OK, this has me stumped somewhat.

On "her" S type 8/01 build, 3ltr SE.

Flat battery, 4 days unused, not a happy camper, trust me.

Charged the battery fine, load tested fine, load tested again, still fine.

Current draw on the car, when sleeping is 2.5amps, about 2amps, or 24watts which too high, and the reason for the flat battery.

All the lights go out, including the boot, glovebox, puddle, etc.

So,spent the day unplugging the obvious, such as alternator, glovebox bulb, boot bulb, various fuses and relays, NO change in the "sleeping" current draw.

Compared the other Jags here, X300, S3, XJ-S, X308, all 0.5amps, which I know is considered normal. Even the Fairlane next door is 0.5amps.

Being the first "modern" Jag we have owned, I am a tad worried about unplugging too many things.

Is this a normal draw on these computer heavy cars??. I think not.

Any clues as to what others may have found, or what their cars draw when "sleeping" would be great.

As I said, the first gremlin I thought of was the alternator regulator leaking, had that in many cars over the years, but its unplugged from the car totally.

Edit: With the alternator connected and engine running I has 13.7-8 volts constant, so I believe the alternator is just fine.

As usual, thanks heaps in advance.

 

Hi Grant,
2.5A, way too high, should be around 0.32mA when sleeping.
Circuit diagrams will help you greatly with this problem and so will being methodical.

Everything that has an auto function, switch it off. Check that all courtesy lights go off after a few minutes.

Then start with the fuses that supply the various fuse boards one by one.

Hopefully, you should at some point find the draw.

 

Hi Grant, I have what appears to be a similar problem.

I recently bought a 2003 S-type v8 4.2 - beautiful car - but she kept losing charge. So I bought her a new good quality battery and all appeared to be fine.

However I have now had a flat battery on two occasions (all this has happened within the last month) and I'm starting to get concerned.

A couple of things which may be contributing to this behaviour:

1. My key fob remote doesn't work (due to a loose component on the fob circuit board) so I have to lock and unlock with the key in the drivers door;

2. When I turn the ignition off, I can hear a noise coming from area of the heater/ventilation/aircon set-up, it sounds like flaps are opening and closing?? Don't know how long this goes on for ??


The car drives beautifully without fault while the battery is good, but when the battery is dead is REALLY flat broke dead!

I don't have any test equipment such as ammeter or ELM to check to see what's going on.

Cheers
Dave

 

Thanks guys,

I have been out there until I was told its toooooo bl*&dy cold and to get inside, and as you all know, "we do as we are told by the spouse, NO".

With the DVM in -ve battery cable, and it is only a 10amp MAX unit, I have this 2.5amp draw, BUT, when I hit the remote (3 button) to lock the beast, the DVM display drops to zero, then back to 3.4, settling at 2.4-5 again quickly. Unlocking the beast sees the same thing happen, and I thought I had found something, BUT.

I know the X300 is +ve drop to operate the central locking, and I believe the "S" is the same.

So I thought I may have a locking motor, or something drawing this amps, but maybe not if you read on.

The "S" flashes the indicators as the locking/unlocking is happening, and 4 X 21watt = 84watt = 7amps, PLUS, the locking motors etc, so I reckon that the load is "overloading" the DVM, hence the display drop, BUGGA, back to the diagrams, and the JD.

There are 2 fuses, #7 and #24, in the passengers compartment fuse block (top place that is situated haha), that look after the Passive Security system, so tomorrow they will be pulled, and see what smacks me this time.

Keep thinking guys, she wants her XJ-S back, seriously.

Thanks again.

 

Hey Grant, good luck with it. Sorry I can't produce a link but I'm still in the early stages of my first cup of coffee and had to start the stinkin' computer in safe mode to get it to work...BUT..somewhere here in the S-forums is a thread of the same general subject (well, there are lots, but one in particular) where Brutal holds forth about the ignition switch barrel as a common and frequent cause of battery drain in the S-types.

 

Ahhh the wonders worked by a large cup of coffee:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...e3/#post257892

Maybe post #53 will help?

 

As usual, heed Brutal's comments.

Sometimes a drain is a bad relay and if so you can often touch each in turn and feel one that's warm.

Bear in mind all modules to go to sleep is 30-40 mins or thereabouts so measuring the draw & feeling relays then makes sense.

My meter blows its fuse if I try the kind of thing you did so can't recommend that!

(Just looking up SCP info for other thread. It's a differential system so of course one parks high and one low is what I recall but not the volts etc.)

 

Thanks again guys.

I woke at 3AM, seriously, with nightmares about that damn electrical section of the ignition switch.

I have rebuilt sooooooo many of the early Series cars switches I do it in my sleep.

I thought the makers might have sorted that by now, but it appears not.

The switch is "ODD" on this car, as in when going from "off" to "#1 access, the tendency to end up in "ign" is 90%, so a return twist gets "access", so maybe something after all.

Work beckons now, so another coffee, and gone I am.

 

As I'm having a similar problem with excessive battery drain, I thought I would start to look into the ignition switch suggestion, this morning.

The first thing I noticed was there is a large amount of play between the key insertion position and pos I of the ignition lock/switch.

Could this be indicative of a worn ignition switch?

Seems like the switch (as opposed to the barrel and switch) is relatively peanuts money - something like about £30.

Is fitting a new one going to be a pain in the proverbial?


Dave

 

Dave,

My area at the moment. I have the dash panels dismantled, and the electrical plug unplugged, but I am seeing NO way of getting the electrical section out of its hole. Obviously not holding my mouth at the right angle.

