Hello and hope somebody can help figure this out… Looked through numerous threads and none have helped. I swapped the battery on my 355 6 speed because the car would disarm the alarm with two beeps, then display no dash lights but the horn and windows work fine. Alarm light is off for engine start. Battery change solved nothing, so I opened up relays in floorboard and swapped the P relay ( bottom right) that shows “ignition functions” and that changed nothing. Jiggled the key in the ignition at all positions-nothing. I cannot move the seats forward but I think I can get at the ECU cover and clean the ECU connectors. should I take the steering column covers off and look at the ignition switch for loose wires? I cut power in the trunk and tried an ECU reset- nothing. Is this an immobiliser issue? She is on a battery tender for the evening, maybe charging the battery in the immobiliser? any help is appreciated. Thanks
Should also specifically mention that the car will not crank either. No dash lights no crank no headlights no seat movement, but oddly enough the windows work just fine.
(EDIT: Sorry.. a bit slow today) You have a 5.2 Spider, possibly from the USA? It could be an ignition issue. Do you get power on fuse 24* when you turn on the ignition? When you put your key to Accessory (not Run), do you get the ABS light on the instrument panel? Your window motors take a fair amount of power to run, so certainly your battery has enough power to illuminate the dash. *for reference, fuse 24 gets power straight from the ignition (no relays involved). Fuse 24 provides the power for many of the instrument warning lights, for the instruments and lots of other goodies.
This will tell us if battery power is getting to the ignition switch. If the ABS light comes on, then we have to look at what is coming out of the ignition switch.
If you have no ABS light on startup, the ABS system doesn't know the ignition key has been turned on. Either your ignition is bad or battery power is not reaching the steering column. Check for live battery power on the red wires at the ignition connector at the base of the column. Image Unavailable, Please Login You may be able to backprobe the plugs (i.e. without disconnecting them)
Do you have any non-standard wiring spliced into the harnesses at the base of the column? Has something been spliced in... and the splices have failed?
If you have no live battery power at the ignition column plug, you'll have to work backwards to the battery bus bar behind the relay panel. This is a RHD car, but it should be similar. Image Unavailable, Please Login Check the tightness of the bolts (careful, this stuff is live unless you use the battery cutoff switch). If you don't know how to get behind the relay panel.... remove the single bolt on the right hand side and pull the panel to the right to disengage the locating pins. Image Unavailable, Please Login You may have to remove other items to get the panel to fold down from the top. Sorry... 1am here... trying to give you as much information as possible.
Fuse 24 is good still no illuminated lights or any change in the car when the key is turned. I’ll check the column now. Thanks again for the help.
I wasn’t expecting the fuse to be blown. The problem sounds much bigger than a single fuse. As you had the cover panel open already, the fuse was just a convenient point to check for ignition power. You will need a voltmeter from this point.
Jiggled the yellow wire in the steering column and everything works. Thank you for the info as I will remember the ABS light and associated power flow. There is a wiring bundle connector that the ignition plugs into with other individual wires and when I tap on that the warning lights flicker so I suspect the yellow Airbag wire caused tension on the wiring connector and it needs to be addressed. thank you again for sharing your knowledge and helping me to find a solution!
Thanks for the follow-up Hope the repair is simple… Maybe the pin/socket tension needs “adjustment”. Or perhaps they just need cleaning. Note that the yellow wire is probably not the issue, but the movement is affecting other wires. The yellow wire should only affect the accessory position.
This is assuming your wire colours are standard. A lot of Ferraris deviate from wiring diagram colours.
