Battery charger not turning green. Am I the only one?

Thanks for the floormat photos! I'm a strong visual learner, and this explains how the fastener felt when I tugged on it. I'll just grab a large, sharp instrument and pry on it for awhile until something comes loose...

I appreciate all the help here, and the general good humor. It's tough to ask anyone else about the car, since they almost always say things that would qualify for the funniest comments string (e.g., "oh, your really expensive piece of nonsense has floor mats that are hard to remove? Why don't you just call someone to come out and do it for you...").

Bob H

 

Yeah Bob, I ran out of large, sharp instruments and had to resort to sheer Neanderthal brute force. All those wrist curls with 300 lb. barbells finally paid off!

 

Had mechanic at me Ferrari dealership in ny said it can easily take a week for tender to turn green. It's a very slow process. Don't shoot the messenger ...

 

I guess that didn't come across very clearly but I was mostly kidding of course (…sharp instruments, 300 lb. wrist curls). As shown in my photos, the snap-ons are plastic replaceable items similar to those used in other cars. They don't provide much holding power and only keep the mats from wandering.

I always put aside and preserve original mats, replacing them with either all-weather or fancy aftermarket ones. I think it's also better to use a dedicated pair of driving shoes for A-A runs, especially in this car as I find the dead pedal doesn't quite completely cover the light-coloured carpeting.

I like your new mats BTW.

 

Can someone post a photo of where the Ferrari battery tender plugs into the California?

Thanks,
Gil

 

Looking at the photo, notice the trunk light on the right side about halfway back along the inner body panel. The cover to the battery charger receptacle is further back on the same side at the light's level. You can see the top edge of the cover running horizontally just behind the light.

The fastener is a slotted screw at the end of the cover closest to the rear of the car (the side away from the light, which makes perfect sense in a Ferrari...), so take your Ferrari key, turn the slot from horizontal to vertical and gently pull the cover away from the opening. You will see the receptacle (use a flashlight) inside. It clicks into place pretty easily. When you're done, slide the cover back on (there is a tongue that slides in to hold it on the non-fastener side) and tighten the screw (it is conveniently black in color, which really helps you to see it hahahaha). Hope that helps.
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It's behind the small door on the right rear of the trunk. The door is accessed by turning the slotted plastic disk 180 degrees and removing the door. Inside, you will see a small socket that fits the plug on the factory tender. The photos show the door closed, the door open, and the tender plugged into the socket (at the upper right in the photo). (The blue and white cables are for my custom stereo installation, so ignore them.)
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This happened to me for the first time today. I took the car out for a few hours and plugged in the charger after I got home like I always do. Went back in the garage an hour later and both lights were amber. So I unplugged the charger from the power source and noticed that one light blinked green while unplugging. When I plugged it back in the light was green and the other was amber as normal.

I will check again tomorrow when I take the 458 skiing.

Best

 

Thanks, very helpful!

Gil

 

ok, i dont have a Cali yet, but when the light is amber on my Maserati, it is usually 2 things.

1. either the wall or the plug into the cigerette lighter outlet in the trunk is not in securely

2. sometime the button on my charger is not set to car

I use a tender which i have had since my Porsche days to the Maserati. It works great, easy and plugs into the trunk. Does the Cali have a cigerette plug in the trunk ?

 

No cigarette plug in trunk. It's a proprietary plug that only fits the supplied Ferrari charger.

 

I have kept an eye on messages regarding batteries and problems with their holding a charge. Batteries are probably one of the most important components of late-model Fcars, because so much of their systems, functions and performance depends on the proper functioning of their batteries. If your car's battery is malfunctioning or insufficiently-charged, you will experience problems with your car. Unfortunately batteries and their charging are complex topics, usually glossed-over by everyone, including the factory.

What I can tell you is that your battery tender, while it is also designed as a battery charger, CANNOT recharge your car's battery if it becomes overly-discharged. The attached document comes from CTEK, who makes your car's battery tender.

