Check Engine - Return to Dealer Warning

Be strong, bring it back to the dealer & keep us updated!

Good luck!

 

Did your car give u any trouble meanwhile ? I mean, while the light was flashing, could u drive like usual or did u have any trouble ?

 

I wouldn't worry too much aslong as the dealer could not diagnose anything. It appears quite normal to get one of these now and again, according to the technician I spoke with.

I had the same a few months back and freaked my out as only had the car 3 weeks. I bought a basic OBDii reader so I could interrogate the fault code. Dealer advised on the code, and could have been caused by poor fuel (I only use 98 now) or pushing the car too hard without warming her up (also guilty of).

Since then, and also keeping the battery on trickle I've had zero warnings

I can really recommend the OBDii reader - cost me £70 and gives piece of mind. You can also clear the engine warning light yourself, although I only did that after talking on phone with a Ferrari technician. The one I bought is on another thread somewhere.

Matt

 

As long as there is no red lights or flashing lights and everything else seems normal just keep driving. If the car sat for a few weeks between drives you may want to put the Ferrari charger on when you know it will be sitting.

Sometimes you will get a dozen warnings. Just shut down, open the door, close the door, restart and all will be well.

Your Ferrari dealer can tell you exactly what all fails have happened and if anything should be done. The general warning that you got is never a big deal.

 

Spurious system errors/warnings are often due to a weak battery.

Have you been using the battery tender? It's not a cheap item so when they include it with the car it means it's important from a normal use basis.

 

The battery tender is a good idea even if you drive it regularly, but the drives are short.
I just feel better leaving home with a fully topped off battery.

 

+1. Do you have the HELE system and/or an AGM battery? The standard Ferrari charger isn't adequate to keep an AGM battery topped up. There is a newer charger that outputs the 14.4v necessary for an AGM battery (and of course, it's basically a pricey version of a CTEK charger with the proprietary Ferrari charging port plug).

 

The required charging voltage for AGM batteries is actually 14.7V not 14.4V. You must have forgotten but I did a writeup on it a few months back.

Regular batteries are designed to charge at 14.4V under "normal ambient conditions" (25°C) but AGM batteries require a higher voltage of 14.7V under the same conditions or they will not charge properly. The 14.7V charging mode is also the one used to charge regular lead-acid batteries under cold Winter conditions (SNOWFLAKE symbol on battery charger). Not all battery tenders have the SNOWFLAKE charging mode, which is the same mode used for charging AGM batteries. 14.4V is supplied by the standard charging mode which should not be used on AGM batteries.

My car has HELE but it was shipped with the wrong battery tender and that mistake quickly messed up the factory-installed AGM battery and eventually killed it. Along the way, I experienced a number of spurious electrical issues which were cleared up after a new AGM battery was installed. A HELE-equipped California needs to use the same charger as the FF and F12 because they all use the same AGM battery. These cars all impose greater demands on their batteries and therefore have different charging systems that regenerate charge much quicker than in regular cars which don't experience so much electrical draw.

My dealer replaced my battery Fbrand charger with a CTEK 7002.

 

Uh-oh. Thanks for the reminder.

The F-brand charger I was referring to is PN 70002821, which specs 14.4v/4.3A. According to the manual packed with the charger, it is suitable for "All types of 12v lead-acid batteries (WET, MF, Ca/Ca, AGM and GEL)."

This charger supposedly supersedes the old-style charger. Is the new one not adequate, then also? I thought the old one was inadequate because it only pushed 12v/3.3A, but at 14.4v/4.3A, it seems the new one should be adequate.

On the other hand, the CTEK 7002 (which is physically larger, also, btw) specs 12v/7A, up to 16v/1.5A. The manual says nominal charging voltage is 12v or 15.7v, up to a max of 7A current. The "snowflake" mode for AGM batteries specs 14.7v, while "normal" mode specs 14.4v. I have a hard time thinking that a difference of 0.3v is material, so long as the current is sufficient. I can see how 12v/3.3A might not be good enough, though.

The pic below shows the new F-branded one on the left, old one on the right. The second pic is 4th_gear's photo of the standard charger, close up, next to a CTEK 3300. The third pic is a CTEK 7002. The question is, do you have to use a 7002, or can you use the updated Ferrari charger?

I was also told, btw, that the adapter with the "Ferrari plug" (a bit hard to see, but is to the left in the pic below, partially covered by the A/C cord) is not sold separately but can only be purchased with the charger. If nothing else, however, the other end of the adapter is standard CTEK, so you can use that plug with a CTEK 7002 if you wanted to, and leave the Ferrari charger in the box.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Thanks for the write-up.

First of all no charger charges a 12V battery using 12V - it won't work. The charger always has to be at a significantly higher voltage. 14.4V is the normal charging voltage (at 25°C) for standard 12V starter batteries. Float charge voltage is lower but still significantly higher than 12V. And unless you are an expert on batteries and charging technology you really gotta go with what the experts, the manufacturers, say. We can't argue with them as this is not politics or even cutting edge experimenting, it's simple science and mature technology.

