OK, so I have run into my first significant problem with my 2003 XKR Convertible. I went to start my car last night, only to be met with a very week battery upon trying to start the car. I had a bad feeling when I put the key in the ignition, and turned it to position two, for the start up check; I did not think that I was hearing all the normal sounds and clicks, associated with the pre-start key position. I did not even get a full engine crank before tick, tick, tick and a barrage of strange messages flashing across the screen, 'DSC', 'FWD ALERT', 'CHECK REAR LIGHTS' etc. Then upon opening the door the window dropped with each pull of the handle, great as I just bought this battery two month's ago, and the trunk switch inside the car would not open the trunk, but the key still will.

I had cleaned the ignition door flap prior to this, but it never seems to close completely, ever, over the hole, it has been like this since I purchased the car; there is always a small half circle, towards the front of the ignition cylinder hole that remains open. Is that it's true closed state?

However, I did do one thing that I have only done once before the ~36 hours it sat before this occurred that may be at fault, if it has the same door flap as the ignition cylinder. I opened the trunk with the key. I have not used the key to open the trunk since I bought the car a year and eight days ago. Then like magic, (black magic), ~36 hours later the car is dead.

I need to go and disconnect the battery, and put a charger on it, but I would appreciate some input about the trunk cylinder. I plan to use Black Graphite lock cylinder lubricant powder in both cylinders, which comes in a small applicator tube, but I am concerned it may shoot past the ignition cylinder and into the steering wheel electronics. Is this a valid possibility? Or, is the ignition cylinder an actual sealed cylinder, that will contain the powder, and keep it from contaminating anything else?

I changed the battery because it was going flat and I did not know it's history. Although it had new labeling, my sister, who had worked for a battery store and auto-shop in the admin. dept. while in school, told me that they routinely collect old batteries, clean them up, charge them overnight, and if they hold a charge, they would re-label them and sell them on as new, without telling the customer.

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated, as this is the first, and hopefully the last time, (don't laugh), that my car leaves me stranded.

 

Load test the battery, could be bad though it is new??
I don't believe the door on the ignition closes all the way but when you do pull the key out you should hear a decent CLICK sound.

 

There is no comparable keyswitch on the trunk lock.
It is possible, however, that there is a problem with the 'trunk open' microswitch. Once you you charge the battery, if you have a 'boot open' message with the ignition on and boot closed that would be an indication of this problem.

If that is not the problem, I agree, have the battery load tested.

If you do not drive the car for weeks at a time, and then just take very short trips, this also could be drawing your battery down.

 

Thanks for the input guys,
I will take it back to Les Schwab after the battery is charged for a test, as for the flap, I usually do get a solid click when removing the key, and I try to remove the key with a quick motion to ensure this. I did however, forget to mention that when I cleaned the flap, the small paint brush I was using to apply electronic cleaner got stuck in the flap, I have been thinking that a bristle or two may have become stuck inside, I will have a look with a magnifying glass and bright light and tweeze them out if they are there while the battery is disconnected and charging.

Any thoughts on the Graphite lock lubricant?

I do drive it almost everyday, but around town mostly and I do try to hit the highway when I can, but it is only for distances of a mile or two, and a thirty mile trip once a month, I am afraid the distance traveled may not be enough to keep the battery fully charged.

 

A recent battery replacement resolved similar issues with my car - I was getting error messages, problems with starting up, windows sputtering, etc. It was all a dying battery.

I don't think batteries last very long on XKRs, and they seem to shorter-lived with low-mileage use.

Specifically with the sputtering windows, once you get your battery replaced or charged, remember to reset each window by holding each windown button all the way down until you hear a click then holding all the way up until you hear a click. For a couple years my whole family thought the Jag's windows were broken until I learned how to reset them....

 

Tonight as of 1945 hrs., PST, my car is dead. I disconnected the battery and put it on the charger, and the first thing I see is the inside of the post clamps are corroded, with what appears to have been a half-***'d attempt at scraping the insides with a plastic butter knife. When I took the car in, I specifically asked the tech if he would check the insides of the clamps, and clean them, even if they looked clean, and offered him my new post/clamp cleaner tool I had in my pocket, he declined saying he had his own, and sure, no problem. So I have cleaned them myself now and will see what happens when the battery is charged.

I put a meter to the battery and it measured ~1.35 V as opposed to last night, no meter reading, but all dash lights, interior, etc were lit, and the door open with key in ignition 'bong' seemed kind of weak to me, along with the normal key in ignition sounds I am used to hearing being absent. I was afraid the battery charger would not begin it's cycle due to how low the battery voltage was, but it fired right up and confirmation with the meter showed it was putting out a fairly steady voltage of ~7.40-7.51 to the battery for around the first hour or so, and is now ramping up between ~5.40-~10.43V in sustained bursts. I may mount this in the trunk because it is a battery tender as well, and has the eyelets to mount directly to the battery posts and is microprocessor controlled, there are no buttons or switches anywhere on the charger, according to the instructions, it detects and applies the correct voltage curve to the battery it is connected to, either 6V or 12V, blah, blah, blah.

