Are there any particular “sequences” that lead to the immobilization of the car ? Example: Park 456M, stop engine, pull key, hit button to open fuel door, fuel up (at no point yet did I hit button on the key fob). So I finish fueling and now I hit the button on the fob (assuming the car has self-armed by now). But no chirp or anything I do not even think the red light on the fob was coming on at first (?!)......so I keep hitting the fob button to no avail (new battery in fob btw) so I then use the key to lock/unlock get in car and then insert the key, turn it and nothing. No crank, steering wheel is not locked or anything. After several instances of getting in and out of the car and monkeying with the fob, ignition and door locks, I get in and it starts right up as if there was no issue whatsoever. After this event I had to valet park at the hotel I am at (Shutters in Santa Monica !) and all I did was stress out that the valet would not be able to start the car to move or retrieve the damn car. This also occurred once before when I elected NOT to arm the car by pressing the fob button upon exit. I returned to the car and did the same dance as at the gas station until it started. Scary.
Possible the contacts on the fob are not making good contact with the battery. Take out the battery, pinch the contacts closer, reinsert the battery and then spin it to get rid of any corrosion between the battery and contacts. Also try switching to another fob and see if that one works. If you do not have a full set of three, contact Gobble here and Mark can fix you up with a full set. As you figured, the immobilizer activates 120 seconds after you shut her down. As a technique, I always lock my 575M (same alarm system) using the fob while getting gas to prevent forgetting to hit the fob before starting.
Do you have the small red manual for the immobilizer that came with the car? I have experienced that my car arm but not lock the doors if I leave it for five minutes without locking/armng with the fob. After that, I started reading the manual for the first time. There it was written how it works! There are differences in how the system is programmed depending on which country the car was delivered to. This is also described in the manual, so you need to know which country the car was sold new in. I assume you have a standard US spec car? The system has three ways to control the car.. One is the immobilizer, the other is the alarm and the third is the operation of the door locks. What I have learned with Italian cars is that you should never leave the car without a window slightly open so it is possible to get your keys easily with a metal hook to open the inside door latch if the car suddenly decide to lock itself! My 550 chirps normally only if the battery is fully charged. Sometimes it chirps one time and sometime two for the same command! If the battery is quite low, it might not chirp at all... But I have got used to it. Best of luck.
Interesting and thanks for that input. I do have the red book and a us spec vehicle. I have gone over it a bunch of times but it is still less than clear with all of the if/then defaults and sequences, etc...this recent one threw me for a loop !
If I never hear that alarm siren again it will be too soon. It is odd that during all of this the siren never did not sound off. I had trouble with it going off all the time when I had a bad battery/alternator. I assume the chirp and siren sounds come from the same part so I assume it still works.
Thanks Taz. I got home and did just that and all systems are go once again and acting normally. I believe this was the root of the problem. Funny the immobilizer DID happen to the valet this morning and another valet had to go to start it. This guy knew all about the immobilizer and the 456 specifically. Evidently he worked at a different fancy hotel many many years ago and when Ferrari corporate came to town once they all drove 456’s and he dealt with it every day.
I always tell people to take a piece of sandpaper to the contacts and clean them up before buying new fobs. I've found that when people send me nonworking fobs this fixes the problem about 90% of the time. The fobs rarely just die unless they go for a swim.
Mark- I have also been known to put a drop of battery terminal protector (usually in spray cans) on a toothpick and put it on the terminals. I would probably use emery paper instead of sandpaper.
Funny you say that. That's what I use but was afraid I wouldn't spell it correctly. It's the stuff I buy in the plumbing department to clean copper pipe before soldering it.
Emery cloth differs to sandpaper in several ways: Emery cloth has the abrasive glued to a cloth rather than paper, which makes it far sturdier and less inclined to tear in use Emery cloth uses a form of corundum (or corundite) as the abrasive, rather than sand Emery is longer lasting than sand as a glued abrasive Emery particles are of a more consistent size than sand, especially where finer grades are concerned Emery should not be used on wooden surfaces as fine particles of iron and other metals can become embedded and cause staining or other damage to the wood Emery cloth is typically graded into "grit" sizes between 8 and 120, with the grit becoming coarser as the number increases. 80 grit paper is typically used for roughing and chamfering plastic pipe. Pretty classic that the grading system for emery cloth would be the inverse of that used for sandpaper. Higher number is coarser for emery, finer for sandpaper.
