This never happened to any cars I own currently that are on the trickle charger! My car was on the Ferrari trickle charger while I was on Vacation; it has the original Ferrari battery...Upon my return home, the garage smelled weird (acid smell), my heart sank, checked all my chargers; all looked good, except the F car, the LED light was on Red. I opened the trunk, and Kaboom...the battery was split 3 ways; all acid drained..and splashed all over the interior enclosure. Luckily, not much damage, and most important, no fire was started.... Anyone know why would such thing happened or experienced the same issue? The dealer does not know; they told me they had leaky batteries but not exploded ones; I sent them photos, and I hope Ferrari's R&D dept. will have some input. I am replacing the battery with a Gel type; the dealer told me they no longer use the original type of Ferrari batteries. Thanks for any input!
The charger must have gone haywire or perhaps there has been a sequence of events that the charger did not see the problem and kept on putting charge in. Do read on the internet how to neutralize the acid, it is nasty. It can be done with soda I think. It is dangerous to touch the acid and if any metal or painted surface has been splashed by it it will get damaged.
A pity to hear that. My dealer has recommended to me not to use the original Ferrari chargers... I only use Ctek chargers.
Yes it is. I use it all the time and never have had a sigle issue. I use the same brand in 3 motorcycles as well and no problems either. Best
I have the same and use it frequently. Maybe I should look for alternatives? How many years did your battery have?
I have the Ferrari charger on my 360. The battery is 8 years old and still in perfect health and there has never been a problem with the charger or battery. I have not taken delivery of the 599 yet, so I cannot comment on that.
My battery is about 6 years old; I believe the charger failed somehow, or one of the battery cells got damaged and was not able to fully charge the battery; maybe the charger overheated instead of shutting down...Yes I do have CTEK chargers on all of my other cars and never had an issue; Actually, I just ordered a new CTEK MUS 4.3 to replace the Ferrari's. I was told to use Windex as it has Ammonia in it to clean the acid splash...but the acid smell is still lingering a bit inside the cabin.. few photos of the damaged battery! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
WoW - at least it did not catch fire, like some of the modern Lithium Ion batteries do in electric or hybrid cars.
Make a paste using baking soda and water to clean and scrub the acid affected areas. Baking soda is the most effective way to neutralize battery acid (baking soda is alkali). Rinse the scrubbed areas with copious amounts of water, and the. You can use a strip of litmus paper to ensure that the area is ph neutral.
I used the Ferrari charger for approx. one year on my Scuderia. Only one time the car didn't want to start although it was on the charger. Told this to my dealer, his recommendation in his own words "take a new Ctek, the Ferrari charger is nothing worth. A typical Ferrari add on, cheapest solution refined with Ferrari logo". During the last three years I use two Ctek Multi XS 4003 and one Ctek MXS 5.0, never had a problem with these.
When I asked my shop about a charger/maintainer for my 599 they recommended one from Granite Digital. Said less problems with fuses blowing than CTEK. I have had one for several weeks and no issues. Granite Digital - Save A Battery
Looks like too much gas pressure inside the shell for sure. Gases could not escape fast enough or at all. The charger must have thought it needed to continue charging for some reason. Maybe a shorted cell dropped the voltage so the charger thought it was low on charge. Not very logical as I thought the charger was smart enough to not overcharge remaining cells and would give up indicating an error. Hope they can tell you what happened. Cleanup is a bunch of water and a neutralizer such as baking soda as was suggested. Don't get any in your eyes. Good luck.
It has popped on two sides, a pretty violent event from the looks of it. To me that suggests a hydrogen explosion in one of the cells. An explosion in one cell can propagate and cause gas in other cells to explode. An important item to check is parasitic drain. Was the trickle charger connected solely to the battery or was the car connected to it? Many cars have parasitic drain of some sort, and the problem is that a lot of chargers are not designed to understand that. Especially a trunk light that was on or some other drain can wreak total havoc on the trickle charger's estimation on the state of battery charge and the charge cycle. Trickle chargers are well-liked with car fans. I am mixed towards them as they have risks, and this is one of them. My advice is that wherever possible, just charge unused batteries periodically (4-6 months).
An ignition of the gases is a possibility with merit. Though, it seems it would not be caused by normal parasitics or this would be happening a lot more often. Perhaps a higher discharge or shorted cell (6 yr old stock battery). Agree best to charge batteries off line but some of these modern cars have quite the re-boot procedure and perhaps some of the boxes may fail to come back which could perplex the average dealership technician.
No you all..... it is a bad battery.... What a bunch of silly speculation! Most Ferraris don't get driven enough to properly charge and condition the battery that is why the factory stopped warrantying all their batteries if you can't prove that you at least drive the car for 2k miles a year (488s are especially notorious for junking a battery). Nowadays, lead acid batteries are not quality and sulfation sets in within a matter of months if the battery is not maintained or deep charged with a nice long driving cycle. If you have done a crappy job maintaining your battery, and as an owner of an expensive exotic car (and I know you all could afford it), pull the damn battery and go swap it up for a new one every three years. It's not going to break your bank! And if you insist on being a lazy exotic car owner, spend a bit more and buy the AGM.... at which time you could upgrade the charger to a CTEK that does AGM charging and if there is an issue it won't leak acid.... or better yet, spend a few Gs and buy one of those lithium ion jobbers.... you will never have a dead or bad battery again!
Agree with Fred Daniali — first, replace battery every few years with an Interstate—conceptually same to me as changing oil, just not as frequently —and second, use Granite charger which is designed for self monitored trickle charging of seasonal equipment. Collectors I know use the Granite product exclusively.
Interesting and good to know. I have a new CTEK, along with a new Interstate, which I am so far very happy with. I am driving my car about 4,000 miles a year. I hope that's enough!
