Ongoing battery issues

G

Goonerjag

New member
Hey all,

Had my F-Type for 4 months or so now, I love it, but I am plagued buy the constant ‘Low Battery, please start engine’ message.

I have obviously tried the battery pull trick, even left it over night unplugged. I have also done the same with the secondary battery but I still get the message. I went ahead and bought a new battery (the one recommended on this site) as I assumed it must be this. I STILL get the message!

The strange thing is, I have left the car for 2-3 weeks without driving and it starts first time without issue, so the battery doesn’t seem to be draining or be low.

Does anyone have any other ideas? At the moment, it is just an annoyance, it actually doesn’t affect the car usage at all.

Thank all
 
I'm sure we have had this before.

You must have an older car to have the second battery in the front for stop/start.

Is this not battery in key fob?
 
You need to get the BMS reset. Battery Management System. It can be done with an obd2 service tool.
My car is susceptible to this same fault and despite resetting the BMS, it still occasionally does it if I leave it for a few days.
I have a CTek charger, which I leave connected and it seems to clear the message, butI know if I leave it a couple of weeks it will return. It’s never failed to start, so I suspect the car is lying when it says it has a low battery!
 
Yes, as Gareth says.
Had mine done for free at my last indy service.
It helps us help you if you put your car details like model year in your signature footer.
 
Goonerjag said:
Hey all,

Had my F-Type for 4 months or so now, I love it, but I am plagued buy the constant ‘Low Battery, please start engine’ message.

I have obviously tried the battery pull trick, even left it over night unplugged. I have also done the same with the secondary battery but I still get the message. I went ahead and bought a new battery (the one recommended on this site) as I assumed it must be this. I STILL get the message!

The strange thing is, I have left the car for 2-3 weeks without driving and it starts first time without issue, so the battery doesn’t seem to be draining or be low.

Does anyone have any other ideas? At the moment, it is just an annoyance, it actually doesn’t affect the car usage at all.

Thank all
Click to expand...

Had this issue on my MY20 P300 - had the battery checked, car had plenty of use and message remained, but also no evidence of a low battery - i.e. car always started first time. Interestingly had it on my P450 when I picked it up - because battery was almost dead - took around 500 miles of usage in a two week period and then it cleared and hadn't returned. My point is that I am sure there is an error in the electronics causing this message, rather than a battery charge issue.
 
Chances are the battery is partly drained given you left it for 2-3 weeks. Even partly discharged it will start easily but low battery warning will pop up.
Post the voltage reading you have after leaving the car for a week standing and I’ll give some specific comments based on that.

I have the same issue. Have diagnostic kit to do BMS reset and done it and use a ctek charger if parked up for a long time. If not then I get a low battery warning after 2 weeks of not driving it. Oh and yes it’s a new battery and same issue for 5 years.
 
I’m in exactly the same situation as yourself Goonerjag!

Guess I’ll need to get the BMS reset also…


Goonerjag said:
Hey all,

Had my F-Type for 4 months or so now, I love it, but I am plagued buy the constant ‘Low Battery, please start engine’ message.

I have obviously tried the battery pull trick, even left it over night unplugged. I have also done the same with the secondary battery but I still get the message. I went ahead and bought a new battery (the one recommended on this site) as I assumed it must be this. I STILL get the message!

The strange thing is, I have left the car for 2-3 weeks without driving and it starts first time without issue, so the battery doesn’t seem to be draining or be low.

Does anyone have any other ideas? At the moment, it is just an annoyance, it actually doesn’t affect the car usage at all.

Thank all
Click to expand...
 
Thanks everyone, great feedback!

For reference I have a 2013 V6 S, with an SVR front bumper :D

Can the BMS be reset at home or is this a dealer thing? Is there an ODB2 dongle and software/app? I have previously used BimmerCode on my wife’s old mini, wondering if there is an equivalent?

Thanks again all, great site and a wealth of knowledge!
 
Goonerjag said:
Thanks everyone, great feedback!

For reference I have a 2013 V6 S, with an SVR front bumper :D

Can the BMS be reset at home or is this a dealer thing? Is there an ODB2 dongle and software/app? I have previously used BimmerCode on my wife’s old mini, wondering if there is an equivalent?

