Started her up this morning and let idle for about 5 minutes to warm up, got in and headed to work and the seat belt warning started dinging, then the air bag light, then all sorts of warnings, then everything on the dash turned off. Got it back home and tried to jump start it and got nothing. I am getting a new battery today but I have no idea what caused this. The only prior issues was a whining/howling noise the last couple days which I assumed was the power steering and I was going to change the fluid in that today but now I have bigger issues to tackle. Is it possible the alternator went out? Any ideas or advice is greatly appreciated.

 

How old is the battery? Sounds like classic symptoms of a failed battery. These cats are very sensitive to low current/voltage. There are hundreds of threads on this forum about this problem. Also check all of the threads that refer to Ctek for a solution to battery maintenance.

 

I have owned the car for almost a year, so the age of the battery is unknown. I drive it every day so I didn't think a charger was needed, looks like I may have been wrong. It has had the classic touch screen not coming on at times. Hopefully its just the battery.

 

Batteries usually have date codes on them What year is your car? Five to six years is usually the max the factory battery will last depending on how it was driven and stored. The symptoms you described are very common to these and any cars that rely heavily on sensitive electronics. Do a quick search for the numerous battery, electrical & battery tender thread and pick up a Ctek maintainer.

 

Update:
Got a new battery, installed it, fired right up. Let it idle for 5-10 minutes, drove it for maybe 1.5 miles and the same thing happened. Made it back home before it died completely. Disconnected the battery and put the voltmeter on it and it said 10.23 volts. I'm going to charge the battery for a while on the trickle charger to insure it has a full 12 volts and try again. I think the alternator is the next logical suspect for whats going on.

 

It is very wise, new battery or not, to put this car on a trickle charger 100% of the time, when parked in your garage. The drain on the battery is much more than what most people expect. Many times, drivers will get out of the car and not lock it to shut down the computer and electrical systems.

If after the battery is full maintained, and the problem exists, then you have a problem. Until then however, use a battery maintainer of your choice.

Jaguar uses and suggests a CTEK smartcharger, which most of the forum members here use.

For under $60.00 it is one of the best investments that a Jaguar owner can make for the their car.

Keep us posted as to the events.

 

It is not uncommon for new batteries to not be fully charged if they have been sitting for a while. 1.5 miles is not long enough to charge a battery.

Battery retailers should be able to perform a vehicle charging system test.

 

Ok, I have uncovered a new issue. I charged the new battery for 5+ hours. Hooked it up to the car and put the multi meter on it. In the time it took me to tighten the nuts on the clamps (~1 minute) the voltage had dropped from 12.2 to 9. Tried to unlock the doors and nothing. Checked voltage again and it was down to 6. Held the multimeter on there and watched it drop from 6.5 to 5.2 in less than a minute.


So basically I have a voltage drain somewhere. Drained more than half the battery in about 2 minutes time. Where do I even start with troubleshooting this?

 

Transport the car to the local Jaguar dealership. You could spend days trying to pin point the problem and most likely you don't have the proper diagnostic equipment to resolve the problem. Could be an alternator problem, but that's just speculation.

Don't screw with it, it's a Jaguar, let the experts repair it properly. There is too much speculation of what could have gone wrong.

Only thing you could do cheaply is replace the alternator, which costs about $100 to $125.00......just about any local autoparts store can get it or you can order on-line. That would be my first method to repair.

Somewhere you have a massive power drain. Going down in voltage so quickly is a problem, and most likely not the alternator.

 

What is the amp rating of the charger? If it is a very small charger, 5 hours would barely make a dent in charging the battery from a drained condition.

 

+1…Something is wrong, VERY wrong…Jaguar dealer diagnostics is the quickest, safest and most accurate way to identify the issue. Keep us posted.

 

I am guessing the battery wasn't fully recharged after draining it. I need to get a good charger, fully charge the battery, and see if the alternator is working properly once the car is running again. If its not then I will replace it, easy enough. If it is working properly then I will have to figure something else out.


Closest dealership is 2+ hours away in Raleigh.

 

Exactly what I was thinking. If I remember correctly its a 1 or 2 amp. Gonna get a real charger and see what I can find out.

 

It would take up to 4 or 5 days to fully charge a battery with one of those. My money is on a failed alternator.

 

Good point but how do you explain going from over 12 volts to 5 volts in just minutes?

 

That is correct. No one knew what the condition of the "new" battery was when it was installed. I would not say the alternator because in the 15 minutes or so of the car running, the battery was at 10 volts. The trickle charger got it to over 12 but in minutes of the car not running it dropped to 5 volts.

 

The new battery was probably only partially charged coming out of the store. It ran the car for about 15 minutes between the starting, idling and driving a mile and a half. It was then pretty much discharged.

The 1-2 amp charger for 5 hours probably only managed to put a surface charge in the battery. A surface charge will show over 12 volts until it is loaded down by a significant current drain. Once the battery was loaded down by several amps of electronics re-initializing when it was first connected, it discharged again in a couple of minutes.

Discharged lead-acid batteries do not accept a re-charge linearly. They start off slowly when discharged, then peak, then slow down again as they get near full.

 

Hello Chadly,
While it's true all of the other's advice regarding charging the battery for long periods and the use of a trickle charger when the car is not in use, is all good advice.

In all of this, have you checked the alternator output at the battery?

This can be easily accomplished by connecting your VOM across the battery terminals. Place the red probe on the "+" terminal and the on the black probe on the "-" terminal.
With the engine idling, you should see 13+volts (minimum) across the terminals. This number will rise with the corresponding "tuning-on" of any given accessory. Simply stated, a number above 12Vs is indicating you have more going into the battery than is been consumed by the engine running. I don't know the specifies of Jag's charging rate specs, but, this simple test will give you an indication of the charging system's (alternator) general health.
I heard years ago, the amps consumed in starting a car, would take 10 miles of driving to restore. Dunno it it's true, perhaps an automotive engineer type will him in with a comment.
Good Luck.....

Good luck...

 

I will check the alternator output once I get the battery charged and the car started again. I bought a good charger and when I hooked it up today it said "CHARGING - 42%". This was after over 24 hours on the crappy little 1A charger I was trying to use. So now that I have the right tools, troubleshooting should be much easier. I'll let you know what I find out.

 

Put the battery in after a full charge and the car started right up. Checked voltage at battery and its at 11.6 volts. Let it run for a few minutes and it stayed right around the 11.5 range. No where near the 13+ it should have. The alternator is spinning like it should, but I bought a new belt just in case. One thing that was strange to me was the alternator was HOT, like burn your hands hot. So was the negative cable going to the battery. Very hot when I tried to disconnect it. Does this sound like an alternator problem? Should it be that hot? Also, it smelled like burnt electrical components in the engine compartment.


Looks like it will be a major pain to remove the alternator.