Press them for new batteries in both the car and the key.

 

I'm going to try a different dealer this time. I don't think its the key batteries, but I could be wrong.

 

I don't think it is either but ruling it out makes sense. Let me guess, you started at Bellevue and now you're going to Seattle...

 

Started in Tacoma which is where I bought the car. Might go to the Lynwood one tomorrow. Not a big fan of the Bellevue dealership.

 

I started getting service in Bellevue and ended up switching to Tacoma. Bought the car in Idaho. Not a big fan of the Bellevue dealer either. The Lynnwood one has the same owners as Bellevue but the service department is supposed to be better. Having poor service spoils everything. I would love to find a good indie at this point but the car is so new that kind of steers me back to the dealers.

 

Iv'e owned nothing but foreign cars since '91 have had to use a battery tender. Longest I've been gone is 18 days, none of the German cars or the Range Rovers. Our Maserati is a whole different story. Went dead after being driven for 2 days around town, flat bedded in and found battery at 60%. You would think it would start, they found nothing else wrong. Reconditioned the charge and gave me a readout at 100%, no problem since for 3 months. I looked at battery and it is the strangest looking thing. Now it has the trickle pig tail attached if I need it. At the end of the month the Jag will sit for 3 weeks, I have had 0 issues with the battery and it does look normal but I'm undecided about charging .I can have it started every few days but not driven.

 

Sorry forgot word"never" in first line.

 

Very interesting. Good news for someone like me who drives just about every day but usually for short distances. The battery is topped off every day after a 10-minute drive.

Would you mind sharing your source on this "unique Jag charging system"? I'd like to read about it.

Thanks.

 

I saw it somewhere on the forum, probably in the XK section. If I run across it again I will post a link. I think it was a thread that related to failures of the navigation screens. They apparently don't last the life of the car because of this engineering decision.

 

My XJR, XKR and now my Ftype R have all been left for weeks without a charge and start up fine and no gremlins.

At one point in the winter, my XKR warned of a low battery after sitting for weeks, still started up, and once I drove it awhile it was fine. One reason I have not had issues may be that all three cars came right from the factory and did not sit on a dealer lot, causing the battery to discharge.

The only time my F would not start was because I was too fast with pushing the start button without getting to the brake first.. I believe the brake has a sensor that if not engaged, or not working properly, then pushing the start button will only turn on the accessories, but not the ignition.

Last winter I decided not to drive the F, so I connected a smart charger to the boost posts under the hood and it was good that way months later.

The dealer you went to is not very 'sharp' as you can disconnect the small battery to kill off the annoying stop/start system, without affecting anything else. ..Surely they tested your main battery.. Your problem likely lies elsewhere and I would think a good dealer should be able to sort it.
Lawrence

 

Lawrence,

My experience has been the same as yours. Nonetheless it is odd that it would take a trickle charger/maintainer more than 24 hrs to top off a battery in a car that was driven on that very same day.

I drove my car yesterday, and hooked up the Battery Tender right after to check again on the amount of time it would take to charge. 18 hours later, I still have a solid red light indicating it has not yet reached the 80% charge level.

Given that, I would expect an F-Type left sitting without a battery maintainer routinely hooked up would need much more frequent battery replacements than the average car.

 

Me confused.

If, as Nookieman writes, "the unique Jaguar charging system allows over 15 volts right after startup for something like ten minutes in order to top off the battery," then how can Foosh's battery, hooked up to a charger right after driving (previous post), still be at less than 80% after 18 hours?

 

I know what you are saying as I noticed that when I took my tender off the car for a day last winter( I was using the extension cord for something else) it seemed to take close to a day for the light to go green once I put it back on and that seemed odd to me .. yet the car or previous Jag's have not exhibited any ill effects, with our without tender, although I wouldn't let any modern car sit for over three weeks without a tender, especially in winter.
Lawrence.

 

My car also takes a full 24 hours on a trickle charger once or twice a week to maintain a full charge and I drive it daily. The extra volts after startup is obviously not enough to get the battery up to a full charge around town, especially if the top is going up and down frequently. I think either the battery is inadequate, or my particular battery is defective, or both. I plan to replace both batteries at 15,000 miles which should be next month. Meanwhile the Ctek is getting a workout.

 

The Jaguar accessories website shows their (Ctek?) trickle charger with a cigaratter adapter.

http://www.jaguarusa.com/Images/5-22...cm97-36307.pdf

 

I think the harness on the jaguar branded charger (which you must buy with the charger per the catalog) has a female cigarette lighter plug on it. This would explain the photo in the catalogue.

The 12v accessory socket on the console is switched. It won't charge the car when it is switched off.

I just hard wired my Ctek charger into the battery box in the trunk per Jaguars installation instructions. There is a thread with pics on this site. Took about 20 minutes, including some minor fiddling with the connectors. The ground connection had to have its connection bored out a little with a dremel to actually fit on the recommended ground pin. It's piggybacking on one of the battery ground wires. I also had to trim back the heavy nylon insulation so the ground nut would tighten down fully. The hot side fit without any persuasion.

After the car was fully charged, I drove around with a voltage meter plugged into my 12v outlet. Driving on a full charge, I was seeing a pretty consistent 12.1 volts with occasional spikes to 14.7. The battery voltage at rest was 12.4. My wife's cadillac puts out a steady 14.4 with the same gauge. My VW puts out 13.8 on a fairly old battery.

I think my f-type main battery is toast and I think it may have taken the voltage regulator with it. The spikes of higher voltage may be when the second battery is in the charging circuit. I suspect the secondary battery may switch in and out of the circuit periodically.

I am going to try to get a new battery tomorrow, and after it is in if I don't see over 14 volts I am going to try to get an alternator or at least a regulator as well.

There is a recall for loose power wires on the alternator but it only affects a couple of hundred 2015 models. It's possible that the same issue is going on with some cars outside of the recall range.

 

FYI . . . for those considering purchasing a trickle charger/maintainer . . .

That's my car with the photo of hard-wiring the maintainer per the JLR instructions. That's a Battery Tender Plus, which requires no modification of the connectors. The red (+) connector fits perfectly over the threaded connector in the battery buss, and the black (-) fits perfectly over the ground point on the floor of the trunk. I was also able to thread the red lead through the opening on the battery buss with no trimming, and the lid latches tight.

 

Finally got a call today regarding my car. It seems it was not an electrical / battery problem. It seems the fuel pump needs to be replaced. I will be able to pick it up tomorrow! Hope that does the trick.

 

I was told today that the problem that was causing the low voltage on my car and making it throw codes was software related. The issue cited was bad code in the "gateway control module"

Apparently there is a recall, although I did not find one when I searched my VIN. The software has to do with the battery telling the car whether or not is charged. Basically the battery was lying to the alternator.

They claimed the battery passed their tests but since it took 36 hours to charge it last time, and it never read fully charged even then, I bought a new one. $391.56 installed.

On the way home my volts gradually increased from 12.4 to 13.1 with occasional spikes to 14.7. I am assuming the new battery was not fully charged and the increase reflected it gradually charging as I drove.

 

My last Battery Tender plug-in also took 36 hours to reach full charge right after driving it for 50 miles.