I've been having an issue with my 2010 Xf.
When I get in and start the car, I sometimes get the "low battery warning light" saying it will turn off the audio system in three minutes if I don't charge
It never turns it off, and the warning goes away when I touch the home button.
I had my battery checked and it shows its fine, but the guy said he couldn't get a read from the alt but it seems to be recharging as I drive.
It did this right after I purchased it, took it in to dealer and of course they charged me 250 to re program the computer. Started back up within two months.
I've been ignoring it lately since it goes away and I've never had an issue starting. It starts right up.
Any ideas?

 

Low battery warnings are all too common with late model Jaguars. I just had my battery changed in my 1 year old XJL and 4 days later I had an other battery warning. These cars pull huge amounts of battery power and those large discharges and charges appear to destroy batteries very quickly.

There is a small device on the Neg post of the battery that measures the exact amounts of charge and discharge currents and send the info to the computer which issues warnings. You may want to have the dealer re-calibrate or change that device.

As to how to tell if the alternator is charging: get a cheap DC voltmeter and check your battery voltage with the car stopped. It should read between 12 - 13 volts. Start the car and check the voltage again. Now it should read higher, over 13 volts. If the voltage does not increase after starting the car, the alternator is not charging.

Albert

 

I had this problem with my 2010 XFSC almost from day one. I purchased the car in 09 and it would always give this warning when the info center screen saver was left on to long or if I took to long to close the doors and the trunk. I had the electrical system checked on every regular visit and everything checked out fine. I drove the car until I traded it in last may so I just ignored it when the message appeared. Funny thing about that, It stopped for almost a year and then the message showed up the morning of the trade.. Go figure..

 

I bought mine with 6000km on the clock, and it had been used sparingly and mostly short journeys. The message would come after a couple of minutes. After a few months with 30km each way commuting it disappeared. The las year or so it has been mostly short journeys but still no message. My take on this is that sitting still had reduced the capacity of the battery. The car will cycle the battery to keep it alive so after a period it was back on form. Incidentally, if the battery has been changed the battery mo itor has to be recalibrated by a dealer or an independent with an autologic system. If not done that may give error message(s) forever. If battery is original you could try to disconnect and charge with eg a CTEC or similar with a desulphating sequence. Do not charge the battery while connected to the car!

 

All good info. I'll check out everything this weekend. Of course, today, it hasn't done it!! I swear, this makes it easier to use my xk8 as a daily driver!!

 

You have a ghost in the system like I did.. When people would ride with me places and they notice that message, Usually after I took more then a few minutes loading the trunk or holding the door open for ten minutes. That message would pop up.. I always said ignor it, Its my Jaguar ghost.. LOL.. From November of 2009 until May 2013 when I traded her in , The car never failed to start on the first try.. Another little ghost that I had was the E-Brake light would flash really fast when I open the doors, sometime it would flash several times. Again.. Never had a function problem..

 

The large battery draw is very real. I actually measured the Ampere draw on my brand new XJL after getting repeated warnings. If I had the door open and the two Jaguar silhouettes appeared on the two screens the Ammeter indicated 16 Amps. When I turned on the accessories and tried to load CDs into the hard drive without the recommended engine starts, it would be drawing 26 Amps. Those are very serious numbers and that is what's causing the low battery warnings only after a few minutes of doors open and computers powered up. That little device on the Neg. battery post senses those very large outgoing currents and the computer issues the quick warnings, telling you that you can not sustain those draws for very long before effecting the starting status of the battery.

Basically the factory recommendation is to start the engine any time you use the accessory mode but in practice even if you keep the doors open for long with all the interior lights turned on. I'm sure that the lights will turn off after a time delay but, the screens will still be drawing currents.

Since I mostly drive the car during the daylight, I have the interior lights permanently turned off to save on the open-door current draws.

Albert

 

16A sounds plain wrong. Opening the door should wake up a few modules in readiness for commands in addition to turning on interior lights / courtecy lights. Turni g on all accessories for an additional 10A sounds about right. Just for comparison I can sit with front reading lamp and CD player on for 30 mins before the warning comes, sometimes even 40 mins. And that with an 08 with original battery. BTW remember you can have the audio running without ignition and acessories on by the simple expedient of pushing the volume button, I have met people who didn't know so the lit up the whole xmas tree just for listening to radio.

 

Good reminder. I forgot about this feature even though I've used it quite a bit.

Low battery warning messages seem to be a frequent fault with this car. Mostly they are glitches and mean nothing. However, if your battery is getting tired (they slowly wear out just before they fail completely) you will get this message frequently. Batteries last about five years on average.

 

I actually did not know this myself. Apparently my salesmen did not either because when I commented that I found it absurd having to start a 5.0 liter engine, just to power up the the accessories to listen to the radio he just shrugged his shoulder.

I've just tried it in my XJL and it works but, it still powers up both screens, displaying the leaper on the instrument screen and the full menu on the touch screen. That would still draw a fair amount of current, I would guess.

Thanks for the tip.