I examined the key hole with a magnifying glass, no bristles left behind from previous cleaning attempt, and I saw that the top of the flap that appears to remain open is actually curled inward along the top edge, close up examination with the magnifying glass and a bright head-light and I was able to see that it is still gummed up. I cleaned some more gunk away and it had to be done with the flap held open to get in between the flap and where the flap seats, and get at the gunk that was causing it not to close all the way and put the car to sleep; it swings open and closed like a door that can not latch because of too much insulation (gunk). Now it's making a very loud, sharp and noticeable CLICK eight out of ten times when removing the key, the two failures made it easy tell the difference now, they sounded muffled, with the flap hitting the soft gunk and not closing fully. Since I have the battery disconnected, I would like to shoot some electronics cleaner into the ignition cylinder and 'hose it out', followed by canned air and allowing it to dry completely, then finish with a couple of squeezes of the tube of graphite lock lubricant powder. Although I am worried that the ignition cylinder is not sealed, and the cleaner, and far worse the graphite powder will spray out of the end of the ignition cylinder and onto the wiring and other electronics inside the steering wheel housing which would make a huge mess; does anyone know if the ignition cylinder is a sealed unit?

So the dirty ignition, along with the corrosion is hopefully the problem and not the two month old battery.
Thanks for all the suggestions, I will post results when the battery is charged and re-connected, and hopefully the ignition cylinder will be cleaned and lubed as well.

 

0317 hrs., PST, battery is at 12.35V---0401 hrs.,battery is at 12.43V, I believe the charger goes into tending mode at 12.50 volts, I will check again in 10-15 to make sure it switches over then leave it alone for the next three hours or so, then re-connect the battery, after I deal with the ignition cylinder. I may remove the knee bolster, and try to remove the bottom casing of the steering wheel to see if the ignition cylinder is sealed or not, and if not, I am hoping I will be able to cover it with a cloth or something.

 

The ignition switch assembly is mostly sealed; you shouldn't have any concerns about the spray fouling any of the other steering column components.

You can actually remove the ignition key barrel and take it out for a good cleaning. It's kinda hard to describe, but there is a recessed pin/plug on the side of the switch, which when depressed allows you to remove the barrel by inserting the key, turning to the accessory position and then easily pulling it out. (Turn to the accessory position first, then depress the pin)

I'm not a big fan of the graphite lube, as any residual film will collect dust over time. But that's just an opinion - I've don't have any data (or horror stories) to support it. However, the electronics cleaner does sound like a good treatment to get that gunk out.

Make sure your glove box and trunk lights are turning off when they're closed. Set your cell phone to video, put it in, hit record, close the compartment, re-open, play back the recording.

I think cleaning those battery terminals will make a difference too. I was getting all sorts of wacky alerts once, and found that the ground terminal had only been hand tightened (barely). I cleaned the terminal and tightened - no problems for two years since. The proposed correlation between daily driver and long battery life may have some validity. My battery is almost four years old and shows no signs of weakness. It's gone over 85K miles in 3.5 years.

 

"I'm not a big fan of the graphite lube, as any residual film will collect dust over time." QUOTE:

Thanks Jim, The graphite lube is actually a dry powder, which is where my concern comes from, as when you squeeze the tube, it shoots out a puff of gunpowder colored, extremely fine powder that will settle over, and completely encompass anything it comes into contact with, and I fear it getting into the pins on the connectors, it can really be a mess to work with.
Ah yes the glove box, I did open that a few days ago, hmm. I had noticed the light in glove box was loose, and I had concerns that closing the lid could actually push the plunger switch away, rather than depress the 'plunger', shutting off the light, I will check that as well. The trunk lights were unplugged when I bought it, and work when plugged in, they just do not shut off, I will address the trunk latch micro-switch at another time, for now they remain unplugged.
Thanks so much for the cylinder removal procedure, I may go that route just to get a good look at it, and if dropping the bottom casing on the steering wheel is not too involved, I plan to remove that as well, for a quick look at the wiring, because other wiring, behind the knee bolster for example, was a mess after some PO recall work, or when they replaced the latch hoses, I have some pics to post later showing the connectors and wiring shoved here and there, actually wadded up and crammed into or behind anywhere it would stay long enough to get the bolster back on, instead of being clipped back onto their mounting brackets which were bent to hell and had to be bent back, it was a total mess of wiring, but I got that straightened out, and want to make sure the rest of the wiring is not in the same state.

 

Back to the battery; I removed it from the charger this morning at ~0430 hrs., pst, and the voltage on the battery alone was holding at 12.33V. I decided to let it 'stand' for a couple of hours, which turned to ~10 hours, I fell asleep, and just went out to check the battery voltage. It is holding at 12.08V, and I reconnected the charger for another round. I do not know too much about battery dissipation rates following a full charging session. Does anyone know if this is an acceptable rate of drop over the ten hours it has been disconnected and standing, and considering it was recharged from ~1.37V back to 12.33V, then allowed to 'settle' after removing the charger?

Thanks again.



"Sleep, those little slices of death; how I loathe them"