Hi all. I am after some help with the audio system in my 2001 XKR which I have recently purchased. The system seems to comprise a radio cassette head unit and a multichanger in the boot. When I first bought the car a couple of weeks ago, I had to input the radio code as the previous owner had disconnected the battery due to the vehicle not being used for some months. The radio seemed to work ok, although I wasn't very impressed with the sound quality. I had not used the car for three or four days and found the battery completely flat which continues to concern me and I ended jump starting it carefully. Since then the radio has not powered up at all and there appears to be no sign of life. I've checked what I think are the correct fuses and can't find anything wrong.
I wonder if anyone might be able to help please.
Thanks, Andy.

 

Welcome to the forum.

The most important piece of advice concerning your new to you car is to make sure the battery is in top notch condition, otherwise you are going to hate this car in very short order.

Jump starting a dead battery means you have a battery now in a very low state of charge. Unless you charge it, or run it for a couple of hours on the highway, you will likely have all kinds of issues.

Also, a car battery sitting uncharged for a long period is likely not very heathy and may need to be replaced.

Once you have a charged/known good battery, remove the negative lead and touch it to the positive lead for a couple of seconds. This will reset the vehicles computers (including the radio).

At this point, if you still have problems we can take it from there.

 

Thanks for your prompt reply! I have driven the car for about half an hour I guess since then and all electrical aspects appear OK. I will take your advice and put the battery on a slow overnight charge and then remove the neg lead etc as you suggest. How long should I hold it against the pos. lead for? Also, I have an electronic battery CCA tester and I'll test the battery after the charge level has settled to see if the battery is OK or not.
Out of interest, assuming that all electrical systems on the car are Ok, what would the current draw be with the vehicle in a locked state? I am curious as how the battery became totally discharged in a relatively short space of time.
Thanks,
Andy.

 

Five seconds will do the job, then reconnect to the battery cleanly without bouncing on and off the terminal.

The car will draw significant current (up to an amp or so) after shut-off for 10-20 minutes in the locked state. Then it should go to sleep and draw no more than 60 milliamps. Any activity (opening a door, etc,) will wake it up again and increase the current draw for another few minutes.

 

Hi WhiteXKR. Well, I've charged the battery having disconnected it first. In fairness to the battery, my tester showed it to be in fairly good health, but bit of a top up charge seemed in order. Having disconected the charger and ventilated the area I then reconnected the positive lead to the battery and touched the negative lead as you suggested to the positive terminal for 6 seconds. Reconnected the neg lead, re set the windows and started the engine. Everything is OK....except there is still no sign of life from the radio.
I've posted a seperate thread about the fuses in the ends of the fascia, as I can't work out how they are numbered. The problem is that the fuses in place are nothing like the fuse order suggested in the vehicle Care Manual, so I'm not even sure if I have checked the right fuses after all!
Andy