I recently bought a new battery for the disco 2 which ended up costing me about £120 or so. Works a treat but because the Landy was proving to be an unreliable car I opted to bring back to life an old x type that had been sitting on my drive for one year or so. As you can guess the battery on the x type was not the strongest and although it started the car when fully charged, it would run down if I left my car phone charger plugged in for a few hours. AA had to rescue me and said that the battery was dead on their machine and needed to be replaced. There was no arguing with him as the symptoms were there to see. Anyway I researched the topic and ended up instead making a solution of distilled water and pure magnesium sulplate. This was used to top up the individual cells on the battery. In all, the battery took 1 litre of water plus so it must have been pretty dead. I then used one of those chargers that help to desulphinate the plates of a battery and that was that. I ran the battery close to dead again by leaving the headlights on for 2 hours with the engine off and then recharged again to full This was done four months ago and the car battery is brilliant. It holds it's charge well when left standing for two weeks plus and also when used with the engine off. For completion sake. the repaired battery was only 4 years old.
Because I had the old landy battery as a back up for jumping the jaguar when it got stuck, I did the same with that battery and it also holds a charge really well. I have only done this on the two batteries so can ony report my findings and would be interested in seeing if anyone else has tried this. Incidentally it has to be distilled water.I had a while back purchased from Halfords some tablets that could be dropped into each battery cell to help rejuvenate a battery but they needed to be redone every 4 months. My repair is 4 months old just now and there is no sign of it easing off.
I am wondering if anyone else has tried to repair their battery?
A final point to mention which I forgot was that the battery charger initially would refuse to charge the jaguar battery as it was too far gone. I tried two chargers and both rejected it. I got round this by jump starting the battery whilst it was in the jaguar, letting the alternator charge it and then presenting the battery again to the charger.
I would recommend testing the battery with the lights on and engine off to ensure it is holding the charge so as that you don't put additional stress on your alternator if your battery is really goosed.
Hope that helps or even opens up a debate.
Because I had the old landy battery as a back up for jumping the jaguar when it got stuck, I did the same with that battery and it also holds a charge really well. I have only done this on the two batteries so can ony report my findings and would be interested in seeing if anyone else has tried this. Incidentally it has to be distilled water.I had a while back purchased from Halfords some tablets that could be dropped into each battery cell to help rejuvenate a battery but they needed to be redone every 4 months. My repair is 4 months old just now and there is no sign of it easing off.
I am wondering if anyone else has tried to repair their battery?
A final point to mention which I forgot was that the battery charger initially would refuse to charge the jaguar battery as it was too far gone. I tried two chargers and both rejected it. I got round this by jump starting the battery whilst it was in the jaguar, letting the alternator charge it and then presenting the battery again to the charger.
I would recommend testing the battery with the lights on and engine off to ensure it is holding the charge so as that you don't put additional stress on your alternator if your battery is really goosed.
Hope that helps or even opens up a debate.
