Sign battery is at end of life?

Noticed last time I took car out for a drive (1 hr or so) and put it back on battery tender, the tender has stayed on "charge" for 3 days. Has not gone to "float" yet. Is that a sign time for new battery?

Also, noticed when I push start button, the engine cranks normally, then sounds like it cuts out for a split second, then continues to turn over. That cut out/hesitation is defintely new. Related to battery? Or not?

 

When in doubt on a battery, change it. A good Interstate is less than $150 and comes with an 84 month warranty. Late model Ferraris do weird things when their batteries go bad.

It will cost you money to get it checked, unless you take the battery to an AutoZone or similar, so might as well just buy yourself another 3-5 years of no battery worries.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

You are right. But I am somewhat apprehensve re the "relearning," "resynching" sequence that needs to take place when you pop in a new battery. Maybe I should put jumper cables on the leads and attach to other car while I swap battery, just so the electronics never lose power.

 

alcc- Not a big deal, here are the Ferrari procedures and another FChatter's explanation of how to do a run cycle. My 575M has the same run cycle procedure and my battery has been shut off multiple times with no ill effects.

Taz
Terry Phillips
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View attachment Ferrari FNA-20 Explanation.doc

 

Thanks !!

 

Sometimes a battery tender isn't enough to fully charge the battery. Get a speed charger(Schumacher or whatever) put it on and see what happens first?

 

Why not save yourself some time and money if you are going to change out your still functional battery. Before you unhook attach a battery charger to neg and pos. Neg to a a ground preforably not batery post and positive to the distal end of lead in wire ( not the post), then unhook and battery leads and current is maintained without interruption by the charger to the ECU etc. Put the new battery in, hook up the leads, then unhook the charger. As such no need for ECU etc to relearn anything.
\
Docf

 

Yes, that's exaclty what I meant in earlier post. Keep the juices flowing while I swap out the battery to avoid the need to "resynch."

 

I had a similar problem in the past and I sent back the battery tender. It was determined that the battery tender needed to be replaced.

 

This may seem odd, but try pulling out the power to the battery maintainer/charger, and the plugging it in after a few seconds...maybe something got out of sequence with the logic of the maintainer and it's not even charging right now? Worth a shot...

 

Thanks for all your suggestions.

Finally reached "charged" state after 4 days. Think I'm gonna replace it soon.

Interstate MTP 91 with vent hose, yes?

 

Yes

 

Here is a document I put together on Ferrari batteries. Need to add Braille batteries to it, but I include the Braille Ferrari reference sheet. The Brailles are Absorbed Glass Mat technology batteries, like the Odyssey in the document. If I were using a Braille, I would go with a B7548. Mine has an Interstate MTP-91, and it has worked very well.

On your battery, I was not so worried about the charger, but the hesitation on start. Not good, and the car with a good battery should be good for at least 2 weeks without a charger with no problems. I never put one on mine unless I will be gone over two weeks. Old superstition of mine that they actually shorten battery life.

Taz
Terry Phillips
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View attachment Ferrari Battery.doc

 

alcc,

The smae re-learning, re-sync that happens with a new battery happens as well when you use the cut-off switch in the trunk. Nothing special going on there.

Sometimes I get a CEL, I use the cut-off switch for 60 secs, then everything is back to normal, it happened a lot with the crappy CA 91 octane fuel, not anymore since in Miami (93 octane fuel). My car is bone stock.

By the way, my car came with an Optima Red Top 34R, this is a 38 lbs battery of much better quality than the old FIAMM used in the F430 and 360, it is also 6.3 lbs lighter and it is sealed contrary to the FIAMM EcoForce VR760 which requires a venting hose. Safer, lighter, cheaper and made in U.S.

I have used Braille twice before in other cars and I'm not a big fan, they let me down several times despite using a battery tender, great customer service, not that great of a product. They have a new line of Lithium batteries, worth trying but in that field my preference goes to Voltphreaks (VPR-S40).

 

No experience with Brailles, so good to hear. Naturally, Ferrari would choose them as their replacement batteries with Ferrari part numbers. Their lithium batteries are $1500+, so out of my price range.

My next battery will be another Interstate MTP-91 or an Odyssey. Have not decided yet. Wholesale on the Odyssey ($207) is 2-3 times that of the Interstate (~$75), however.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

The over-the-top electronics in this car scares me. I mean, "re-learn", "re-synch" for 5+ minutes after each power loss?

Hey, I am scared precisely because I am an Elec. Engr. by education and am in that business. Something not quite right about the design, not to mention the "gestalt"! What possibly could it be "relearning"? And why would anything it needs to "re-learn" or re-synch take minutes, given the fast CPUs in that car? Shudder.

 

Actually, it has nothing to do with the processing speed of the Motronic ME7.1.1 but about relearning the mapping of fuel/air mixtures, fuel short term/long term trims, oxygen sensors, air temp and barometric values etc. This takes time as the engine must reach the normal operating temperature. The initial 10 minutes give the DME a kind of startup ajustement map which then will be reajusted permanently when driving normally. As engine caracteristics are changing over service time, theoritic stored maps in the DME must be reajusted and these ajustement values are stored in the volatile memory.


As specified in the F430 WSM:

Resetting the self-adapting parameters

Each time the battery is detached, all of the self-detected parameters are deleted from the ignition/injection control unit.

In these cases, they must be reset, before using the car again, as specified below.

• The car must be left running for about 10 minutes under the following conditions:

- car stopped with the engine idling;

- water temperature steady;

- equipment* switched off (lights, windscreen wipers, etc..);

- conditioner switched off.

This procedure enables the control unit to optimize the self-adapting parameters rapidly, avoiding the engine to work incorrectly.

 

Ok, so the long time it takes is for the engine to reach normal op temp. Still, this re-learning seems fraught with possibility for errors. Why not store the current "learned" operating parameters in flash and use that as the starting (actually continuation) point? Then, you can swap battery, use the cutoff switch you all want, get in, turn the key, push the button and off you go !!

 

Perché è italiano!

 

Capito!

Another interesting design "feature": why is the Start button on the steering wheel? You never ever want to use/touch it while driving...!

 

Well if you store the learned values in flash memory, you would always need then a SD3 to reset them after having changed an engine part like the oxygen sensors or MAF. I prefer to let it idle for 10 min which isn't a big deal. Anyway, I always let the engine warming up for about that time before driving. The start button is on the wheel because it's a Ferrari and makes it feel a bit like a F1 steering wheel. Exclusivity doesn't mean it's pratical...and I don't want my F430 looks like my BMW ;-)

 

Seems more reasonable to me to have to plug in SD3 after you change MAF meter or O2 sensor, than to use the battery as the reset button!

 

Also, re your comment re the steering wheel, how does having just the start button on it (in case of F430) give it your F1 gestalt?

If that's Ferrari's intention, how about having a quick disconnect so I can pop it off for easier, more graceful entry/exit, and take the wheel with me everywhere?

Now, that'd be a great functional as well as soul-satisfying design feature !!

Heck, wouldn't you pay $5000 for that option? I bet most of us would!

 

The F430 has a Mannetino like the early F1 cars with the electro-hydraulic shifters. If you touch the start button while the engine is running, nothing will happen.

Having a separate key and a starter button is not the best engineering, but it does date from 2004. The C6 Corvettes introduced the same year eliminated the key altogether, which is a better approach. My wife's Mercedes has the same feature.

Taz
Terry Phillips