CTEK model numbers change as CTEK upgrades features in their devices but the model names all reflect the maximum amperage (charging capacity) of the tender. As I documented elsewhere, the California came with a Ferrari-branded CTEK 3300, which means it can provide a peak current of 3.3 Amps. Similarly, the MXS3600 shown in the table below, can put out 3.6 Amps max. The XS800, 0.8 Amps max versus the shop model MXS25000, 25 Amps max.

So the 3300 that you received with your car is below the charging capacity of the MXS3600. If you carefully read the table, you'll see that even the MXS3600 is only designed to maintain a 120 Ah battery and it is marginal (YELLOW) when used to recharge a fully-discharged 100 Ah battery. Fully-discharged is a term quoted in different values depending on context. For a starter battery, I use 11.75V or less (open circuit test at 25°C) as a fully-discharged state.

The value in the MSX3600 yellow box entry "25" means 25 hours required to recharge the battery. When the table entry is RED, it means the battery tender should not be used to recharge those batteries at all.

The MXS3600 is only rated to recharge batteries of up to 75 Ah but the batteries in your California models are rated at 100 Ah. So your battery tenders won't work if your batteries have too low an initial charge.

Therefore unless you have an approved after-market battery tender of higher capacity, your battery tender may well fail to recharge the battery or take several days to do so.

Some of the current Fcar models have even higher designed-in electrical demands and will use a completely different battery than the ones in the California. Those cars also need a completely different battery tender. My car has the HELE system (STOP-START) and is one of those models. Unfortunately, mine came with the wrong battery tender, the 3300. It's now using the 7002, similar to the MXS700 in the table. My car uses a completely different battery from the regular California models.

Keep a close eye on the electrical health of your car - even though it still uses an internal combustion engine, it really is an electrical car in most other respects.
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I use the Ctex which is aproximately 8 years old on the Maserati which i assume is about the same as the Cali. I use it as a trickle charge so the batter is always green. I put it on when i am not going to drive the car for a few days or so. I have never had a problem when i do this. My battery fully discharges or discharges to the point of not turning over when i dont.

 

I have used battery tenders for about 20 years so the technology has certainly been around for quite some time. There are apparently at least 2 different CTEK (not Ctex) models with the Maserati branding. One is based on the XC800/XS800 and the other, MXS3600.

It's very good practice to always plug in your battery tender when the car is not in use. If your drives tend to be short ones then the car's charging system will not be able to keep up either. The battery tender will then be your only insurance against gradual battery discharge.

The California most likely has a greater dependence on electrical circuits than your 8-year-old Maserati. The DCT is computer controlled and will be sensitive to voltage and current disruptions. The metal retractable roof will draw extra current when you use it and will tax the HVAC system when the roof is open.

Your Maserati charger is probably the MSX3600 as the other one I mentioned is incapable of recharging your battery. However, if a battery is discharged to the point of it no longer being able to turn over the engine, then even if your battery tender can recharge it, the battery will usually lose some capacity as a result. Actually, even discharged batteries will start a car but they will often fail soon after and strand you.

 

Could you post pictures of how and where to connect this to Ferrari FF please

 

That would require that I have an FF. Unfortunately, I don't. You will probably have better luck posting this question in the FF/F12 Forum.

FWIW, I'm guessing that most of the recent cars use the same battery tender with the same plug, and possibly a similar location in the boot (458s likely differ in location, though). I would think that should be found in the manual, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't.

 

Photos and instructions are in your owner's manual under "Battery conditioner" in the section for "Advice for Emergency Situations".

Try page 250.

 

When putting the 430 on the charger in the past it would first go to amber and then green after about 10 hours. I usually leave it on the charger all the time. The plug on the end pushes into a point under the dash below the glove-box on the passenger side. I don't know if this was a Factory fit or aftermarket.

Well at the weekend I had my F430 on its OEM Ferrari charger and the light stayed on amber. The charger has the model EU231503 on it and it appears to be a 10 watt model. I removed the charger and started the car without issue. Went to a few shops and at the last one after about two hours out driving around with a few starts it would not turn the engine over.

