I started up the 328 today... it idled for about 5 minutes and then died. When I try to crank it again nothing happens. I hear all the dings and beeps while the key is in the ignition so the battery seems ok. I also hear a whining (not starter) noise from the engine compartment when I try to crank it. Other than that I hear nothing else. Are there any obvious things I should check first before calling a flatbed? I've had the car for under 50 miles
If you just started and did not slightly rev the motor you never got the RPM high enough to get the alternator charging and the car just ran until the battery voltage dropped enough to quit running the digital ignition system. It is fairly common. The battery can be strong enough to run the various lights you see but not strong enough to crank the motor. Put a good battery charger on it or use a set of jumper cables and see if you get a different result. When you start the car, if you are going to let it sit and warm up, slightly rev the motor and see that the red light in the bottom right corner of the inst panel goes out before allowing the car to idle long.
You guys are right, you should buy a smart charger and put it on occaisonally. Not to hijack the thread but the other day on a long drive every once in a while, maybe 6 times in about 300 miles, My engine would do a split second pause as if a cylinder or bank didnt get spark. It was only a long as a blink but I still noticed it. I checked the wires and they are all tight and look good and have about 1k mies on the plugs. Only thing I could think of is that I was really low on fuel one day and had to stop at a station in the boonies that only had the lowest grade available so I filled her up about half way. On the way home I bought a redline octane booster to help it out but it ran fine and didnt ping. Any idea what would cause this? -Nate
Nick, if you'd like an article on how to install a battery charger on a 328, drop me an email: [email protected] Sorry to hear of your troubles so early in ownership. Carl
You might test the battery before charging it. I replaced the battery on my 328 the month after I got it - inexpensive, and I had no idea how old it was. If you do, make sure you have a battery strap and Carl's guide so you have all the right tools nearby.
A simple check to do before you remove the battery,is to get a multimeter and with some help,crank the car over and see what voltage you have at the battery. If its not cranking at all,then one would think it has less than 8volts left in the battery. It takes around 5 volts to keep the dash lights illuminated/beeps and sounds ect.... So........it could be the battery. It does seem weird that it ran for 5mins, and stalled? As rifledriver said,after start up,you didnt give it a slight rev excite the alternator to charge the battery. Ive seen this happen many times when the alternator fails.More often when the car is being driven and the brake pedal applied(brake lights) turn signals/headlights ect.. they all drain the battery rather quickly and then the car stops on ya. But your car sitting there at idle and doin that seems weird to me. Unless it didnt have a good charge before hand? Did you have the lights on? How long did the car sit before you started it up today?
Not unless you have a hair-line crack/split in your plug lead tube/boot that is barely noticeable/if noticeable to the naked eye? Been caught out before with a similar problem to yours
The car sat for about 24 hours from the previous joy ride. Lights, radio, ac were all off while idling. I never reved the engine after starting it. It ran fine for about 5 minutes, sputtered for about 10 seconds before shutting off. I went and bought a 1.5 amp trickle charger... it's been charging for about 4 hours now. I hope it will do the trick.
If we assume that will fix the problem the advice about getting the battery tested or replaced was good. These cars tend to be battery killers because they sit so much. Try to get yourself off to a good start with owning a Ferrari and get a few of those details looked after.
i had the same thing, got worse and worse, turned out to be the ignition module. replaced it and all is fine. check the threads, this is common. bob wass
Check for a previous installation of an alarm system or recovery system. Those things can suck a battery dry in a couple of days, especially when they get a few years old. Most cars can light up the dash even when the battery doesn't have enough oomph to turn the motor. The 328 even moreso, because it's a big high compression motor that takes a lot of juice to turn. The old-timer's quick test for a drained battery is to turn the headlamps on and try cranking again. If the battery is low, you'll see all the lights dim out. One issue I had when I first bought the car were the battery terminals. They seemed fine when everything was cold, but as the car warmed up, the cable connectors would expand faster than the battery posts, and the connectors would get loose. The alternator couldn't charge the battery properly, and it wouldn't start when warm. A comprehensive cleaning and coating with electrolyte gel cured that. But that being said, your symptoms sound like the issue described above. I had the same issue a couple of years back. The shop doing the MA state inspection started the car for an idle emissions check but never got the alternator started (3500 rpm or so before it starts). The engine died toward the end of the inspection, and we had to jump it from an aux battery. (Look on the bright side: just another thing to make life hard on car thieves. )
