308 weak starting and clicking

Hey, Chris.

Are you hearing the clicking coming from the interior.....right side of the dash panel (behind the "GTSi" badge), or from the rear/engine bay? You do have relays in the panel that deal with fuel flow. I'd check those first, if it's coming from the panel. See page 97 of the PDF here:

http://www.ferraridatabase.com/The_Downloads/The%20Documents/Owners%20Manual%20308%20QV%201984%20US.pdf

I'm the fourth owner of my car, and I'm going to be going through and replacing them all in short order, just to have a "baseline" to work from, knowing that they're all good. I haven't had a problem yet, but I'd like to head one off.

 

The most common cause of this would be either a high-resistance battery (ie faulty) or high resistance on one of the battery connections or the ground path from battery to chassis. This would cause the voltage to appear to be correct until the heavy load of the starter motor is applied, when the voltage drops to such a low level that relays elsewhere start to drop out.
Simply charging up the battery wont reveal this, it has to be tested under load.

 

Don't worry You're not alone, so am I. I'd work my way through starter and fuel-related relays, then move on to the starter...where start-up glitches are concerned. The starter solenoid sits right on the starter itself. You can search here for a couple of good threads on starters and teardown.

Your inconsistent running though sounds like a fuel flow problem. You could listen to that fuel pump relay, check the filtration and pump, etc. I'd work through a process of elimination. Others will jump in here with experience too, I'm sure. You can find all of the blown-apart diagrams of the various systems at Ricambi.com, TRutlands.com and the workshop manual here: http://www.ferraridatabase.com/The_Downloads/Manuals_Workshop.htm

 

If the engine cranks slowly, most likely it's a sick battery and/or bad connections in the battery cables (check both ends of each cable). A bad battery can result in rough running until the alternator is able to bring the voltage up a bit.

Check the battery with a load tester, clean and tighten the connections. Forget relays or the starter until you do.

 

All you need is a test meter which can measure voltage. Start by connecting the probes directly to the battery contacts. Check the voltage while its cranking over on the starter. You dont want it to start so turn the radio on if that prevents starting. See how low the voltage goes. It should not drop less than around 11 volts.
If the battery is really bad, the voltage will drop when you turn on the headlights only.
If the voltage measured at the battery does not drop excessively, the battery itself is likely OK and its a connection problem. In that case it must be a connection which is common to the entire car not just the starter motor. So the most likely is the ground from battery to chassis. To prove this, leave the + probe on the battery contact but move the - to the chassis somewhere, then see if the voltage drops excessively.

 

change your battery, clean your ground connections and battery posts, and the problem will go away. You may want to look at the connections at the starter too.

 

+1 , good advise

 

+1..if it is cranking slowly there is resistance somewhere. I would start by cleaning all the connections to the battery cables (at each end). There is quick disconnect on the positive cable I believe in the front trunk....make sure the connections on that are clean and tight too.

 

Disconnect things, shine all the contacting surfaces with a small wire brush or sandpaper and put everything back tight. The surfaces of the battery posts and cable ends are particularly troublesome. It's not uncommon for a resistive layer to build-up in there even though things look pretty good on the outside.
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If you are changing the battery , pay attention to which way around the terminals are. You wouldn't be the first to make a mistake with that & fry the diodes in your alternator by connecting the thing up Pos to Neg etc.

 

good advice !

I recently had a similar problem...
while meassured, battery voltage dropped down to 9.5V during cranking

if the battery is more than 3-4 years old...change it !

 

Also, thanks to Tim and Hugh

Thank you sir! This morning I got up and went out for the weekly warmup and "CLICK"
nothing. Quick rush of adrenaline then remembered this post and opened the panel to find a loose battery connector. My thanks to you and this forum for making life so much easier with these cars. But, my question is: how in the world does the clamp decide to loosen when it does in between start ups? Since the really cold weather these past several weeks all I can do is go out and start her up each week. I suppose it's the cold shrinking the terminal along with vibration?

 

This is a problem common to all cars. If it's infrequently driven, you're more likely to experience the "click".

 

Use the quick dis-connect regularly. If I don't dis-connect it my battery is nearly dead in a week.

 

get the one with the most cranking amps that will fit in the car. i had similar problems that were solved by a new battery.

 

Interstate is a good brand. Don't waste your money on an Optima.

 

Spot on advice!

 

Have you pulled the relay and reseated it? It sounds as if you might want to replace that relay.