The 0.3V difference between 14.4V and 14.7V is apparently critical for the application of AGM batteries in STOP/START cars. I spoke with the Odyssey Batteries technical support department and they told me very clearly, that especially with STOP/START cars I must ensure their AGM battery is charged at 14.7V. They were very insistent.

The instructions in your new Fbranded CTEK 4.3 charger may or may not be incorrect. Keep in mind, a regular CTEK 4.3 does provide 14.4/14.7/15.8V charging. Here are their specs. What your Fbranded one appears to lack is the charging mode indicator of the regular CTEK 4.3. Maybe it is able to select 14.7V automatically and maybe it isn't. Check the Fmanual again. To answer your other question - if your car doesn't have an AGM battery I wouldn't worry about it because 14.4V will work. At least it charges at 4.3A max compared to 3.3A of the older one. Otherwise, you need to clarify this with the parts people who sold you the new charger.

As for my car, let's put it this way, the wimpy Fbranded US3300 was fully capable of delivering a 14.4V charge but it also drained my AGM battery, as expected, starting from 7 days after I took delivery of the car last year. OTOH I've been using the CTEK 7002 from April this year and my new AGM battery's doing fine. My dealer says I should only use the SNOWFLAKE mode to charge my battery. I never use the normal mode. I also posted this charging matrix from Bentley Batteries a few months ago. It very clearly specifies a 14.7V charging voltage for AGM batteries at ambient 25°C conditions.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Of course, using the same chart if you charge under 40°C conditions, you can also get away with charging at 14.4V. Charging voltage varies with temperature. But in the Winter, you absolutely want to charge indoors at the higher voltage level. If your battery is always full, you can also get away with a float charge, at much lower voltage, set by the charger. But this is not the case with HELE cars.

HELE cars that are regularly driven in high traffic use a lot of current, easily 10-25X (# of restarts) that of the equivalent non-HELE car. Such conditions would kill a lead acid battery in 2 weeks. Again, this is claimed by industry experts, not me. It takes a lot of current to crank the engine, again and again, often within seconds of each engine restart when driving in high traffic. AGM batteries can quickly recharge IF the charging system is set to the correct charging voltage. AGM batteries are not bigger versions of regular batteries and they also have lower internal resistance and can accept a charge much more quickly without overheating and degrading.

There's also the possibility that when you hook up the wrong charger the incorrect charging mode's control program will incorrectly detect a fully-charged battery when the AGM battery isn't actually full. That was apparently what happened to my car with the wimpy US3300 Fbranded charger. That's the wrong charger for my car.

As for the special Ferrari-spec plug, my dealer bought the CTEK 7002 separately and then cannibalized one of their newer Fbranded chargers to provide the special plug.

 

How can that be? The ODB scan should throw a code if you had the CEL one...

 

4th_gear, you are correct that there's no arguing with physics. Since I already have a 7002 also, there's no problem using the F-plug with it. It just seems such a waste not to use the matching charger (and infuriating that Ferrari still sells the "wrong" charger). Thank you for your very helpful posts.

 

I'm not sure what the deal is with the odd stripped-down front panel of the Fbranded CTEK 4.3 but since batteries and chargers are rebranded items maybe there's been some issues with product management. I clearly received the wrong charger with my car and there was no special instructions on how to take care of the AGM battery.

 

Maybe Ferrari doesn't trust owners to choose the right mode and the unit automatically detects and selects AGM? Or maybe they didn't get the memo from Odyssey and don't care if the AGM batteries fail prematurely?

 

Any chance of getting the F-plug without buying a whole f-charger which is crap?

 

I'm told no. But if you find a source, please post!

 

My guess is that you google in Europe, you will find the plug. Perhaps a large automotive electrical supply house ?

 

Hi guys....Im thinking of dipping my toe into the "modern" Ferrari world again but after reading all these various electronic issue discussions on virtually every modern F car I think Ill get a new Corvette to augment my carb Boxer....which BTW has been amazingly reliable. These idiot light issues caused me to sell my 550.....I could never go for a ride of more than an hour without a check engine light coming on....my nerves just couldnt take it anymore.....I hoped the Cali and other newer rides would have worked some of those gremlins out....Oh well....At the cost of repairs every ck engine light on my 550 was answered by a flatbed truck....ouch.

 

Sorry for your pain. My F355 couldn't go 2k miles w/o going to the shop.
360 only had to go once a year...usually the annual service.
458 after 17k miles has had a loudspeaker replaced. that's it. I love this car.

 

As an FYI - dealer got to the bottom of this whilst the car was in for some routine service work.

I was (very occasionally, and normally only if driving car without a good warmup) getting a P0491 error code which caused a green engine light.
"Secondary air injection insufficient flow bank 1".
Performance not impacted just annoying - happened 3 times over 5 months and just reset it using my OBDII tool, at the advice from Ferrari.

Whilst in for service they did a deeper check over and found that the secondary air manifolds had a lot of carbon build up - they were replaced (both sides) completely, under warranty, and is something they had seen before.

Cheers
Matt