Recharging a flat battery using the Ctek mxs 5.0

[KenC]

Having just called my dealer I've been told that there is no-one who will talk to me as I am not NHS staff so can't progress there.

I've retrieved my Handbook from my car and there is no section battery conditioning or trickle charging. There are sections on on Connecting Jump Leads, connecting a Starting Aid and Charging the Vehicle Battery. The first two involve connection to the boost terminals under the bonnet. For charging it recommends removing the battery.

So the question is - Is using a battery conditioner akin to the first two or charging? I assume the former as others are using conditioners without removal.

 

[scm]

Battery conditioners don't pump lots of charge so no real need to remove the battery. In fact, removing the battery would rather defeat the point of a conditioner.

 

[Tel]

This is the connection to my negative battery terminal. You can quite clearly see that the chassis wire (the fat black one) is connected directy to the battery. Whilst it's almost certainly true that the battery monitoring system is in fact always taking care of the battery, it really makes no difference connecting the charger crocodile clip to either the chassis or negative terminal.P0's

You are a surely correct... Both the chassis and the BMS in YOUR car is at the same potential (or should be!) which of course is chassis ground or 0V.

The confusion here is that Ken has what appears to be the same setup as you, however, the majority, if not all V6 and V8 owners have a different setup.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, connecting directly to the battery, BMS or no BMS when you need to charge is not going to be an issue in YOUR setup.

 

[MikeF]

Here is an update on my battery saga.
The Ctek could not recharge the battery from dead. Stopped after the second stage and the error light came on. Not a criticism of Ctek, their manual says it is not a charger and the mxs 5.0 should not be used for dead batteries.
Could not jump start the car from the wife’s Audi so I am taking SCM’s advice and ordering a Tacklife jump starter.
The battery is only one year old (fitted by Inchcape) so it should not be in this state. Can’t drive anywhere but this is still really annoying.
PS the Ctek worked really well on wife’s Audi TT.

 

[RPSN]

Here is an update on my battery saga.
The Ctek could not recharge the battery from dead. Stopped after the second stage and the error light came on. Not a criticism of Ctek, their manual says it is not a charger and the mxs 5.0 should not be used for dead batteries.
Could not jump start the car from the wife’s Audi so I am taking SCM’s advice and ordering a Tacklife jump starter.
The battery is only one year old (fitted by Inchcape) so it should not be in this state. Can’t drive anywhere but this is still really annoying.
PS the Ctek worked really well on wife’s Audi TT.

Here’s some info that I’ve kept on F-Type battery charging.........

The CTEK battery charger will not initially work on a fully discharged battery.

If you cannot access the battery inside the car boot then you can connect a normal (traditional) 12 volt trickle battery charger to the connection points under the car bonnet. This will put some charge into the battery which will be enough for the CTEK to sense it. You should then remove the normal charger and connect the CTEK and it will do what its designed to do.

Once there is enough juice in the battery for the car boot to be opened you should use the CTEK to charge the battery from there.

This photo shows the correct CTEK wiring connections in the car boot.

 

[KenC]

I now have a fully charged battery when it was around 50% after around 2 weeks without use.

I connected my crocodile clips to the terminals under the bonnet. The only issue was that I could not close the bonnet and could therefore not lock the car meaning I can't leave the conditioner attached for the duration. My plan is to attach it weekly first thing in the morning and the car should be fully charged by the evening so all is good.

Many thanks for all those who provided advise.

 

[Anonymous]

Here is an update on my battery saga.
The Ctek could not recharge the battery from dead. Stopped after the second stage and the error light came on. Not a criticism of Ctek, their manual says it is not a charger and the mxs 5.0 should not be used for dead batteries.
Could not jump start the car from the wife’s Audi so I am taking SCM’s advice and ordering a Tacklife jump starter.
The battery is only one year old (fitted by Inchcape) so it should not be in this state. Can’t drive anywhere but this is still really annoying.
PS the Ctek worked really well on wife’s Audi TT.

Not being able to jump start from the other car is almost always because the cables used are too thin and have poor connections to their clips. The starter needs several hundred Amps initially and any resistance will reduce the power available. If you check the jump lead connections carefully and make them better if you can then they might work

 

[MikeF]

Thanks very much RPSN, I will give that a try. Thanks for the photo.
I will probably try the jump start again GusA but the leads I have are heavy duty and have good solid clips on them. The car tried to start, it revved once but then died immediately. I will take your advice and take extra care with the connections.
Thanks for all the advice.

