Last week I got some good advice from previous forums on Long term Storage re: Battery Tender.
I kept my F TYPE S off the road for a year. Driving it only on very rare occasions. This month I put it back on the road and ran into a "Dead" battery.
I jumped it, started right up and took it out for a drive for about 2.5 hours running with 2 stops and starts; that was last Sunday.
Monday I bought the tender, thanks to the forum, and it took 9 hours or so to charge up. I kept the tender on the entire week and took it out again for another short trip, 25 miles one way and back, with one stop for lunch.
Tender 1.25A has been attached and on for 5hours at the time of this post. Still on charging.
The tender turned fully charged by the next morning and I kept it on 24 hours straight every day until this afternoon before the drive.
The nearest dealer is 50 miles from me. Does anyone have an educated or experienced opinion as to this being an issue, and perhaps some suggestions?
Battery Tester of course. New Battery regardless?
Thanks for any helpful suggestions!?

 

Welcome to the forums FTYPEV6S,

I've moved your question from Jaguar Forums Feedback & Suggestion Centre to F-Type forum. As stated at the top of the Feedback & Suggestion Centre, ....THIS SECTION IS NOT FOR TECHNICAL QUESTIONS.

Graham

 

Not sure I understand your concern. Is the battery dead again or are you concerned that the battery tender is charging?
Are you getting a low battery warning?

 

It seems the long charge on the newly purchased battery tender has "worked" to bring the battery back to life, but the OP is worried that the battery may not be completely healthy and he may not make it to the dealership 50 miles away without problems.
My feeling is that the battery was discharged too far to ever be 100% again and therefore the chances of future problems are high and the only long term fix is a new battery.

 

If that is the case, I do agree with you, but I am fairly certain that if the car starts, it will do 50 miles. There is no mention of an error message, so the alternator is OK. So making that trip should not be a problem.

 

Paul, Thank you for addressing my battery issue, and confirming the resolution: new battery.
I was just surprised how low the battery got after a 50 mile round trip with 1 stop. I expected the battery to be fully charges when we got back and I connected the tender for the weeks sitting. Then after 5 hours it was still charging, so I figured the battery must be damaged.
Since the dealership is 50 miles away, for me the is not a ride into town, I wanted to ask the Forum and again "You Guys" have given me well seasoned advice and observations to consider.
Also, your pickup of no error message indicating a problem with the alternator was a good realization there would be such a thing if there was an issue.
I figure once the vehicle is running I can drive it to the dealership.
Would you suggest replacing the battery myself, or is there something with Jags that should/needs to be done by the J Technicians?
I've changed vehicle batteries before. Is there any unusual consideration(s) to be aware of?
Thank you again for your attention!
Respectfully,
David Leonard

 

You should be able to replace the battery yourself with no problems and save yourself a pile of cash at the same time compared to the exorbitant amount a dealership will charge.
Just make sure to remove the negative lead (and earth cable) first and the positive lead second then reverse that when fitting the new battery - positive lead on first, negative lead (plus earth cable) on second.
A dealership will say "but you have to bring it in to us so we can reset the Battery Management System (BMS)" but this is BS, after three or four drive cycles the BMS will reset itself anyway.
You will lose the one-touch windows and Trip A and Trip B, see your Owner Manual for the procedure to reset the one-touch windows.

 

You are welcome and I double 100% what OzXFR just told you. That is sound advise right there.

 

Forgot to add two things:
Make sure the new battery is an AGM at least as powerful (CCA) as the OEM battery, and before you fit the new battery put your battery tender on it to make sure it is fully charged before you fit it. A surprisingly high number of "new" batteries have been sitting on the shelf for ages and are not fully charged.

 

Thanks OzXFR,
I appreciate your reply and observations confirming my concerns!
Respectfully, Enjoy Your Drives!
David Leonard

 

Great advice, I appreciate your knowledge and sound practical tips.
Best to you, Enjoy Your Drives!

 

Thanks for the move Graham,
Got really good advice and help from the F-Type forum senior members Paul Champagne and OzXFR.
Respectfully and Enjoy Your Drives,
David Leonard

 

There was a discussion a long time ago about whether the F-type completely charges the battery. I think it's isn't unusal to connect a batter tender, and have it take hours to get to full charge.

 

Your year long drain could have put the battery in a zero charge state for a while and might have damaged it. Modern cars tend to drain the battery in storage, it helps to lock the car to put it to sleep, but I always leave a window down if I down have my tender plugged in for an extended sit. As for driving it to charge, that doesn't work on any of my modern cars, the alternator doesn't output a high enough nominal voltage to top off an AGM battery.

 

Are we sure that FTypeV6S isn't having the reboot issue too (red hazard triangle lit) ? The first time I had that I tried to charge the battery with my battery manager without doing the reboot and it did not charge over night. I then used a volt meter to see what the battery situation was while still on the battery manager and the voltage was acting really flaky and jumping all over the place. I then did the reboot and put the battery manager back on the battery and it did a nice slow charge over about 2 to 3 hours and everything has worked perfect since.

 

That's interesting, why?

 

RacerX,
That's interesting!
Saw your thread and just went down to The Beast, uncovered it, looked inside everything dark. Opened the door illuminating, driver dials, Jaguar Touch Screen and... the illuminated Hazard button.
Now, the battery has been charging, just in my opinion taking longer than I would assume it would. ie. This past Sunday Starting out fully charged and returning with 2 + 30 min drives, there and back, I would think that the battery should register fully charged; but what do I know? I thought when it went to charge mode it would be at full charge "quickly" like an hour. It wasn't until morning when I checked its condition so 9+ hours perhaps.?
So this lit Hazard Button means a reboot is needed? I cannot find any info in the manual about this, at all.
What is your suggestion as to performing a reboot; if that is necessary.
Thanks for lending your insight.

 

Also, I checked YouTube and performed a google search, no luck finding anything about the Hazard lit and rebooting anything.
As an aside, someone mentioned when changing the battery to remember to remove the Earth cable. What is that and where is that... jewel?

 

I think the hazard light stays on when everything is (should be) dark when that fault condition exists. Yours sounds okay to me, though I could be wrong!

To get to the negative cable to remove it you have to dig into the bottom of the trunk/boot - you'll see the black cable coming from the negative battery terminal to the earth point on the floor.

 

RBSJ,
Mis read the originator of the potential reboot issue involving the Red Hazard Triangle being lit. Which it is.
So what does this mean and where am I able to get info on it for my reference?
I checked YouTube and Google, found nothing.
Are you able to walk me through this "simply"?
Much appreciated!