As you know I recently purchased and am using the Torque Pro app and continue to find different things with it. My initial intent was to just have something to give me water temps and voltage. So to set the stage when I received my car 2 months ago I put it on a battery charger and then put it on a battery smart charger. I drive the car 3-5 times a week and mostly around town at speeds of 30-50MPH. When I park the car in the garage at night I put on the smart charger. I notice when I drive and have the Troque Pro on the battery voltage runs at 13.4 volts. So yesterday i put the unit in my GMC PU and had to take a 1 1/2 hr drive at 60-70MPH speeds. At start up the voltage went to 14.7V. Mind you the truck gets used maybe once or twice a week. After about a half hour into the drive the voltage started to drop as the battery got charged. It finally settled out at 12.7V and while driving only went up to 13.2V. The reason I did this was to verify the 13.4 V I was getting on the jag. I would like to know what the max charging voltage is of the jag alternator just as a reference. 2012 XKR convert. FYI

 

The Jag appears to use a sophisticated charging system that fully responds to the battery state of charge. When I connected my TorquePro to my XKR after just disconnecting the trickle charger, the voltage during my 30 miles drive was sitting around an alarming 11.9 volts. After 30 miles it rose to 12.7, still in discharging mode. Those are DISCHARGING voltages. The car was actually discharging the battery after seeing what it considered an "overcharged" battery.

To prove my point, I left the car parked for about 3 weeks with no trickle charge. The battery voltage dropped to about 12.4 V during this period. When I started and and drove it the voltage showed 14.2, charging, which is a good, proper charging voltage.

Most batteries require a minimum of 13.8 V from the car's charging system to charge. Below that value the battery is simply not charging. Use that as a guide. In your case you saw 13.4 V on the Jag which is NOT charging, likely because you constantly have it on the trickle charger. If you allow the battery to discharge naturally, you should see the charging voltage over 14 V.

So, the Jaguar charging system does look at the battery voltage and adjusts its charging/discharging according to what it sees. After I learned this, I no longer place the car on a constant trickle charge but, rather monitor the battery voltage with a connected V-meter and after a few weeks of sitting and discharging I use the trickle charge to charge it back to full voltages. I did not like how the car was discharging at 11.9 V when it saw a battery sitting at 13.6 V following the constant trickle charge.

 

Please forgive a dumb question. But, I have a CTek 3600 which I have used almost the time on the xk until I got a flashing orange light indicating sulfation. Although I looked up sulfation, I didn't understand what the various writeups were trying to tell me. I would appreciate it if somebody could tell me what the term means and why it is important? Thanks.

 

Here is a link to explain sulfation:

Sulfation and How to Prevent it - Battery University

Interesting that you get that with a CTek charger used. Could it be that your driving routine includes lots of low speed idling where the battery draw could be substantial and the charging system would not be able to compensate?

 

Albert - Thanks. I just read the writeup and my usage doesn't fit the cause the writeup states. I'm going to check the voltage on the torque app and see what that says. I'll let you know the results.

 

For you guys with the CTEK, do you have the 3300 model or the 3600?

I have the 3300 model, and I just noticed that is is only rated for maintaining batteries up to 120 amp hours. Is the X150's battery 120 amp hours or less?

 

A typical car battery is rated at 120 Ampere-hours.

I use the CTEK 3300 on 3 of my vehicles.

The CTEK 3600 battery charger is ideal for use in cars, caravans, motorhomes, boats and, in fact, just about any vehicle or craft with a battery of up to 125Ah.

Like all models in the CTEK range, it can be safely left connected indefinitely to ensure that a battery is in peak condition when it’s needed. It is completely safe and can even be left out in the rain.

This model Ctek Battery Charger will charge batteries at a constant rate of 3.6 Amps per hour unlike conventional linear chargers which may be rated at 10 Amps or more but which can rapidly drop down to as little as 1 Amp.

The Ctek XS 3600 battery charger can be set very easily to charge Wet, MF, GEL and AGM lead-acid batteries

 

The standard Varta T8 is 90 Ah