Perhaps like a jet, we need long red straps suspended from easy to always see components of a car with the letters “R E M O V E”.
I'd suggest the rear view mirror but it seems many on the roads these days don’t know what a mirror is. Let alone how to use one.

 

I have a whole bunch of "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" streamers from my Air Force days, but they are the used ones and most are pretty ratty looking.

 

I use a piece of yellow construction paper printed with Don't Forget the CTek placed between the steering wheel and the instrument pot; or in the LH door handle if I get lazy.

 

This is what I do...except i use my first aid kit to stop boot lid closing. Now wondering about battery drain by not locking but figure my CTEK 10 is good enough to overcome any issues

 

You will never forget to disconnect your CTEK after you've done it the first time and destroyed it. Ask me how I know.

 

I just dropped mine and it was toast, got another one because I already had the longer cable.

 

CanadaCat, ouch! Mine is mounted on the wall of the garage, so dropping or running over the unit itself is not an issue. But I am sure I would do fatal damage if I just backed out of the garage with the unit still attached to the battery. Thus the 4x6 card in the instrument binnacle, as I previously posted here.

 

One day I forgot to put the alert card in and then proceeded to destroy the cord. Won't happen again.

 

I wish I could say the same. As you know from the earlier post, I destroyed the five year-old MUS4.3 earlier this year and just two weeks ago nearly did the same again with the MSX5.0, caught myself this time as I started moving away.

My excuse is I only drive this one once every month or two...

 

I used to back in to my garage space, and probably still should but I don't. That way, the disconnect will pull from itself and all is well. I have done that exact thing probably three times, which is why I ran it over when I moved and pulled in forward and it didn't disconnect.

 

Perhaps we should collectively petition CTEK to design a "quick-release" extension cable so that mishaps like those described here would cause less damage. That would be against their commercial interest, I realize, but would boost brand loyalty.

 

But back to the original message, if the battery is flat after just 1 week, (and assuming it was fully charges at the time of parking), I’d be replacing it.

 

I soldered on a quick-release 12VDC connector so I didn't have to worry about pulling stuff apart. I also made the cord a lot longer at the same time.

 

Just registered and this is my first post here. Be kind lol.

I don't yet own an XKR but I am currently looking to buy one. Forgive my ignorance but why does the battery drain so quickly and need to have a trickle charger attached? I've had cars that have sat undriven for a few weeks (was away on vacation) and they started right up with no issues. I'm seeing this as an issue and have just wondered why.

Thanks.

 

There’s lots of memory that needs to be kept current, coupled with an alternator that just barely keeps up (weight/size and the accounting dept strike here), a performance engine that requires a good jolt to start on top of lots of these are “sunny sunday” rides and you have a recipe for routine battery failure. My Expedition is on it’s second battery in 4 years and 20k miles (sound familiar??) and is also kept on a tender, just like it’s tea drinking cousin.
At least that’s my thoughts. I’ve found over the last 23 years that keeping a battery on a tender will usually almost double a battery’s life compared to not being on a tender. And that’s on older vehicles that have no memory requirements. No computers, no radio, no nothing. The battery truly only starts it.

 

Im with the new guy. Battery should not drain in a week or two weeks or a month maybe three months or five months but not a month. I have an 06 STR And I don’t keep it on a battery tender and the batteries been in it for years. and my car is pretty loaded. But ive never had an issue. Soooooo maybe it doesn’t affect the STR?
Or maybe I just never left it undriven long enough? I don’t know

 

Contrary to popular opinion, it shouldn't. As long as your battery is OK and you drive the car semi-regularly then you won't need to constantly use a maintainer.

I have had my '10 XKR for 3 years and only use one when I am doing something that will drain the battery and also had no issues for 4 years once I changed the battery on my '07 XKR. Before that I was plagued with issues.

My one concession is to lock the car whenever I am not using it as that makes it shut the computers and various accessories down a lot quicker.

 

A tender/etc isn't needed UNLESS something is keeping some of the modules on, thus causing a drain. For a lot of people it's easier to use a tender than worry whether something is causing a drain and if so to troubleshoot it.

 

Count me as one of the people JagV8 describes.

I bought my XK 4.2 N/A a couple of months ago from a private seller who had owned the car only briefly and driven it rarely. He did not know the age or condition of the battery, but it would not start the car during my pre-purchase inspection and had to be jumped. I quickly bought a CTEK battery maintainer after reading posts on this forum about battery problems, and kept the car on it at all times it was not moving. With this regimen, the battery seemed OK. But a couple of weeks later, I had the car in the driveway to install the Cambo/Old Jaguars Bluetooth streaming unit, and had one or both doors open for a couple of hours. When I tried to start it, no go. I bought a new battery immediately.

However, I had gotten into the habit of keeping the car on the CTEK and decided, even with the new battery, not to take any chances. Maybe I don't need it, since I drive the car at least once a week and have the new battery. But it's no inconvenience to keep it on the maintainer, and stuff happens...

 

I love the way you guys view / refer to anything from England...