Parasitic Battery Drain 2011 XK Convertible
 

Hey guys,

Hope everyone is doing well and their ride is fast and smooth. My car is 2011 Jaguar XK Convertible 5.0 Matte Blue

I got an issue i've been dealing with for quite a few months. Here is a little insight to the issue.

I've been waking up to my car's battery drained below the voltage amount to start the car. From what I know thats 12V, and so i've been using a booster pack to jump start the car, drive it around. Most of the time if I drive it for long enough, I can turn the car back on without the booster pack. But sometimes even if I drive it around for an hour, i'll need the booster pack to start it.

The back story.
I bought this car as a salvage, the rear right 3rd quarter was in a collision (not bad, but needed some light welding work and body pulling.) the subframe and car itself was find, it was more of a deep dent.
I had the car fixed and custom painted the entire vehicle. I've had the alternator changed, and from what the mechanic told me the battery was changed. (The battery was completely dead when i picked up the vehicle and was left uncharged for quite some time too)
The driver and passenger seats reset backwards, and i've been unable to bring them back forwards. I bought a Clone SDD to fix this, but unable to use it yet cause of the battery issue.
I bought a ctek charger and i've been hooking it up whenever i can, not always the easiest for me.

What I've done to test.
I fully charged the battery, and unlocked the driver door, hood and trunk. I've flipped the latch switches for all three to make the car think they are closed and locked. I've double locked the car with my key, and let the car go into "sleep mode"
I disconnected the negative battery terminal, then hooked up a multimeter to the negative battery terminal, and the other line to the actual battery negative port. I see that there is a 2.7 amp draw on the battery, i then proceeded to pull the fuses one at a time and plugging them back in under the hood, then i checked the fuses under the driver side wheel wall, then finally checked the fuses in the back seat.
After pulling all fuses checking the multimeter, and plugging them back in, none of them showed me the problem area or showed the draw decrease significantly. some of them jumped up and down 0.30 amps but nothing to bring the amperage to 0-1.

So now i'm stuck, i'm not sure what it could be that is draining the battery. Does anyone have any insight on what it could be, or a common issue maybe i missed?
Since i purchased the car, i've been unable to fully enjoy it, it's not spring in New York City and I would love to ride around with the top down.
Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated, is anyone is in the New York area, or has a shop nearby I wouldn't mind taking the drive out to you if you could help, or just meet up.

Thank you guys.

Hi!

What mileage does your XK have?

As to your battery issue: are you sure your current battery is good enough to run the car? If it was sitting around uncharged for extended periods, it may be bad even if not so old.

I installed a new battery in my 2011 Xk right after buying it 2nd hand, even tuI did not have any issues.

Br
ter

The first area I would go back and look at are the area's of repair. Both from any part of the harness being damaged by the accident or done by those who repaired it. Did the car run when you purchased it and before you repaired it after you installed a new battery? If you are drawing almost 3 amps there is a significant issue going on so I would suspect some sort of mechanical damage to the wiring system . Are you also putting out the correct charging rate with the alternator. Then the question of the battery comes into mind as maybe the new battery is failing. Have you had it load tested. As I mentioned it seems like a major issue.

I bought a basic battery tester from Amazon, it says the battery is good, but i'm not sure how accurate that is.

I've inspected the damaged area and the harness looks good, I can't see any place where it was pinched or any clear signs of damage, or exposed wires.

I haven't done a load test, not exactly sure how to do that or where to go. Would Autozone be able to provide that service?

The car did run find when I purchased it, they had to jump it too because the battery died, but since I took it to the repair shop, i don't know the status of the battery, they simply charged me and told me they put a new battery in. The physical battery does look new, i don't know if it went bad after being uncharged for a long time.

I had a new alternator put in and tested, it is putting out the right charge rate, so i know it's not that.

If I was to buy a new battery, which battery specifically for this car would I need, I tried looking it up, and there seems to be conflicting information. Some say get an AMG some say don't. if you know the code for the battery, i can find it.

Where was the car damaged and who did the repair. This sounds like a short someplace as 3 amps is a high load. After you charge the battery do it with the cables removed and let the battery sit for a few hours. Take a volt reading and see what you get. should be 12.6 V or better. Also places like autozone can do a load test on the battery. Also do a continuity check with the unattached positive cable to ground and see if you have a direct short someplace. How long does it take for the battery to discharge. Keep hunting and don't be afraid to go over areas that you looked before.

One thing about your testing procedure....
When you let the car go to sleep and then Disconnect the battery and RECONNECT it, that alone wakes up many of the modules. You'll need to let the car sit for an additional 45 minutes for them to sleep again with the meter connected. The way I do it is to have a heavy jumper from the battery to the cable and hook the meter up, then disconnect the jumper to test.

You PROBABLY have no problem other than a bad/weak battery, doesn't matter how old it is. Best thing is to take it out, charge it with a GOOD actual battery charger of at least 10 Amps, no 'trickle' charger or maintainer. An actual Battery Charger. Charge for at least overnight. Me, I charge it until it indicates 'Full', then I disconnect it for a few moments and reconnect. It usually again charges for at least an hour after that.

