www.jec.org.uk

Hi - as I have no electricity supply in my garage, and I cannot conveniently charge my battery with the car parked outside my house, is it possible/advisable to remove the battery from my S Type and charge it safely in my house? I appreciate that once the battery is refitted in the car I will need to re apply my radio code, but will anything else suffer? Thanks - Frank Hollis

No problem with that, Frank.

You will also have to reset the clock.

Disconnect the black -Ve lead first followed by the red +Ve lead.

Re-connect the +Ve lead first, then the -Ve.

Once you have disconnected the mains charger, after half an hour, check the battery terminal voltage with a volt meter. This should read 12.8v as a minimum with a top reading not to exceed 13.4v. Once re-installed in the car with the engine running, check battery terminal voltage again with a volt meter and hope that you see around 13.4v with the alternator functioning and providing the re-charge energy.

Alternatively, assuming you can still start the car, a half hour drive is usually sufficient to bring the battery back up to a reliable level. It is a lot less bother than lumping out the battery from the boot. I`m anything for an easy life.

"Pos on, neg off" as a useful mental reminder!

Mike

Thanks for the reply. The battery is only about 12 months old, but as I do not do a huge mileage very often I suspect things like the rear sensors and wing mirror closing become voltage sensitive. Ideally I would have a 'trickle' charger on it but as I said - no electricity anywhere near the garage. Thanks again. Frank H

Always double lock the car, Frank.

This puts the electronics to the lowest possible current draw state.

Mike

Good point!

Hello Frank
Fit a 100W Solar Panel with regulator to a Roof Rack. If a friendly thief hasn't relieved you of it, you'll trickle charge the battery quite nicely and warm the inside of the car, a bit of a problem though in Dec and Jan in the UK .
If nothing else it'll prepare you, after a week or so, for the new Electric car of the future, with 50 or 60 miles to the nearest high speed charger giving you an extra 65 miles per 20 minutes charging in the said high speed charger as per a Motorway Services points where you could enjoy a 40 minute lunch with enough charge to get you to the next but one Services for Tea . Quite when you get to your journey end is debatable as long as it's less than 292 miles from a full charge in the UK and not the Algarve in Portugal, (Jaguar Test area! ,lots of sun to lounge about in).
Dave

Hi Frank,
connect an AA car solar panel to your diagnostic connection,cost around £20,works for me.
Graham

Thank you all for your suggestions. Frank
PS I am now concentrating on finding out why an amber 'engine malfunction' error has appeared even though the engine is apparently running well!