XKR battery and Jaguar Assistance
Discussion
I've owned my 2007 XKR for a couple of months and only driven it once or twice a week and not yet on a long journey. Last week I saw the first sign of a battery problem when the main display screen wouldn't light up until I restarted the engine. Then today, when I tried to power up, the engine gave a half hearted whimper and died, leaving all the alert lights flashing and I wasn't even able to persuade the (keyless) ignition to turn off.
I rang Jaguar Assistance and was astonished when their LandRover turned into my drive 25 minutes later. First time I had ever called them and they sure got off on the right foot with me. The engineer said that it was an electronics problem rather than a faulty battery but the battery was flat nonetheless so he had to jump start the engine (couldn't open the boot so had to take off the numberplate and use the key) and leave it running for 20 minutes before he could run any diagnostics. He showed me his test readout which gave the battery a perfect rating with zero drain.
But isn't it almost impossible for me to leave anything running so as to cause the battery to drain, I asked. Yes, he said. This was caused by an electronics failure, he said, whereby the management system wrongly thought that one of the 80 or so circuits hadn't been properly shut down. Once he had done a hard reset, the fault rectified itself. It's not uncommon, he said.
So, if and when it happens again, can I jump start it myself? Not advised, he said. Just give us a call and we'll come out.
That's all very well but I need to keep extending my warranty to have that luxury. Probably worth doing anyway though -- especially as I was bowled over by the service.
Anyone else had this battery management failure?
I rang Jaguar Assistance and was astonished when their LandRover turned into my drive 25 minutes later. First time I had ever called them and they sure got off on the right foot with me. The engineer said that it was an electronics problem rather than a faulty battery but the battery was flat nonetheless so he had to jump start the engine (couldn't open the boot so had to take off the numberplate and use the key) and leave it running for 20 minutes before he could run any diagnostics. He showed me his test readout which gave the battery a perfect rating with zero drain.
But isn't it almost impossible for me to leave anything running so as to cause the battery to drain, I asked. Yes, he said. This was caused by an electronics failure, he said, whereby the management system wrongly thought that one of the 80 or so circuits hadn't been properly shut down. Once he had done a hard reset, the fault rectified itself. It's not uncommon, he said.
So, if and when it happens again, can I jump start it myself? Not advised, he said. Just give us a call and we'll come out.
That's all very well but I need to keep extending my warranty to have that luxury. Probably worth doing anyway though -- especially as I was bowled over by the service.
Anyone else had this battery management failure?
steve-p said:
Other odd things were that sometimes the centre screen would get stuck on the XKR logo screen unless you turned the engine off, locked the car, unlocked and restarted it.
Sadly, I had to call Jaguar Assistance out again yesterday because my Info Screen was locked onto the leaper logo, even after half a dozen restarts (but I didn't try locking the car...) Different chap this time and he spent a while on the phone to the fount of all knowledge and then told me that there was a software update for the Info Screen which would require 2-3 hours at the garage. Booked in for next week so hopefully this will cure my screen problem.I've asked them to check my battery at the same time, even though it got a clean bill of health from the first JA technician. I'm somewhat alarmed to hear that the SatNav CD can apparently generate spikes when the car is locked. I will ask them to look into that, just in case. I know that my PC keeps polling the CD drive continuously to check whether a disc has been inserted... but not when it's powered down! My battery did check out a little low (12.2v when he was looking for 12.75v) but I had been sat fiddling for a while in the car without the engine running -- and as you rightly point out, the circuits which open when the ignition turns on can be very draining after a few minutes.
He advised me to leave the car running for 20 minutes as I wasn't planning to take her out anywhere. Is that as effective in charging the battery as going for a drive, I asked. Yes, no difference, he replied, which surprised me.
Hopefully the visit to the garage will sort it out. My locked Info Screen wouldn't have caused my battery to drain, my man said, so there may be another problem with the battery. A new one would be nice.
I think my problems started with the first frost in Berkshire this winter. My garage is a barn-style thing with an open front but it protects the car from any signs of frost. But maybe the battery, which is at the exposed end of the garage doesn't like the cold!
chris_w said:
When I picked ours up I was warned that we'd need to make sure we never parked the car without the handbrake engaged as that would flatten the battery (presumably it puts the electronics into some kind of 'sleep' mode?).
Blimey - first I've heard of that? Can anyone else corroborate? I never manually apply the handbrake.Not exactly up-to-date but an interesting read on electronic park brake "secrets":
http://aftermarketbusiness.search-autoparts.com/af...
http://aftermarketbusiness.search-autoparts.com/af...
chris_w said:
pr100 said:
chris_w said:
When I picked ours up I was warned that we'd need to make sure we never parked the car without the handbrake engaged as that would flatten the battery (presumably it puts the electronics into some kind of 'sleep' mode?).
Blimey - first I've heard of that? Can anyone else corroborate? I never manually apply the handbrake.In normal daily use, this would have no impact upon the battery, he said, but in cases like mine where the car is only driven once or twice a week, it could drain the battery.
I expressed surprise that Jaguar hadn't issued an addendum to the owner's manual to explain this -- and that I could find no reference to it anywhere on the interweb. But I'm going to change my habits and apply the brake before shutting down.
Thanks for your finely crafted post, wreeve, including apparent confirmation that the park brake battery drain is higher when it is not applied. I would simply add that a thorough battery drain diagnosis needs to be conducted and logged over an extended period, eg overnight, and that a quick roadside test won't give the complete picture. That's because some of the circuits cut in and out at lengthy intervals, I understand.
Did you not have access to JA? While I have always found the AA to be good, they are not as knowledgeable about Jags as JA, and they can also be a lot slower to arrive on the scene!
FWIW, my XKR no longer suffers from the issues described in my OP. But I can't be sure which of two remedial actions worked, or whether it was a combination of the two.
I sent the car back to the supplying dealer (HA Fox, Guildford) for a thorough FOC battery test but it came back (the same day) with a clean bill of health. Not satisfied, I then sent it to my nearest dealer, Lancaster Reading, and paid for a repeat test - which they told me would require overnight logging. This time they reported that the JaguarWatch tracker was the cause of excessive drain and so I asked them to cut the wires to the device. I hadn't even known that the tracker was fitted and when I asked HA Fox about the different test results, their reply was that they hadn't known a tracker was fitted either -- which was odd since they sold the car to me. At least they did eventually agree to pay my Lancaster bill.
So, at around the same time, I disconnected the tracker and I started to apply the park brake every time I parked up. Since then, no problems.
Did you not have access to JA? While I have always found the AA to be good, they are not as knowledgeable about Jags as JA, and they can also be a lot slower to arrive on the scene!
FWIW, my XKR no longer suffers from the issues described in my OP. But I can't be sure which of two remedial actions worked, or whether it was a combination of the two.
I sent the car back to the supplying dealer (HA Fox, Guildford) for a thorough FOC battery test but it came back (the same day) with a clean bill of health. Not satisfied, I then sent it to my nearest dealer, Lancaster Reading, and paid for a repeat test - which they told me would require overnight logging. This time they reported that the JaguarWatch tracker was the cause of excessive drain and so I asked them to cut the wires to the device. I hadn't even known that the tracker was fitted and when I asked HA Fox about the different test results, their reply was that they hadn't known a tracker was fitted either -- which was odd since they sold the car to me. At least they did eventually agree to pay my Lancaster bill.
So, at around the same time, I disconnected the tracker and I started to apply the park brake every time I parked up. Since then, no problems.
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