Took a four-day trip and returned to find the battery dead. Dead-dead. Not the end of the world, as I've jumped this car six or seven times since I've owned it.

(Before anyone jumps in about C-Teks: I've had ongoing issues with battery drain with this car (have commented on a few threads, and read every damned thread with the word "battery" in the title). Besides the practical issues --there's no accessible outlet where I park my car-- there's the larger issue that this is my daily driver. The car is started and warmed up daily. If a four-day break results in full battery drain, and I'm swapping out batteries basically every two years, there's a larger issue here. I've been chasing down the phantom drain for a while now; sadly, it seems the chase continues....)

Anyway, the AAA guy comes. We both know the drill, and do it right. He revs his engine for a good five minutes before we even attempt to start it, and.... half a crank, then click-click-dead.

So he revs it again, but THIS time, he takes my key fob before starting the car. I inform him that he can't lock the car since the trunk is open. He waves me off (his English is not the best).... and proceeds to press the lock button, then the unlock button. He does this ten times. After three or four times the interior lights shut down, even with the door open.

Then, he presses both the brake AND the gas, and presses the start button. The car begins to crank very slowly, which I've never seen before. (It's either one or two cranks then click-click-dead, or it fires up.) But this time, after about ten seconds of very slow cranking the engine fires up. I ask him about it, and he mentions something about systems resetting, and anti-theft, or something. I can't really understand him. Either way, I thank him profusely and I'm on my way.

But one thing is strange: the power steering BARELY works. It's not like manual steering, but it's close. WTF? No time to worry as I've got an appointment-- but when I go to start the car back up afterwards, the power steering is completely fine.

I've never experienced anything like this with any car, ever. Dead battery = bad power steering? And what was with the lock-unlock thing? Other than my ongoing Mystery Battery Drain, is all the rest normal?

 

The steering has electronic assistance so it is probably just another case of a module not starting properly due to low voltage.

Servotronic 2 adds electronic control and speed sensitive steering to the steering gear. The Servotronic 2 feature provides
easy and comfortable steering operation when parking, improved 'road feel' at increased road speeds and adds an
integrated, positive centre feel feature which optimises steering wheel torque during high speed driving.

The Servotronic 2 system is controlled by software which is incorporated into the instrument cluster. The software
responds to road speed signals and controls the power assistance via a transducer valve located on the steering gear valve
housing.

 

That is some bizarre stuff from your AAA, no input there!

The one thing I am used to with Euro car ownership is battery issues, my BMW had the same prolific power related threads like we see here. A friend has a Mercedes and deals with similar problems, after perusing his model forums seems like it is the same number of threads about power issues. Here we have a wide range of users that vary from no issue to some like you who have issues in a short number of days. My BMW chewed through a battery every 2.5 years. My Jag is tracking the same. While I have a garage and hook it to a maintainer every once and a while I typically go a week or two or three and then give it an overnight charge and don't have any issue. Others can't go 2 days, some on here never maintain and can let there car sit for months.

My Grand Cherokee is loaded with every tech known to man and has NEVER required a top-off charge or had a power related issue, why can't the Euro engineers get that **** straight.

 

Those with power drain problems often just cover them up (maintainer or the like) instead of finding what is wrong and fixing it. It's just a choice they make but I'd prefer a fix...

 

I'm with you. I'm like-- hello, Jaguar, I've owned lots of other cars, cars that have actually been left for weeks (gasp!) and have started right up, so enough about "Jaguar Electronics." Get your act together and take care of this stuff.

 

that sound like a theft system problem like the guy was trying to tell you.If you have a convertible where the top is going bad,rain probably leaked through your convertible top and leaked on the fuse box that's in the middle of your back seat.Or which could be good news instead of making a repair, your fuses just might be going bad and all you might need to do is try replacing all the fuses in your back seat fuse box.How i sort of know cause this problem sort of happened to me where i had to replace the whole fuse box.Your car security won't let you start the car at all like the battery is dead if anything at all is wrong with that back seat fuse box and if it goes bad

 

I used to work for the UK AA , the reason for the key fob locking and unlocking is to disarm the security if it’s still active after giving the battery some charge with the jump leads. We’d do this routinely if the car didn’t start on the first attempt, it’s just making sure it’s disarmed by locking and unlocking after giving some charge.

 

I've had your issue with the power steering also. It was very weird, hard steering.

I was diagnosing a separate issue and was starting/stopping the engine a few times in a short span.

Chalked it up to low voltage from all the stops/starts. Haven't had that issue since then.

u102768 explained it very well.

 

With all the fuses on this car it must a huge pain to diagnose a phantom battery drain!

 

You can just measure the mV drop across each fuse. Hardly the end of the world.

 

No lectures on the ctek pk144. While it sounds like you have a quiescent drain issue and I'm sure you'll get it resolved, thanks for posting this. It's news to me and interesting. Glad folks on the forum know this stuff. Fortunately, it happened in your driveway. FWIW though, I do carry this in my boot so I don't have to wait on anyone if I'm away from home.

 

Well thanks for confirming that I am not crazy.

In just over four years that I have owned my 2010 XKR convertible I have had to jump start my car at least ten different times due to a dead battery. I am also on my third replacement battery in that time. (Like clockwork, it seems to fail every 18 months or so.). And yes, on four different occasions I have experienced the weak power steering phenomenon that you describe above (after a dead battery issue), which also all went away the next time I started the car. Go figure!

 

Stop replacing the battery. Stop jump-starting. Diagnose & fix the fault(s).

 

Not sure how you would pin point a voltage drain with that method?

I thought you're supposed to hook the multimeter up in line with the battery then remove each fuse 1 by 1 and see if the current changes.

 

I read up on that Millivolt way, and I understand the concept. I never got it to work for me though, so I went back to the Amp Meter and Pull Fuse method.

 

Worst case read some of the existing threads / watch videos on youtube.

If you don't mind the endless waits you can try that way.

 

^^^^^^^^
The thing with using a flowTHROUGH Amp meter is that every battery reconnect wakes up a ton of modules and it takes up to 45 minutes for sleep to happen AGAIN.
I use an Amp-Clamp meter, and although it isn't near as accurate, it IS accurate enough to find a culprit quickly. No battery disconnects.

 

If you take your interior out and look at the wiring underneath,,it is undersized, not secured correctly and run like a 5 year old did it,, the x100 is even worse.
Your Grand Cherokee probably has twice the gauge in the wiring and the correct looms and fastening. The Jag really isnt built like it should for what it cost to buy but you can say that about a lot of euru Sports and Gt cars.

 

I don't believe it is undersized. It would burn out instead of being protected by fuse(s) and/or there would be problematic voltage drops - which there aren't.

 

What is "mV drop" and how do I check it? The only time my battery went totally dead was when I installed some rear LED license plate bulbs. Seems they never shut off completely. Anyway, went back to OEM bulbs with no problems since.