Hi Chris,

Can you suggest some ways we may have been abusing our batteries causing them to fail prematurely? As far as I can recall, I placed no unusual loads on our battery, I kept all the power and ground connections clean, I used no accessory devices plugged into the cigar lighter socket, the alternator was healthy, the drive belts were newish, there were no parascitic drains present, and most uses of the car were for trips of at least 20-30 minutes in duration or longer.

I understand you are convinced the X350 charging system, though optimized for the specific requirements of a silver calcium battery, will also properly manage a conventional battery. But given the number of reports by our members that conventional and AGM batteries have prematurely declined in performance, our suspicions that the X350 battery-management system is not optimized for a conventional battery are not unfounded.

There can't be that many "dud" batteries on the market, and most owners have installed "better" brands and higher-end batteries, so it's not like we've installed cheap batteries in our cars that might be expected to fail early. Of course, in the U.S., the range of choices in the H8 size is limited to begin with, and except for the Bosch models (probably made by Varta), all of the available options are probably made by Johnson Controls, East Penn, or Exide.

Perhaps since you "spend more time monitoring the battery than driving" you are subconsciously managing the maintenance of your battery? The rest of us would rather just drive , so I still believe a silver-calcium battery is the best choice for an X350.

Cheers,

Don

 

Interesting subject, for me anyways. I work at a secondary lead smelter; we receive roughly 50 truckloads per day (around 45,000 lbs product) of cores, or spent lead acid batteries, and turn them into finished lead in the form of ingots or blocks. We supply all major battery manufacturers with the lead they use to make batteries. So JCI (Johnson Controls), East Penn (Deka), Exide, Enersys, and a bunch of other smaller companies like Trojan, Superior, etc. They are all our customers and competitors at the same time, weird how that works.

I have been with this company since I was 19 years old. I currently serve as Customer Service and Transportation Manager although I worked in the refining department for 7 years as a lead man, process tech, and supervisor. In there, we process eight 100 ton kettles and two 150 ton kettles of molten lead (around 850 to 1250F, depending on what process we are on) in order to make the lead to our customers' specifications. I can vouch that there is indeed Silver in some of the batteries although minimal. For that alloy, we mix a few sacks, 10 lbs each, into 100 tons of lead, so not much Silver compared to the volume of lead its going into (calcium that goes into that is a few hundred lbs). Calcium, Aluminum, Tin and Antimony are more abundant in our alloys, although all of the alloys we make are still at minimum 91% lead and most of our product is 99.999% pure lead.

I am good friends with a couple of guys over at the JCI Battery plant, about 15 minutes from our smelter. I went to visit Chuck, the transportation manager over there, and he gave me a quick tour of the battery manufacturing line where our lead we supply them with gets used. I laughed when I saw they were putting all kinds of different brand stickers on the same batteries. Chuck explained to me that companies pretty much buy the branding rights and have their stickers put on batteries and sold as theirs.

There are some differences in the types of batteries, although the main differences are in the technology they use like AGMs vs Gel etc but that's apples to oranges. If you compare the same traditional auto batteries from different competitors to others, the differences would be in the chemistry of the lead, which for the most part are fairly similar for all. The variation is a few parts per million (.0001%) in some metals found in some lead/calcium or lead/antimony alloys versus others.

Anyways, even knowing all of this, I am not picky when it comes to batteries. I ask for the right size and pick the one with a decent warranty. Knowing the lifespan of my battery is not going to affect how I enjoy my Jag, at least until I need to buy another one, then once I buy it, I am good again.

No matter what battery you have, enjoy your cars guys!

 

About the same with Gasoline, all the same base stuff.
Each brand has it's own additive package.
All brands of gas stations trucks.
All at the same bulk terminal, picking up fuel.
Big pipelines transfer the product to them.

 

Haha HA, I went back to the battery supplier coz I can't read it and didn't buy it myself, and it is actually a Calcium battery. "Ultra" branded-I suspect not Silver.

Nevertheless, here are some readings.
-X358 v6 /w calcium battery, 14.6v for 5mins, then drops back to 13.0v varies slightly (all +/- 0.1v).
-My Honda Elysion /w standard battery (can add water), 14.6v~14.4v continuous.

I s'pose one can find anything on the internet, but...
"Leading car manufacturers such as Toyota, Holden and Hyundai have all confirmed that there is no special requirement in new vehicles for silver calcium technology and that other battery types can be used as suitable replacements."
https://www.centurybatteries.co.nz/c...ium-batter.pdf

As for abuse, the best way is to undercharge, which my own X358 appears to do (but then I keep it on a floating charger). Undercharging is virtually certain in round-town driving. And who knows what sort of abuse the battery has had before you get it (i.e. sitting around neglected for perhaps a year).

P.S. I have not said a word AGAINST calcium batteries. :-)
Cheers

 

Hey Guys,
This is a fascinating thread, but ... I'm looking for a battery for my 2009 XJ8 and can't find a one anywhere. At first, I thought I'd just go out to AutoZone and get a DuraLast, like the one I got for my XK8, but, alas, they don't seem to have one that will work with this car. I've read this thread and then looked for an Exide Global Extreme - no luck there. It seems Home Depot doesn't have one anywhere, at least within 100 miles. Then I looked around for a Bosch S5. Can't find one of those either. It seems like there is a big hole in availability for Jaguar XJs. I get marine batteries, and golf cart batteries, and battery chargers popping up when I do a Google search, or looking on Amazon or eBay. Has anybody bought a battery lately ? It seems they are rare as hens teeth ! TIA.

 

I bought a Super Start Extreme from O'Reilly's a couple of weeks ago and its been working fine. Try there.

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/b.../49ext/4742485

It seems there are several different ways of naming battery sizes. You're looking for H8, or L5, or Group 49.

Don't forget to save the vent plug off the old battery to install on the new one.

 

This Bosch Premium Power battery looks like the S5 and is available at Pep Boys. It might be worth a phone call if you have a Pep Boys in your area:

https://www.pepboys.com/bosch-premiu...%204.2L%20DOHC

Cheers,

Don

 

Let's be honest. The cost of replacing a battery, or even if it did only last just 2 years, is the least of one's troubles as to potential other maintenance costs.
(which 99% of this forum is about, and 99% of which many of us don't experience)

Haven't had to on the Jag yet, but with my other cars, at the first sign of battery trouble I just replace it. What's the big deal? My next standard maintenance (I get it done professionally) will probably be 3 battery's worth or so. Just sayin'

(my own battery monitoring is just a hobby, when I think about it. And I don't monitor my other batteries coz they're just boring Hondas)

 

Thanks. I did find one of these at a Pep Boys that isn't too far away. I was getting a little worried there.

 

When I retired from telecom after 39 years I took a job in Merchandising at HD in Northern Virginia. That area is a hub for new builds and upgrades to homes and related contractors. All five stores I took care of began stocking vehicle batteries. Why? The contractors. They would be lined up at the door waiting for the store to open. Of course limping into an HD parking lot at 6am and not being able to limp out means lost time and income. Now HD barely has a decent inventory of Exides on-line and many stores do not carry nor can they get vehicle batteries. My biggest regret was not investing in white vans.