I was leaving my car at my home while living at the in-laws, often getting to it for a drive once in 3 or 4 weeks when I first had it, sometimes longer - but it was locked up. Never failed to start fine.
Since getting our new house the car has been in the garage a lot, unlocked - that is where my problems began (obviously with lack of use too). Working on her also wasn't ideal with doors open etc. Then I took to disconnecting the battery or plugging into CTEK when having this on / open for an extended period of time.

Now she is on the driveway for a few weeks, locked, no issues.

This week she will go into hibernation and will now be locked and plugged in to the CTEK. As an everyday car I just can't see there being a problem, or even an occasional car but locked when not in use. The main thing is when the battery goes, its goes, and nothing but a new one will do.
I keep all my toys on battery maintainers, it just keeps them topped up better than doing nothing will - its a 2 sec job to plug one in so not a problem.

 

Bigzee13, as you can see, there are many views on how to deal with the XK battery. But you can also see on this forum that the XK is well-engineered and well-constructed, and on the whole a reliable and long-lasting car if properly taken care of. Consider some of the quirks noted to be part of its unique character. Back in the day, when I was studying at Edinburgh University in Scotland, I had a Triumph motorcycle for transportation. Talk about quirks and problems! But I loved that bike and found it more interesting to own than later-model Japanese bikes that never, ever gave me issues.

 

My car is a daily driver when I'm here to drive it. When I'm out, it may sit (locked ) for a couple of weeks and on one occasion for six weeks. It always starts with no trouble or extraneous electrical happenings. I did have to replace the battery a couple of months ago but there was no doubt and I didn't try to get a little more out of it.

 

So we can/must plug negative and positive CTEK wires to negative and positive battery connectors. Well i've a 2007 XKR, so in this model i can plug both CTEK terminal to battery connectors? I know that this subjects was already discussed on several threads and from many times on this forum, nevertheless i want confirm (CTEK experts please advice) if i can use CTEK MXS 5.0 on XKR 2007? Many thanks

 

Yes you can.

 

Use it just the way you describe.

 

Lots of great methods above to remind us the car is still plugged in.
As an experiment, I tried routing my battery pigtail extension cable out of the boot and lay it right across one of the rear obstacle sensors mounted on the bumper.
Started the car up and selected reverse. Beeping alarm from rear obstacle screen sounded but no orange “obstacle distance” markers showed up as I presume the cable to sensor distance is too little to register.
At least this method is easy to do and I’ll get some reminder something isn’t quite right before I reverse out of the garage.

 

Too clever for me. Im going to leave a piece of cable threaded through the steering wheel as my CTEK reminder. I bet every time I get in it I'll spend a few seconds thinking "wtf is that doing there?"

 

My CTek reminder is a brightly colored 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper with REMEMBER THE CTEK printed on it in Bright Red and place between the steering wheel and the binnacle.

 

I didn't need to worry about my cord at my last house as I backed into the garage to park. The CTEK was on the back wall, and I had those old Two Wire trailer disconnects as an attachment point. If I forgot, it'd just pull apart anyway. No harm done.

 

Funny that. I always back in too. And I have brain washed my children to do it... as its the right way;-)
Its simple really; Why do I back in? Because I can.
Also, I prefer to look straight out when leaving the garage.

 

Im about to buy a o7 xkr , the owner told me he had a battery drainage problem , rhat he put a regulatior on the battery . Would that take care of the problem ? I dont have a garage so i dont jave the means to keep a charger on it . Will i really need to keep car on charger ?

 

Im about to buy a o7 xkr , the owner told me he had a battery drainage problem , rhat he put a regulatior on the battery . Would that take care of the problem ? I dont have a garage so i dont jave the means to keep a charger on it . Will i really need to keep car on charger ?

 

jaguarjoe cool - all you have to do is make one post for one problem. You have now posted many times on several different threads and maybe even started more than one new thread. Please do not do that, it becomes a royal pain to other users. Back to your battery. Get a PPI and have who ever does the inspection test the battery and have them tell you the build date (normally found on one of the anodes). Good luck.

 

Thank you ,great advice

 

I close the lid on the cTek cord - no problems. The bigger issue is remembering that it is plugged in. I put my cTek instruction book on the dash to remind me that something needs to be disconnected before flight!

 

I put a “flag” using duct tape on the maintainer cord where the cord overhangs the rear bumper. Then position the flag over one of the proximity sensors mounted in the bumper when closing the boot lid. Proximity alarm will go off on the reversing screen if you forget to detach the maintainer cord.

 

Unfortunately, my proximity alarms have become useless background noise anytime that car is in reverse. They are completely freaked out by the garage door edging, the car parked next to it, and my hedges ten yards from the driveway edge - complete waste of technology, but thankful for the backup camera telling me that nothing is going wrong behind!!! LOL