Dear All,


Yesterday I had my wife in the 2007; her behind the wheel in the driveway, learning all the switches, etc....then the car went demonic, lights on/off, nav screen powered off...etc.


I opened the manual and jumped the car as I assumed the battery was the issue. Of course was a bit of an adventure accessing the battery for the first time.


The car started without issue being jumped, but displayed a lot alarms that eventually went away, I am assuming due to the low charge on the battery. The battery is tagged "jaguar" and based on appearances alone it looks like the original battery (is that possible for 10 years?) The area has an untouched appearance, so with this said I have the following questions:


1. Its a used car from a dealer I have bought many cars from, do I pursue a new battery as a warranty issue (the car came with a 45 day 1250 mile warranty). Perhaps the battery has lost charge as it sat on the lot for a few months?


2. Can I put the battery on my battery tender? I am sort of afraid as it looks like an electrical substation in there...


3. Can I pull the battery myself and replace it myself? It appears to be a lead acid battery with a vent line. But it reminds me of the batteries I used to put in my dad's boat as it is so large.


I have an MG and a 914; and am confident working on those cars; but this car is so electrical I am afraid of frying something if I fail to follow proper procedure, so all advice is appreciated. Other than this issue the car is quite a ride but I need to make sure it is dependable prior to turning it over to my wife. Thanks in advance, Reg

 

You've learned the 1st lesson here and that is you should never sit and leave the door open for an extended period of time without the engine running. The amount of electronic modules in the car drains the battery quickly. Next is did you read the OM on how to jump this car. You have a Positive terminal in the trunk on the left side behind the plastic grill. You also need to attach the neg. jumper to a stud in the spare tire well and NOT on the battery. There is a battery charge control module on the neg. battery terminal so you don't want to attach the neg. jumper to that terminal. As for using a charger or a smart charger it is ok just hook it up to the terminals I mentioned or that are shown in the OM. You should also be able to see a date on the battery label as I doubt it is original.

 

Could very well be the original battery.
1. Try to get a new battery under warranty, costs you nothing to try.
2. Many here use a battery tender, the most common is the CTEK. Easy to connect. There are multiple threads on the topic.
3. Yes you can replace it yourself (if the warranty doesn't pan out). Also many threads on the possible replacement batteries to use.

 

Don't think that's true for the 2007 that he has. Think the control module was introduced in 2010.
But you are correct, you shouldn't jump directly on the battery, even the manual says that.

 

Get a new battery.

If you drive every day, you probably do not need a battery tender.

If this is a weekend (or less) car, then keep it on a battery tender. Also consider an AGM battery if you do not plan to use it regularly...it will be more tolerant of periodic depletion if you forget to plug in the battery tender once in a while. AGM batteries in the correct size for this car are now widely available.

Try to avoid jumping this car to minimize risk to the complex electrical system. If you must jump it in an emergency be sure the donor car IS NOT RUNNING.

 

In the olden days I'd always jump off running cars, but since I've bought newer vehicles and only needed a jump once in many years, that particular time I was nervous about my Continental getting fried so I hooked up the cables and had the donor car run for about five minutes with my car completely OFF, even the doors were closed. After the five minutes I disconnected everything and it started right up.
So, would this also be a benefit in jumping our cars? I don't know the details of what boxes are running when, but common sense dictates that this manner would be much safer than a running donor. I have known that sometimes merely hooking to another battery doesn't quite do the job.

 

Here is the basic explanation:

The computer circuits in the vehicle can be damaged quite readily by improper voltages.

Because of this designers have at least a couple of lines of defense. First they use tightly regulated power supplies in each module to power the electronics and isolate it from the noisy 12 volt power in a vehicle.

Then modules have voltage spike protection to protect against very fast and large voltage spikes that the power supplies are incapable of filtering out.

When a large current changes through a jumper cable being connected or disconnected magnetic fields created around the cable can create large voltage spikes. When all goes well, the protection circuits can diminish them. Unfortunately protection circuits are not perfect, and sometimes fail or are too slow, exposing the the computer circuits directly to a damaging voltage hazard when jumper cables are connected/disconnected. The protection circuits can also be degraded by repeated stresses from spikes.