I called the roadside assistance and they found the battery was 5 years old and dead. So put a new battery in and it started and ran without issue. So when I came home I plugged the charger in and it glowed amber. I figured the battery probably was not fully charged but now 48 hours later it is still amber.

I also have a CTEK Multi XS4003 charger but it is a pain to connect as you have to get in at the battery with the clamps. The OEM one is just so easy to connect. And when the car is in my garage you cannot open the passengers door to get at the battery.

Possibilities are that the new battery may not be well charged and my OEM charger just does not have the grunt to get it back up. Or the charger may be playing up. Do I just leave it on the OEM charger for a week and it that is no good try the other one???

Opinions and experience sought.

T

 

Tezza, I can see three possibilities:

1 - your car's charging system may not be working properly. For instance, a slightly loose fan belt will prevent recharging of your battery, kill the old battery and drain the new one. The Fcar-branded charger, unless you have a 599 or one of the newer V12 Fcars, will not have enough grunt to recharge a battery if it is 50% or more discharged.

2 - your battery charger may be defective. However, possibility no. 1 is more likely to be true.

3 - your new battery's defective. However, possibility no. 1 is more likely to be true.​

BTW, you should always check the voltage of your battery to get a rough sense of its condition. Guessing about the state of charge of a battery is an exercise guaranteed to frustrate, use a good voltage meter and you'll know for sure. A fully-charged 12V starter battery should read 12.6V or higher. If the battery always reads less than 12.4V, it's not getting recharged. 12.2V or lower and your little charger won't recharge it. My car normally reads 12.6+V before a drive, often 13+V and never less than 12.6V after a drive, sometimes 13+V. Check voltage with engine off.

Battery chargers are normally rated by amperage charging current, not wattage power. However, that being said, I believe your charger is more likely 100 watts, not 10 watts. If that's the case, your XS4003 has about 10x the capacity of your F430 charger. You should connect the XS4003 and see if that will fully charge up your new battery. I would then monitor the voltage charge on the battery each time before and after a drive and keep a log of the figures. If the voltage keeps dropping, you probably have a bad charging system in your car. Show your log to your dealer, he'll take it from there.

 

My charger does not illuminate whatsoever on my 2010 California - any thoughts on what this could be or potential replacement options?

Thanks

 

According to Ferrari instruction manual for the standard Cali charger, there should be 3 warning lights on your charger, a no light situation may mean:

1) battery cables may be disconnected
2) battery may be not properly connected to vehicle system
3) battery may be defective
4) battery voltage may be too low or no power from the mains socket

and I would also add 5) charger may be defective.​

If your car has electrical power (i.e. starts engine or at least turn lights on) that means your car battery is not completely dead. Then the reason why your charger does not light up at all is likely with your charger or its power source.

If your charger is dead you can buy a replacement unit from the dealer. It's a long story but my car is different from regular Calis and my dealer saw it fit to replace my charger with a high capacity unit (a standard CTEK 7002) along with the necessary special adapter for the Ferrari socket in the car. The CTEK 7002 is generally available but the Ferrari adapter appears to be only available from Ferrari.

Here's a screen scrape from a CTEK tech support page - I believe the default charger for the California is equivalent to either a CTEK XS800 or a US3300 (not the multi-mode model). Here's the troubleshooting guide for the US (Multi) 3300:
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BTW, Ctek makes a rubber bumper for their larger 7002 chargers.
http://www.amazon.com/CTEK-40-058-Bumper-Battery-Charger/dp/B00TJY0ID2

 

Here is the bumper mounted on the 7002 charger.

 

Hi All
Great detail info.

So i got my Cali Oct 2016.

I have not put it on charge till today.

Read most of the posts here and are great help.

The tender was Amber at the beginning.

After an hour or so went back to check and tender was green.

Gather all is working fine and the car battery must be fully charged.

What next,

Should i just leave it plugged in, and the tender will keep battery charged as required and conditioned ?
So don't unplug it from power and unplug from trunk

If i leave it plugged in charging, should i not worry about possible over charge, over heating of the tender which could damage the car or cause a fire.

Thank you in advance for your replies.

Cheers
Sam