488 eats batteries

Hey Guys, if there ever was a car that needs a power cut off switch, it’s the 488.

I have a power leak somewhere and I will be getting the car fitted with a shut down switch.

My question is, why isn’t my Altenator keeping up to the power draw that is obviously occurring even while the car is running?

 

I'm not sure what exactly Ferrari did from the 458 to the 488, but in terms of the charging system it was not good in my opinion. I ran a lithium battery in my 458 and then moved it over to my 488. In the 458, driving the car always fully charged the battery - volts on the display were around 14 volts as I recall (while driving along). This is typical of a normal healthy alternator turning at reasonable RPM's.

When I bought my 488 and moved the battery to it, I immediately noticed the voltage from the charging system was all over the place. Sometimes it would be down in the high 12 volts as I recall, other times it would be higher. I don't know if I ever saw it up around 14 volts like in the 458. I just remember thinking "this new setup is bananas". Sure enough, started to notice the lithium battery wasn't being fully charged through driving.

Like I say, I don't know what Ferrari did or if maybe they got fancy and tried to create some system which varies how much load the alternator is placed under or something, but whatever the deal was (baring my 488 having some charging system defect - which I frankly wouldn't totally rule out, as the 488 was absolute garbage if you ask me).. whatever the deal was, it just left me wishing the 488 had the same charging system as the 458 did.

I don't have any answers, but my car seemed to be similar to what you are describing.

What voltage levels do you see when driving?

Ray

 

I am travelling extensively at the moment so I haven’t had a chance to test it, but I know that I have leakage somewhere and as you say, the charging system is not sufficient
Once I cure the leakage issue,
is there a larger alternator to be had?

 

No idea. I couldn't stand my 488 and sold it as quickly as possible.

Ray

 

Never getting rid of mine, just looking for suggestions

thanks in advance

 

The charging voltage with my Portofino has always been all over the place,and other Portofino owners have reported the same thing. I think this is because the alternator is an electric motor whose output is determined by the ECU (for a tiny increase in gas mileage) as opposed to the older-style belt-driven alternators running at engine speed.

 

Current Ferraris have a managed alternator for fuel economy. It's a bad joke along with the managed oil pump. Builders receive mileage credits for these and other dubious systems like auto start/stop.

Only alternative is to vote out politicians supporting these annoying requirements.

 

some of my friends experienced this and looked into it....
so what they found out is that ferrari has decided that the alternator will no longer just be running in the background when the engine is running, and charge your battery since that would sap a few bhp and they want you to have the full 700+ (what a crock). the new alternator only charges when the car is decelerating.....so, if you drive around for an hour and never slow down or stop, the alternator did not charge your battery. then you put it away, without even having replaced the volts used to start it.
rinse and repeat and in a month you have a dead battery

 

Its not just Ferrari but almost all manufactures now. Rather then having a internal voltage regulator and maintaining a fixed level of charge the engine control unit or body modules control the alternator based on engine load and the battery state of charge. Under acceleration it is not uncommon to see the battery voltage drop down into the 12volt range especially with a lot of loads such as A/C, cooling fans lights ect... You will also note it may get into the high 14 volt range on deceleration or light loads. This is normal. It is also critical that if you are switching from a conventional battery to a Lithium battery the module controlling the charging system is programmed for that as lithium will want a higher voltage to reach 100% charge and managed differently then a conventional lead battery.
The battery state of charge monitor mounted on the battery is critical to this operating properly as the strategy of the charging system will be based on this.

 

That's all great information. I kinda figured what I was seeing in my 488 (verses the 458) must be something along the lines of what everyone has explained above, but I never had any specific information as to what the heck was going on. Personally, I wish Ferrari would just let the alternator do its job and keep the battery topped off.

I remember I test drove an 812 SF a few years back and the first time I experienced that start/stop thing it was like WTF did I stall the motor? The salesman pushed some button to disable it as I remember; having to disable that nonsense every time you drive must get old fast.

Ray

 

Thank you for that Ross and according to your information I am candidate #1 for the issues I am experiencing. I put a new battery in when I got it but Jesus miss a night or two of charging and the next thing you know your getting more codes than the Nazis from the enigma machine in 1941.
I will see if the output can be tweaked.

 

Thanks all for the input. I’m taking it in and will report back.

 

they have to have that start/stop function as default to meet regulations.
and yes it is a pain to switch them off - but i do it in every car that has it every drive

 

Yeah, I hear people's cars turn off / on next to me at stop lights. Super gay.

Ray

 

Totally gay

 

It's very upsetting to me how crappy ferrari cars have become. It's rather sad. How people continue to spend money on this crap is mind boggling.

 

You have been underneath and inside a lot of them Tom but I would contend that they have become better. I have a small, easily traced/solved battery leakage issue and thanks to the comments here, it looks like an adjustment to be made on the input/outputs on the charging system. Car is booked for the 24th. The 488 is the best Ferrari that I have ever owned in terms of performance and build quality. The sheet metal seems a bit more “flimsy” but the same could be said for my 2023 GM Yukon Denali ultimate. Switch gear is better today and fit and finish is miles ahead. I don’t miss the engine outs etc…
But hey, it’s a Ferrari, it’s always busted somewhere, there is always something that doesn’t work.

 

+1

Those are my sentiments also. The new stuff is barely more appealing than owning a Tesla Model S - which isn't saying much.

Ray

 

No sure if I'm missing something but I switched mine off when I first got the car and it's remained defaulted to off ever since.

 

When first introduced, the stop/start could be disabled once and for all; starting from some MY (I don't know which, my car is older than that) it had to be on by default at start up (so that to avoid it, you need to disable it each time).

 

That would make sense as my 488 is a 2017 and one of my other cars is 2022 and you have to disable it everytime on that. So much for 'improvements'.

 

ok. well i was not specifically referring to a ferrari with that feature - all of mine are too old to have that
my remark was about the mercedes i have with it

 

I wonder if that's a setting which can be changed back by the dealer using their service computers?

Ray

 

Just like the managed alternator eats batteries, I wonder if the managed oil pump causes engine wear.

 

Managed oil pump?

Ray