2011 Cali instrument panel frozen

I went to start my Cali, key in, key on, warning lights all come on, the bar on the left hand display does not advance and the display at that point is frozen. Push to start and it starts as normal. Engine light goes off as normal. Car will go into gear and is driveable but gear indicator does not display. Fuel gauge does not display.
Cut the car off, take the key out and the display stays on and frozen as described. An hour later still on. Car is always on the tender and I’ve had no issues with it except the “Check Ok” does not come up after the engine light goes off after starting. That’s been the case for about a week. But the TPMS throws out a problem code intermittently. Image Unavailable, Please Login .

Anyone had this problem? Any simple solution? Disconnect the battery then reconnect?


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I would try a a hard reset (disconnecting the battery and then shorting the positive cable to ground while battery is disconnected). If that doesn't work you could have a shop use a Ferrari specific diagnostic tool try and communicate with the instrument cluster to see it communicating on CAN line with other ECU's.
The cluster may be defective, in which case you could see if Francorchamps of America (http://ferrarioc.com/?page_id=15) can repair it. If not you will have to buy a new cluster from Ferrari and have them program it with the information (milage, etc) that was on the original cluster.

 

Had something similar on my Cali.

Dropped by the dealer just before closing and they disconnected the battery then reconnected and brought the car back up.

All fine then.

Tech told me connecting the battery then leaving it for about 10m to go thru its initialization is most important. Also, roll windows down a bit before disconnecting to keep the glass from causing a problem if you try to close the doors!

SV

 

Thanks for input.



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Thanks for that. I’m waiting on a few more replies before I do anything. Makes sense to me. I have a friend who works for Fiat Chrysler who is going to talk to a technical guy at Ferrari to see if he has any suggestions.


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Hopefully a reset of the system will clear the problem.

Try to recall when you first noticed something was off and see if you can correlate with the timing of the event(s) with other events. For instance, if you just had service and if the software was updated. Sometimes new software is not correctly or fully loaded, resulting in corrupted code. If that's the case, the problem will come back and can only be resolved by reloading the software.

 

As 4th_gear has said, the software in the car may be corrupted. If resetting the system does not clear the issue, you could have a shop with a Ferrari specific diagnostic computer perform a "PROXI Alignment". This ensures that all of the nodes/ECU's on the CAN BUS have the same programming (PROXI file) and can communicate properly with one another.

 

Does anyone think that the battery disconnect and grounding the positive lead to get a reset could cause damage? OBDII basic scan tool showed no fault codes this afternoon. I have an independent shop that works on my Porsche about an hour and a half away that I can take it to and try to do the reset once I get there. Better than here in my garage.


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A battery disconnect, called a "Hard reset" is the very first procedure that Ferrari recommends when there is an electrical issue. It will not cause any damage.
It will erase any fault codes that are stored in all of the ECU's. So it is recommended to download these fault codes before performing a hard reset.
Since you are just trying to get your cluster to come back to life, I would not worry about fault codes and just try the reset.

 

So to be sure I have this right, I disconnect the positive cable and ground it? Correct? Then reconnect it and let the reset proceed?


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Not exactly. First disconnect the negative cable. Then take a jumper wire and connect the positive cable to ground, which is the chassis of the car, not the negative battery terminal. (the positive cable can still be connected to the battery). Just don't do it with the negative cable connected, or you will have a major short circuit and your jumper wire will glow red hot.
Connecting the positive cable to ground with the negative cable disconnected will drop the voltage in the positive side to zero, erasing the memories of all of the ECU's. You only need to jump it for about thirty seconds.
After reconnecting the negative cable, turn the key to the on position and leave it there for a minute, then start the car and don't touch the accelerator pedal for five minute so that the ECU's can learn the idle speed. You will then have to use the remote to arm and disarm the alarm system in order to reinitialize the system, otherwise the top, fuel door release will not work.
Hopefully the instrument cluster will come back to life and you will have to reset the date and time.

 

Glad I asked. Funny thing happened last night. I went out to do something in the garage and took a look inside to see if the panel was still in the frozen position. It was, as I suspected. Sound system display was dimly pulsating, only visible in the darkened interior of the car. On impulse I switched the headlight control from auto to off then to P and the frozen cluster turned off. I got the key and switched the ignition on and had nothing happen, battery dead. It was on the tender at the time. So I am charging the battery and I will see what happens this morning. Maybe it did the reset for me.
Anyway I’m taking it to my mechanic on Monday if it will start and drive or I’ll trailer it.
Thanks for the advice.


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What model of battery tender do you have? The factory supplied unit for your car IS TRULY JUST A TENDER - it will not charge up a significantly discharged battery.

Ferrari and other car makers do not supply battery chargers with their cars.

 

It was on the Ferrari tender but I put it on a real charger overnight. My idea is that when the display was frozen there was current draw that the tender was not able to handle so the battery just discharged below minimums.
I went out last night switched on the ignition after charging and all looked normal. Did not start it but will today to see how it reacts.
And I’m going to have it checked out for any errors. Going to check the battery.
Your help most appreciated

 

I hope your new tender is at least capable of 3 Amps of (maximum) current draw and also has the program logic to recondition a badly discharged battery. The reconditioning process requires a temporary, carefully managed, heavy charge to de-sulphate the plates. Most tenders cannot do this.