Thanks again all, great site and a wealth of knowledge!
Click to expand...

Small world we both have 2013 V6S and SVR front end :)

This is what I use for diagnostics and error codes:

https://ljmcardiagnostics.co.uk/products/icarsoft-lr-v2-0-jaguar-professional-diagnostic-scan-tool-icarsoft-uk?variant=15166369628226

Purchased originally for a RR that I needed to clean up various persistent emissions error codes, but the software covers both Jaguar and LR
You can purchase cheaper elsewhere, but the oem site lists the functions.

Very easy to use - plug into the OBD port and select what you want to do. Powered by the car, so internal no batteries to worry about.
You can also plug it in to do instant and a trace of voltage to see what's going on
 
Snap!

I also have the side skirts on mine, but can’t take any credit for either as I purchased it this way.

Thanks for the recommendation! I also have an Evoque, so this will be handy to have for either.
 
Goonerjag said:
Snap!

I also have the side skirts on mine, but can’t take any credit for either as I purchased it this way.

Thanks for the recommendation! I also have an Evoque, so this will be handy to have for either.
Click to expand...

Yes 400 series side skirts and an Evoque until 2 weeks ago. RR a very nice car but real reliability issues. Gone all electric now with a BMW iX3 M Pro
 
Firstly I'm no expert here but did look into fitting a trickle charger to my car. I read a lot of threads on the forum and other sites on how and where to fit them.
Me being old school and in the past just shoved the charger in via the cigarette lighter socket or accessories socket and was told to do the same on another site. I then read no you should not do that as after 20 mins the car shuts the socket off.
OK then I read open the bonnet and connect the charger via the jump connections, this was not recommended due to the amount of cable involved thickness of the cable and power required to charge the battery from the charger somehow the BMS picks it up and doesn't like it. Direct connection across the battery with it connected has the same effect so it seems. There is a detail wiring diagram showing how to connect a ctek to the buzz bar in the boot.
So maybe the way you are connecting your trickle charger may be the problem.
I as yet have not gone down this route but would like to hear how you guy are connecting your chargers.
I contacted Jaguar to get them to fit a trickle charger and they told me they don't offer the service anymore.
 
I connect mine to the jump points under the bonnet, the cables are thin enough to go down the side of a wheel arch with the bonnet shut. I haven’t experienced any issues when charging the car from this point.
 
I have a CTek quick-connect terminal in the boot. The QC is connected directly to the battery terminals, and the wire is passed up through the edge of the boot floor trim. My CTek lives in the boot, and when the car is parked up I simply plug in the QC, and plug the charger in to an extension lead to the boot. The boot shuts fine over the cable, it’s quite a thin cable.

This has never caused a problem, and a night on charge always solves the low voltage message that invariably comes up after a week of no use.

I also have a cheap led voltage meter permanently plugged into the accessory socket which confirms that the low voltage warning is over sensitive. Even with the message warning me to start the engine, the system volts are over 12v
 
I have been using a Ctek Msx 5.0 since owning my F-Type, the dealer installed the socket in the boot and connected the cables as per the instructions from Jaguar i.e. +ve to the bus bar and -ve to ground.

D3902955-4E12-45C9-8B12-114C8AA9E82E.png
 
Lots of people have used the underbonnet terminals to connect chargers without problems. AIUI, you shouldn't connect direct to the battery as it bypasses the BMS, so the negative should be clamped to an earthing point. The above post shows the recommended boot connection points.
 
I put the permanent connection in the boot of my F type, wired to the busbar as documented in a number of posts on here. Drilled a hole in the side of the under floor storage bucket, for the Ctek connector socket to poke through.

Always use the under bonnet connections when using the Ctek on our XE. So either way works OK, just not direct to the battery.
 
I have an Optimate battery maitainer/conditioner. I wired the quick connector as above, ie. +ve to bus bar, -ve to a convenient bolt on the boot floor. I must say I haven't really used it much, only over lockdown when the car wasn't used for months. Even then, I don't know I really needed to. My car probably isn't used every day but is used regularly.
 
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