i ve been stranded only 4 times in my life. 1 time was in a 91 bmw 525i when i was 17 years old. 3 times has been in my ferrari. i went to wash my boat at the marina. 2 hours later, i started the car and was on my way back home, i got about 4 miles down the road when i noticed that the airbag light came on then a couple of other lights came on car started to stall. i parked it and tried to re start it but the battery seemed to be dead, i waited about 5 minutes and it started back up. i drove it a couple of miles and the same problem came back. i shut the engine down and tried to re start the car, the battery seems completely dead. i waited about 5 minutes and the car started right back up. i did this 3 times before i got the car back to the marina where i can leave it there since my house is 30 miles away. about 3 mo ago i got the alternator replaced because i had this EXACT same problem before. the shop told me it was the alternator. it seems like its not the alternator, does anyone know what might cause this?
Just because you changed the alternator doesn't mean it couldn't be defective, after all these are Ferrari parts! Take the car and have the entire electrical system tested before replacing anything. Good luck
Agreed, the alternator may still be at fault. BTW, did you have the ground strap added, from the alternator to the chassis or oil sump? This was an update on the later cars....yours may not have this.
Agree with Dave - when my car had this problem, the alternator was actually fine. It just wasn't making good ground connection, so it wasn't charging. The braided ground strap solved the problem, but a mechanic who wasn't testing thoroughly or didn't know this 355 issue could easily have assumed it was a bad alternator when it wasn't. Not to mention the out of pocket problem with a $20 ground strap versus a $$$$ alternator... I would also have the battery tested. When I bought my car and drove it home from Chicago I had it stall and not start somewhere in Virginia. Turned out the battery caps had come loose some time before I bought the car and all the water had evaporated out. Garage queen danger, but still possible. Don't worry. Once you get it sorted the 355 is a great car.
yeah the ground strap was added and the alternator was tested. i dont think its an alternator problem because if the alternator is not charging the battery then the battery would be dead and shouldnt start back up after "resting" for a while.. by the way heres my post from last year i was driving home today, was going 80 mph for about 60 miles the car ran great got off the exit ramp and all the lights start to come on one by one. first the airbag light then the check engine lights then the abs light. finally the car start to buck and it dies right as i pull up in front of my house. the window rolled up very very very slowly... so since i was starving i decide to go inside an find something to eat. about 10 minutes later i went back outside and see if it would start.. it started right up and acted like nothing happened. its now in my garage and i am scared of it..
Well said..... Same issue happened with my 308 sometime ago. Had the alternator rebuilt (under warranty for the first time) a second time and the car ran like a champ!!!
Maybe it's time for a new battery. Other Ferrari's have acted weird when the battery starts to go bad. I would try a new battery to see if that gets rid of the problems.
Sounds like a bad connection, as the car warms up the connectors made less contact. Check the plastic connectors into the firewall, alternator, etc.
battery was replaced the same time the alternator was.. so i am thinking that it's not the battery...
It could be a bad, loose or dirty connection or ground.....but I am suspecting a bad voltage regulator that is allowing the voltage output of the alternator to drop as it gets hot....as you drive around, it gets hot, voltage drops, car runs crappy (basically running off the battery)....you shut it down...cools down, regulator starts working again....until it heats up again. This exact scenario happened to a friend of mine on his 348 spider. He had his alternator rebuilt (similar Nippondenso alternator), but they did not replace the voltage regulator. Each time he brought it back to complain of the problem, they tested it (for only a few minutes) and it tested fine. He finally told them to run it in for 15 minutes...bingo! Voltage would drop to 10 or 11 volts. New regulator and all is fine.
i am betting you are right! it probably is the voltage regulator because now that you mention it, i dont remember ever having it replaced.. i am going to get it checked out today
I agree with above comments about not being the alternator, a dead battery stays dead so if it starts again it is a circuit issue. I would look for a ground problem and would start at the battery terminal, could also be a defective battery that is giving a bad contact internally.
I had the same problem on my Jeep once. It would stall and not restart, wait 10 minutes and it starts right up runs fine. Turned out to be a bad connection. It was fine cold, as it heated up the resistance would go up and up until there was not enough voltage to fire the coil. Let it cool, resistance goes down, it's fine. It took me almost year to find the troublesome connector because the problem was intermittent, seemingly random, and it would fix itself while I was trying to troubleshoot it.
But why would the airbag and other lights come on? I guess they do come one when the car "boots up" before you start it, right?
I'd recommend that you carry a portable battery booster / jumper in the car until you're 110% sure the problem is fixed. I carry one in my ol' Vette (king of all bad ground connections) and it saved me several times - until I finally figured out that the "return-to-parked-position" circuit on the hideaway windshield wipers was not cycling to "off" and therefore constantly draining the battery. These devices carry enough juice to run the car for hours, so long as you're a miser with lights, fan motors, etc... These are very cheap (<$75) and sure beat walking !
f355 nashville, I know how you feel. I wish somebody would stop selling candle wax to the Italians. Perhaps then they would stop using it to make electrical connections, it must be something non-conductive
I had a simmilar problem on my 348 Spider. Initially, it was thought the battery and/or alternator was bad. However, it turned out to be the connector block in the engine compartment had a bad connection, which got hot, then didn't work. I don't know about the 355, but on the 348 there is a little block with a cover over it on the pass. side in the rear engine bay compartment. It has a big "+" on the cover. There were 3 wires that went into it. For some reason, the connections went bad, then got so hot they began to melt the plastic. I replaced the block (farily inexpensive, like $40), sanded the wire loops (to remove any corrosion) connected them back, then sprayed with anti-corrosive spray. Didn't have a problem after that.
I had a 72 MGB when I was 16, and it behaved simularly. It would start okay, even when cold, then later it would lose power and die. I replaced the batteries, but think about it once, they had the most power when they were cold after sitting. I replaced all the battery cables except the main lead from the starter, and rebuilt the generator. Same problems plagued the car for almost a year after until I was removing the engine to replace the clutch. The starter terminal from the battery positive was totally loose. The end was all burned from arcing, needed a whole new cable and a new starter, that I could have probably saved had I really looked it over the year before. You car starts cold, as well as after it quits, so you can virtually rule out the battery. Not completely, but pretty much. I've seen batteries do some pretty wierd things, but usually if they start the car cold and hot, they can keep it running quite a while after a alternator failure. And This kind of rules that out as well, because if the car died from lack of voltage, the battery would be far to weak to turn it over. Yet it starts again, so it must be charged. I feel the others as stated earlier are leading you correctly to a connection fault somewhere. Start at the battery and work towards the starter motor.
This brought back memories. Your description is similar to the "last straw" that caused me to sell my 308GTB many years ago. It would start drive, suddenly die, not be able to be started, then later be able to start again. Sometimes it would crank but not start, other times it wouldn't crank. This was the last of a series of problems and I just got fed up and put it up for sale. When I prepped the car for sale I discovered that the positive lead coming off the battery hadn't been fully tightened and doing that got rid of the starting wierdness. By then, I had already started taking calls and gotten a good offer, so it didn't change my mind. But I'd definitely check electrical connections for tightness and corrosion.
Many times I have seen the main wire to the output burned inside of the insulation and the end connector eye burned to a crisp..obviously caused by Hi resistance.I usually find the nut holding this wire to said alternator is loose and a bad connection.Presto> High Resistance! must physically inspect and verify