Since you do not know how discharged your battery is, you need to consider how fast your new charger is and assume the worst in terms of how long it may take to sort out your battery, assume your battery is also not damaged beyond resuscitation. Depending on which new charger you have, it can sometimes take a couple of days to fully recondition and recharge your car battery.

Make sure the recharging is complete before you try using your car. IMO, not having the battery fully charged before using it is the source of most car battery problems. Think about this, that your dealer may have given you a car with a half-charged battery to begin with and the battery consequently never had a full charge. Unlike our smartphones, cars do not show the state of charge of its battery. It's a glaring omission.

 

I charged the battery with my old reliable charger for 18 hours and will get a new Ctek tender soon. Everything works when I switch the ignition on. Normal displays except I do not get the “check O.K.” note on the display. Engines fires and runs as normal. I reset the time and date which was wrong. Still puzzled about the no Check Ok indicator. I’m going to look at it when I can get to the shop and check via OBDII.
I think I am on the way to getting rid of the gremlins. Although I understand these electronics are finicky.


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Paul, you appear to be still using the tender that Ferrari supplied with your car. That unit likely won't be adequate to help you debug the problem you are having. You need one of the more sophisticated CTEK chargers which I believe you expect to receive soon. Those can recondition a sulphated battery.

A marginal battery may also provide adequate voltage and current (sometimes just briefly) for some car functions while fails others, especially the startup test(s). If the tests do not show "check OK" and we take that message seriously, it means the startup test(s) failed in some way. Like many devices, the current draw upon startup often approaches maximum, where a weak battery will show up.

I think we owners understandably double-guess car warnings and error messages because they are often spurious. However, sometimes they are not and sometimes, spurious nature of these warnings and messages actually point to other (real) problems.

Well, at least the car runs. Let's hope it's just the battery and not a failing electrical component(s). Please keep us abreast with your progress.

 

Original frozen display repeated when I got in from a 50 minute drive exercising the car this afternoon. I have it on my craftsman charger now, and a new ctek tender on the way from Amazon.
I will have all checked out on Monday, my independent shop owner is pretty knowledgeable and has all the tools and software to read and diagnose problems.
I thought I was in the clear.
I’m hoping to get this sorted out as I plan to drive it to my place in Florida next Friday.
Thanks for following up.

 

• After all of this you had a dead battery! Please put a new battery in the car before monkeying around with all of the electrical issues. Frozen instrument cluster displays are a typical symptom of low battery voltage. Unless you are sure that your battery is good, passes load test using a carbon pile tester, you are just wasting everyone's time.

 

The Cali uses a special battery charger connector designed for CTEK chargers so I have never seen a Sears Craftsman charger suitable for a modern Ferrari.

I hope your Craftsman charger is a modern smart charger and cannot overcharge a battery. All the old-style chargers will destroy a car battery if you let them. If you hook them up the wrong way, they will also damage the electronics in your car. Be very careful if you are hooking up a charger directly to the battery poles as the Cali has additional circuitry directly connected to the negative pole. Aside from supplying up to 12V of power, car batteries actually act as noise filters for a car's electronics so if you accidentally connect a charger directly to the car's electronics instead of just the battery, you can easily fry some of them and not know it. Never let a charger directly touch the electronics of your car.

These cars should also not be used with compromised equipment, especially in a manner that is different from the way the car is designed. That means staying with Ferrari or CTEK chargers that use the special charging connector.

I hope your Indy has Ferrari-training and actual dealer work experience with the car. Just having the tools is not the same as training and work experience.

 

FYI. I did not have a dead battery until this happened. I had just started and driven the car with no problems for 50 minutes. Battery went flat on the FERRARI supplied tender. I am checking on battery and charging systems at the shop on Monday.
Funny you did not mention low battery voltage causing frozen displays until now. Sorry I wasted your time. Forgive me.



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Sorry if I missed this earlier in the thread, but how old is your battery? Our 2011 Cali was on the original battery and tender when we bought it 2.5 years ago. Had minor odd warnings pop up on the TFT. Albeit nothing as extreme as yours. Replaced battery with an AGM battery (our Cali has HELE) and got a new CTEK 7002 tender about 2 years ago. We use the tender religiously and, knock on wood, no issues since. Good luck with your Cali...T

 

Thanks tomc. A fellow 2011 Cali owner. I figure we’re all in this together. Manual always says “contact your dealer” for EVERYTHING, which is not always the best course of action even if money was no object. Wisdom of the masses Is invaluable, especially good advice from 4th gear. Will let everyone know what I find on Monday. May help someone in the future.

 

Definitely. These cars have their quirks, and the owners on F-chat are a great resource...T

 

Paul, if your 2011 is still on its original battery then it's well past its normal lifespan.

Regular lead acid batteries are only supposed to reliably last 3-4 years (max). Many folks will religiously replace batteries at that point regardless, but sometimes batteries do last longer and the owner should be vigilant and replace them as soon as any electrical anomaly emerges. If your battery is original, start by replacing it with a fully-charged correct replacement and see if that fixes your problems. Interstate supplies the excellent replacements we use up here in Ontario.

Hopefully, that's the source of your issues.