I replaced my 1.5 yo EverStart H8 ‘wet’ battery after having countless weird happenings. (and yes it was constantly on a ctek) Bought the first at Sam’s club, was 6 mo when purchased, tested @ 12.8 when new.

Prior to a trip this summer I returned to Sam’s, asked them to test it, it came out at 730 AH capacity and was told it was within expected range. I pleaded and pleaded, met with auto manager…when I mentioned it was already 6 mo when purchased she did a quick search. Returned and asked why I didn’t choose the recommended AGM for my car. (her catalogue did in fact recommend the AGM for this car and many of the newer european computer cars)Told her no one mentioned it, she issued credit, purchased an AGM, slid it into the battey compartment (without breaking my 76 yo back)!

Happy days, the new battery tested at 13.2 at Sam’s, I charged for 12 hours prior to install, read 13.4 ‘hot’. Reduced my car’s weirdness to a very occasional frozen screen.

wj

 

Ok, quick update.

As I mentioned in sep thread, I’ve hardwired a Ctek.
It has completed the reconditioning and was successful. It moved to maintain, so I’ve disconnected it.
Driving to the barber in an hour or so.
Will check resting voltage, drive to appt. and pick up my kid, then let it sit overnight without touching anything and recheck tmr morning.

 

The best way to try to "recondition" or the best method to charge a brand new battery is with an actual battery charger....not the ctek.I know the CTEK has a recondition setting, but I believe an actual strong battery charger can do a better job. I'm not sure what the minimum amperage should be on this battery charger. I happen to have a 30 year old 10 amp battery charger that extended the life of a few batteries that were getting weak on me. Let us know if the "reconditioning" setting on your CTEK worked for you. Good luck.

 

Years ago I sucked it up and bought a bog ole Schumacher 2-10-40-200 amp charger reconditioner. It's saved several batteries since, and I use the 40 amp for power during SDD usage. Works perfectly wonderful.

 

Seems it did not. Still around 11.9v even though Ctek was green and said it was reconditioned.
very low amps. Looking into this Schumacher thing.

 

Ok, looking into those on Amazon.

Don’t care about the jump start amps as much
but what amp boost level?
What do I need?
If the cost isn’t much more than the Ctek, I’ll buy one of those.

These things range from:

Schumacher Electric Wheeled Manual 10A Car Battery Charger and 250A Engine Starter, 2-in-1 Solution, 50A Boost, $160

To

Schumacher Electric Wheeled Automatic 6A Car Battery Charger and 300A Engine Starter, 4-in-1 Solution, Maintainer, 60A Boost
$309

 

or a new battery for @ $200.00

wj

 

Shhhhh. That’s what my wife said.

 

Appears your battery needs replacement, so I'd do as both @wymjym and your wife recommend and buy the battery for $200. Then when you're ready, spend aboout $100-150 on a used Iota DLS-55 Power Supply for your SDD work (Iota DLS link). If you want to use the power supply as a smart charger, buy one of Iota's inexpensive IQ4 Smart Charge Controllers; for AGM or flooded, depending on what type of battery you decide on. The Iota DLS-55 should meet specifications of Jaguar's "1-224NAS - Mandatory Tool - Midtronics PSC-550 Vehicle Power Supply" when using their diagnostic software.

 

Thing is with all the posts above.... I have several vehicles, a few motorcycles and also powered lawn equipment. Also smaller batteries that also need maintenance and such. That's not counting SDD (car batteries act as a filter, completely cleaning the electrical signal, just as they filter the noisy power provided by alternators). Buying a new battery every time I had a low battery condition would be VERY costly. Also, friends and neighbors also use my Schumacher for various things. My Schumacher is VERY well used.

 

Whelp, y’all win.

Have Walmart+ for free, so was going to have the one below delivered tomorrow.
But then, somehow I ended up on the gremlins thread and saw this:
Tells me I’m better off just going to Wally World so I can see the manuf date and test the battery off the shelf.

Can someone share what they mean by “keep the old battery vents”? Not a clue what those are or what they look like.

Ironically, Walmart site says not compatible.

 

@Circumnavigator , the battery has two vent holes; one each side. In your X150, the vent on the negative side has a tube attached to vent gasses produced when the battery is charging to outside the cabin. The other side is plugged so gas will only vent through the tube.

Most new batteries come with a plug molded into the positive-terminal cap. Remove this and use it for the unused vent hole on the positive side of your battery. If your new battery didn't come with the plug, be sure to keep the old one.

Be careful removing and installing the vent tube elbow into the battery - it is fragile. I found that BMW (part number 61-21-1-377-835) is an inexpensive replacement.
.

 

This was extremely precise and exactly what I needed.
Thank you @KurtC

 

Whether doing it yourself or having one of the helpful youngsters down at the store do it for you, remember to brush up on the window reset procedure. Also with the convertible, make sure the luggage separator gets put back in properly.

 

They say that because your car didn’t come equipped with an AGM battery. Overly cautious on their part, no imagination.

 

@Circumnavigator , to add to @KurtC good information, be sure to connect the vent tube! Off gassing in the closed cabin environment isn't healthy.
Interestingly, the importance of the vent tube is not included in my MY Workshop Manual. But it is seen in the last picture of the attached from the 2010 workshop manual..

 

Thanks all for the info and docs, which I’ve saved in my repairs/manuals folder.

So continuing the experiment and saga, I left the Ctek connected overnight on charge instead of condition.

After about 10 hours, I opened the boot and tested the voltage with the Ctek on. 12.75v as to be expected.
Then I disconnected the Ctek and waited a few minutes. Measured voltage again. 12.71v.
Keep in mind I’m doing this across the connections in the boot.


So now, I wait. Will measure every hour or two for another 3 hours until the wife and I leave for the pub for cocktail hour and some college football.
I will measure again when I get home, while monitoring the voltage as I drive each way via OBD.
Then again in the morning, you get the point.

To help explain my obsession with these things, I was a nuclear engineer in the Navy and college was nuclear physics. (Technically P-Chem, but same same) with a focus on data, which is what I do now but in Marketing.
Therefore more data points over time with a controlled environment provides more accurate analysis and experience.

 

Starting post-charge - 12.71v
2 hrs sitting - 12.44v (2:34pm EST)
Drive to pub, sit 3h and drive home - 12.43v

 

Well THAT'S quite telling, isn't it.

 

Is your battery completely disconnected from the car?