Parasitic battery drain

[lesxjr]

Similar to the battery drain issue recently posted by Yeltneb, we have the same problem with battery discharge on our 2007 XKR. The battery and charging system are good and not the problem. Assuming it's not the alarm sounder and basic 'home' tests fail to locate the drain, please can anyone recommend suitable auto electricians in the general Stratford-upon-Avon area who are familiar with X150's. Thanks

[M100TWO]

The car is always locked down when not being driven?

[lesxjr]

Yes, it's always double locked so it should be fully asleep.

[Lucky]

Do you have a dashcam fitted?

[M100TWO]

Or a tracker you don’t know about.

[lesxjr]

There's no dash cam, and although it's possible there could be a tracker hidden somewhere by a previous owner, the drain problem has only manifested itself recently and was fine before.

[Marineng]

Has the car had an MOT or an OBDII reader connected to it recently?

Please see the news at the following link

https://independentgarageassociation.co ... mber-2022/

I am not sure if your car comes within the critical age range - just a thought

Kind regards
Paul

[lesxjr]

That's interesting reading, thanks very much for pointing it out. The drain started well after the last MOT, probably about 6 months, and it looks like XK's (ours is 2007) aren't listed as being affected. I have an iCarsoft i930 OBD scanner which is generally recognised as being the 'one' for our cars and is fully compatible, but again even so, I hadn't used it on the car for many months before the drain started.
All ideas/suggestions gratefully welcomed, thanks.

[andypryce]

I would suspect the alarm 'intelligent sounder' as the culprit, I am fairly sure the X150 had the same intelligent sounder as the X100, and they are a common source of current drain. It is not integral to the main alarm and exists only to activate if someone tries to disconnect the battery (and to chirp when you set the alarm). In their infinite wisdom Jaguar put a rechargeable battery within the unit itself, sealed in, which takes a charge from the main battery. However, as everyone knows, rechargeable batteries eventually die, in a 2007 car they are likely to be dead by now. The battery keeps tricking a current into it to try and recharge it and hence the battery drains. You can safely disconnect this without it affecting the main car alarm. I tried replacing mine with a used one and even tried taking the thing apart and replacing the rechargeable battery (not recommended but interesting), and it still wouldn't work, so have just removed it. My only thought would be interior lights, have you checked they all go off, including the boot lights?

[lesxjr]

Thanks Andy. So, it's maybe a not quite so 'intelligent' sounder after all ! I'll check it out. All interior/boot lights and everything else visible goes off when double locked.

[andypryce]

Ha! Yes definitely ironic name for it. I have no idea if the same applies to more recent models, I would guess not, as if nothing else it is definite 'overkill' and a pretty easy cost cutting measure for Jaguar to apply by deleting it...

[iRS]

I see no one has really addressed the real question here, that of an auto electrician. I'm not sure how much I can help, it's been a long time since I've lived in this part of the country, but I used to live a little bit further south in Oxfordshire. When I first had my Jaguars in the early 1990s, I used to take them to Hyper Engineering in Kidlington just along from TWR. At some point Hyper moved to a farm near junction 7 of the M40 and more recently Paul Hands retired, but I believe Greg Phillips is still going and they always used to have a guy called Brian, who was a TV cameraman, come in one day a week to do electrical stuff. If Brian is still doing his day a week there, then I thoroughly recommend getting in touch with Greg and getting the car over for Brian to have a look at. https://www.gdpindependent.com/

[lesxjr]

That's great Roger, many thanks.

[JimMann]

Hi Les, I cannot locate the referenced post in your opening thread, but what are you considering as a parasitic battery drain? The X-150 is notoriously hard on batteries and the recommendation is that they should be renewed every 5 years or so. A 2007 car by that inference should be on a new battery in 2022 and therefore it should be "new".

The X-150 will typically drain the battery quite rapidly, even on double lock and even with a newly installed battery. In my own case, if I know the car is going to be standing for more than 1 week, I connect up the battery conditioner, which typically shows the battery is at 60%. My current battery is 3 years old and when the conditioner goes into "maintenance mode", the charge has only managed to get to 90%, which is expected for the 3 year old battery.

Incidentally, does the car still chirp when it is double locked? There will be a Tracker of some description fitted as they were an insurance requirement when new. Whether that has a trickle charged rechargeable battery pack, I would doubt it.

Jim Mann

[lesxjr]

Thanks for comments Jim. The post I was referring to by yeltneb is immediately before mine in this same section, although his is headed 'Flat battery XK8" . In my initial post I mentioned the battery and charging is not the problem although I did not elaborate why. The car had a top quality new replacement battery 3 years ago (and higher capacity than original fitment). The drain problem started about 6 months ago and after it drained right down (-2v !) a few times after car was left just a few days while abroad it was then fitted with another new same spec battery in case the previous one had been damaged, and to rule it out. I also fitted a new alternator due to non-charging well before the drain problem started, and it has no problem charging.
Regarding the battery backed sounder, as it's called in the workshop manual, the car has never 'chirped' when locking or sounded when disconnecting the main battery so don't know yet if it's failed, or has previously been disabled (will check how to do that and if possible re-set to test it). It may not even have one as the manual says 'if fitted' (probably not for some other markets). On 4.2 X150 it's located under the pedestrian protection actuator at top/back of RHS engine bay so will see how easy or not that is to locate. Co-incidentally I'm currently fitting new upper rear wishbones to my 2007 XJR and have the arch liners removed for bolt access. What's that got to do with this I hear. Well, tucked under the back of the O/S rear arch is a module, one of many around the car in random places, that I hadn't taken much notice of. I was reading the Feb 2022 article on sounders and realised the picture of the module looked suspiciously like the module I have just been staring at under my car and sure enough it's identical Delphi 2W93 etc, so for any XJ X350/358 owners reading this, that's where it is !!