Hey JaguarForums
You guys are seriously my favorite place to come for advice and tips on the care and maintenance of my old cat.

Now from reading around it's pretty clear that the older models have electrical problems, which seems to be my case. '99 XJ8 btw.

Basically my battery dies, not daily but at least 3/4 times a day i'll need to jump start or use a trickle charger over night in order to start.
I had a mechanic check my alternator and battery while replacing my spark plugs and he said they both looked fine.
He was mainly doing my spark plugs so idk how thorough he checked them, but it so what's killing my power?

He did mention there could be a short but isn't an electrician so that's about all he could help me there.

So any tips, advice, previous experience from our board members?
I should mention, if its relevent, i installed 10000K HID's myself, i usually always charge my phone while driving but aside from that i keep the dash light dim and try to conserve power.
I'm stumped.

 

The first step is to have the battery load test performed. Autozone, Advance, etc. After that the connection to the starter and the ground cables.

 

Be sure to check down in your positive cable from the battery to the distribution post for corrosion. I was having a somewhat similar scenario and was cleaning the positive terminal a lot. I found the corrosion had seeped down into the cable and was causing my issues. Replaced the cable and no issues since (been over a year now).

There are a couple of body grounds next to the battery, check those also.

 

thanks HIghhorse, i think you got the problem spot on

 

Good deal, just remember grounds are most important when dealing with electrical problems on all vehicles and terminal corrosion generally signals a cable replacement.