296 - Can discharge when on the charger!

I owned a 296GTs for a weekend and drove it right back to the dealer. The next time I own a plug in hybrid is going to be when you go to jail for not owning one.

 

Are the 2 blue lights flashing on the charger? Mine shows 2 blue lights flashing and changes to one blue light when it’s fully charged and just trickle charging.

 

Your last sentence needs to be memorialized for the ages.

 

Thank you for the heads up. My detailer who works on a lot of Ferraris including the new cars told me that I should every 2 weeks unplug the car from the tender, and unplug the tender from the wall. He thinks it’s beneficial to wake up the car by opening the door and turning on the electronics. Leave the tender unplugged from the car and the wall for at least 30 minutes. Then plug everything back in. I usually drive my cars but with the weather they have sat a bit so I have been trying to do this and so far so good.

 

I'm sorry Ferrari but it shouldn't take a check list and a calendar just to shut the car off so it isn't dead the next time you try to start it. How long have they been making the Prius?

 

I’ve said multiple times they need to poach a few Toyota engineers to fix some of the problems.

 

Right you are sir, but my 599 literally ate a battery tender, so this is progress

 

Ok, so the OP was spot on. Was out of town for 2 weeks and left my car on the charger. It was in a hangar and apparently was disconnected from the charger 3 days ago and then plugged back in (for a wash). I show up today and the car throws every fault possible including hybrid system depleted etc. can’t get the car to move. When I look at the levels the hybrid battery is 0. I plug the car back I and and after a few second it clicks to start charging but immediately clocks off. Both blue lights flashing. I disconnected the 12v for 30 mins to reset and no joy. However…the third time around I get a notice saying I have less than one day left on the starter battery. We grab a tender and I hook it up directly to the battery and it reads 50%. I have left the car for the night to charge the 12v and I am hoping this fixes the issue but something super screwy going on with the charger. I agree 100% that u should check the dash. If it doesn’t flip to the charging view be sure to check the lights on the charger. I love the car and this doesn’t change it….i just need to understand how to avoid. And before everyone, especially non owners pile on, I had a 911 20 years ago that would have its battery die after a week. And to get access to that battery….dont even ask, insane. Point being, these modern cars suck power constantly, on or off, so this is not Ferrari specific. I don’t know exactly what happened for the two weeks I am gone so I will reserve judgment until it happens on my watch. With that said, it does echo the OP and wanted other owners to be aware too.

Edit: thanks for sharing, Simon aka OP

 

The 12v battery is crap. I suspect the charger is crap too.

My Roma’s battery was crap and the charger was crap too. Got a new battery and ctek and so far all is well.

Want to add a ctek pigtail to the 296 battery terminals so I can separately recondition the battery when it is not on the main charger. Do it once a week should be sufficient.

SV

 

Does anyone else have an odd problem where as you exit the car the car bongs as if something has been set? When it happens the charging screeen seems to be disabled. Going thru a full startup is necessary to bring it back to normal.

SV

 

Pre Hybrid many owners chose to trickle charge all the time . Many cars drain batteries , as quoted by someone else here many are never really ‘asleep’ . I had an AMG that would go flat if left for two weeks , which is painful if your travel a lot as I did .

Merc could not find the issue , I had the car for six years. The dealer was only a ten minute drive away and when I was going away I would drop off the car they looked after it and I got it back washed and looking great. Not ideal but at least they made the best out of a fault that remained a mystery

 

Plugging in the hybrid chart port is supposed to trickle charge then 12v too. My hypotheses is that when the car was left for the initial charge the hybrid batteries were dead and that fouled up the whole cycle. My son drove the car as I was in an suv brining in a heavy load so no idea where the batteries were and asking a 22 year old back at college to remember what the battery status was when he stopped is like asking your car to make breakfast. …u just get a weird look. Heading to the car in a bit and hoping but not expecting the charge on the 12v to have fixed the problem

 

Haven’t noticed but this is interesting. Maybe my issue

 

So I am stuck. Charged the lvb up to 100. Did a bunch of resets and no go. I did a pop up that said the lvb needed 30 mins to calibrate the system and still nada. Calling dealership tomorrow. Super bummed as I have been away and haven’t driven the car much in the past few weeks.

 

How far does it go?

SV

 

0. Can’t get it into gear. Charred w Maddie and I think my lvb battery is toast. I am going to try and replace myself versus sending down from Healdsburg and having it sit in a queue. She did confirm that it’s critical to have the screen show it charging. If it’s just shows the 296 screen it will drain. I think we had a power interruption which screwed the whole thing up.

 

I haven’t driven mine for 2 weeks and just left it plugged in. App reads everything fine. Car starts up fine, zero issues. Dealer specifically said no trickle charger just plug it into the main charging port all the time.

 

Yeah. I think mine was a user error when I was gone. The car was washed and then plugged in again and the person didn’t know to look for the charge screen. Very keen to see if a new battery does it. Will report back tonight for anyone that is interested. And thanks, Simon!
James