Albert

 

I think you misunderstood my post, I would get the low battery message randomly. A example of this was when I would take a trip, about 500 miles,double park the car for about 15 minutes. Unload suit cases from the car and take them to my hotel room. Come back to the car to park it for the night.. Message would appear the moment I started the car. Nothing would be on except for the 10 to 15 minutes of the trunk being open to unload. Same message would appear when I would park the car in my garage for the night, Leave the car and then come back to get something out of the car. The nexts morning the message would appear.. I figured out that the screen save would stay on for a long period of time if I didn't remote lock the doors. To save this from happening. I would turn the radio on by hitting the volume knob, wait a second, hit the radio knob again, This would turn off the radio and the screen saver at the same time. The nexts day.. No message.. And BTW, This all happen when the car was brand new. Go figure.. They made change since those days with the newwer models. My screen save cuts off in seconds rather I have the doors open for a long time or I open and close the doors quickly to get something out. This is also the case for my interior lights.

 

Perhaps I slightly misunderstood your situation but, I got the essence, I think. You call it a "ghost" I called it before the "ghost of Lucas" referring to the horrendous electrical issues of Jaguars from the 1970s when they used Lucas parts

However, I have experienced very similar issues. The dealer finally changed my 1 year old battery. That was 2 weeks ago. I drove 190 miles from the dealer to home , parked and locked the car. 4 days later when I got in to drive it, the warning popped up again. Or, the day after driving 150 miles, I back the car just out of the garage for a wash. When I get back following the wash job to restart... warning.

Sounds like you have found a solution but, I have not yet. I always lock my cars in order to immediately turn off all computers and screens and, still get warnings.

Albert

 

No problem, Its all good.. I must have missed that post on the "Ghost of Lucas". But in all likely hood, Its a hit or miss thing with the system in our cars. My neighbor has a 2010 XKR, and he never had any electrical problems but he's been through two fuel pumps and water pump. This morning he told me that his right rear tire is losing air out of the valve stem. Only time will tell what might peak its head out with my 2013 XFR. I've already had to have my front right control arm replaced due to improper install from the factory.. No ghost yet... Knock on wood..

 

Those valve stem leaks could be from using the old style TPMS valve stems or from incorrect (usually grossly excessive) installation torque. He should replace the leaking stem with the updated part correctly torqued in inch pounds.

 

He was on line the same time I was.. LOL.. someone over on the XK forum already beat us to the punch.. I told him when we talked, that several XF people had a problem with the Valve stems. I also told him to lose those pepboy valve stem covers.. People have had problems with those as well.
One thing he did mention which is funny since we where talking about electrical issues in this thread. He notice that lately, when shuts the car down, his interior lights dim down alittle then brighten back up when he restarts the car.. Maybe a early sign of a weak battery???

 

Ask them what they did in addition to physically replacing the battery. If they did not recalibrate the battery monitoring system ..... But do not ask the direct question, they will most likely say yes even if the forgot the calibration.

 

First, my 4 late Jaguars have been exceedingly reliable, other than the nagging issues of low battery warnings, a common air cond. water leak in the XK and a trunk that would not electrically open in my XF. Total for 4 Jags since "05. Not bad.

Having said that first, please allow me to relate my "Ghost of Lucas" experience, just for fun.

Fuel pump:
Not sure if you know that the 1970-80 XJ6-Ls had two fuel tanks on either side of the trunk. Two fillers and also two fuel pumps that could be switched from the dashboard. Initially I was not sure why 2 fuel pumps as the fuel tanks were connected with a cross over hose. During my ownership I found out the secret; one Lucas pump would regularly die so you needed a spare one. I lost track how many times as I was heading up on a slight hill the engine would start to miss; after a while, routinely switched fuel pumps and replaced the bad one quickly before the other went out too.

Electrical harness:
One night I was driving on Hwy 17, a winding pitch-dark mountain road connecting the Pac. Ocean to the SF South Bay area. Suddenly all lights went out on my XJL. Before I could have reacted a bright red light appears in my rear view mirror. I pull over and watch the twin-likes of John Wayne swagger over;

"Sir, You ARE driving without your headlights"

My angry (towards Lucas) response came:

"No Crap, you noticed TOO..."

While I said that, I reached under the dash to shake the wiring harness, a standard Lucas fix. He quickly reached for his six shooter...

"No, No, No, I am simply trying to fix the electrical issues"- I said

His hand solidly planted on the gun, he watched me elegantly reach and shake the harness and, voila, the lights came back on. He continued:

"Sir, you gotto have that fixed"

"Fix what?... This is how Lucas designed it... oh, OK Sir, I will have it fixed. Can I go now?"

Yes, I can laugh about those issue now but, almost every day there was something happening to that car. Lights that go out at the worst possible moments, liquid leaks from everywhere, overheating in CA summer, blown head-gasket at 30K miles, a cylinder head that was stuck on the block and could not be removed due to bad design.....

That car kept me from even considering a Jaguar for 25 years. When I finally purchased my '05XK, I drove it home and as my wife walked around the car, her first words were:

"This is gorgeous...what is it?"

"A Jaguar"

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND???? DON'T YOU REMEMBER?????

Ha....ha....ha....

Albert

 

Lucas "Prince of Darkness".

 

Outstanding story.. Nice..Nice..