I've been away for a month on the Continent using my other car so the XK was parked up in the garage. Normally I'd put it on a CTEK but decided to leave it just to see what happened.

The XK is my daily driver and the battery was fitted in June 2013. The car was locked with the alarm set. On my return it started immediately with no error codes.

Admittedly modern Jaguars are sensitive to battery condition but we do see many posts verging on paranoia when it comes to maintaining on a charger even for short periods of inactivity.

Graham

 

If your battery is relatively new, sitting a month without problems is probably not an unusual occurrence. In fact I would expect the car to start right up, and not otherwise act wonky. I think we begin to see the electrical related issues when the batteries are significantly degraded, but appear to be OK, For most of us the only time a battery seems important is when we go to start the car. If it starts, then we forget about it and assume its OK.

I'd be interested if anyone knows the acceptable parasitic current drain for the X150. If my memory serves correctly, in the XK8 current draw at rest, after the systems 'go to sleep', iin mine is about 42 milliamps and Jag says it should be 22-28 mA. So I;ve got a module that's using to much, or a tiny ground fault., etc.

 

I've left my 2004 STR with a 6 or so yr old battery and no tender and had no issue so I think some cars have a drain they should not have. Also, some are not driven far enough.

Either (or both) cause trouble.

So... info on quiescent current...

 

Looks like X150 should be under 30mA.

 

Mine is a four year old battery and I've previously averaged five years before requiring replacement on other Jaguars I've owned. They seem to suddenly deteriorate rather than gradually.

I was expecting possible problems but pleasantly surprised to find none.

Graham

 

If you want to burn out your battery, one way is to leave the key fob in the car or in the garage right next to it. This was told to me by a Jaguar Service Advisor.
And now this from the Chicago Tribune: "Leaving the device in the car, or even within the proximity communication range, may be detrimental. Quite often, the transmitter and receiver continue to communicate. This may keep the vehicle's controller area network bus and modules awake. That can kill the car's battery. Chances are the remote's battery will be OK. By the way, the doors won't lock if the remote is left inside the car."

 

My 2001-10 X-Type had its original battery (a date was stamped onto one of the connectors) until 2014-10. By then, the car had racked up an average of 4400 miles per year. I never used a charger on it, though I did top up the battery water at some point. It was still working seemingly well, but as it failed a cold cranking amp test, I replaced it with a new one to prepare for the winter. While the car never seemed to struggle with starting, it started noticeably more eagerly with the new battery.

I think my parents are still using that battery somewhere, probably on their boat.

 

I've only met this with the new keyless entry type things. I've left my S-Type (Tibbe key with jag fob) close by for extended periods without problem.

 

hmm, by "new" I don't really mean very new but hey they're newer than the STR!

 

That is not quite correct, not compared with my 07 XKR anyway.

Firstly, I can lock the car using the fob whilst I am inside it. I also found that if I unlock the car, don't open any doors but lean in through the open window and leave the fob on the dash, the car will autolock again after a few seconds.

The only place it does seem to detect the fob is in the boot. If I pop the locked boot using the fob, leaving the rest of the car locked then place the fob in the boot and shut it again, the car will sound an alert and won't autolock the boot. That makes sense because it is reasonably likely to happen because you might put the fob down on the boot floor to open a bag etc then forget to remove the fob again.

 

,,,Mine did.

 

I wonder what they define as "close proximity"? The remote for my 2001 Lotus Esprit needs to be within about 20 feet or so to reliably work, sometimes closer, but rarely (maybe once or twice in the past 8 months) further away.