2016 Battery Indicator

S

santoshlv426

New member
My car battery is going on 8 years and I think It's going to give up the ghost. My question is does it have an indicator to tell me when to replace, or must I wait for a complete failure ? So far it's fine, but that could change.
thanks
 
Usually they have an indicator on the top that if you look into it and it shows green the battery is OK (ie charged).
It’s not a performance test though. Places like Halfords can do that free of charge for you.
You can also check the voltage after a run when it’s rested for an hour or so and if it’s 12.6v you’re good.

All said as above I’d replace now at 8 years whilst you have time to shop around and get a deal, rather than a panic buy when one of the cells fails and it won’t even start.
 
cj10jeeper said:
All said as above I’d replace now at 8 years whilst you have time to shop around and get a deal, rather than a panic buy when one of the cells fails and it won’t even start.
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I've had batteries of similar age just die, as C10jeeper mentioned. One battery started the car without a problem and got the engine warmed up. Then straight after when the engine was turned off again, it was completely dead, no dash lights and not even an interior light!

At 8 years old it's time to get a new battery. I replaced one in our XE (8 years old) just before Christmas as it popped up the 'low battery start engine' warning even though it had been put on the Ctek occasionally. Just not worth the bother of waiting for it to die.
 
I’ve just started getting the ‘low battery start engine’ warning - been on my CTEK 3 times over the last month which sorts it for a few more weeks. I just want to make sure it’s battery rather than alternator before replacing it - what’s the functional test for the alternator?
 
OK, so from what I've read there is in fact a battery indicator, so I'll look out for it. And yes I plan on replacing it within the next 2 months. Thanks guys.
Can any competent battery place do it or is there a special process to follow.
 
Pilot Pete said:
I’ve just started getting the ‘low battery start engine’ warning - been on my CTEK 3 times over the last month which sorts it for a few more weeks. I just want to make sure it’s battery rather than alternator before replacing it - what’s the functional test for the alternator?
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I have a voltmeter that plugs into the 12V socket - it shows around 14.5V when the alternator is working.

As mine's MY18 it looks like I have a couple of years left. :)
 
santoshlv426 said:
OK, so from what I've read there is in fact a battery indicator, so I'll look out for it. And yes I plan on replacing it within the next 2 months. Thanks guys.
Can any competent battery place do it or is there a special process to follow.
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My plan for when I need to do it is to fully charge the new battery, then fully charge the old one and then swap them over - that way the BMS should believe nothing's changed. Feel free to disabuse me of my logic as necessary!

Oh, and possibly putting a spare one on the underhood terminals to maintain any setings during the swap.

Lastly, don't close the boot with no battery connected!
 
santoshlv426 said:
OK, so from what I've read there is in fact a battery indicator, so I'll look out for it. And yes I plan on replacing it within the next 2 months. Thanks guys.
Can any competent battery place do it or is there a special process to follow.
Click to expand...

Yes, they can. I just pointed out Halfords as they are national and free.
To test fully they really need to more than just voltage by putting the battery under load.
 
Do ensure the car processes are shut down fully before changing the battery. There's more about this in other threads in here.
 
BMS reconfigures itself anyway after a bit. Theres loads on this on XE forums, as the early cars had an 80ah battery which has since been superceded with a 95ah unit. Mine reconfigured itself 2 miles up the road (the giveaway is that the stop/start gets enabled, apparently).
 
Jaguandy said:
Do ensure the car processes are shut down fully before changing the battery. There's more about this in other threads in here.
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How do you do that? Surely the car wakes up to a certain extent as soon as you unlock it to open the boot.
 
scm said:
Jaguandy said:
Do ensure the car processes are shut down fully before changing the battery. There's more about this in other threads in here.
Click to expand...

How do you do that? Surely the car wakes up to a certain extent as soon as you unlock it to open the boot.
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It's just waiting for the info screen to go into sleep mode, same as when sitting in the car with the ignition off. The majority of stuff probably powers down at this point. Which is handy for this, but not when trying to pump up your tyres!
 
Got this done today. Paid R5800 ($340) for a Varta battery. Seems ok. Auto stop still works and the hazard light is off when parked.
It wasn't possible to let the car go to sleep as apparently they had to plug and OBD reader to copy the specs and mate it to the new battery.
THe old battery read 66% health and I know if it's in the 50% range, it's pretty much dead hence the decision.
 
Swapped battery last weekend on MY2017.
Tried to do everything according to the book but still had some issues.

Opened bonnet, doors and boot and waited a good 15-20 minutes. (You'll see when the interior screens, lights etc goes into sleep)
Connected a CTEK CS One on "supply" mode under the bonnet.
Disconnected the old battery and swapped for a new one. (I could see on the CTEK comfort panel in the boot that there indeed was power feed even with no battery)
Then removed the CS One and connected Icarsoft v3 JLR to do the BMS reset.
Did so and then as per the workshop manual, started the car and let it idle up to working temperature.
Shut down the car but still had the battery is low please start the engine.
Closed and locked everything and spotted that the warning triangle didn't shut down.
Repeated everything again, with the same result.
My last option was to actually lift the negative without any backup power, this solved it and low battery warning vanished.

Don´t know if i were to clever with constantly supplying power to the car that it didn't realise that i swapped battery.
Well all sorted now...

Oh and some useless information.
Old battery was the factory one, about 70% health and 96% charged when the car started to warn about low voltage.
(Always kept on a CTEK MX5 but now replaced with a CS One throughout the Swedish winter)
 
Well I hope I don't have any issues for the next 5 years at least. Too many electonics in cars today. The place where the battery resides is full of electronic boxes I counted probablye about 4 boxes
 
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