No start

F430 has been sitting for two weeks. Battery less than one year old.
Key on and all systems go...Start OK. But, click, click, click. Will not fire.
No error codes.
Any ideas?

 

Maybe put it on a charger (out of the car) and see what happens.

These cars have electrical gremlins... I swear they come buy and suck the juice out of the battery.

Good luck and I hope someone more knowledgeable than me can help you.

 

That sounds like a dead battery.

If you are going to let it sit, use a trickle charger.

 

Yikes. Mine turned on after two weeks. Shouldn't happen with new battery. Should be good for 3 weeks


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When you say start OK but click click click, do you mean the starter motor is spinning OK (at the normal cranking speed)?

In any case, first thing to do is to put a voltmeter on the battery terminals (or a convenient power outlet); you should have 12.6 volts. If not, try charging the battery (I prefer a slow rate of ~ 2 amps, which will take a while but worth it). You can switch to 10 amps after an hour to speed things up).

Once the battery is charged then try it again. Would be good to measure the voltage while cranking if it does not start right away.

 

Starter motor ?

 

Could be. If he measures the voltage before cranking and also during cranking then we can tell:
No difference in voltage (i.e. 12.6 volts in both cases): starter motor or solenoid or cable to starter or relay

 

Classic flat battery

 

It could, but would the the entire dashboard display die down when clicking ?

 

I use a trickle charger all the time, even after a long drive.

Last November I bought a new Ducati Monster and it came with a trickle charger, and if I don't use it, Ducati will not replace the batter under warranty. How they can tell I have no idea.
They supply them free with all new bikes and never have battery claims like they did before.
It's like Italian wiring is all the same. Marginal at best.

But I use the charger on both and never (touch wood) have issues.

 

Is the car an F1? If so does it change gear to neutral (or is it already in neutral) when you try to start it? You should be able to switch to neutral manually using both flappy paddles even if the engine is not running. If you can't do that (and you are sure your battery is fine) there's a chance the F1 pump motor may be sticking.

 

Make sure you use a battery maintainer and not a trickle charger. Huge difference.

Trickle charger continues to trickle a small amount of current continuously to a battery. It's not smart so overcharge, boil over, fire, and battery failure are possibilities.

A battery maintainer has smart circuitry that allows the charge to float at the right level, and some of the smarter ones can go thru a cycle that actually desulfates a battery. This will not only maintain a charge, but can actually extend the life of any battery.

Whether you need something to keep your battery sufficient to start your car or not, it is money and time well spent to occasionally hook it up to a battery maintainer for a couple days every month or so.