I know these cars don't like to sit over winter untouched and popular advice is to put a battery minder on them, but I have the car parked in a storage unit over winter and can't do that. The battery is dead again and I'm wondering what the best thing for me to do is. Since I haven't been able to drive it as often this winter as I did last, should I pull the battery, charge it, and store it until I can drive the car again?

 

The longer you leave a dead battery, the more permanent the damage will be to it. Definitely pull it, charge it, and store it in a cool location.

Now you get to see if your trunk keylock is working in order to get the battery out.

 

OK, I can't tell you what to do about your Jag, as there are experts to tell you about that, but what I can tell you is that if your battery (I am a boat guy, and dealing with batteries on boats is an art as well as a science) is cold dead and you put a charger to it, it will not take a charge. The battery has to have a minimal charge in it for it to take a charge from a charger. However, if that is the case, it is possible to connect it to another battery for a couple of hours to transfer some charge to it, and that then it might be able to accept a charge from a battery charger. As was stated previously, there is damage done to a battery when it is allowed to completely discharge, and, if at all possible, that should not be allowed to happen. I hope it all works out well for you.

 

My solution would be to pull the battery in the spring and use it as a core for a new one. These cars really need a full functioning battery to avoid all the gremlins. Being a boater also, sometimes it's best to break out your wallet and be sure, rather than try to get by and get stranded somewhere. Then care for the new one as suggested above.

 

OK then, I guess I need to clarify that you can have your battery tested if you are able to get it recharged to see if it is in good shape. If not, then certainly, you need to replace it. I thought that it went without saying that a bad battery should be replaced. Here is my recommendation, as a boat guy. Always keep all of your batteries at a full charge, and at least once every six months, use the feature on most chargers to rejuvenate your battery. I further recommend that you always keep a very good battery in your car, and have it regularly tested to make sure that it is. If that does not cover it, I am sure that someone else will give you some additional tips.

 

I also store my car over the winter month and I found it is best to pull the battery and bring it home and put it on a automatic charger until spring.At one time I would just pull the cable off the battery but after sitting for five months it was not strong enough to get the car going.Works good for me,others may have additional advise.

 

A suggested rule of thumb:

In a cold climate (like, I dunno, HERE maybe; tough winter) I'd set about a 60 day limit. If there were no way to charge the battery in the car (solar charging is an option) out it comes. Charging it every 60 days, or on a trickle charger, while it's out of the car should be OK.

The time limit could be extended to, say, 90 days in a warm climate. These are not so easy to find in the US this year. Seems we have snow on the ground in 49 states (in Hawaii, it's on top of a volcano, but still).

Just my $0.02 ...

 

You can simply install $6 negitive terminal disconnect

 

Keith
Take it to Auto Zone or O'reilly's they can charge a discharged Battery. The commercial chargers can charge a discharged battery, and they can tell you if it can hold a charge. The newer chargers will not charge a totally discharged one. I believe it will read five volts or less ( I'm not real sure about the voltage.) During this summer I left interior lights on in our Lexus and discharged the battery to 2 1/2 volts my smart charger would not charge it. Took it to O'reillys, they charged it and it's been fine ever since.
Doug
2001 XKR Silverstone

 

If you have a 1 or 2 amp charger, just slap the charger on it and leave it for an hour and recheck it. Sometimes it takes a while, but it will start taking a charge if it can be charged.

You could install a $6 terminal disconnect like cohibarandy recommends. It's quick and easy to use a terminal disconnect or you can just disconnect the negative battery cable for free.

Your battery gets drained over time because some of the electronics require battery power over time, presets, stored computer data, etc.

 

In my experience, once a battery looses charge all together it is pretty much shot. You can try various ways to coax life back into it, but it is always suspect and leaves me worried, because more often than not they don't last after complete run down.

I'd buy a new battery this spring, then for the following winters, take the battery out and keep it on a battery maintainer.

I bought my previous XK in '04 with what I presume was the original battery. I kept the maintainer on it every winter storage season and only after the winter of '09 did it get weak.

 

Thanks for all the response guys. The battery seems to be holding a charge now, but I'm thinking I might need replace it in the spring. I last drove the car probably the first week of December and while it's lost some charge before, it's never gone this dead in what is about 45 days. I was curious if there were any systems that didn't like to sit in the cold for long periods without power, but I can't think of anything that would.

 

Keith, I know you said you don't have an outlet handy, so this doesn't apply to you, but I have one of these chargers and it works great. http://www.harborfreight.com/10-2-55...ter-66783.html

If you look in the back of most auto magazines you'll find a full-page ad for Harbor Freight with coupons. Every couple of months they have that one on sale for $25. Their website also has a couple of solar-powered chargers. They have this one for only $20 and it sits right on your dash and plugs into the cigarette lighter.

No, I don't own stock in Harbor Freight, although I would if they weren't a privately held company.

 

I've got one similar to that. It's pretty handy. I ended up just bring the battery to it, rather than bringing it to the battery

 

Has anyone looked into Odyssey batteries? They are supposed to hold a charge far longer then lead acid and also weigh much less.

 

My battery is almost completely dead. I purchased a battery tender two weeks ago and the battery will not charge. I tried hooking it up directly to another car battery for four hours, then I tried the battery tender and it is still not charging. The radio is not asking for the code when I boost the car from another battery so it must have a small amount of charge but not high enough to accept a charge from the battery tender. I had a close look at the battery and it is the original battery. Can I hook up booster cables to the terminals in the engine bay and then switch over to a brand new battery to maintain the memory on the steering wheel, radio code and windows?

 

With an external battery (as opposed to a charger) connected to the jumper cables, right? Yup, that should work just fine.

 

The only thing that I might add is that if you have a bad battery (dead cell, so forth) and you hook jumper cables to it to try to start the car, sometimes the bad battery will pull so many amps that there won't be enough to start the car. Sometimes, you have to disconnect the leads from the bad battery and hook the jumper cables right to the leads. If the battery is only run down and not bad, you can hook the cables to it with the other car running for a while (20-30 min) to try to get enough of a charge in it to let you start it. Battery tenders (if you are talking about a trickle charger, not a regular charger) have a hard time trying to charge a dead battery. Good luck with your efforts.

 

I'm not sure about your X-Type, but my XK8 doesn't require a radio code (thank goodness). I was both surprised and relieved when I learned that.