What kind if battery life are you guys getting? With and without a battery maintainer. I have a Jag branded battery labeled August 2012 that came with the car when I bought it last year. Today it would not start. Battery measured just under 12v but seemed to take a charge after about an hour and is now at 12.4V. It then started right up so it looks like it just won't hold a full charge well. When running, I'm getting around 14.4V on the terminals so charging circuit seems ok

Seems a 5 year battery is due to be changed but I know the ctek prolongs the life of the battery. I'm curious as to how much longer??

thanks

 

I had an 05 XJR and an 07 XK. I kept them both to aprox 50 to 60K miles and both on the original batteries. I live in central FL, drive 7 or 8 thousand miles a year and was always mystified by all the palaver re batt problems. Both cars were garage kept.

I did not use a float charger or the like and short trips were about half of my driving. My wife's 08 Ford Edge got a new batt at 50k and then again at 85k.

I was so concerned buy all the Jag talk re batt failure that I bought and maintained an extra back up batt that never got used. Go figure.

In general, my Jags batt life was better than expected.

 

Hi Shemp, five years is approaching end of life cycle for just about any car battery whether it is in a Jag or anything else. If you drive the car regularly then a maintainer should not be necessary. On the other hand if the cat only gets to prowl once a month then a maintainer would be very beneficial.

 

My first XK8 had its original battery and was still going strong at 9 1/2 years old. My current car is still on its original battery with no signs of weakness.
When not in use my car is hooked up to a CTEK.

 

Agree. From my experience in the Dallas heat, 5 years is pretty good. It's my wife's daily driver but it may sit on the weekend for 2 days on occasion. Since I don't know the previous history of the car and there were no battery tender leads installed when I got it, I think 5 years is pretty good.

Great! The new battery I will get tonight will be CTEK maintained.

 

This post made me look up the early history of the car. The dealer I bought the car for had sent me the history record from the original owner. They serviced the car from new. The battery was replaced in 4/2014 under warranty with 6500 miles on the car. I purchased the car with 6666 miles on it and so far the battery seems to be OK. I do have it on a smart charger when not in use and also plug it in after every run. So we'll see how it holds up .

 

I suspect that cars used as commuters, sit in stop & go traffic in hot climes with AC on have a much shorter life. I think of LA, Texas, Atlanta and the like.

 

I use a proper battery maintainer on my cars when they are not in use. The result? Absolutely no electrical issues at all, and battery life? Well, as a specific example, on one Jaguar the battery was 12 years old and still providing full voltage when I sold the car. On my XK the battery is now 7 years old, no problems. Maintaining a battery at full charge significantly extends the service life - there is no question about it.
In contrast, I had to replace the battery in my wife's X-Type in January...the battery was just 5 years old, but this car is in daily use, sits outside, and has never been on a battery maintainer.

 

Mine was 9 years old OEM. I'm assuming the PO had it on a tender as did I.

 

Respectfully, I disagree with your comments on this subject JackJohn. Different batteries have different life cycles. You get what you pay for. A battery maintainer will prolong the life of the battery extensively and well past 5 years if you have a 60 month battery, for example. There are also 72 month and 84 month batteries on the market. Of course driving habits always come into play as do battery types, weather, etc.

A tender is also highly recommended for modern cars and very specifically recommended by this forum for X150, regardless of how frequently you drive them.

 

Plus remember;
99.4% of all batteries sold in the US (not sure about other places) are manufactured by Johnson Controls.

 

I changed mine at 8 years, even though it was still showing to be adequate, but should have just bought the CTek maintainer. I now use the Ctek if I am away for more than 4 days especially in the winter months.

 

Well I got the new battery installed and went thru the reset procedure. I went with the Autozone Duralast gold. I use Autozone a lot and I had a coupon . 5 yr warranty 3 year free replacement so my clock restarts today. Hopefully the Ctek will get me past 5 years!

Now i have service required displaying. I assume it's because the BMS needs to be reset as the service manual states.....

 

I've been around long enough to experience the old 6vt batteries in deep cold Minnesota winters. They never lasted long. Going to 12vt really helped, but still the batteries failed "prematurely". But, there was plenty of advance notice before complete failure, enough notice to get to the battery store.
Modern "sealed" batteries seem to fail suddenly and without prior notice of weak starting. You can soldier along waiting until that complete failure, and probably get at least 4 solid years of battery life and maybe a lot more. Battery surprise failures are always inconvenient and never fun. I now replace a battery automatically at four years. Sure it costs a bit more, but I haven't had a battery failure in twenty-five years.

 

What's the current wisdom on what causes the most stress on batteries in terms of high heat or low temperatures?

Clearly both are the enemy of long battery life but is one more destructive than the other? Surely in the Western US and other places we get both extreams but which is most destructive?

 

I installed an Interstate AGM battery in Feb 2013, No maintainer, no jump starts, and still going strong.
However the car seldom sets for anything longer than 3 weeks.

Vince

 

Not sure if conventional wisdom has changed but generally heat is the killer of most batteries. As demand on batteries continues to increase, few cars still house them in the engine bay.

They seem to fail in the winter and do, but I think that's attributed to the additional use of accessories and the draw on things such as the starter, so up here in the tundra, we focus on cold cranking amps. We wear em out in the summer and it shows up when we need those extra CCA's.

 

On my classic cars hooked up to Battery Tender's, I've been getting 8 to 10 years. On my daily drivers, not hooked up to Battery Tenders, I've been getting about 5 to 6 years.

 

I bought my MY98 Coupe in 04, it had an OEM battery. I replaced it last summer, as a sort of profilatic thing more than anything else. The starter dragged a bit if I left it for a month or so without the trickle charger/de-sulfinator connected, and when it did the the voltage dropped low enough that I had to "reteach" the windows. If I used it regularly it was still fine. Amazing quality really.
Regards,