New batteries off the shelf rarely (if ever) have anywhere near a full charge.

The battery for the XK is group 92....I am pretty sure that your problem is related to the state of the battery and the history you provide gives absolutely no assurance that the battery is fully charged (and please note that the XK/XKR needs full battery voltage to all the modules; otherwise symptoms, random symptoms such as your car is showing, turn up.)
My own very recent history in this regard: 2007 XK, absolutely trouble-free car. Starting to show signs of battery decline strictly because of age (the battery was 8 years old, but always kept on a CTEK maintainer when not in use). The TPMS light started to come on intermittently. Next symptom: after the car was highway-driven approximately 40 kms, at a fuel stop it would not start...not even a click....time for a new battery. The CTEK unit had been doing an excellent job of masking the battery's age.
I bought over the counter the specified group 92 battery and the clerk assured me that it was fully charged, - note this, please: "fully charged". He then brought a hand -held battery tester and gave me the printout. The printout said "battery good". Uh-huh, yup....new batteries are almost NEVER fully charged and if the pattern of use subsequent to purchase does not involve long trips, it likely will never GET to be fully charged. Knowing this, before installing the battery I put it on my CTEK unit. The result? It took a full 36, yes, thirty-six hours to bring this new battery to full charge. Then I installed it. No further issues.

Virtually ALL (and any) electronic issues on the X150 models are related to low battery voltage caused by an insufficiently charged or faulty battery...we repeat this over and over again...
But your car has the complicating factor of accident damage so the advice regarding checking the wiring and connections carefully (including the battery cable connections - both to the battery and car body) is very valid and should be heeded.

Does it have a wrap on it?
Would love to see the color you are describing.

Oh yes, as the last 2 posters mentioned, you just need a new battery.
The first clue was that you let it go flat, most batteries never recover from a deep discharge.
That's why they make deep cycle batteries.

In your situation, I would get an AGM, because it has your name on it, it has the lowest self-discharge of any battery and its got the longest warranty.

Also worth confirming if there are any aftermarket electrical bits fitted to it or if any light fittings needed to be changed in the rebuild as I'd be looking at those first.

I had a dashcam fitted to mine that would regularly drain the battery, sadly I replaced the battery before identifying with a voltmeter...no cost as had a nearly new battery from my X100 in my garage...just a pain to do due to the location.

Good luck!

Instead of pulling fuses - which tends to activate all manner of modules - wait until the car should have shut down then measure the (tiny) voltage drop across each fuse.

There are videos etc about this if you look.

(A fuse is a small value resistor so if any current is passing there is a voltage across the fuse and not otherwise.)

^ ^ ^ ^ ^
I tried using the Voltage Drop technique described by Jag when I was checking my old F150, but I didn't find it ......... useful. Now, I'm not bemoaning the process, just that I didn't like it.

I got myself a clamp-over ammeter and have never looked back. I didn't get THIS one, but a similar one that can be hooked to a laptop and utilizes a program to track it graphically...

Hey guys, I wanted to give you a quick update.

First off thank you everyone for all your help, dealing with something like this is overwhelming and takes a toll on me. So thank you all for your help, i'm going to keep at it.

Today I went to pepboy's and bought a new Bosch AGM battery with 48 months warranty. had them install it and kept the old battery just incase I can finally work something out with the old mechanic.

The car start up perfectly and started running smoothly, as Cee Jay mentioned that the battery off the shelf rarely has a full charge, i'm hooking it up to my ctek charger for now.

I ordered a 25A battery charger off of Amazon today so when that comes in, i'll attempt to fully charge both batteries.

The area the car was hit was in the rear right quarter panel, just above the rear right wheel. the area is pretty tight for me, but I'm going to attempt going over it again in the next couple of days.

I'm also going to attempt to do the fuse pulling method to see if I can find the problem area, but this time i'll hook up the multimeter and then put the car to sleep mode. Hopefully with the new battery it'll help me find the problem area quicker.

Thank you for the idea of a voltage meter, but honestly I wouldn't know how to use it, what voltage it should be at, how to detect if something is askew, i'm not good with electrical stuff, i'm pretty shocked i picked this much up. Thank Youtube.

I will keep you guys updated on the progress also i'll take some pictures of the car to share with you guys!

You can not use the old method of pulling fuses on a car with smart modules and fuse boxes. Use your clamp on ammeter to look for current drain after the car has gone to sleep, approx 35 min.
You should see the current drop in two stages before all are asleep. Drain less than 40 milliamps is fine.
If you see a large drain when clamped around the Batt neg cable to ground, then you can go to the mega fusebox and check each of those cable to isolate what harness is drawing current.
Then follow wiring diagram to find what wire has the drain and what it feeds.
Any time you disconnect a fuse/module or consumer you will have to wait till the car goes to sleep again.

Actually, when you REINSTALL the fuse/module stuff wakes up on that circuit, and maybe anything that uses parts of that circuit.

It will 'work' if you leave every fuse out until you find the one with the big drop, but using a clampmeter on the branches will narrow stuff down sooner.

Does the XK actually go to sleep mode when the boot and bonnet and doors are open?

Absolutely, just takes awhile.

Me, I latch the locks with a screwdriver.