The other problem is the voltage regulator in each vehicle when both vehicles are running. These regulators were never designed to work with one another and are each independent closed loop systems. When connected together, they may interact in unpredictable ways, either damaging one or the other, or presenting unregulated voltages to one vehicle or the other. These unregulated voltages can potentially last longer than than a 'spike' and can easily damage the protection circuits in one or more modules. We have seen this quite often on the XK8 forum.

I completely agree, it is much safer to CHARGE the battery in the dead car with the donor vehicle for a few minutes rather than jumping it to start.

 

Yep , sorry you are correct. Charging system change was done starting in 2010 with the 5.0L

 

I'll add to what everyone else has said. Keep it on a trickle charger. My commute is 25 minutes of running at interstate speeds and my new battery went low enough after a couple days to give me some warnings. Of course it's not 'battery low' on mine but 'smart key battery low' or 'smart key missing' for a couple seconds. I had a spare set of leads for the battery tender I use on the bike and it's spent way more time on the car than the bike. In a way it's disappointing but I almost expect British cars to have electrical gremlins.

Oh yeah, FWIW, I remove the battery lead when I put the regular charger on it since the modules are confused and trying to power up.

Also, lock the doors when you walk away since it helps put the car to 'sleep' quicker.

 

Thanks for all the responses. I am drove the car tonight and all is well except it says the parking brake has a fault that can't seem to be reset per the manual. I did jump it per the procedure in the book; but in the future will do the "charge" instead of having the donor run. I am thinking that I had it in accessory too long hence the drained battery but after a few 10 mile drives the battery seem so be fine. May still have them put a load test on it though. Thanks again - I guess I will just need to get used to the concept that the battery is under some sort of load even when it is off due to all the electrics.

 

I installed the CTEK battery tender leads as one of my first actions as a new owner, just a few months back. Since then, I've found that I'm only hooking it up every few weeks or when ever I think of it... It takes about 24 hours to render a full charge for me, thus I'm very happy with the decision I made to add the tender option.

I'd offer a suggestion that you have the battery tested and make a purchase decision accordingly afterwards. I think the CTEK would also be a consideration, depending on your intended usage of the car. Best of luck and enjoy your new XK!

 

+1, I top of my charge once a week on average. Usually takes around 12 hours to finish. At least that is my guess as I hook it up at night and then check on it in the morning. It could have been done quicker but I am not willing to sit and watch it continuously to determine the actual time.

 

To reset the parking brake, press and hold the foot brake. While holding the foot brake in position, move the parking brake switch to the 'Apply' position

 

The parking brake has a couple of different components that can fail. One is the motor and the other is the module. You might have a part that failed and no amount of resetting will fix it. Have your local Jag mechanic look it over. As for the battery, if you drive your xk at least once every couple of weeks then you should not be experiencing any battery drain. As long as your alternator and battery are both in good shape then you should be good to go.

 

Hi there,
I have an 07 XKR and just ran into battery issue over the weekend after having the car over 1.5 years. Last year I drove it more than this year and this may be the cause for the battery dying but I am pretty sure it is the original battery in there. I jumped the car without knowing the negative issues that it could cause but luckly it doe snot seem like anything got damaged.
Anyway you got some very good advice from folks here. Over the weekend I read about CTEK and bought one as well. I want to see if it will help the battery before replacing it.
As far as replacing the battery yourself, yes it is an option but there are better options.
This is a hard to find battery and for instance NTB has it for $179 (special order.) Not sure what they will charge to put it in as it could take about 30 minutes. I also called the Jaguar dealer here in Kansas City and they said they have these batteries in stock and it should be about $250 installed. I think it is well worth to spend a little extra to get it installed at the dealer which is not something I can say too often
Also please see the repair manual for the steps you will need to take after putting in a new battery, if you decide to work on it yourself.

 

A new battery will be piece of mind. Batteries plus has the battery to fit. It may look hard to change the battery but it really isn't. I just climbed in the back and changed it last weekend.

https://www.batteriesplus.com/batter...00cca/sli49agm

 

When you replace the battery you need to make sure the new battery is fully charged. Sometimes Indies don't do that. In addition the dealer will, in all likelihood, make all the necessary adjustments after the new battery is installed or will take steps to make sure that isn't necessary. One other thing you may want to look into getting a GSM battery rather than another lead/acid battery.

 

Think your autocorrect kicked in. AGM battery.

 

You are correct, sorry about that. It was memory failure that kicked in.