Replacing 599 battery

Pretty straight forward BUT the fuse box thing is bolted to the battery. That is the confusing part when you are trying to work it out. When you turn on the cutoff switch, follow the instructions posted by Taz. You need to let the system relearn the parameters.

 

I swapped mine for a new one a couple weeks ago. Hope you are agile and have nimble fingers. Very tight space. And oh by the way, housing for passenger side taillight is part of battery compartment. And it's painted metal, not insulated. And will arc. Maybe there is a trick to it, but what I experienced was the only way to get the positive terminal reconnected to clamp/cable (and plastic fuse/terminal thing) is while the battery is sort of half way outside the compartment. Which I was trying to support with one hand. (Rig up some sort of prop in advance when you do it). And trying to get your hand over top of battery to get to positive terminal in back left corner when battery is in compartment is pretty much impossible. And room for a wrench movement back there is pretty much impossible anyway. So you have the battery about halfway out to connect the positive cable. But the negative terminal is in front right corner. And so negative cable won't reach. So you push the battery in just a little further, but not all the way. Then connect and tighten the negative. Now you have to get battery all the way into compartment. THIS is where things get sketchy. There is barely enough clearance between negative terminal and underside of metal taillight housing - and you are down partially in trunk trying to lift heavy battery into tray. So you have to be very careful to not let terminal touch underside of housing. Nevermind the spark, you're also potentially grounding the entire electrical system and lighting up the dash. And with all the finicky and fragile Ferrari electronics - not good. If i ever do it again, I will make some sort of thin insulation barrier out of rubber or something to firmly secure over the negative terminal. And a support prop or shelf that is the exact height of the compartment. So you just slide the battery straight in, no lifting. You can't just cap off the negative terminal, push battery in, then install cable. No clearance to get clamp over top of terminal when in place. I would love to see how the dealer does a battery swap in a 599. I probably won't attempt it again.

 

Make sure to get the exact OEM size battery. Others probably won't fit, cables won't reach, etc. I was told by battery place it was a very common high end European size. Common in BMW's, Mercedes, etc. Easy to find. But has to be exact same size. Even the tray is sized for that specific battery. My battery store's receipt says part # FT680-48. But do your own research to make sure.

 

Kyle- I would much rather have an Interstate battery (MTZ-34R) or an Odyssey (ODX-AGM34R/
34R-PC1500) than an Optima, which have had reliability problems.

 

Wow, you had a lot more trouble than I had. It was a simple swap and only took a few minutes. It took longer to get the panels off than to swap the battery. And yes, the negative connects last and the taillight housing is metal but if you are getting arcing when tightening that clamp you have bigger problems.

There is quite a bit of room in there. This is a terrible photo but you can easily see how much room there is to work.
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Yes, I used the power cutoff and ran through the start sequence. It will take a while for all of the monitors to be fully set. The drive cycle is posted here somewhere but if you don't need them set immediately for a smog check or something just driving will get them all to set after a while. And no, the monitors waiting to set do not cause a CEL. If you get a recurring CEL there is some other issue.

I suspect you will find the new battery makes a world of difference. Starting a 599 has a pretty high current draw and the electrical systems are pretty sensitive to voltage variations. A weak battery can cause all kinds of random intermittent problems.

 

Pretty standard swap imo. Unfortunately, done a few times as my car tends to drain faster than avg, with or without the tender

No one has seen any tightness at all until they try to get to the w216 battery in the trunk between the seat and rear partition...we are talking 1/4 inch here or there maximum

 

My battery drains just looking at it...frustrating that there is a draw somewhere or just a bad electrical system design.

 

^^^Yup

 

I had my car into Competizione at one point and they found a plastic connector between the charger cable and the battery which was causing the battery to not charge correctly. They eliminated the plastic connector and hard wired the charger cable directly to the battery. No more battery problems.

 

I've had battery problems with my 612, and it seems to happen when I have gone ~2 weeks without driving it. Unfortunately, my storage facility has no place to plug in my trickle charger. When acting-up, my car will not shift from 1st (where I leave it when it is parked) to neutral...I just get the beep-beep-beep warning when I try...and there is no action when I turn the key to start it. There is a red battery warning light on the dash but all other lights and indications are normal. The manual states that you can start the car when it is in gear, but my theory is that there is not enough battery voltage to power the shift and/or clutch actuators, thus not allowing me to start when the transmission is engaged in 1st. No biggie, when I charge the battery everything is back to normal and the car is great...unless I let it sit for another two weeks!

 

Sounds like you need storage with power!

 

Tell me about it!

 

It seems like battery discharge is a common problem on the 599 and 612. Does anybody know what the common cause of that current draw is? I've been considering using the tool called the "Amp Hound" to track down the culprit. Car Wizard does a great YouTube video about it. Maybe it is something simple? Our batteries shouldn't go flat so quickly.

 

Don’t lock the car and the battery will last 2-3x longer.

Bill

 

I rarely ever lock my car, and I have not noticed any difference. I have deliberately tested this.

 

What about disconnecting the batery using the battery switch ?

 

I keep mine plugged in at all times... its a habit. I do want to go to an Antigravity battery but have a couple of other things to do - like shocks...

 

This is very true, I never lock my 599.

 

Same for me and I am good for over 3 weeks. I haven't explicitly tested the maximum.

 

So I happened to experience this arching recently while tightening my negative, scared the crap out of me. I was wriggling it off and it hit the back of the tail light housing. What sort of trouble do you mean? Does this potentially blow something even with Battery master switch off?