California Engine Shut Down

Does your car have the stop start and Hele system ?.

 

Two obvious things can stop an engine when it's proceeding off-throttle down the road.

Either the fuel supply is interrupted or the ignition is interrupted. Of course you can also have an air intake interruption as well as exhaust blockage but in those situations, the engine wouldn't just die, it would be accompanied by a bit of commotion and noise.

So if it's likely fuel delivery or ignition-related, it may be related to the electrical system since the fuel pump/injectors are electrically-driven, ignition spark obviously electrical as well.

When your car is moving quickly, the car's charging system supplies power to its electrical function, recharges the battery and uses it to filter power to supply the car. When driven slowly especially off-throttle, the car relies on the battery charge to bridge the gap. If your car's charging system is not recharging the battery adequately, your battery may become discharged and unable to supply current to handle all the functions which may include your AC and infotainment system, displays, lights,…etc. The engine will then stop running.

Does your car also have the STOP/START (HELE) feature? HK driving is very heavily stop and go so it would place a very heavy demand on the battery of a HELE car.

What year-model is your car?
How long have you had it?
Did this problem only started just recently?

Your car problems could also be due to something more exotic like an engine sensor but for starters I would focus attention on the car's charging system. Did your dealer say what exactly they have already checked when you say they couldn't find the root of the problem?

Another detail that is interesting is your comment that the problem occurs within the first 10 minutes of driving. This may also relate to a cold engine start up setting of some sort. The cold idle (off-throttle) may be inadequate.

It's important to be SPECIFIC and DETAILED when investigating such problems, so try to document everything.

 

Pckau, it's imperative that you determine whether your car has HELE (Stop/Start). The HELE car uses a completely different (AGM) battery from the regular car. According to industry experts, a regular lead acid battery incorrectly used to replace an AGM battery in a STOP/START car, used daily in conditions similar to HK's driving conditions, will kill it in about 2 weeks' time. Even having the correct battery tender for an AGM battery won't change matters because a regular lead acid battery cannot recharge fast enough.

So you see how that can cause the problems you have been experiencing. HK has very heavy traffic so I would not be surprised if you car was originally ordered with HELE.

It looks like you don't have the original build sheet for your car and none of the documentation you have shows whether it is a HELE car. To determine whether your car has the HELE function, you should see a manual ON/OFF button for the HELE function, located on the overhead control panel:

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The HELE ON/OFF button is this one.

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When HELE is active (normally by default), the tiny LED will light up. When you press the button to dim the LED, HELE will be deactivated, the engine will restart if it was stopped by HELE, a 5-second verification message display will appear on the left screen and HELE will also be inactive the next time you start the car. Pressing the button to light up the LED will restore HELE the next time you stop the car.

In addition, when HELE is active and the car stops the engine when you pause the car, you will see this display "Stop&Start active":

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Of course, if your battery is compromised at the moment, HELE would likely no longer be working. So you won't get the message display but the presence of the manual HELE ON/OFF button will confirm the presence of the HELE system. Non-HELE cars do not have this button.

Should you determine your car has HELE then you should check your battery to determine if it is in fact an AGM battery - take some photos of the battery top. Make sure you get all of the information because the intake manifold will be in the way.

However, if your car does not have the HELE feature, the cause(s) for your car's problems would be at least, somewhat different.

 

Very good information! +1
Do HELE cars usually run without problems?

 

Your car problems sound fishy to me because your dealer doesn't appear to be giving you much information. It's like a black-box… a black hole in fact. You don't want that.

MalibuGuy provided you some sound advice about your safety and legal concerns on the other thread.

Here's what I would do in additional - order (don't ask, order them) the dealer to provide a complete history of the car's service records, from the day it was delivered to the first owner. Also have them give you a print-out of the build sheet so you know what the original equipment consisted of. Any proper dealer will give you this information about their cars, let alone a Ferrari. It's your right to know what has been done to your car prior to your buying it.

Look for any signs of similar problems in the previous service records. You haven't had the car very long so I suspect the problems were there before you bought the car. If the dealer can't fix the car, your (consumer rights) lawyer will know what to do with such information, if the problems were indeed there before you bought the car.

The other thing to do is to tell your dealer to list all the possible problems that they have already checked for and how they went about checking for them. Finally, have them list the other possible problems that they intend to check for over the next few weeks.

If they are still unable to fix the problem in a few weeks' time, have them explain how they went about checking for the latest set of possible problems. If you have this information, you can go over it with your lawyer in the presence of an expert mechanic to determine the best recourse. Without information, you put yourself in a very compromised position. Assert your rights.

 

Good luck !

If you've ready my other posts on here - I have something potentially similar - car has cut out twice, but only at very low speeds pulling up to a light or slowing down to a standstill.

My car is back with the dealer (official ferrari) next week (to look at this but also engine management control warning). As I've only just bought the car hopefully will get focus, and if find anything from my own diagnosis will share it here.

 

Pckau, did you ever figure out what the problem was? Ferraris turning off while driving is a BIG issue and I'd like to know what usually causes the problem.