Page 1 of 1

CTEK battery maintainer

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 10:12 am
by jayartibee
I have a CTEK, permanently connected to the battery (XJ8 3.2 V8). I went to start the car a week ago (after not going near it since before Christmas) and it would barely turn over.

I left it alone all week - went yesterday armed with cables to get it going but I tried the key first to see the state of charge and it started first turn!

Is the CTEK messing about?

Re: CTEK battery maintainer

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:25 pm
by Dick
Hi, was the charger connection ok? how old is the battery? Was it really cold? Old Batteries dont work well in cold weather .. well mine don't..
Hijacking your thread here a bit, my 16 year old nephew has just bought a 97 xj8 without an exhaust.. any idea where he can find one?

Re: CTEK battery maintainer

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 5:10 pm
by Luxobarge
Dick wrote:
Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:25 pm
my 16 year old nephew has just bought a 97 xj8 without an exhaust.. any idea where he can find one?
Lovely car, top choice. Have you tried SNG Barrett?

@OP - odd that. It's possible that the CTEK was messing about, I guess see if it happens again - perhaps it wasn't connected well the first time, and after it appeared to be dead you re-connected it properly and it did its job and charged the battery? Perhaps we'll never know. CTEK are the gold standard in maintenance chargers, so I'd be surprised if it was a fault. If it does it again, measure the battery voltage (with a voltmeter, not the wildly inaccurate guage in the car) and let us know what it is with everything switched off.

Interesting that you should have posted that, I have a 4.0 V8 Jag XK8 which for obvious reasons hasn't moved in about 8 months now, and I came to try to start it last week and the battery was totally dead. I found that odd too, as it's permanently on a maintenance charger, but off the car and on a proper battery charger it simply wouldn't take any charge at all, it was properly FUBAR, so unlike yours I know I had a total battery failure. I'm not complaining, that battery dates back to 2008 I think, or possibly earlier, and wouldn't have lasted anything like as long without the maintenance charger. It now has a brand new Varta (bought from Tayna Batteries) and all is good, but I'm £108 poorer - ouch! It's an 019 battery, one of the largest you can get for cars, so commensurately expensive. The old battery was AC Delco in case you're interested.

By the way, I thought I knew my Jags fairly well, but never knew they did a 3.2 V8 - is that correct or is it a typo and actually a 4.2?

Re: CTEK battery maintainer

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 7:25 pm
by Dick
Thanks luxo! Info passed on and hes pleased...Ive developed a liking for for the xk8 since they are reasonably priced at the moment... anything to worry about when buying?

Re: CTEK battery maintainer

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 10:31 pm
by Luxobarge
Dick wrote:
Sun Mar 14, 2021 7:25 pm
... anything to worry about when buying?
Rust, as on any steel bodied car, except these are complex and fixing it would be a right PITA. Other than that, the early 4.0 engines (pre-2001 or thereabouts) had nikasil coated cylinder bores, and suffered from major problems with this coating breaking down from the suphur in the fuel, which would pretty much write the engines off. However, most of these would either have died by now or had replacement engines. Other thing was early engines also had plastic-bodied cam chain tensioners, which would split over time, and lose their tension which allowed the cam chain to slip with amusing consequences. Later engines from about 2001 onwards had metal ones (as mine has) which work fine. Also check that the changes in the auto box are smooth with no slipping or flaring - this fault is not so common, but a major box re-build if it goes. There are a few other "known" faults on the early engines, but those are the main ones. Basically, if you get a post-2001 car it's likely got all the modified components and they're now considered pretty bullet-proof engines, the later 4.0l units were fine (like mine) and for sure any 4.2l unit will be fine as these were much later. Other than that, as far as I know, all the usual stuff - buy on condition not mileage, check everything electrical works, etc. etc.

Re: CTEK battery maintainer

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2021 7:31 am
by Dick
Thanks mate.. :thumbs:

Re: CTEK battery maintainer

Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 5:33 pm
by jayartibee
Thanks Luxo

The conditions were about the same, not particularly cold, so I'm at a loss. The CTEK certainly seemed to kill off the battery I had before. I'm never sure whether the larger (physical) sizes are worth the extra - my BMW has a choice of three lengths of battery in the same way as X308 has several threaded holes in the battery well and the smaller one seems fine.

Yes it's a 3.2 - the XJ Sports were all 3.2 - not sure how their spec varied from the standard cars. Gunmetal grey rad grille, that much I do know. May be a 3.2 but it still pulls like a locomotive.

Unfortunately i can't get it through the emissions MOT at the moment. Some over-fuelling problem. But that's another story,