Good morning!
1997 XK8 Convertible. For the past week I’ve had the amber “Poor Vehicle Performance “ light come on every morning before I actually start the car. She starts and runs perfectly and if I drive for more than 5 minutes ( with the light on) then shut it down, no more warning light for the rest of the day. No codes are being thrown.
Any ideas?

Nick

 

How old is your battery? Dying batteries throw all sorts of spurious warning messages in these cars....

 

Battery is about 2-3 years old. I’ll have it checked

 

I would suspect battery as well. When I let my car sit for a couple weeks, it'll show a stability control fault ever so briefly while cranking, which will go away once the car is running. If I drive it regularly or put it on a trickle charger, this doesn't happen.

 

Yeah. This is recent. Once I run the car more than 5 minutes, it all goes away for the rest of the day.

 

With these cars it pays to have a battery tender hooked up whenever the car is stationary for overnight or longer. You'll be surprised at how reliable they become when the battery always is 100%

Z

 

Is there a recommended battery tender for our cars?

 

there are 2 or 3 types that forum members are using , and like. I’m using the Deltran Battery Tender Plus. I’ve been using the same one for years with no complaints. I’ve even ran over it twice and did little more than scuff the paint. It’s tough and of course has the circuitry to avoid over charging.

there are certainly more sophisticated ones, and they have their proponents as you will see. Also costing more $$$ of course

You can do a forum search of “ battery tenders “ and come up with some recent threads on the subject

Z