Raistlin

Thanks Joe :)

Joe,

What sort of trickle charger do you have please? Is it solar powered? Where is it installed?

Thanks.

The multiple plug fibre optic cables are quite expensive. If you can get a two connector one you can easily splice it in to the loop you have already.

I was dispatched to the local chippy last night and, returning to The Princess through driving rain and howling wind, jumped in, ignition on and turned the key to start, only to be met with no cranking sound at all and a stream of fault messages on the display. Park brake fail, gearbox fault, DSC fault, cruise control fail, you name it...

Looking at the weather, and the fact that SWMBO was waiting for her supper I sort of swallowed hard and re-cycled the ignition switch only to see the same again except not quite as many faults. Eventually, after recycling the ignition seven times, she smoothly burst into life.

There was clearly ample capacity in the battery to turn over the engine very rapidly.

I drove home without incident but, having parked in the garage, I switched off, waited for a few seconds and tried to re-start, seeing the whole problem again. Now, bearing in mind that there had been more than enough battery power to spin the engine over, I was less than confident that the fault originated in the S-Type's notorious sensitivity to battery voltage.

Anyway, I connected up the battery charger, one of those new fangled digital devices which you can use on the more modern batteries and it did a quick check on the battery informing me that it was at 60% capacity. According to the charger manual that indicated a no load battery voltage of 12.1 volts. It then proceeded to run an automatic charge and test sequence, culminating in a reading of 100% when i looked at it this morning.

Sure enough, The Princess started smartly, first time, and with no fault indications.

Now, on reflection, all I had done was move the car around on the drive a few times yesterday, say eight start / stops, without allowing the engine to recharge the battery. In addition, the battery is only a few months old and the battery charger pronounced it perfectly healthy.

Clearly, the S-Type is extremely twitchy when it comes to battery voltage.

I don't care thoguh. I still love the darned car to bits

I found that once you see it the first time, it stands out thereafter.

We have to have this page up every year for the younger member of the family.

http://www.noradsanta.org/

Keeps them busy on the run up and really gets exciting on Christmas Eve when Santa takes off and is tracked by the NORAD organization

An eminently sensible use of the USA defence budget say I

Cribbed from the 'net

Can you find the panda amongst the snowmen?

PM me your e-mail address Steve

There is a list of things to do after a battery reset Steve. I've condensed it down to a PDF check-list which I can send to anybody who might want it.

The checklist also includes the "back-door" method of bypassing the radio code if you don't have it to hand.

Hi Keith, welcome to JoC :)

What a superb looking car. I hope she treats you well.

Lot of good people in this club with ready answers to any questions you might have.

As far as I can ascertain, they were standard on all the diesels.

Battery dis-connection doesn't clear fault codes Derek. You'd need a Mongoose or similar for that. Mongoose is the hardware / software diagnostics setup.

Dave, if F3 doesn't get rid of your fumes problem then it's likely to be a crack in the flexi joint in one or other of the exhausts.

It's a Webasto coolant auxiliary heater.

The diesel engine is so efficient that it doesn't generate enough heat to bring the coolant rapidly up to the required temperature in cold weather so the Webasto automatically fires up when the engine is started, the ambient temperature is less than five degrees Celsius and the coolant temperature is less than I think, 25 degrees.

It shuts down when the coolant is sufficiently heated.

Hi Paul

Nice to see you here, welcome to JoC.

I hope you find this a friendly and useful forum to visit.

Perhaps we could see pictures of your new chariot?

Hi Derek,

Welcome to the JoC.

The S-types are notorious for their intolerance of less than perfect batteries.

In view of what you've said I'd be looking at a replacement battery before trying anything else.

Hi Dave,

Nice choice of car :D

Welcome to JOC mate.

How d'you fancy a Jaguar Nano-meet?

Looking forward to seeing pictures and spec.

Makes my eyes water Frank

Brilliant :D  There is even the open mouth like the leaper.

It is quite a common problem Stuart.

The fault is either with the servo or the vacuum pump. Most often the servo though. It becomes contaminated with brake fluid and the seals no longer function correctly.

The vacuum builds up but can't maintain itself so repeated use of the brakes without recovery time leads to the situation you describe.

There is nothing wrong with the brakes but of course, without servo assistance it takes a lot of effort to haul a car of this weight down to stop.

Thanks Joe

I HATE the way everything is put together with plastic clips these days. What on earth is wrong with screws or nuts and bolts.

As you might have guessed Joe, I'm getting absolutely nowhere with trying to open the fusebox. I'm so ham-fisted that I'm bound to break the clips and even when I think I've successfully released them all the box won't move and they all suddenly click back to their locked positions again.

It always makes me wonder why certain individuals, who profess to dislike a forum will keep sneaking back with new personae on such a depressingly regular basis.

Thanks both :)

Be a lot easier if I could derive it from the fusebox Andy.