I am told???, that the "slop" between OFF and 1 is "normal, REALLY. I fail to accept this at the moment. This same source stated that Ford changed this item many times, as in updated part numbers, BUT, no one has ever sold one down here, so maybe it is not such a big issue after all??.

I will look at it more tomorrow, if work does not call me in, and see why this electrical bit will NOT seperate from the rest. There must be a trick, but so far no one is forthcoming with the "how to".

What I have found so far is:

These cars take about 45 minutes to actually "go to sleep". A knock out pill might be needed here I reckon haha. That seems an obscene time to me.

The catch here is that if the battery is not up to spec, and charge, it will never go to sleep. Apparently if the battery voltage sensed by the system, at sleep time, is under 11.5v it considers there is a problem and stays awake, so the 2 amp draw (that I have) stays at that and a flat battery follows next morning.

If I cannot get this switch out, I will spray it with "contact cleaner" using a tube, and see what happens.

NOTE. What I did notice, by accident, was the "flap" thingy at the opening of the ignition barrel was sticking, and apparently this is critical for sleep mode to take place. I have sprayed it with cleaner, and it now works faultlessly whenever the key is removed, so maybe??

 

Hi Grant, I'll be watching with great interest.

I tried a couple of different things today to ensure that nothing was being left on (to cause the drain), when I turned the ignition off.

I turned the CC off, then the radio/CD, then the ignition. When I turned the ignition back on, the CC was still off (good!) and so was the radio (good!)

However, if I turned the radio off by the round button, then turned the CC off, then double-checked the radio by pushing the "Audio" button, the radio was back on.

So I'm going to ensure that both items are switched off, before withdrawing the key in an attempt to curtail this draw.


Dave

 

Grant, if the flappy thing is stuck then the system will think the key is still in the ignition and therefore will not go to sleep. Always best to keep an eye on that one,

Dave, not sure - maybe worth reading your manual - but if the key is either out of the ignition or in the ignition at position '0', then the radio should not work. It should only come on at position '1' or above.

 

You are on the right track! Just keep going. 45 minutes is the correct time for the car to go to sleep. You need to unhook different circuits until you find the drain.

You are doing a lot of work but at this point you don't know where the problem is? I would keep trying to find the drain because that is real and you will eventually find the problem.
.
.
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I can turn my radio on (timed for 1 hour) by pressing the power button on it with no key in the ignition, this is by design, so even with key out the is some sort of power feed to the radio

 

It can be worth waiting the 45 mins then carefully touching each relay in turn looking for any that isn't cold.

 

OK,

THANKS TO ALL HERE AND AT JAGUAR.

Latest and FINAL update.

The state of the charge of the battery is critical in these cars, and lots of short stop start driving will eventually take its toll. When this will happen, or how long until it does is much like asking, "how long is a piece of string".

The flap thingy in the ignition MAY have been the culprit, i will never know for sure.

Tonight I did the following:

Battery -ve cable disconnected.

DVM, switched to "amps DC".

2 longish 3mm wire extension leads (about a metre each) with alligator clips on each end, with one connected to the -ve battery terminal, and the other connected to the -ve cable.

These leads then exited the boot and the lid shut.

The DVM attached to each of these leads outside the boot.

Initial reading was 4.54amps.

15 seconds later, 2.53amps. Interior lights went off, SWEET.

19 minutes later, 1.39amps. Damn, something is happening?.

28 minutes, 0.98amps, looking good.

43 minutes, 0.01amps, BUGGA, its finally asleep.

Just as well, the half bottle of JD bottle is now empty, and I dont feel the 3c degree temp one bit, got that warm and fuzzy feeling, but the cars asleep.

So, the end result is that the car does go to sleep, eventually. Now whether that flap thingy did cause the initial flat battery, as I said, I really dont know, but it was erratic in its operation mostly, once I noticed it being open by pure chance with the key in my pocket.

The spouse's short driving trips probably caused some angst to the battery, depleting its charge to that danger point, which, with a "pulse type" charger has come up a treat.

I will be putting the mighty S on a trickle charger once a month, just for giggles.

It is a time thing, VERY long in my opinion, and if the battery is lowish it will NEVER go to sleep, as I did confirm today, it does need to see at least 11.5v at sleep time to go the next step.

Hope this helps someone out there.

 

Glad to see you may have got it sorted.

 

Grant, great job in sorting it out. Tell the wife she could be more efficient in draining the battery if she would confine her short trips to night driving and not make any sustained runs > 15 mins.

My daughter depleted a 1 yr old battery in short order - wasn't afraid to walk across campus during the day, but always drove at night - 5 mins, max...Have since fitted solar panel to battery minder on both S-types.

 

I'm still trying to figure this out... After buying a more powerful battery about 6 months ago, I still come back to find my battery dead sometimes. I've now put in a kill switch which disables any power drain. I've checked the system for parasitic drains and can't seem to locate any. Basically it reads 30 mAmps after I first test it, then after the trunk is closed and I leave it for 15 minutes it goes down to 9.9 mAmps. So I assuming there's no parasitic drain. I think it is the ignition switch which fails to turn off totally (sometimes) which causes the drain. What is interesting is that I will make sure that the radio goes off and the lights just to make sure it's off, but I get up the next morning and it is dead, so I guess you can't really tell that it is off totally. That's why I installed the kill switch till I get a new ignition switch.

 

I had a car once with a drain that I couldn't locate. It was a car I might use only once a week.

It got so frustrating that in the end I would disconnect the battery earth lead after each outing - takes about 15 seconds - and had no further trouble.

It's not a real fix I know, but I just wanted to get on with my life.