I am a new owner of a 2007 XK coupe. Great car- but I left it for a week in the garage and the battery drained. I have now read a few threads on this and am starting to understand.

Question: If you connect a trickle charger to the battery in the trunk, do you leave the trunk open or slam it on the cord?

It seems to me if you leave the trunk open you are also draining the battery because of the courtesy lights being on. Problem?

thanks a million

 

I don't know for your specific car but generally (e.g. my 04 STR) a power save feature will activate so you can leave the boot (trunk) open. Or shut it.

If on a smart charger, try leaving the trunk open and have a look after an hour (say) to see if the light(s) has/have gone off.

 

Close the trunk on the cord, it won’t do any damage. Also make sure you lock the car, even if it’s in the garage.

 

Welcome to the forums Moj07xk,

I've moved your question from General Tech Help to X150 forum. This is the place to post technical questions about your model.

Please follow this link New Member Area - Intro a MUST - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum to the New Member Area - Intro a MUST forum and post some information about yourself and your vehicle for all members to see. In return you'll get a proper welcome and some useful advice about posting to the forum.

Graham

 

Slam it on the cord , no issues. My 07 drains the battery but its like an intermittant thing , I can leave it for a month sometimes and it starts right up , other times I leave it for a week and its completely dead. No issues with maintainer connected.

 

I didn't like opening and closing the boot so I put an external connection in.

 

It appears you have an XK, not an XKR. The XKR of that year has a battery monitor attached to the negative battery terminal, so the negative lead for the battery maintainer should be connected to the ground point on the chassis. If you have a non-supercharged (non-XKR) car, you can attach the battery maintainer leads directly to the battery pos and neg posts, using the wing nuts.

See post #5 in this thread for Jaguar-recommended attachment of leads. You don't need to follow this if you have a non-XKR. It's a good thread for general info on battery maintaining.

 

I've closed my truck on the CTEK charger lead for many years; not a problem.....................also you don't want any brand of charger inside your trunk!!
My battery is over 8 years old and still tests fine (with a load on it) . On my boat the 6V Trojans(2) lasted 13 years!

Cheers, Adrian

 

Think there is an N in trunk!!! OOPS. Adrian

 

Moj07XK,
I just asked this question last week about my new to me 07 XKR convert and was told to close the boot or leave it open, just as you have been told here. After getting the replies and studying mine for a while, I found that each lower corner of the lid gasket has a little more room than in the main straight section. If you put your lead in either corner and close the lid, you will find you're only slightly compressing the gasket and the lead will still move with only slight tension on it. So mine is closed with the tender lead in place and the car cover over the car. If you also lock your doors and keep the key far enough away, it shuts down more of the systems in the car, so the battery has less drain on it and the tender/maintainer/charger (touchy subject here read up) will keep up better.

I eventually want to do as jagtoes has done and run the connection point outside the boot.

 

I started closing the trunk on the cord then kept forgetting it was still plugged in.

Ran the ctek over like 3 times but its still holding up!

I leave a little rag there so the trunk isn't fully closed - and the dash reminds me the trunk is open and ctek plugged in BEFORE i back out.

I like jagtoes solution but theres still nothing to remind you its plugged in!

 

I'm thinking angle the plug in the direction needed for any tension on the lead to unplug it. If you back out, then tilt the connection so that pulling towards the front of the car unplugs it and vice versa. That way it self unplugs when you forget. You'd need to create a hold for the lead so it doesn't just pull everything out of the garage, though. You could also just drape your rag over the steering wheel.

 

I just leave the box on my drivers seat and throw it on the steps when I use the car. When I come home the maintainer box reminds me to plug it in.

 

I have a 4x6 card with the words "battery charger" printed on it. I put it in the instrument binnacle when the CTEK is plugged in, then stow it in the door pocket when using the car. It's not as reminder-ful as Sean's method, but it has worked so far.

Wait, I hear the "maintainer" police at the door...

 

I now realize I am not alone! Thanks for your ideas and I feel much relieved.

 

The battery monitor is a 5 litre thing and both XKs and XKRs have them fitted.

None of the 4.2 litre cars had them.

 

Good to know. Thanks.

 

I managed to drive away with the 4.3 still attached earlier this year, it was the noise of it dragging behind which alerted
me to what had happened. It was completely destroyed. Had a good 5 years out of it so it was nice to upgrade to the newer 5.0 version.

 

I did worse..... had the RV parked in the driveway and hooked up to house power. Forgot the plug, drove about 1/10th of a mile and drove over the stupid cable on the first right turn. Tore that sucker right in half, four 4-gauge stranded copper wires, four fiber reinforcing threads and the poly wrapped exterior. Spent about three hours cutting, trimming, soldering, heat-shrinking and other extraneous crap until it worked.

 

Lots of good solutions here to forgetting your car is plugged into the charger BEFORE you drive off. I use a long bright ORANGE extension cord for the charger routed to lie in directly front of the driver’s door (and hopefully my eyes). Not fool proof but has worked so far.