Hello everyone I have a 2012 458, 20Kmiles. Always on maintainer, plug into car first... A few months ago the "Electrical System Failure" started to show up, would last a few minutes, then lasted longer and longer before it would go away. Recently would take 20 minutes of driving to go away, now it never goes away I put in new Braille , still the same. "Electrical System Failure" message shows up when I first turn the key on, I wait till after fuel gauge works, then I start the car. Message never goes away. Car starts strong and fast. My 458 has always been in my climate controlled garage. I cleaned battery connectors at the battery. Not sure what to do next, since problem kept getting worse, sounds like a ground problem ?? Where does ground from battery attach to the chassis ?? If problem is on the positive side, where is a good place to look ? I noticed my maintainer always stops at 3 lights, I disconnected battery from car, connected maintainer directly to the battery last pm, this am maintainer at 7 lights, I reconnected battery, went thru steps, then when turn key, still get ESF before I even start the car. car always starts great. now when I plug maintainer into car directly, goes to 7 lights, still same ESF result when i unplug it and turn the key Maybe an ECU, but can they go out slowly over time and work after a longer and longer drive, until they just don't work ? Seems a bad connection getting worse over time. I don't drive in the rain and my garage is climate controlled, but she is 12 years young and lives in Houston Texas !! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, Thank You, Ed
Does the car drive normally after starting? When I first got my 2010 at 7 years old ESF would pop up along with a slew of other failures and limp mode. This was persistent until I replaced the battery. Now when I have a marginal cold start where the lights go out and my screens go blank I get ESF but restarting the engine gets rid of the warnings. Battery just didn’t have enough juice (despite new battery and living on a tender). I also replaced my alternator last year when I got that specific failure. Hope what you are experiencing isn’t an early indication of that problem. It was expensive. Maybe you just need that warning reset and it’s not an actual problem?
Thank you for the reply The car always drives normally, when ESF .....except that the turn signals, radio etc do not work and steering wheel leds flash. I know it's probably one little cause, jusy need to find it
While we all like to find answers for vexing problems before having to deal with the outrageous costs of a dealer visit, the SD3 may be required to sort the issue properly.
That’s is a common problem when the battery goes low. Battery maintainer should be disconnected and re connect once or two times a month. The problem is caused when the battery goes low and when you start the vehicle the starter motor pulls a lot of current and some ECU’s loose the communication with the NBC. You need to check the battery state of health and take it to a dealer to perform a Proxy alignment to reconfigure the vehicle options. The message is because a control unit is not on the can network.
Which Braille battery did you install, AGM or Lithium Ion? Are you using the correct charger for it? The factory Ferrari charger is only appropriate for an AGM battery. You should put a volt meter on your car and test the voltage at idle and while driving. Could be a failing voltage regulator on your alternator.
