California T battery

Close to making my dream of Ferrari ownership come true with a Cali T, which I hope to have end of this week/beginning of next (doing its annual service and some minor repairs to qualify for new Power warranty).

Over the winter/spring (in Portugal so fairly mildish) my just departed 992 C2S had the battery go flat a couple of times when not in regular use.

To avoid this with the Fezzer I got the latest CTEK which I will mount on the garage wall and have just ordered a compatible magnetic adaptor.

My plan is to have the car on the tender whenever its not on the road, all year round. I figure the magnetic charge point will make this pretty painless.

Is this overkill? or good practice?

 

not overkill... it's almost mandatory

 

Perhaps I'm lucky - not having any battery troubles. I drive my California weekly (March - through Nov) so my battery is always charged. I only placed on charger in winter months. Whether you need to maintain all-the-time is likely a determination you will make depending on how much you drive your car.

 

Thanks for that!

Good advice thanks. won't be a daily, maybe once a week spring/summer. although bet it will be more initially haha first ferrari experience

 

The California T came with a charger from the factory. You should not need to buy one (the previous owner should pass it on with the car)

The original, factory supplied charger is a Ferrari branded Ctek. Mine came in a branched Ferrari pouch, but not sure if that’s standard.

The good thing about the Cali T is that it has a magnetic charge port in the trunk lid, no need to open the trunk. It is more convenient, and should you forget, and drive off with it connected then it will simply pull away

 

Interesting. Did the charger just come loose in the trunk or did it have its own storage area? Thx

 

William, this is not overkill, it is the minimum. You may have read in other posts how many problems I have had with the battery on my Portofino. Put your car on the trickle charger EVERY time you bring it back and keep it on until you drive again. errrr.....good idea to disconnect it before you drive off

 

Here is the pouch and charger that came with my car. Also a couple of photos of the charge port.

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Good job its magnetic haha

 

Thank you so much @spaghetti_jet for taking the time to do that. That's a very cool cover. I will ping the dealer today and see if it does have the original charger. cheers

 

2016 Cali T owner here. The biggest learning curve for me was remembering to unplug the magnetic charger before pulling out of the garage. I've been close a few times to driving away with just the pigtail hanging from the back of the car. I've conditioned myself to remember so I'm all good these days. This issue is probably just me as I also once ran over my charger that was plugged into the front my 911SC.

 

Not just you, I drove out of my garage with the magnetic charger still on haha. It came out from the extension adaptor, that magnet is really strong - no harm done as I heard the cable unclip and stopped the car. I do have a longer extension so maybe an option would be;

1. Front park the car into the garage so I have to run the cable over the car (or on the floor) to the magnetic charger mount. Surely even i will notice that!
2. The CTEK charger has an app - I may be able to set an alert so that it beeps when my phone comes into Bluetooth range.

Or it just becomes a habit I guess, I never forget to connect it, so hopefully i can remember to disconnect it LOL.

 

Sure, you are not alone on unintended detaching of the charger cable. I've opened the trunk a couple times without remembering to pull the plug first. So far the plug has detached without apparent damage to car or plug.

 

Yes, it's become a habit for me thankfully. When I first got the car I wired up the charger all nice and neat so when I backed into the garage all that I had to do was reach down and connect it. All nice and tidy. But too tidy to serve as a reminder to disconnect before leaving the garage. No harm, no foul I suppose.

 

Since we're on the topic. Ever connect the charger, leave it, and notice the next day or whenever that it did not initiate charging? I've had that happen a few times. I just disconnect the power, plug it back in and it's good to go.

 

I was told by the dealer to always attach the charger to the car before plugging the charger into the power receptacle. I guess the charger must do some analysis that does not occur if it’s plugged into the wall before attaching to the car. ‍

Andy


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Good advice, that rule applies to all electronic devices I know of, cell phones, computers etc

 

Happened once on the CTEK One - I think it was charging but the app didn't show it. Restarted charger and app and all good.

 

Ferrari and battery tender marry happily forever

 

But even with the battery tender always connected if I don't drive the car for a week or 2 (invariably Autumn/Winter when the weather can be poor) then I start seeing all the sensor errors on starting the car:

TPSMC failure, manettino failure, tye pressure failure sometimes even chassis fault etc blah blah. Scared the crap out of me the first time. But now I know to relax, switch off the car wait a minute start it again and all errors disappear.

Oh the joys and foibles of Ferrari ownership

 

Check the age of your battery & ideally get it load tested. Most auto parts stores will do this for free. If battery is over 3 years old - you likely need to get it replaced.

 

The battery was new when I purchased the car 2 years ago. The dealer replaced it (at their cost) on the service and inspection check so I could get the new Power warranty. It threw sensor errors from the start if it wasnt driven for a couple of weeks. and my CTEK One reports that its in top shape.

I have a mate with a 2017 488 with the same issue and another friend with a 2021 Roma who has similar.

I always mention it on a service ( in fact it was in just 2 weeks ago) and they always have a look and give the sensors and battery a clean bill of health.

But its a good suggestion thanks, I may just get it load tested anyway..

 

even with battery tender connected? hmm that sounds weird.

 

Did the same thing again yesterday afternoon, hadn't driven the car for 6 days or so.
It's 24-7 on the tender when not in use.
More annoying than usual yesterday as the errors didnt go away with a restart. had to drive it for a few minutes then stop, restart and it was all good.
Tbh the car is on the market now and I was actually driving it to a dealer to get a valuation etc.