewhat weatherproof.

Comfort indicator which replaces the main adaptor that comes with the CTEK charger. This gives a simple traffic light system, red if needs charging (less than 40% charge), amber if charge is recommended and green if fully charged.

Voltage reader on the battery. Very useful and acted as a double confirmation with the comfort indicator to tell me that my battery is in good condition to start the next day.


The dealership told me that in very cold weather, the XJ takes around 30% of the battery charge to start the car.

When I fully charged the battery the volt meter read at 12.9V, on a normal day to day usage (about 20 minutes driving, 10 mins to work and 10 minutes back) it would read 12.6V over 2 weeks, which is over 70% charged and the amber light would come on the indicator.

The odd time it dropped to 12.5V but still showed amber, so anything above 12.5V is good and it has enough charge. I tried stopping and starting the car multiple times (around 10 times at around 5 degress celsius) and the voltage meter went down to 12.4V. My understanding is that anything under 12.4V is under 70% charge and leaving the battery under 70% can damage it in the long run. So when this happened I would charge it up, thankfully this only required to be done once a week or when I had a few days of short trips with the lights/heaters on.

The comfort indicator and volt meter together give a good gauge, I can leave the car safely without charging now if I just check the voltage is above 12.5V the night before, I'm safe knowing it will start the next morning for work.

I also found I can just close the boot with the CTEK cable hanging out of it, the boot still fully closes and I can trail the cable into my garage under the door nicely.

 

Glad to see you took the advice and things have worked out for you.

Happy trails.

Jim

 

Here's how I routed my CTEK cable without it getting pinched by the lid:



See my previous thread:https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...lation-130801/

Stuart

 

Thanks, this is what I originally did too. I also found just trailing it from the bottom of the boot opening worked okay too as the seal is rubber and it gives way nicely for the cable without leaving any marks (also an option for the lazier ones like me who just want to connect and drop the boot).