 

[RPSN]

MikeF........

Not sure if you’ve already seen this but it’s an excellent step-by-step guide on how to install the CTEK MXS 5.0 battery charger on a 2016 Jaguar F-Type.

https://howtune.com/articles/548-install-the-battery-charger-on-a-2016-jaguar-f-type

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks very much RPSN, I will give that a try. Thanks for the photo.
I will probably try the jump start again GusA but the leads I have are heavy duty and have good solid clips on them. The car tried to start, it revved once but then died immediately. I will take your advice and take extra care with the connections.
Thanks for all the advice.

The weak point is normally where the cable is crimped to the large crocodile clip as corrosion can really affect the electrical connection. On mine I took it apart, sanded down and soldered the connection and they now actually work! Last tested in January on my completely dead Shogun.

 

[MikeF]

Thanks guys for both of those responses.
Regards

 

[powerhouse]

Here is an update on my battery saga.
The Ctek could not recharge the battery from dead. Stopped after the second stage and the error light came on. Not a criticism of Ctek, their manual says it is not a charger and the mxs 5.0 should not be used for dead batteries.
Could not jump start the car from the wife’s Audi so I am taking SCM’s advice and ordering a Tacklife jump starter.
The battery is only one year old (fitted by Inchcape) so it should not be in this state. Can’t drive anywhere but this is still really annoying.
PS the Ctek worked really well on wife’s Audi TT.

Here’s some info that I’ve kept on F-Type battery charging.........

The CTEK battery charger will not initially work on a fully discharged battery.

If you cannot access the battery inside the car boot then you can connect a normal (traditional) 12 volt trickle battery charger to the connection points under the car bonnet. This will put some charge into the battery which will be enough for the CTEK to sense it. You should then remove the normal charger and connect the CTEK and it will do what its designed to do.

Once there is enough juice in the battery for the car boot to be opened you should use the CTEK to charge the battery from there.

This photo shows the correct CTEK wiring connections in the car boot.

Mine is 2018 4 pot and the points for connecting the charger as second picture below , different than the one that you refer to, think mines the same on the newer r models to, question is it is still connect to the yellow wire on the bus bar

 

[RPSN]

Yep, the CTEK positive wire can still be connected to the yellow wire on the bus bar side.

 

[Philskill]

My fusebox is like yours, this is how I installed mine, but I moved the Negative to the end of the battery earth point in the bottom of your picture.

It keeps the fuse within the fusebox, so no exposed unfused wiring

 

[Nick]

Anyone been brave enough to drill a hole in the body for the ctek plug, think that’s the Jaguar way?

 

[scm]

You don't drill the body, just the flexible panel at the side of the boot!

 

[powerhouse]

My fusebox is like yours, this is how I installed mine, but I moved the Negative to the end of the battery earth point in the bottom of your picture.

It keeps the fuse within the fusebox, so no exposed unfused wiring

DSC03831.JPG.jpg

Thanks , so as you said yours is like mine, so I can attach the red live wire anywhere on the bus bar it doesn’t have to opposite any color wire

 

[scm]

My fusebox is like yours, this is how I installed mine, but I moved the Negative to the end of the battery earth point in the bottom of your picture.

It keeps the fuse within the fusebox, so no exposed unfused wiring

DSC03831.JPG.jpg

Thanks , so as you said yours is like mine, so I can attach the red live wire anywhere on the bus bar it doesn’t have to opposite any color wire

It probably depends on the size of your connector, the ones opposite the coloured wires look to be smaller diameter than the one shown above.

 

[Philskill]

Yes use either the large or the small whichever suits your cable connectors best, as you'll see mine is doubled back and could easily have connected to the next smaller bolt along had the eyelet been smaller. Any connection point on the Bus bar is fine.

 

[Philskill]

Anyone been brave enough to drill a hole in the body for the ctek plug, think that’s the Jaguar way?

Not a great picture, but I cut a hole in my panel with a sharp Stanley, I draw the hole requirements (measure the socket which is rectangular) on some masking tape and then used that as a template to push the Stanley knife carefully through the panel working back from each corner.