Ferrari battery maintainer, how long to charge

how old is the battery ?

 

I had the same problem with the Ctek OEM Porsche charger. My battery ended up being too old. Might want to consider a new charger. The maintenance charging is more sophisticated with the newer chargers.
From Ctek's site:

There can be several different reasons.
•You have larger energy loads connected to the battery at the same time. The battery gets fully charged, but the energy loads cause the voltage to drop quickly and the charger almost immediately starts charging again. This could be why you do not have time to see it switch over. If this is the case a better choice is Multi XS 7000, when it is fully charged it automatically switches into float maintenance. The charger constantly delivers 13.6V for 10 days which means that larger energy loads can be connected without draining the battery.

•The battery can be in a bad state and have a high level of self discharge. The charger fully charges the battery but the battery loses its voltage so quickly that you do not have time to see it switch over to green. If this is the case the battery should be changed.

•It can also be caused there is a broken cell in the battery. It is more difficult for a battery with a broken cell to increase its voltage. The charger will keep charging and trying to get the voltage up. A battery with a broken cell usually gets very hot. If there is a possibility to check the fluid level within the battery you can see if one cell has more fluid left than the others.

 

A week is too long, even for the low amperage charger that comes with the car. A good service outlet will test the battery for drainage. Should be 10-30 milliamps drainage. If it is more, replace the battery and save yourself some trouble. Not expensive.

 

I thought Ferrari battery maintainers do just that, maintain. I wasn't aware they are designed to charge fully from flat!

 

I just changed the battery on my 08 scud, it was a red top. If the car had sat for a week and the maintainer was hooked up it would take two days before the green would come on then alternate 30 sec on orange then 1 minute on green. After the battery change, with the car sitting a week, it now takes only several hours before the green comes on and alternates with the orange. I am now storing the car for the winter and I hook up the maintainer on the weekends.

 

Why don't you just keep it plugged in?

I believe, it's better for the battery to have the maintainer on it.

 

I do not know it is better for the battery, it seemed like a waste. The old battery was about 5 years old and worked fine.

 

I always thought that Ferrari uses only Fiamm batteries for the 430 ...

Just fund the original Ferrari (Ctek) battery maintainer in the bag with the car cover some days ago, but couldn't find any terminal connection in the car to plug in the maintainer. Could you please post a picture of the connection with the battery maintainer. Thank you.

 

I keep mine plugged in for the whole time the car is not driven.

 

I think the connector is below the dash on passenger's side?

 

Thank you very much

Our 430 doesn't have that plug in ... but I have a original maintainer ???

 

I think the Ctek charger with the passenger plug in became standard in '07.

If you have the big OEM charger before '07 then the connection is in the trunk on the driver's side.

If it's the Ctek charger (like in the first pic), someone may have added pigtails so that the battery could be directly charged. Either where the battery is on the passenger side or behind the driver in the back. You can remove the panels easily and check it out.

 

Thank you.

Our car is 05 so I don't have the new plug in near the battery, but the battery maintainer (small one - Ctek) is for this new plug in. Also don't have the old plug in in the trunk ...

I already added a pigtail to connect the batter charger, that may be the best way to charge. But I can't use the Ferrari maintainer for the F430... it will perhaps fit the next Ferrari ;-)

 

I plugged mine in on Sunday morning and on Monday morning had the same thing. I disconnected it then plugged it back in and it went to green. Myabe it didn't change or pick up.

 

maybe they dont mention it but they do charge. My battery was dead a couple of weeks ago and it took the maintainer that came with the car 2 days to charge it back to full.

 

I thought the preffered location for battery maintainer's was behind the drivers seat, there is a connection there and I thought that was preffered over doing it at the battery itself.

 

Don't think it much matters. Just depends on what's convient for you.

 

Do your maintainers cycle from green to red every few minutes?

 

I use a CTEK from eBay and have plumbed the connector straight into the bus terminals under the passenger side (UK) fuse box cover being the seats. The plug come out from under the cover. I don't leave it plugged but when I connector up it goes green after about a day. Opening the doors is enough to make it go orange again. Not seen it cycle as such. I should leave it plugged in all the time, but I don't really like the idea having it powered up for long periods unattended.

Lee

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