I live in Ohio. 2000 XK8 Convertible.
last year the battery died. I bought a new battery. Did some work on the top in the fall and took the battery out of car to prevent the battery being destroyed in the cold weather

Yesterday wife put Insurance on car and wanted me to get car running so my son could take it to Prom tomorrow. I put the battery back in and the car will not start. Has an Er in radio. The message board where the miles are has several messages (ASC Not Available, Gear Box Fault, Failsafe Engine Mode, Incorrect Part Fitted). My wife said she hasn’t seen those faults

When you try to start the car does nothing. Can’t hear the fuel pump turn on and doesn’t try to turn over. Car does have a history of not starting, I believe because of Theft System. But it would always start after it sat a while.

I guess leaving the battery out was a bad idea. I think an internal clock or something has bled off and now something has lost its mind but I don’t know. Please help. Thanks

 

You got it wrong ...a fully charged battery can be frozen in a freezer and suffer no damage when brought back to normal temp. If you took it off and just left it then it will have self-discharge..turn the plates to lead sulphate which is like concrete. What you should have done is left it in the car and put a small charger on it and or used a timer to bring the charger on for 2 or 3 hours a week.
A good fully charged battery should restore your car to normal.
Most of us put a maintenance charger on the battery if we are not using it for 3 or 4 days .

 

Agreed. Your battery discharged. It may accept a fresh charge but then again it may not....

 

I took the battery out In the fall

There was no battery in the car for like 6 months

The battery I put in yesterday is a good battery. Now the car won’t start.

 

If it sat for 6 months there's a huge chance that battery is dead. They self-discharge.

 

OP, post #2 is the correct advice.


Z

 

But that’s not what I did. I took the battery in the house and kept it charged

Would a car not having a battery in it damage the car and cause the codes in Post #1?

 

TSB for you.

 

When you took the battery out and put it in the house was it just sitting on a shelf untouched?

 

Duplicate post

 

he says he kept it charged, but no details with what or how often , etc

 

Make sure the ground wire from the battery to the metal wall of the trunk is tight.

 

Have you checked the Inertia switch in the left hand dash fuse box...well its LH on mine.

 

What? How can you use the car to park up at an airport? Good heavens I don't know anyone (apart from you) who would do this.

I'll be stunned if this is required, 3 or 4 months maybe - how could Jaguar make a car that required hooking up to a battery conditioner if you a flu and can't drive for 4 days?

 

Well reading the people talking on here that's what they seem to do . The quiescent load on the battery can be higher than more modern cars so its belt and braces...Provided you limit the voltage to about 13.5v there is no gassing or other damage.

 

I guess you must be right - I find most of your posts very helpful and realistic. In this case I am unconvinced and will live dangerously

 

Never knew it had one.
How do I do this?

Could this explain over the years driving somewhere and the car wouldn’t start for a while? Wife would swear you couldn’t shake the car. Sometimes take the battery cable off and on. Wait a while and it would start
Thanks

 

It is tight. I’m gonna check all the connections and grounds. Figure out how to check the inertia switch

Making sure there is a good charge in the battery and gonna do a battery load test.

 

You do have a point, and I would expect the car to be fine for several weeks, all other things being equal. A quick calculation gives around 119 days to completely flatten a fully-charged battery if everything is in order, although I'd expect to see some mischief well before then.

Having said that, and to echo PB's note, it is dependent on the quiescent current being drawn from the battery when the car goes into 'sleep' mode, If something prevents that, (e.g. there have been cases of the ICE amplifier remaining active) then the discharge period can be much shorter.

There is much evidence that our cars are particularly sensitive to low battery voltage:- I always put the tender on if I won't be driving for more than a few days.

OP - Do consider investing in a code reader - even a basic ELM327 is cheap and will give you access to many of the codes. It may or may not give you further guidance here but it is certainly a useful tool to have in your toolbox.

 

before going off on Jaguar, let’s remember that these cars, and from other manufacturers too, are engineered to have a 10 year lifespan. We are now going on twice that. Circuits corrode. Connections get cranky. The full battery voltage may not be getting thru to critical components.

The whole electrical system is not performing as it did when new. Accept that as a given, and you will love the car a lot more.

one way many of us have found to mitigate the many electrical gremlins is to keep the car on a battery tender whenever it’s not being driven. You’ll find it’s amazing how reliable the car can become when the electrical systems gets this little ongoing boost .

Z