Hi Jaguar friends!

So here is my complete post on my electrical problems. Some of the issues that I have seen seem to be symptomatic of a dead battery but I will list them nevertheless.

Firstly, there is something that is causing the battery (which is brand new) to drain to dead when left overnight or longer. This is not always consistent and on some occasions it keeps the charge overnight or from the start of work to leaving. From what I have read I have a parking sensor problem insomuch as I get the 3 second beep when I engage reverse, and from time to time, in slow traffic, I will get the beeps. I try to keep the same routine when exiting the vehicle to see if there is any pattern; there does not appear to be one! The only notable thing that has happened that was new was a quick double beep (quiet) of the horn when turn vehicle of and removing the key.

Secondly, and probably the bigger problem is with the instrument dials. Sometimes when I turn the ket to position 1 the dials go crazy and jump around with a ticking sound that comes along with it. Could this be the reason for a dead battery.. who knows!. The speed, revs, and temp dials work as they should after the vehicle is running, but the fuel gauge is very unpredictable. It may start out looking about right for the fuel level, but then as I continue the drive it will end up at empty. The is not a consistent this either.

Moving on to the other issues that I have encountered, which I think come along with trying to start the car with a dead battery. I have seen the PARKBREAK FAULT which seems to clear once the car is restarted with enough charge. I have also seen GEARBOX FAULT which also seems to be tied to a dead battery. This one, interestingly, appears as soon as I engage any gear and in some cases will remain on, though no apparent problem. In other cases it will not be able to get out of 2nd gear. Turning the engine off and on seems to fix that.

That's all I can think of right now. I have an eliminator battery booster permanently in the truck to get me out of trouble, but I would like to get to the bottom of the issues if possible. Someone mentioned to me that there is a device that I can get from Amazon for $50 that I assume plugs into the ODB2, that will report on electrical issues. If anyone know of such sorcery and whether it works, let me know.

Cheers!

 

A new battery but could it be faulty?
Try another battery eg if you have one in another vehicle
that you can try.

 

In case you decide the battery is good your next step is checking if there's a power drain (as sounds likely) - there are lots of threads about what to do. Takes patience and a logical approach with a meter. You'll be checking the quiescent current.

 

Thanks JagV8 I will look into that.

 

I believe a double beep like you said you got, is normally an alert to let you know that a door, or the boot or bonnet is not closed properly, There is a 2 stage lock on the jags, first press of the lock button on the fob locks the doors and boot, second press arms the alarm, and gives a single beep. So it could be possible that a door switch is faulty and not reading the door, boot or bonnet, as being closed, at which point it shouldn't lock the doors, but who knows, and if one is reading as open, then the interior lights etc would stay on. I suppose its possible that when you shut off the car and lock , everything is working as it should be then a switch might just not be getting a good connection and go to open on its own.

Most of the other faults showing on the dash will be from the low battery, and will go away as the battery reaches full charge, as Merion1 suggests, it could be a faulty battery, you can get it tested, I picked up a foxwell battery analyser, which can tel you if the battery is good or bad, or just in need of a charge, I thought my battery was good, but this told me it was goosed, and as soon as I popped in a new battery, the difference was like night and day, no codes, no electrical gremlins, and the engine even turned over much quicker on the starter.

 

Oh that's interesting. I should get the battery checked. Like I said it is new though... Pretty crap if this is what you get.

 

you could just be one of the unlucky ones who got a bad battery, it does happen with new parts, seen it all too often, with all sorts of things, batteries often sit in storage for a long time before they are purchased, I think the manufacturers recommend that a supplier charges their stock of for sale batteries on a regular basis, but I'm sure most don't bother, or perhaps don't even know they should, so you "could" have been given the battery that was at the bottom of the heap instead of a fresh one

 

Thanks. I guess it's the less invasive path at this point.